Virgin Steele is one of those bands whose value is directly proportional to their misfortune-enormous. Today they've achieved the cult band status, but this is one of the best metal bands of all time and surely the best which came out of the USA. The band is founded at the beginning of the eighties by Jack Starr, guitarist of french origins, who wanted to look for the right elements to form the ultimate heavy metal band. The first to answer his call is drummer Joey Ayvazian, and together they start auditioning singers before David De Feis (whose voice is absolutely incredible) is introduced to Jack by a friend of Joey. With an astounding interpretation of "Child In Time" David gets the vacant role of singer bringing with him bassist Joe O'Reilly.

Virgin Steele debut in 1982 with "Children Of The Storm" (a song loved by Metallica), included in the compilation "U.S. Metal Vol. II". A bit later they issue their self titled first album and the band becomes one of the great promises of american metal; their style is very original, a melting of american heavy metal and Rainbow's epic atmospheres. David, who's also an excellent keyboard player, shows a particular liking for pompous and melodic arrangements, while Jack goes for a harder and more immediate assault: this dualism leads to the creation of autentic jewels of epic metal like the title track, "Children Of The Storm" and the rest of the album. The following year "Guardians Of The Flame" confirms the high value of this band, whose bombastic music lived on the contrast between the two strong personalities of the two leaders. After a mini lp called "Wait For The Night" ("A Cry In The Night" in the english version), Jack Starr packs his things and leaves: he disagrees with De Feis' ideas, oriented towards a lighter sound, so recruits former Riot vocalist Rhett Forrester (killed in 1994 by unknown) and Rods' rhythmic section and releases a powerful heavy metal album called "Out Of Darkness". Jack then tries to keep the Virgin Steele name for himself appearing with this monicker at the Breaking Sound Festival (Paris). It seems that their exihibition has been a complete disaster and so David De Feis and the rest of the band (completed by guitarist Edward Pursino) manage to keep the Virgin Steele name after a victorius legal suite against Jack Starr.

The new lineup records "Noble Savage", another magnificent and pompous album which elegantly melts class and epic metal, making the most refined side of the band definetly come to light, but once again the album doesn't sell as much as it would have had and Virgin Steel are once more confined in the "good but.." bands. In 1987 rumors are spread around that Virgin Steele released a thrash metal album under the name Exorcist to follow the success of the genre: De Feis denies all and no one has ever found proofs. The band finally manages to come to Europe supporting friends Manowar and gains great approval from everywhere because of their live performances. When things started to work, anyways, some unexplicable laws apply and the following album, "Age Of Consent", though excellent, gets a ridiculous distribution and becomes a complete commercial failure. Virgin Steele are now in their darkest period: their label shuts down, Joe O'Reilly decides to leave and so the band stops for a while: David finally finishes his graduation in piano and composition, and plays with a semi improvised band called "Smoke Stark Lightning", featuring some famous musicians like old mate Jack Starr and drummer Bobby Rondinelli.

In 1993 Rob De Martino is chosen as the new bass player and the band signs for Shark, finally Virgin Steele come back with "Life Among The Ruins", an album of Whitesnake influenced hard rock with a strong bluesy vein. And one year later the magniloquent, pompous sound of "Noble Savage" storms back with "The Marriage Of Heaven And Hell part 1", an gargantuan album of epic metal full of melodic and symphonic influences, very progressive oriented. Virgin Steele come back to Europe supporting Manowar and Uriah Heep. At the end of 1995 the second part is out, following the concept of the first one, mantaining the same high quality. After another european tour and a rather long working a new album is released in March 1998: it's the third and final chapter of the "Marriage" saga and it's titled "Invictus", their heaviest album ever and surely a wonderful work. Today it seems that the following of Virgin Steele is increasing, and their next album will hopely make'em exit from the narrow borders of the cult status. David is also working on a heavy metal opera. "Never say never, keep both your eyes on the flame"...