David DeFeis says the next Virgin Steele record is further along than anybody outside the band assumed. "There's a lot of stuff already on tape, and then there's a lot of stuff that's still there in the brain that I have not captured," he told Maurizio Lyon Leone of LyonRock. "What I'm doing now is I am slowly but surely finalizing all this new music into what would be the next record or so. So it's all being worked on at once."
That would follow The Passion Of Dionysus, which SPV and Steamhammer put out in June 2023, and it arrives in the usual Virgin Steele way: several records' worth of material written at once and sorted afterwards.
He also cleared up the absence that has been noticed at recent shows. Edward Pursino, who has played guitar in this band since 1983, is not ill and has not left. "He moved into another area of his life, and he doesn't really want to go on the road," DeFeis said. "He'd rather be on the records. I don't want anybody to be in the band to have it be a burden for them. If and when he wants to go back on stage, he will let me know. The door is open."
The touring line-up stays as it is, with Tommaso Vitali on guitar, Josh Block on bass since 2000 and Matt McKasty drumming. They play Luppolo In Rock in Italy next July.