Vicious Rumors - Rushing The World (DVD/Video)
Mascot Records

file under heavy / power metal

Ralph: The main difference between Vicious Rumors and others from that golden Bay Area period probably is the fact that Vicious Rumors never split up. We’re being ‘served’ with one reunion after another from that same period but Vicious Rumors never stopped playing. Vicious Rumors has gone through tons of highs and lows in their career since their debut ‘Soldiers Of The Night’ was released in 1986, marking Carl Albert’s death in 1995 as most tragic point in time. Albert was respected and considered one of the best voices in metal and it was with him that Vicious Rumors made their best selling albums and grew to be a legendary band.

Dutch label Mascot Records is now releasing this DVD ‘Crushing The World’. A career spanning document and is occurs to me that most of the tracks on the disc are from ‘Vicious Rumors’ (1990) and ‘Welcome To The Ball (1991) topped with some tracks from the classic ‘Digital Dictator’ and some new songs. It must be appealing to the true Vicious Rumors fans because this Carl Albert era is been considered as THE Vicious Rumors era anyway. At the same time that is the problem here. The DVD shows live recordings of tracks such as ‘Down To The Temple’, On The Edge’, ‘Digital Dictator’ and ‘Abandoned’ without the same Carl Albert. Obvious of course because the man is not with us anymore but I think Vicious Rumors needs to watch out not to become a parody of themselves. No Carl at all? Yes there is! ‘Lady Took A Chance’ was recorded in the legendary Marquee club in London in the late eighties. Bonus features include the videos with Carl from the band’s successful Atlantic period (‘Children’ and ‘Don’t Wait For Me’).

A very nice trip down memory lane but without the key player for the most part, beside ‘Lady Took A Chance’ being the highlight of this disc.

Rating: 70/100 (details)

http://www.viciousrumors.com