Noble Savage (album)

Last updated
Noble Savage
VirginSteele-NobleSavage-Front.jpg
Studio album by
Released1985
Recorded1985
StudioSonic Sound and Studio 3973, Freeport, New York
Genre
Length46:04
Label Cobra
Producer David DeFeis
Virgin Steele chronology
Wait for the Night EP
(1983)
Noble Savage
(1985)
Age of Consent
(1988)
2008 edition CD cover
Virgin Steele noble savage 2008.jpg
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal 6/10 [2]
ImperiumiStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [3]
The Metal CryptStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [4]

Noble Savage is the third studio album of the American heavy metal band Virgin Steele, released in 1985 by Cobra Records. The album was reissued in 1997 on CD by Noise Records with six bonus tracks. The remastered edition of 2008 by Dockyard 1 added two other extra tracks. In May 2011, the album was reissued once more by Steamhammer Records, a subsidiary of SPV with the same track list as the 1997 release, but with an added bonus CD containing 13 additional tracks. [5]

Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom. With roots in blues rock, psychedelic rock, and acid rock, the bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. The genre's lyrics and performance styles are sometimes associated with aggression and machismo.

Virgin Steele American band

Virgin Steele is an American heavy metal band from New York City, originally formed in 1981.

Noise Records is a German heavy metal record label founded in 1983 by German music industry personality Karl-Ulrich Walterbach as an expansion of his company Modern Music Records. It was sold to the Sanctuary Records Group in 2001 and ceased any activity in 2007 due to the bankruptcy of Sanctuary. The Noise catalogue was consequently acquired by Universal Music Group later on. In April 2016, BMG Rights Management, which had acquired Sanctuary Records in 2013, announced that it would revive the Noise Records label.

Contents

Before the recording of Noble Savage, original guitarist Jack Starr resigned from the band and was replaced by Edward Pursino, an old friend of DeFeis, whose guitar playing immediately fit very well with Virgin Steele's music and style. Pursino's contribution came also in the form of new musical ideas and compositions, and he is still a mainstay in Virgin Steele's line-up. The band's frontman David DeFeis considers this album one of the most important in the history of the band. [6]

Jack Starr Rock-blues guitarist

Jack Starr is a heavy metal and blues guitarist and songwriter born of a French mother and American father. He learned to play guitar by ear, copying the riffs of R&B records. His first semi-professional band was Les Variations in France with future members of Trust. In the U.S. Starr emerged on the rock and metal scene in 1981, forming, together with Joey Ayvazian, David DeFeis and Joe O’Rielly, the first incarnation of the heavy metal band Virgin Steele. The new band was selected in 1982 by Mike Varney of Shrapnel Records to appear on the label's compilation album U.S. Metal Volume 2. The song Starr sent in for the compilation was "Children of the Storm". After only two albums, Virgin Steele of 1981 and Guardians of the Flame of 1982, Starr left Virgin Steele in 1983 because of musical differences with the band’s front man and other main songwriter David DeFeis.

Noble Savage was the first album where the band was completely satisfied with its music and sound. It is also the first album on which the current musical style of the band is fully manifested, containing grandiose compositions with multi-layered keyboard sound and more sophisticated arrangements. Noble Savage has become one of the most popular Virgin Steele albums and it includes the songs "We Rule the Night" and "Noble Savage", which the band still plays in concert.

Track listing

All lyrics written by David DeFeis.

Side one
No.TitleMusicLength
1."We Rule the Night"DeFeis, Edward Pursino5:40
2."I'm on Fire"DeFeis, Pursino3:56
3."Thy Kingdom Come"DeFeis3:41
4."Image of a Faun at Twilight" (instrumental)DeFeis1:16
5."Noble Savage"DeFeis7:30
Side two
No.TitleMusicLength
6."Fight Tooth and Nail"DeFeis3:32
7."The Evil in Her Eyes"DeFeis, Pursino4:44
8."Rock Me"DeFeis, Pursino3:38
9."Don't Close Your Eyes"DeFeis5:07
10."The Angel of Light"DeFeis7:00

Personnel

Band members

Keyboard instrument class of musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard

A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pianos. Other keyboard instruments include celestas, which are struck idiophones operated by a keyboard, and carillons, which are usually housed in bell towers or belfries of churches or municipal buildings.

Guitar fretted string instrument

The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that usually has six strings. It is typically played with both hands by strumming or plucking the strings with either a guitar pick or the finger(s)/fingernails of one hand, while simultaneously fretting with the fingers of the other hand. The sound of the vibrating strings is projected either acoustically, by means of the hollow chamber of the guitar, or through an electrical amplifier and a speaker.

Production

Hugh Syme is a Canadian Juno Award-winning graphic artist and member of the Premier Artists Collection (PAC) who is best known for his artwork and cover concepts for rock and metal bands. He is also a musician and has appeared on some Rush songs as a keyboard player. Syme is notably responsible for all of Rush's album cover art since 1975's Caress of Steel as well as creating Rush's famous Starman logo. In 1983 he told Jeffrey Morgan that he never imagined the band would use it as their main logo. Syme also plays piano on the album Thrilling Women, which Morgan recorded with Dean Motter.

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References

  1. Reesman, Bryan. "Virgin Steele Noble Savage review". Allmusic . Rovi Corporation . Retrieved 2011-07-03.
  2. Popoff, Martin (1 November 2005). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 2: The Eighties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. pp. 399–400. ISBN   978-1894959315.
  3. Starbuck (2008-04-23). "Levyarviot: Virgin Steele - Noble Savage (reissue)". Imperiumi. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
  4. Turnbull, Bruce (2009-04-22). "Review: Virgin Steele - Noble Savage". The Metal Crypt.com. Retrieved 2010-04-11.
  5. "Virgin Steele - Noble Savage". Metal-Archives.com. Retrieved 2012-01-29.
  6. DeFeis, David. "Virgin Steele Biography". Virgin-Steele.com. Retrieved 2010-04-06.