Vicious Rumors
Electric Punishment

The band is clearly passing a period of full inspiration and good mood and you can listen to that in the songs of the album, where they sound so fresh like they did in the aforementioned periods of their highest peak. Especially the first four tracks, the video clip ”I Am The Gun”, the back to the roots ‘‘Black X List”, the somehow mid-tempo title track and the thrashing ”D-Block” will make you smile and have a feeling of returning back to the past when you first listened to them, together with other heroes of the American heavy/power scene, such as Armored Saint, Metal Church and even Savatage in their first three albums.

Brian Allen does a very decent performance and in some parts comes close to the spirit of Carl Albert, as he produces some screams and high-pitched vocal melodies straight from the ’80s, but with today’s spirit and likes. The album doesn’t sound like an old mixture of ideas but has a modern loud production which showcases the great work that is done. Especially the guitars sound razor sharp and some solos, either having the leading role or playing in the background remind us of the crazy solo races of albums like ”Soldiers Of The Night’‘, ”Digital Dictator”, ”Vicious Rumors”, ”Welcome To The Ball” and even ”Word Of Mouth”.

”Escape (From Hell)” is a powerful ballad that gives some extra emotion to the album, while the follower ”Dime Store Prophet” continues the steady riffing and the great variety of amazing tracks. The only drawback on the album is that we have two tracks that raise the quality, as ”Together We Unite” is a cheesy ’80s hair-metal like track, sounding so commercial and out of climate that it becomes annoying. ”Eternally” is a slow tempo ballad (?!) which is also not of the same level as the other tracks. Luckily comes ”Thirst For A Kill” which brings things back to place, while the closing cover of ”Strange Ways” by Kiss is good, but none would miss it if it didn’t exist.

”Electric Punishment” is in most parts a superb album, it shows why Vicious Rumors is still a great band and why we still have expectations from them. To me this new effort is the best they’ve done since ”Word Of Mouth” in 1994. When you reach fifties and can still play like that, then it’s phenomenal on its own. This is true molten metal from the past put with the touch of the present and the future. You can hear people bitching about how bands do this and that, but the proof comes in such albums which grab you from the first minute. Without the two mediocre tracks and with Carl Albert on vocals it would be a rightful 10/10. Until the next album, listen to this one again and again.