{"id":212795,"date":"2026-01-02T07:18:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T07:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/212795\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T07:18:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T07:18:06","slug":"review-in-virtue-age-of-legends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/212795\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: In Virtue – Age of Legends"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Published by Vince<\/a> on January 1, 2026January 1, 2026<\/p>\n

\"\"Artwork by: Niklas Sundin<\/a><\/p>\n

Style: Power Metal, Djent, Progressive Metal, Alternative Metal (Mixed Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Symphony X, Monuments, Pyramaze, Kamelot
Country: United States
Release date: 21 November 2025<\/p>\n

The promo is a knife\u2019s edge that must be carefully honed, then walked, by many an artist, author, and band in the hopes of catching the attention of increasingly attention-starved customers. Embellish too much, and you\u2019ve set an impossible bar that invites naught but scrutiny should you fail to clear. Too meek, and you may as well have written nothing at all. Good pitches require boldness, sure; confidence, definitely; but above all, they need to be truthful. For example, Havoc was a pitch-perfect film because it was basically advertised as a non-stop bloodbath actioner by the director of The Raid, and it delivered.<\/p>\n

Californian power-prog outfit In Virtue describe themselves as a boundary-crushing act that\u2019s \u201cnot just \u2018prog.\u2019 Not just a technically advanced or stylized band but a progressive band in the purest form of the word\u201d, one that\u2019s \u201cvast as the stars\u201d where \u201cno sound escapes the massive supernova that is In Virtue.\u201d Consider me intrigued. With a pitch like this, I\u2019m expecting something truly grandiose, a genre-bending black hole of style and substance that will annihilate my preconceived ideas of what progressive music can be. This is bold, confident\u2026 but is it truthful? With thirteen years separating Age of Legends from previous LP Embrace the Horror (2012), In Virtue certainly gave themselves the time and space to craft a work capable of living up to such hype. Let\u2019s see what they\u2019ve cooked up.<\/p>\n

Taken as a whole, Age of Legends feels like a mirror pieced together from fragments of other bands. As I was listening, I heard snatches of Bloodshot Dawn in the male harshes and the aggressive, more tech-death-coded passages (\u201cSisyphus Awakening\u201d, \u201cPurgatory\u201d), the nimble yet burly riffcraft that has cemented modern Symphony X\u2019s sonic identity (\u201cSisyphus Awakening\u201d, \u201cKarma Loop\u201d, \u201cPurgatory\u201d), and even dashes of poppier power acts like Delain or Pyramaze. These slivers embed themselves throughout Age of Legends as opposed to representing a single track\u2019s musical mission statement, which makes for a surprisingly varied minute-to-minute listen within each track. Trey Xavier and Rami Khalaf are clearly talented guitarists, able to inject riffs with the kind of serpentine energy that\u2019s made Michael Romeo such a treasure, while also dabbling in bright djent a\u2019la Periphery or TesseracT (\u201cTempus Fugue\u201d). Xavier\u2019s vocals are mainly of the tough-guy variety, leaning towards the likes of Russell Allen or Borealis\u2019 Matt Marinelli in grit but also flexibility. He\u2019s a good fit for the material at its punchiest as well as its poppiest. The harsh vocals are fine, nothing extraordinary but never feeling out of place. Less can be said for the metalcore vocals on \u201cWhere the Edges Meet\u201d, which struggle to make an impact on an otherwise decent song.<\/p>\n

What does make an impact is \u201cPush That Rock\u201d, the inclusion of which I demand recompense. Like Sisyphus toiling with the boulder, all of the progress gained from the last two tracks grinds to a complete halt as we\u2019re subjected to Xavier repeating \u201cpush that rock back up that hill\u201d with increasingly manlier delivery for nearly three minutes. Luckily, \u201cPurgatory\u201d picks things back up with more lively Symphony X-core, but the momentum killing of \u201cPush That Rock\u201d did enough psychic damage to render me stun locked as I tried to purge the mindless repetition from my sundered thoughts. I\u2019m willing to believe that the band intended this for thematic purposes, as pushing rocks becomes something of a motif throughout the rest of the album, but surely there was a better way? By dropping a pothole so early into the journey I was forced to artificially \u201crestart\u201d the album, with \u201cPurgatory\u201d having to work double-time to get me back on the road.<\/p>\n

The biggest problem facing Age of Legends and In Virtue as a whole, however, is that none of what they\u2019re rolling out is particularly boundary-shattering or unheard of. What they\u2019ve done is create a melting pot of purported influences, having taken bits and pieces from other genres and bands and stirred it all up into something that\u2019s often engaging but hardly unique. They\u2019re a modern progressive power metal band, full stop. They fall in line with all the aforementioned acts, not to mention countless others. And that\u2019s not a bad thing! But when you sell yourself as some mind-blowing endeavor, this eighth wonder of the world, and then give me something I\u2019ve heard in one form or another, I can\u2019t help but feel disappointed. Age of Legends is a fun record, catchy, nimble, and passionately delivered. I just wish In Virtue had told me what it was upfront so I knew what to look for, rather than leaving me to push that rock back up that hill, push that rock back up that hill, push that rock back up that\u2026.<\/p>\n

Recommended tracks: Sisyphus Ascending, Karma Loop, Purgatory, Desolation Throne
You may also like: Rest, Repose; Seas on the Moon; The Android Meme; Sunburst<\/a>
Final verdict: 6\/10<\/p>\n

Related links: Bandcamp<\/a> | Facebook<\/a> | Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n

Label: Independent<\/p>\n

In Virtue is:
\u2013 Trey Xavier (guitars, lead vocals, bass, synthesizers)
\u2013 Jamie Hush (bass)
\u2013 Rami Khalaf (guitars)
\u2013 Alex Nasla (keyboards, vocals)
With guests:
\u2013 Charlotte Wessels (vocals (Track 3))
\u2013 Chaney Crabb (vocals (Track 13))
\u2013 Dave Davidson (guitars (Track 11))
\u2013 Court Henson (backing vocals)<\/p>\n

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