Kerrang! Atlantic Debut review '90

"The Rumor comes True"

Ever since their "In Fire Demo" way back in 1984, Santa Rosa quintet Vicious Rumors have been promising to deliver something really rather special.
Their pair of Roadrunner albums- 1986's "Soldiers of the Night" and 1988's "Digital Dictator"- received generally kind dispatches but still weren't the stuff from which living legends are handsomely chiseled.

Noted as the band who gave us Vinnie Moore and then lost him, and as the band whose sole UK live performance coincided with that of Testament and consequently got all the attention that usually greets the release of a new Dumpy album, Vicious Rumors, you could say, ain't exactly at the head of the queue when it comes to luck.

But now armed with major label muscle and delivering an album that one knowledgeable writer has already been heard to dub "The album of the 90's" (!), could Vicious Rumors really have broken their luck?
Of course, "Vicious Rumors" isn't the album of the 90's or anything near it. But it is Vicious Rumors finest moment and, and its best, only a few steps away from awesome.

Less guitar indulgent than previous incarnations ( Geoff Thorpe is resident axe hero ), this LP sees Vicious Rumors scoring in all those important little places. Firstly there's Carl Albert ex- Ruffian and the worthy Successor to Gary St. Pierre, a man blessed with a voice of power and clarity, resonance and commitment, whether he howls, screams or simply opens wide and sings.

Then there's vocal harmonies you could launch a Stryper album with- an area Vicious Rumors have obviously worked on. "Axe and Smash"- not like the bludgeon riffola the title suggests- boasts harmonies more suited to FM than a red-blooded metal act, Vicious Rumors proving they can be radio friendly without sacrificing integrity.

Lastly, and of course most importantly, there's the songs themselves. 10 of them. all singing, all dancing and almost all convincing. "World Church", a giant on a lesser album, is actually the weakest here, its chorus, "All for One...." alarmingly familiar, its presence a little standard for such lofty ambition.

There's no pretty intro. As you apply the stylus, "VR" is at once cut-n-thrust, "Don't wait for Me" the powerful opening incentive to hopeless addiction. "On the Edge" and "Hell Raiser" are mean speed demons, the propellant on past vinyl; and "Down to the Temple", scheduled as the first video clip, broods at length around a restrained nodding pace.

"Electric Twilight" is the album's most curious contribution, a placid instrumental that somehow manages to expand Annihilator's "Crystal Ann" into Led Zep's "The battle of Evermore".
In often impossibly good company,"Ship of Fools" and "Thrill of the Hunt" are perhaps the strongest compositions here, the former a real beautiful Queensryche slowburner, the latter a sleek, sated wolf.

And it goes on. Judas Priest, Metal Church, Crimson Glory, and of course, Queensryche may all provide useful reference points but, take it from me, modern Metal has rarely felt this good.

Paul Miller