Forged in the desolate halls of 1981, hailing from the majestic kingdom of Long Island, New York… Virgin Steele have been one of the most enduring acts of Powerful Epic Heavy Metal for aeons! The aural magnificence of ultra-charismatic vocalist / composer / keyboardist / all around renaissance mad-man David “Dionysus” DeFeis and trusty six-stringed axe warrior of indomitable fury and vengeance Edward Pursino’s combined creative efforts have been overlooked by scholars of Metal for too long!
There remains a massive confusion in mainstream media, society, and culture regarding metal as a truly separate genre of music. The mainstream media and leftist-controlled academia regard metal merely as a subgenre of rock music, rather than its own distinct genre. This is of course absurd. If metal isn’t its own entirely separate genre of music then jazz, folk, country, and blues are all rock ‘n’ roll too as they can all be played with the same basic set of modern instruments. Since this topic is well-documented in Death Metal Underground’s extensive Heavy Metal FAQ, in this article I will merely layout some basic musical differences between the genres and provide a few appropriate examples to hammer it down into the brains of the ignorant.
Blues hard rock band Ramming Speed have released a new song titled “Don’t Let this Stay Here”.
The band released the following statement regarding the new song’s message:
‘Don’t Let This Stay Here’ is our reaction to the Edward Snowden leaks that confirmed the U.S. government’s saving of all our phone calls, text messages, emails and web searches in giant server farms. To us, that is fucking terrifying and unacceptable, and this is our rallying cry against it.
The citizens building the first top secret atomic bombs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee were told: ‘What you see here, what you do here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here.’ This song is for the NSA employees that question what they are doing. It’s for the American civilians feeling betrayed by the breaches of privacy, and it’s for the people at our shows singing along and sharing our frustration. Don’t Let This Stay Here. Spread the word.
A list of the band’s currently confirmed tour dates appears below. More shows will likely be added in the coming weeks.
7/17 Eindhoven, NL – Dynamo Metalfest Pre-Party (w/ Gama Bomb)
7/19 Aachen, DE – AZ Aachen
7/20 Dendermonde, BE – JH Zenith ^
7/21 Bleibt-Pratteln, CH – Konzertfabrik Z7 (w/ The Black Dahlia Murder)
7/22 Bologna, IT – Freakout Club (w/ 7 Seconds)
7/23 Milano, IT – Lo Fi *
7/24 Rokycany, CR – Fluff Fest
7/25 Leipzig, DE – Zoro #
7/26 Koblenz, DE – SK2 #
7/27 Stuttgart, DE – Juha West # *
7/29 Bartislava, SK – Randal Club ^
7/30 Vienna, AT – Das Bach #
7/31 Chemnitz, DE – Killed System Festival #
8/1 Berlin, DE – Stateless Society Festival *
8/2 Dresden, DE – Chemiefabrik
8/4 Budapest, HU – Dürer Kert
8/6 Jaromer, CZ – Brutal Assault Fest 2015
8/7 Mannheim, DE – Juz
8/8 Brussels, BE – Garcia Lorca
8/10 Glasgow, UK – Ivory Blacks
8/13 London, UK – The Black Heart
8/14 Leper, BE – Leperfest
8/15 Thiex, FR – Motocultor Open Air
# with Deathrite
^ with DRI
* with Toxic Holocaust
As has been said countless times before, the worst record review is a waffle: “It’s OK for what it is, if you like that.” This corresponds to someone neither moved to ire or adoration by a work; in other words, it barely registered. Convulse is not like that. It is a band to both love and hate, but at the same time.
Evil Prevails should be loved for the rare moments of clarity in which riffs are glued together to reach a conclusion that makes sense out of them, causing a sense of rising above the confusion of life as the various dots connect. Themes add up and then grow, and this is where the band shines. They develop beautiful riffs from less interesting ones, and in those riffs, have a sublime sense of how phrase corresponds to emotion.
On the other hand, the dark side of this release is twofold. First, many of its riffs are simplistic in an American football death metal way, reminiscent of Carbonized or Grave but less enigmatic. Second, when riffs aren’t galloping across your forehead, the band likes to work in random rock, blues and jazz influences that don’t fit with the whole. These are not only incongruous, but relatively undistinguished.
Some might say that this in itself is an unorthodox aesthetic. By making a grab-bag of parts, Convulse is exuding deconstruction or nihilism, in other words. However, more likely, this mirrors a committee. The average is bad, but occasionally someone has a flash of inspiration; in the meantime, dramatic people who are good at what’s normally accepted are busy getting in their moments in the sun, showing off and getting promoted.
As a result, it’s hard to like Evil Prevails; it’s a mess with some nuggets of gold. If you like plodding bands like Gorement, the brutal riffs will not disappoint; if you like incomplete-synthesis bands like Afflicted you’ll enjoy the guitar fireworks. But more likely you will background the music until a nugget appears, have an “Aha!” moment, and then forget it as the churn goes on.
