Band:	Vicious Rumors
Album:	Soldiers Of The Night
Style:	US power metal
Release date:	May 1985

01. Premonition
02. Ride (Into The Sun)
03. Medusa
04. Soldiers Of The Night
05. Murder
06. March Or Die
07. Blitz The World
08. Invader
09. In Fire
10. Domestic Bliss
11. Blistering Winds

With the US power metal movement gathering steam, Vicious Rumors could not have chosen a better time to release their début "Soldiers Of The Night" in 1986. The key ingredients to the band's sound are already quite well developed which is not that surprising when taking into account that the band had been around for six years. It (the sound that is) is characterized by speedy, melodic, highly technical and precise guitar playing by courtesy of band leader Geoff Thorpe and shredder Vinnie Moore (on this album only), Larry Howe's very heavy, pounding drumming, a lot of shouted background vocals and, Carl Albert or not, a great singer. Gary St. Pierre, vocalist for this album, spends most of his time in the upper registers without actually resorting to a falsetto-singing, resulting in a more powerful delivery which fits the band's already tight performance well. Bassist Dave Starr, usually overshadowed by Vicious Rumors' admittedly impressive guitarists, also deserves a special mention. He never restricts himself to only following the guitar lines, instead there are plenty of quirky bass fills that are real delight to single out.

Sadly, "Soldiers Of The Night" is not completely without faults, the biggest being the production. Future Vicious Rumors albums with Carl Albert would sport some of the fullest, best sounding mixes in heavy metal but "Soldiers Of The Night" does not sound too good, being even downright muddy on "Murder" (turning it up helps a lot). "Domestic Blitz", in itself not a bad song, is also a slight let-down and the only song where the band drops it's furious onslaught. Otherwise the songs pack a mighty punch, "March Or Die", "Ride (Into The Sun)" and the title track being absolute stand outs.

Despite following with better albums (especially the sophomore "Digital Dictator", essentially a refined version of the début), with "Soldiers Of The Night" Vicious Rumors made one of the better examples of early US power metal. It is, however, out of print and hard to come by at a reasonable price. Though equally rare, "Digital Dictator" is the album to get first if US power metal is your prerogative.