by Mark Gromen

The more technology man relies on; we lose another piece of humanity. Knowing VIRGIN STEELE founder/vocalist David DeFeis for years, I feel safe in saying he would concur. So it’s only fitting that I record our telephone interview on tape, he playing yet-to-be-completed compositions down the line. No file sharing, cell phone or I-pad trickery, just old school reliability.

The songs are in various states of completion, some lacking bass or second guitar, none with the final mix. We begin with ‘The Bread Of Wickedness’, which he says is one of the shorter songs he’s written in a while, around 3:30. Introduced with a choir, it’s a fast old-school sounding number with DeFeis’ famous yelp. “The bread of wickedness, it’s in their eyes.” Next up, a healthy portion of the lengthy ‘By The Hammer Of Zeus’. After a wild start, it falls back into a slower, piano accompanied pace. ‘In A Dream Of Fire’ kicks off with keyboards, regal, almost liturgical in feel. Aggressive vocal delivery, with the characteristic DeFeis wail. We close the listening session with ‘Pagan Heart’. With guitar beneath the keys, after a smoothly delivered initial verse, it jumps into a solo spotlight for long-time guitarist Edward Pursino.

From his home studio on Long Island, DeFeis is feverishly hoping to finish his forthcoming The Black Light Bacchanalia in time for a late October release in Europe, followed by North America, on November 9th. “This is all done in my home,” starts the mild mannered singer. “Sometimes I can’t get away, like now, with deadlines, I’m in here almost constantly. When I’m a little less pressed, it’s more of when the spirit moves me, although I try to get in here every day. Sometimes life takes over and you can’t get in until the evening. I’ve got so much music ready. Once I finish this record, I want to get the next two records ready. Now that we’re with SPV, I hope to have the next record out a year later. We were doing fairly well when we were will T&T;/Noise, almost an annual release. I hope to get back to that type of schedule.”

That said, the 2006 album, Visions Of Eden, which he claims as a lyrical jumping off point for the like-minded new disc, was only available Stateside as an import. “Never officially released (domestically),” his tone drops. “No, but we plan to re-issue all the albums (from Noble Savage onward).” One of the oft criticized aspects of that record was its lack of aggression. None too surprisingly, its creator disagrees and says such comments had no bearing on his mindset for the new one. “What I believe people are reacting to is the mix. If they don’t hear screaming guitars and drums, then it’s not aggressive. I’m not singing any differently on that album. Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but sometimes you get this group mentality. That said, I would like to remix that album, so you can hear what I’m talking about. It really wasn’t ready when I had to deliver it to Sanctuary. I wish I had a couple of extra weeks to work on the mix.” Perhaps that will come to pass, on the re-issue (is that the correct phrase, given it’s lack of an initial release?) “I’m not sure what the bonus tracks will be (on any of them). They might be live songs. I’ve got 7 CDs of acoustic stuff Edward and I have done, just two track (recordings), but it sounds great. There’s recordings by the fireplace in my living room. A few live shows, not fully produced, but sound good and there’s tons of wacky covers I’ve done. My idea of reissues is not to have someone who already owns the album buy it again, it’s for the person who just discovered the band.”

Given SPV and the singer’s dedication to an elaborate The Black Light Bacchanalia, there’s a good chance those numbers will increase substantially. Featuring a trio of different designs for the artwork, it’s liable to be highly visible. “I’m working on that too and the guy doing the artwork will be back from vacation next week, so I have to give him the rest of it. There will be at LEAST three different covers (CD, vinyl and digi-pak). The artwork will all be related. The vinyl will be a triple gatefold, so you can imagine what will be in there. The record company wants to do a special edition and I had written out an elaborate bio (explanation of the concept), but the printing would be prohibitive, so they asked me to read it. The special edition will come with a second, bonus disc, featuring two (non-album) tracks from these sessions and me, “books on tape.” I’m thinking of taking the strings section from some of these songs, things you can’t hear with all the guitars and drums screaming overtop, and have that playing behind my voice. It won’t be dry. These things take time though.”

Time is never a luxury for the one-man driving force behind Virgin Steele. But doesn’t Pursino, whom DeFeis acknowledges playing alongside since they were both 14 years old, have a hand in writing some of the music? Absolutely nothing,” he laughs. “Edward and I have a great writing partnership, but he didn’t write anything for this album, nor the last one. We couldn’t find the time. Last summer, we got together and wrote five songs. They weren’t right for this album though. They are more of a bluesy, metalized feel, sort of Life Among The Ruins. Maybe we could use those as some of the bonus tracks, but they’re so strong, they really warrant their own album.”

The band has been, by their standards, highly visible this year, with several festival appearances. “SPV played no part in those dates, as they were committed to prior to me signing with the label. Lots of one-offs, or heading over to Europe for three days in a row, then back home. In South America, it was fans that made it happen: fans from the 80s who have now become lawyers and wanted to see the band. The others, we were asked: Magic Circle festival, Rock Hard, Headbangers Open Air. I talked to our agent last week and once this album is done, I’d like to be a little more visible. We haven’t done a consistent run since House Of Atreus (around 2000). However, this is a lifestyle choice, not a career, or we’d have made different choices. I never wanted anyone in the band to feel pressure about being in the band (in terms of time commitment vs. personal life).”

If you do get a chance to see the band, chances are the setlist will be vastly different from town to town. That’s by (intelligent) design. “We did a show in January, where there was an issue with the drums. I looked at Edward and said, ‘Bring it home’. After that, it was a 30 to 45 minute acoustic set. After that, the issue was fixed and we finished the electric show. We’re students of old school bands, like Led Zeppelin and Queen. We have a repertoire and on any given night, we can play something or a different version of a song, depending upon the mood or how things are being accepted. When Edward joined the band, he had to learn 28 songs and that was back on Noble Savage. When the bass player joined, he had to learn 70 songs! Sometime we try something and it’s not working this year, so we put it away for a couple of year. We want to keep it fresh, for us and well as the fans.”

I purposefully left any discussion of the subject matter to the end, forewarned that it was too lengthy to describe succinctly (and accurately), as well as differing to the DeFeis intoned explanation on the digi-pak. “It is a concept, in that we have these fundamentalists trying to blow up our country. We have fundamentalists from this country trying to take over, businessmen…It doesn’t matter whether it’s Muslims, or Christian, I’m against the fundamentalist, organized religion ideology. Like the song “The Orpheus Taboo’. I don’t know if you know the story, but Orpheus’ wife is taken from him. He goes to Hades and charms them with his music. He’s told he can have his wife back, but upon exiting the underworld, “don’t look back.” Well he does and his wife is whisked away, to be left behind. That’s me. I’d look back too. I’m the one that says “Fuck you God, don’t tell me what to do.” It picks up where (Visions Of Eden) left off, about the war between dark and light, male vs. female and also the fear that the sun won’t rise and why we do the crazy things we do.” Upon telling him of my admiration for lyrics generated above the belt, typically between the ears, he says, “I was raised in a theatrical family. I was watching Euripides, Escalus and Shakespeare. It’s part of who I am.”

And there are very few like him: articulate, well-mannered and able to speak on a variety of historical topics (art, politics, mythology, wine) and yet scream like a Banshee (onstage) when called upon.