VIRGIN STEELE Frontman Discusses Upcoming Album, DVD: Audio Available

Greece's Metalzone.gr recently conducted an interview with VIRGIN STEELE frontman David DeFeis. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Metalzone: [It has been two years since] "Hymn to Victory" and "The Book of Burning" [were released]. Tell us what are you up to these days? Are you going to release a new album?

David Defeis: "Yes, there's been many things going on since those two records came out two years ago. Then we also did the reissues of the three albums, so there has been a lot of output in a short amount of time. I wanted to put the brakes on for a bit and just really concentrate on the writing and I have written at least three albums which I've been recording all that and it's been a bit crazy. Now I am narrowing all that music down to one album that will be released next. I am pretty close to completing it. I am still few weeks away from getting down to mixing stage. It’s getting closer all the time, a lot of work has been done for more than one album. And we've also been doing quite a bit of shows; we've been flying back and forth in Europe doing festivals and we are going out next month, we are playing at the Keep It True festival in Germany, we are headlining that on November 5th. We are recording that properly and we are filming that, we will have six cameras, so will have some footage from that show for later on. Because the next plan after the release of this new album…"

Metalzone: Is a DVD?

David Defeis: "Yeah. After the release of this new album, will be a live album, DVD kind of thing, it's the logical next step. We've never had a proper live album, so it's time, yeah."

Metalzone: You told me about your new album that there are going to be dark and melancholic elements. Does this mean that you’re expanding your wings to other styles genres of metal, are you going to use gothic elements?

David Defeis: "There's never any kind of conscious choice like, 'Oh I am going to put on my black metal hat on and be this, or change it and be that.' You learn things as a musician and they come out, hopefully in your own unique way. I use those terms because I don't know what else to say to describe them. They seem to sum up to the best to what the music sounds like. It's not going to sound like any CRADLE OF FILTH record of anything like that."

Metalzone: Tell me a few things about the DVD you have in mind which will follow the new release and will include your show this November in Germany.

David Defeis: "I would like to do something in a historical perspective, kind of bring people up to date. Include the three metal operas that I have presented in Germany. Behind-the-scenes, early footage that I have and footage that we’ll shoot from the show in November. A long range of history I'd like to put [on there]. And get the ideology on what the band is about, what we've been doing all these years. Kind of what the approach is."

Read the whole interview at Metalzone.gr. Download an MP3 containing the audio of the interview at this location.