Covering the three albums released by US power metallers Vicious Rumors on the Atlantic Records label between 1990 and 1992, this is a nice little triple CD treat for anyone who enjoys the metal melodic, muscular and with a bit of class thrown in for good measure.

Although the band had arguably peaked with their last album for the Shrapnel label, Digital Dictator, in 1988, they were still undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with by the time their released their self-titled debut for Atlantic a couple of years later. Taking their major cues from Dio-era Sabbath (superb and sadly-deceased vocalist Carl Wain had a definite Ronnie sass in his voice, especially on the strident Can You Hear It) and augmenting that with enough thrash to perk up younger ears (On The Edge could easily have featured on any Metal Church album of the same time, for instance), the band cooked up a classic US Power metal sound that makes all the right moves without ever quite providing the earworms necessary for a major label metal band in 1990.

That said, at thirty-odd years remove, it’s hard to see how Vicious Rumors failed to establish the band as a serious proposition; It’s weathered very well indeed.

Given the pressure on bands to come up with the commercial goods at the time, it’s unsurprising that VR‘s follow up, 1991’s Welcome To The Ball, featured some out-and-out commercial metal seemingly constructed with an eye squarely on radio dials and cash tills. Despite starting with two prime pieces of US metal in the proggy Abandoned  and the fast-paced thrillfest You Only Live Twice, both of which again offer nods to names like Metal Church and labelmates Savatage, both of which satisfy even the most stringently demanding metal connoisseur, the album was diluted by material like When Loves Come Down which, although pleasant enough in it’s own right, surely belonged on a Whitesnake album rather than rubbing shoulders with superbly bellicose stuff like Savior From Anger, which, with it’s cheeky mention of a ‘Digital Dictator’ in the lyrics giving a nice link back to the band’s meisterwerk, almost as a reassurance to long-term fans that those days hadn’t been forgotten, despite record company urgings to the contrary…

The package is rounded out by feisty little live album Plug In And Hang On, which sees guitarists Geoff Thorpe and Mark McGee in their element in front of an appreciative Tokyo crowd; Recorded during the Welcome To The Ball tour, the album features a couple of cuts from the band’s pre-Atlantic years in the shape of March Or Die from their 1985 debut Soldiers of The Night and Lady Took a Chance from Digital Dictator, both of which are delivered with fire and vigour and are sure to have VR diehards salivating with pleasure.

If you are unfamiliar with Vicious Rumors this isn’t perhaps the most representative place to start, but as an artefact of early-nineties ‘true’ metal this is an almost faultless release. Well worth a listen.

The Atlantic Years releases on September 30th.