Vicious Rumors – Concussion Protocol (2016)

«No Stop For Steel»

By Luishard

Friends of Dioses del Metal, the fact that a band created in 1979 in San Francisco (California, USA) by Geoff Thorpe (Guitar and vocals) keeps producing noteworthly records is a great new for the steel community. This Concussion Protocol makes the twelfth album of Vicious Rumors and the fifth consecutive published with the German discographic Steamhammer. Long gone are Razorback Killers (2011), Live You To Death (2012), Electric Punishment (2013) and Live You To Death 2 (2014).

In addition to a brilliant production made by Geoff Thorpe hand by hand with Juan Urteaga in Trident Studios (Pacheco, California) I must remark the spectacular six string solos, including the collaborations of Brad Gillis (Night Ranger, Ozzy Osbourne) and Steve Smyth (Nevermore, Testament, Forbidden), because if I had to choose which instruments stand out, not only for they technique and magic, but also because they are a machinegun, I would decide for the guitars. Catalog them of spectaculars is to fall short, they roar and moan, play melodies and link gnashing neck riffs. If we add a lustful rhythmic base and some live music breaking chorus, there’s no need to say anything else to justify a work that borders on the outstanding.

It could be really risky to say that this record might be acclaimed as one of the best classical Metal albums of this millennial, anyway, I have no doubt that it is the best I have heard in years. On 26th, August we’ll have available these eleven compositions which will flood the listener ears with truly whipping music, where all the time resources of the most known artists, alternate and confluence with others more characteristic of Vicious Rumors in a super attractive amalgam, where there’s no place to fill and never becomes tedious. This is the true Heavy Power Metal, burning and showy.

The albums concept elapses around a worldwide hecatomb as a consequence of the arrival of an asteroid to the Earth, really coherent with the simple and direct cover which expresses the expansive sensations the record gives off nonstop and with the Vicious Rumors’ classical style, where changes and turns abound, a complete carousel for the senses.

Not only with the first leaden and expected seconds of Concussion Protocol, but also with its developing, blowing up the listener’s mind with a fury storm, a frankly devastating chorus and even a better guitar solo; going through a neck-breaking Chemical Slaves, crushing and full of rabid, and also the “Deff-Lepparian” winds of Victims Of A Digital World with its shattering atmosphere; even continuing with the steel shine that comes out of the Chasing The Priest’s forge, with a “painkilling” chorus, the enjoyment is more than assured.

Last Of Our Kind is a quite different song, softer with a hardrocker melody which finally becomes a little repetitive to me. But you don’t need to worry, there comes the speedic 1000 Years. While hearing it, you will only notice the cyclone going through your skull, BRUTAL! After that, we can relax with the serenity that emerges from Circle Of Secrets, which finishes high and strong.

The homonymous chorus and the bass technique that can be found in Take It Or Leave It are spectacular, as much as the plumb that drowns me while I listen to Bastards, or the sharp minutes that lasts Every Blessing Is A Curse, until it finishes in a big way when I can attend with delight to the deep and dark Life For A Life, which ends as the life itself, between whispers and silence.

You won’t be able to stop listening the last production of Vicious Rumors. Search and compare, because it’s gonna be hard to find anything better than Concussion Protocol, so I give it a 8’75 over 10. Metal greetings for you all.