Vicious Rumors – The Devil’s Asylum: No Apologies, No Soft Edges, No Exit

There’s a certain point in a long-running metal band’s career where the options narrow. You either lean into legacy and coast, or you dig in and remind people why your name mattered in the first place. With The Devil’s Asylum, Vicious Rumors very clearly chose the latter—and they did it without sanding down the edges.

This isn’t a “comeback” record. That word gets thrown around too easily, usually when bands reappear with polite, mid-tempo material meant to offend absolutely no one. The Devil’s Asylum is something else entirely. It’s confrontational, sharp, and deliberately old-school in its values without sounding like a museum piece. This is U.S. heavy metal written by people who lived it, survived it, and still believe in it.

For anyone who somehow missed the memo, Vicious Rumors have been grinding since the early ’80s, cutting their teeth in the same Bay Area ecosystem that birthed thrash royalty—but always walking their own line between power metal precision and street-level aggression. Geoff Thorpe has been the constant through lineup changes, industry shifts, label collapses, and the long, slow erosion of attention spans. The fact that this band is still operating at this level isn’t nostalgia. It’s stubbornness. The good kind.

The Devil’s Asylum has zero interest in chasing trends or smoothing things out for modern playlists. The riffs bite. The rhythms push forward instead of floating. Solos actually say something again. And most importantly, the album never apologizes for being metal—real metal, not genre tourism.

Tracks like “Abusement Park” don’t waste time pretending subtlety is the goal. It’s a warped, nightmare-fuel theme wrapped in machine-gun guitars and a chorus that sticks without going soft. That balance—melody without weakness—is where a lot of modern bands fall apart. Vicious Rumors don’t. They’ve been threading that needle for decades, and here it sounds instinctive.

What really carries this record, though, is its pacing. There’s no bloated runtime. No obvious filler designed to pad streaming numbers. Each song earns its place, and when the album moves, it moves with purpose. You can tell this was written by musicians who still think in terms of albums, not just singles.

It’s also impossible to ignore the context surrounding this release. The band dealt with tour delays after Thorpe suffered a serious shoulder injury—exactly the kind of setback that quietly ends careers if the fire isn’t there anymore. Instead of retreating, Vicious Rumors doubled down. The Devil’s Asylum sounds like a response to that frustration: lean, pissed off, and focused. If there’s exhaustion in here, it’s weaponized.

Let’s be blunt for a second: a lot of veteran metal bands are still around, but very few sound hungry. This one does. And if that makes some people uncomfortable, good. Metal was never supposed to feel safe or polite. This record understands that on a fundamental level.

From a production standpoint, the album avoids the plastic sheen that plagues so many modern releases. It’s clear, but not sterile. Heavy, but not compressed into oblivion. You can hear the air move when the drums hit. You can feel the tension in the guitar tone. That matters.

For longtime fans, The Devil’s Asylum slots comfortably alongside the band’s strongest modern-era releases. For newer listeners—especially those who think U.S. power metal is all polished choruses and fantasy themes—this album might come as a surprise. It should. Vicious Rumors have always had more grit than they get credit for.

You can grab The Devil’s Asylum here:
Buy The Devil’s Asylum on Amazon

In a scene that’s increasingly obsessed with optics and algorithms, Vicious Rumors are still betting on substance. That’s not fashionable. It’s not easy. And it definitely won’t win over everyone. But it’s honest—and honesty is the one thing metal can’t afford to lose.

The Devil’s Asylum doesn’t ask for your attention. It takes it. If you’re still here for heavy metal that values conviction over convenience, this record deserves your time.

Recommended for fans of: classic U.S. heavy metal, power metal with teeth, and bands that refuse to age quietly.

More album coverage like this lives in our metal news section and weekly new metal releases rundowns—because the scene doesn’t stop just because the industry keeps changing.