Artist: VICIOUS RUMORS
Album: VICIOUS RUMORS REMASTERED & RELOADED (CD)

Year: 1990/ 2015
Media type: CD

IT’S WELL KNOWN that the San Francisco Bay Area produced many fine bands during the 1960s and 70s, but they were almost exclusively in a psychedelic or hippy-trippy folk style. However, by the 1980s the pendulum was swinging towards heavier rock acts, a scene led by the emergence of local thrash and power metal mavericks, including Metallica, Death Angel, Exodus and Testament. It was a surprising turn of events but one that provided a healthy, some might say insatiable, taste amongst a new breed of fans for fast and furious shredding. Vicious Rumors were amongst the pioneering acts of the Bay Area scene and, despite their uncompromising style, they also earned a well deserved reputation as the thinking man’s power-metal outfit. Never afraid to infuse their sound with intricate twists and turns, the musicianship indicated that they might have had more in common with progressive metal than pure thrash. Indeed, guitarist Mark McGee had actually been a member of pomp prog gods Starcastle for a brief moment in time. Progressing through two independent albums and gaining a solid following, they eventually signed a major deal with industry heavyweights Atlantic Records and cut this self titled album in San Francisco. Issued in 1990, it is a record of extreme maturity, harnessing their power-metal onslaught with precision and force. Featuring killer tracks such as ‘Don’t Wait For Me’, Ship Of Fools’ and the title track itself, the album is still impresses to this day.

TRACK LISTING:

1. DON’T WAIT UP FOR ME
2. WORLD CHURCH
3. ON THE EDGE
4. SHIP OF FOOLS
5. CAN YOU HEAR IT
6. DOWN TO THE TEMPLE
7. HELLRAISER
8. ELECTRIC TWILIGHT
9. THRILL OF THE HUNT
10.AXE AND SMASH