Virgin Steele - 'Invictus'

This lavish re-issue of VS's 1998 opus is very much - as it was originally - a companion piece to the also re-packaged 'The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell I+II (reviewed here:  http://planetmosh.com/virgin-steele-the-marriage-of-heaven-and-hell-iii/) - and indeed serves as the third instalment of what eventually would becomeThis lavish re-issue of VS's 1998 opus is very much – as it was originally – a companion piece to the also re-packaged 'The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell I+II (reviewed here:  http://planetmosh.com/virgin-steele-the-marriage-of-heaven-and-hell-iii/) – and indeed serves as the third instalment of what eventually would become a quartet of themed albums (the fourth and final part, 'Ghost Harvest', was originally scheduled to be the bonus disc with this edition, but instead this 19-song epic has been saved for a forthcoming box set), but also a stand-alone album in it's own right. There are a number of differences between 'Invictus' and its two predecessors.  For a start, the storyline is more focussed – telling the tale of Endyamon and Emalaith (a character first introduced in the second part of 'The Marriage…') in their battle against the gods, representing humanity's fight against oppression and tyrany, in no matter what form it takes… Secondly, it is more ambitious. Perhaps able to avail of an increased budget after the success of the first two albums, there is a greater use of orchestration and sound effects, while retaining their basic chest-thumping bravado – especially in relation to David DeFeis' bombastic and overblown lyrical content vocal [...]

Continue reading Virgin Steele - 'Invictus'.