So this might be a harsh way to start a review, but I have to ask: Who even IS Vicious Rumors in 2025? Every time I see this band live, there’s almost a completely different lineup, save for founding guitarist Geoff Thorpe and longtime drummer Larry Howe. The lineup that performed on their last album, 2020’s Celebration Decay, is history, as is the lineups that played on their last couple tours. Thankfully, sometime during the latter half of 2024, the revolving door that is the VR camp slowed enough for the band to record their long awaited 14th studio album, The Devil’s Asylum.
Joining Thorpe and Howe on this release are former Air Raid bassist Robin Utbult, Midnight Spell guitarist Denver Cooper, and veteran singer Chalice (AKA Brian Betterton). Together, the five have made an album that, in all truthfulness, isn’t any better or worse than anything Vicious Rumors has cranked out since the early ’10s. When listening to The Devil’s Asylum, one gets the impression that this is the sound of a veteran band who have listened to the latter day fare of Accept and Priest and said, “Yeah, let’s go that route.” Which in all fairness, isn’t bad. It sure beats the alternative (i.e. Abandoning metal entirely for some faceless Shinedown-esque butt rock dreck.)
The best moments on The Devil’s Asylum don’t even necessarily recall the golden days of Vicious Rumors, but they are quite kickass slabs of old school metal mania. The opening “Bloodbath” is a neck-snapping power-thrasher akin to Metal Church and Flotsam and Jetsam. The band executes this hyperviolent vein so damn well that we’re left yearning for more, and we do get some, but not until the album’s back half (i.e. “In Blood We Trust”, “The Devil’s Asylum”). It’s too bad this album doesn’t thrasher harder, because the band has a real knack and need for speed when they want to.
For the most part, however, The Devil’s Asylum consists of straightforward trad metal tunes with a modern production aesthetic. Cuts like “Dogs of War” and “High Hell Hammer” (nothing to do with those legendary Swiss maniacs, unfortunately) keep the release steady and solid, while melodic bangers like “Crack the Sky in Half” and “Wrong Side of Love” channel the commercialized sheen of the band’s Atlantic era. “Wrong Side” especially sounds like a lost Welcome to the Ball era song. At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about this power-glam rocker, but a few listens in and I’m digging it heavy.
Unfortunately, just like every other VR album from the ’10s onwards, The Devil’s Asylum is ultimately weighed down by a glut of songs that simply go nowhere. Tough guy, groove metal chug-fests like “Butchers Block” and “Abusement Park” come off as cheap and redundant, while “Boring Day in Hell” lives up to its title and “Better than Me” is, well, better than nothing. Seriously guys, can we leave the wall-punching, Monster-sipping metal to Lamb of God? These missteps aside, The Devil’s Asylum is yet another good album from a band bearing the moniker of a band who once upon a time put out such milestones as Soldiers of the Night, Digital Dictator, and Welcome to the Ball. This isn’t those, but it’ll get the neck muscles you old timers who remember those masterpieces upon their release working overtime.
6 out of 10
Label: Steamhammer
Genre: Heavy Metal
For fans of: Metal Church, Armored Saint, Judas Priest