Label: AFM Records
Release date: 13. 9. 2024
Production: Herman Frank & Arne Neurand
Album length: 45.10 min
Genre: Heavy Metal
Rating: 8.0/10
Victory are an old German heavy metal outfit. They’ve weathered every war storm and they’ve simply always been around. The Ice Age onward, let’s say. Even the first Devonian amphibians knew Victory. So mammoth-sized age is nothing new to them. A little joke to kick things off, and not even that out of place once you get acquainted with their sheer stylistic old-fashionedness. Old-school, fossilized phrases that kick you straight in the face and put up with zero complications. Teutonic, of course. As German as it gets.
Victory were founded back in the eighties by former Accept guitarist Herman Frank. The new album arrives a little under three years after Victory put out “Gods Of Tomorrow” (2021, RockLine review) and is the band’s eleventh studio album overall. It packs 10 tracks, with the tireless Herman Frank as the main man, naturally, and he’s managed to keep three fifths of the lineup that recorded its predecessor by his side. So no, it wasn’t going to happen without lineup changes again, but the key thing is that Herman Frank held on to the excellent Italian singer Gianni Pontillo, which means the musical expression between the last two albums stays that much more tightly bound.
No reinventing the wheel here. Ultra-catchy, chorus-driven pomp riding on the wings of a boundless racket of wrecking-ball, primally carved guitar riffs that blast you straight into the core of the eighties. That’s how metal was written on the old European continent back then. Led by the likes of Accept, Krokus, U.D.O., and Scorpions too.
So, nothing that hasn’t been said already, just this esteemed guitar and music veteran and his crew serving up a tried-and-true recipe, which means fans of the band will be perfectly calm and satisfied when they get another flawlessly sharpened old-school heavy metal album from Victory, one that at its core once again buddies up with elements of hard rock. Skillfully salted with flashing solos and an excellent vocal performance, backed by those gang shouts from the guys, which has always been one of the band’s essential trademarks! It’s also nice to know we didn’t have to wait ten years for a new Victory album, like the gap between “Gods Of Tomorrow” (2021) and “Don’t Talk Science” (2011) would suggest.
“Circle Of Life” is another gorgeous, seamlessly sculpted ‘shrapnel to the skull, crazy-style’ that clings desperately to old-school guidelines and speaks to you not just in a rustic way but in a fully nostalgic one, which will warm the hearts of (today’s) older fans of distorted sounds who lived through the eighties as teenagers. That is, back when heavy metal in all its forms was growing and really starting to flourish! So it’s a lovely reminder of those times of carefree abandon and big hopes, and an achievement only a musician of Herman Frank’s caliber can pull together. Especially production-wise, which internalizes those times even further, and you absolutely can’t overlook the possessed pounding and thundering as it charges ahead on the wings of razor-sharp guitar riffs! Bottom line: “Old farts just know how, and (still) can!”
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1.Tonight We Rock
2. American Girl
3. Count On Me
4. Surrender My Heart
5. Unbelievable World
6. Moonlit Sky
7. Falling
8. Money
9. Reason To Love
10. Virtual Sin
Lineup:
Gianni Pontillo – vocals
Herman Frank – guitar
Mike Pesin – guitar
Malte Frederik Burkert – bass guitar
Michael Stein – drums
