Metal Asylum recently conducted an interview with VIRGIN STEELE frontman David DeFeis about the band’s forthcoming epic entitled Visions Of Eden. Here is an excerpt from the interview where David talks about the rather grand and epic nature of the new album scheduled for release in September.

Tell us about the forthcoming album “Visions of Eden”. Why that title?

DeFeis: "The work is based on the destruction of Paganism, and Gnosticism and the desecration and eradication of the Goddess Principle that once dwelled so freely within Divinity. A massive blow was struck against these early beliefs, by first, the rise of the Father-God principle, and second by the development of the 'organized religions.' The album concerns Lilith, first wife of Adam, (he of biblical fame, as in Adam and Eve and the apple, the snake and all that fig leaf and rib propaganda), plus Ancient Sumerian Myths concerning Lilith's relationship with Adam, Eve and God. However, that being said, in actuality, it is really about today…modern times and how we might have arrived here at this very strange place we are now in…The title and the cover reflect the idea of...where are those Visions of Eden??? When will we have them? It is a longing for the divine & the eternal in beauty, grace, nobility, etc...."

What have you done musically with this album that you maybe had not achieved in the past?

DeFeis: "It is perhaps even darker than the darkest VS moments. It is more nocturnal, autumnal, celestial, vampiric, paganistic , lunar, underground and in general more extreme. The brutality is if possible even more brutal, (especially mentally speaking), and the tender moments are incredibly melancholy, tortured, forlorn and torn. It is a music full of eternal longing, suffering and regret. Long smoldering passions, lust and despair ignite, consume and die... In the end... a type of hope arises. Not always the 'All Conquering Triumph Ideology', but a sense of merging with the perennial consciousness of the Universe, where one day.... a rebirth of sorts might follow... a beauty born of grief. I am using more piano or acoustic guitar combined with very deeply tuned heavy guitars. Vocally it is very, very melodic, and I can be tender, aggressive, and bluesy. At times the vocal style is like the bluesy singing on the Life Among The Ruins album, only the music and melodies here are very, very different."

You can read the entire interview here.