Vicious Rumors (support acts: Broken Wings, Inner Enemy)
Wednesday, 3 June 2026
Velden am Wörthersee / Bluesiana Rock Cafe / Austria
Vicious Rumors are a cult old-school American heavy metal outfit from the San Francisco Bay Area scene! Long before thrash metal was even a whisper, the then-young Geoff Thorpe formed his band back in 1979. Fortune dictated that the band would find its footing a little later. By then the Bay Area Thrash Metal scene was already in full bloom — the debut “Soldiers Of The Night” didn’t drop until 1985, and yet… Sure, Vicious Rumors aren’t part of that movement, but they’re brotherly — blood-brotherly — connected to it. While VR aren’t thrashers at their core, the band has developed a seriously thrash-inflected destructiveness over time, something you really hear on the later albums. Anyone who knows the band knows that the first five albums belong in the cult tier of old-school American metal’s great legacy. Records that have passed every test of time and still hit with full force today. Vicious Rumors have survived a string of highs and lows, largely thanks to the relentless stubbornness and sheer will of their chief and captain Geoff Thorpe to keep the band together. The band has been pushed to the edge more than once, to the point where it looked like the end, but every time they’ve come back from the abyss even stronger. The band has never stopped, and it’s precisely that Thorpe stubbornness that’s delivered a string of excellent studio albums well into the post-millennium era — especially from 2006 onward with “Warball”, right through to today, where the band has confirmed a run of 75 dates across the US and Europe, hitting the road again to present the latest and once again excellent “The Devil’s Asylum” (2025).
This time around we decided to skip the tempting Zagreb date — which went down on 10 May 2026 — and, with a three-week gap between the two shows, head over to Velden am Wörthersee and its Bluesiana Rock Cafe instead. Vicious Rumors have now stopped here four times in four years (in a row), but for Rockline this was the first encounter with the band in this club — and the first in nine years, since we last caught them at the German Bang Your Head!!! festival. Getting to see a musician like Geoff Thorpe live is something you can’t put a price on, and this was long overdue. And it’s easiest at a club show, when the man is standing a meter away from you with nothing but the stage riser between you. And more than that — you might almost bump into him in the club bathroom!
The fact that two support acts were warming up the — sadly thin — crowd was a clear sign that the night at Bluesiana was going to be a long one. First to take the stage, around nine in the evening, were Italian rockers from Udine, Broken Wings. The band, which we first caught last March when they were opening for The Dead Daisies in Padua, left a very strong impression. The quartet is made up of two women and two men: guitarist Massimo, drummer Ilenia, vocalist Sabrina, and bassist Gabriele. The sound was nicely balanced. For some, even a bit too loud. A rock assault with occasional punk and even Motörhead undertones hit convincingly, and Broken Wings managed to keep the crowd on their side. Not just thanks to a very bold performance, but also due to frontwoman Ilenia, who — alongside an excellent vocal showing — worked hard to get the crowd involved. The band released their second studio album “23” at the end of last October, and they presented it in earnest. Broken Wings played seven tracks from the new album: Back in Town, Crossroad, Away, Metal Ghost, Loser, Rock’N’Roll 23, Rebells — and they came across as significantly more polished and coherent than a year ago when we caught them in Padua. These are experienced and genuinely good musicians who know how to lay down the riffs and hooks that grab you where it counts. A band that throws a proper rock ‘n’ roll party.
A bigger question mark were the local act Inner Enemy from Tyrol. The band, which has been active since 2014, only released their debut studio album “Victims Of Insanity” in 2024, and they gave it a full airing at Bluesiana. The quartet consists of vocalist and guitarist Manuel Lukasser, guitarist Markus Gander, bassist Sascha Walder, and drummer Philipp Hernegger. In the same runtime of a good half hour as Broken Wings before them, Inner Enemy presented the debut’s material. The set consisted of: Animals, The Last Ones, 1-2-3, Slashed, Pain, Crying People, Not For Eternity 1, Not For Eternity 2. The band is cut from a completely different cloth. This is metal that aims for epic drama, with a high degree of musicality but punctuated by atmospheric shifts. The songs are often more complexly structured — fast sections followed by calm passages. The songs draw on not just English but German as well. A shame the sound wasn’t at its best, and a few small slip-ups crept in, confirming that the band urgently needs more live experience. More gigs to build up confidence and experience. Mostly both guitars came across as a bit flat, so the gig didn’t grab you the way it should — but the band gave it everything they had, and that counts for something.
It was already past eleven at night when we finally got to see the stars of the evening! Vicious Rumors. Geoff Thorpe’s current companions are vocalist Brian “Chalice” Betterton, the young and incredibly talented self-taught guitarist Denver Cooper, bassist Robin Utbult, and drummer Wyatt Cooper, who had previously been forged in the fires of Yngwie Malmsteen’s camp and stepped in at the last minute, as longtime original drummer Larry Howe quite unexpectedly announced his departure from the band back in April.
The band played just an hour and fifteen minutes. And that was the only downside. Too short a set. Why? You guessed it. Because it was all so, so good. Absolutely finger-licking stuff. Vicious Rumors never disappoint. They simply can’t. As long as Geoff holds the reins, everything’s under control. And the revamped lineup delivered exactly what you always expect from a Vicious Rumors show.
The band hit the stage with full force. With the title-track classic from the band’s most revered album, “Digital Dictator”. A devastating opener — one of the most striking tracks in Vicious Rumors’ career, with a riff you simply can’t forget. The kind of riff that gives you instant goosebumps! The band hit hard. The guitars grabbed you, Wyatt transformed into a genuine drumming beast (playing on Inner Enemy’s kit), Utbolt was pounding the bass furiously, and Chalice sang and screamed phenomenally, effortlessly nailing even the highest vocal lines. Ferocious and incinerating. Razor-sharp and relentless! A masterful blend of old classics and new material, represented by three tracks from the latest, excellent “The Devil’s Asylum” (Bloodbath, Crack The Sky In Half, and Dogs Of War). The band put together a superb old-school setlist, pulling no fewer than five tracks from the third album “Vicious Rumors”. Alongside the expected wreckers Dawn To The Temple and set-closer Don’t Wait For Me, there was On The Edge, Hellraiser, and — as Geoff put it: “We never wrote ballads or slow songs. But if I had to give any of them that label, it would be Ship Of Fools!” The fourth studio album “Welcome To The Ball” was also represented, with the crushing Abandoned and You Only Live Twice. What more could a fan of this cult band possibly want? From the debut there’s March Or Die, and in the final stretch the title-track classic that’s never absent from a Vicious Rumors show. That, of course, is Soldiers Of The Night.
Geoff said it doesn’t matter to them whether they’re playing Graspop in front of thousands or Bluesiana (ahhhh, that night there were maybe 50 of us all told). They always approach it the same way. Powerfully, relentlessly, with heart, and perfectly. Perfectly! In terms of both tightness and sound. The way only the best can. And Vicious Rumors belong right there!
A Vicious Rumors concert is like a devastating projectile. A volcanic eruption. An explosion. The intensity is extraordinary. The guitar duels between Geoff and Denver are pure poetry! Riding on a razor’s edge! The tearing sound of a full groove! A massive wall of incredibly venomous riffing and merciless drum torpedoing, built on rolling double bass pedal thunder chased by voluminous bass lines! Insane. That was the moment I truly realized how much I’d missed Vicious Rumors live all these years!
And as I hinted above, this show had one single solitary flaw. It was over too quickly. Way, way too quickly. That was the only downside. But Geoff holds up. A warrior, a steel knight, an incredibly charismatic and infectious figure. This time again he was personally selling the band’s official merch. Except that today the table is incomparably better stocked than it was back in 2001, when at the Orpheum Theater in Graz, Geoff stood there completely alone behind a little school desk selling L-sleeve shirts with the VR logo on the tour where VR were opening for Savatage. Unforgettable. Unforgettable this time too! Nostalgic and priceless! When you come face to face with an absolute legend, those are the only words left. And it was exactly that way this time too. And now I’m going to put on another round of the latest Vicious Rumors “The Devil’s Asylum”. Amen.
One more thing. Club shows with bands like Vicious Rumors remain a glorious and unforgettable experience. The band is right there in front of you. With you. Breathing as one. And you feel that energy on your own skin. An energy that captivates and enchants you. They’re like a hockey team. They breathe for themselves. As one unit. They breathe for the crowd. Every one of them counts. And Geoff remains exactly as he was in the early eighties. In that, he hasn’t changed. And that sincerity outweighs everything. A show played at full throttle without an ounce of compromise. And you feel it in the club from one meter away. Which means that kind of metal projectile hits all the harder and gets all the closer!
Author Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Vicious Rumors – setlist:
1. Digital Dictator
2. Bloodbath
3. Abandoned
4. You Only Live Twice
5. March Or Die
6. On The Edge
7. Ship Of Fools
8. Dogs Of War
9. Crack the Sky in Half
10 Down To The Temple
11. Hellraiser
12. Soldiers Of The Night
13. Don’t Wait For Me
