{"id":1821,"date":"1986-04-01T00:00:34","date_gmt":"1986-04-01T00:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=1821"},"modified":"2013-05-29T23:41:29","modified_gmt":"2013-05-29T23:41:29","slug":"feature-virgin-steele-mf17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-virgin-steele-mf17\/","title":{"rendered":"VIRGIN STEELE – Virgin Savagery (MF17, 1986) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

VIRGIN STEELE – Virgin Savagery<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
\nDave Reynolds<\/span>
\nMetal Forces, Issue 17 (1986)<\/span><\/p>\n

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Virgin Steele (l-r): Joe O\u2019Reilly, Edward Pursino, David DeFeis and Joey Ayvazian<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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In these times of intense as hell thrash, can anybody remember way back in 1982 when Virgin Steele released their self-titled debut album? Well it may surprise you to learn that despite a two year absence since the band\u2019s second album, Guardians Of The Flame<\/em>, the band are still going strong and still as original as ever.<\/p>\n

Now Jack Starr-less, Virgin Steele have recently put out their third album (well, it was released at the tail end of 1985 to be exact), titled Noble Savage<\/em>, released on Cobra Records who just so happen to be Piledriver\u2019s label too. Virgin Steele haven\u2019t appeared in the pages of Metal Forces<\/em> since our debut issue. At that time, vocalist David DeFeis and then guitarist Jack Starr were interviewed by Steve Price. Since then, Starr quit the group and appeared on Metal Forces<\/em> issue #9\u2019s cover with a bevy of young ladies, and Virgin Steele recruited a new axe attacker by the name of Edward Pursino. So why has it taken so long to get a new album out? I spoke to David DeFeis and he gave me the answer to this and more. Read on!<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing we had to do was settle the dispute over the name with Jack,\u201d reveals David. \u201cWhen he left the band he\u2019d gone and copyrighted the name! Jack was claiming the name was his and he actually went over to Paris to do that Breaking Sound festival as Virgin Steele, and bombed which embarrassed us. Anyway, we finally sorted things out.<\/p>\n

\u201cEd\u2019s actually been in the band since the summer of \u201984 when Jack left. We\u2019ve actually been involved with Cobra Records and Zoran Busic since Jack was in the band, because we had records put out in Canada on his Maze label (who also handle Saga! In fact, Zoran used to manage them too!). Cobra Records is our kinda custom label. Actually, I\u2019ve just produced the new Piledriver album, Stay Ugly<\/em>, which will be out soon on Cobra.\u201d<\/p>\n

David was the guy responsible for producing Noble Savage<\/em> as well. If you read the last issue\u2019s mammoth new \u2018Metal On Vinyl\u2019 guide in Metal Forces<\/em> you\u2019ll have noticed I wasn\u2019t over keen on the record\u2019s production. \u201cI guess you like heavy guitars, eh?,\u201d he laughs. \u201cWe go for more of a drum \/ vocal emphasis. If you\u2019ve noticed, Ronnie James Dio never mixes the rhythm guitar up either; neither did Led Zeppelin<\/a> \u2019cos Jimmy Page never went for the rhythm guitar high in the mix.\u201d<\/p>\n

I notice there\u2019s a couple of kinda airplay-oriented songs included on the album, in particular the excellent \u2018The Evil In Her Eyes\u2019 which is probably my favourite track? \u201cYeah, some of the things are, but I think we have a nice variety on the record, with tracks that have that commercial edge but also the usual Virgin Steele epics too. We feel it\u2019s a well rounded album, and the next one will continue in that vein with a good balance of material.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is that your sword on the album cover David? \u201cNo it\u2019s not! We had problems getting it to Canada where the photography was done and it would\u2019ve been too big for the guy anyway, so we had a smaller replica made just for the album cover.\u201d<\/p>\n

When can we expect to see David, Edward, Joe O\u2019Reilly (bass) and Joey Ayvazian (drums) on tour, live without a net? Well, that all depends on how record sales go. David hopes the band will be able to secure UK and European release for Noble Savage<\/em>. At the time we spoke, Music For Nations were apparently showing interest (Virgin Steele<\/em> and Guardians Of The Flame<\/em> were both issued on the label in the past).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always felt our strongest support was in Europe,\u201d says David. \u201cNew York bands tend to have a more European sound. Virgin Steele sound more like a European band, possibly because our roots lie with Queen, Led Zeppelin and Rainbow.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Jack Starr told me that you, personally, were a great Angel fan and sought to emulate Frank DiMino?! \u201cHa! Ha! Yeah, I liked Angel and Frank DiMino\u2019s voice, but he\u2019s just one of the singers I like. I\u2019ve never sought to emulate him, just like I\u2019ve never sought to emulate my favourite singer who is Freddie Mercury of Queen!\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard you\u2019re getting into production in a big way? \u201cYeah, as I told you I\u2019ve produced the new Piledriver album and also another band who\u2019ll be releasing their album on Cobra; that\u2019s a band called Exorcist.\u201d Zoran Busic told me that this mob are pretty thrashy \u2013 watch out for \u2019em.<\/p>\n

David has also gotten involved with one of Bernard Doe\u2019s \u2018Demolition\u2019 raves, Damien Thorne. \u201cYeah, I\u2019ve just remixed their album \u2019cos it was really poorly recorded when it was first done.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another metallic tip for you. But don\u2019t forget to look out for Virgin Steele too. They go back into the studio \u2013 \u201cAfter a very trying year in \u201985 we\u2019re very grateful to Zoran for his support\u201d \u2013 in May to record a brand new album. I\u2019ll look out for it, how \u2019bout you?<\/p>\n

Interview taken from Metal Forces, Issue 17 (1986)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VIRGIN STEELE – Virgin Savagery Dave Reynolds Metal Forces, Issue 17 (1986) Virgin Steele (l-r): Joe O\u2019Reilly, Edward Pursino, David DeFeis and Joey Ayvazian In these times of intense as hell thrash, can anybody remember way back in 1982 when Virgin Steele released their self-titled debut album? Well it may surprise you to learn that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-virgin-steele"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1821"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11786,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821\/revisions\/11786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}