It’s 2019. LA-based all-rounders In Virtue publish the video for their single “Purgatory.” It will be the first single of an album that’s to be released no less than 6 years later, after a producer ghosting them with 10% of the album left, a global pandemic getting in the way, and two more successful video singles seeing the band swing into the trajectory that they were aiming for from the get-go. Call it ironic but life can show funny ways of lashing out at us — and sometimes it doesn’t stop at imitating art itself. Turning the process of creating a concept album about Sisyphus into a Sisyphean task in and of itself? Check! Fast-forward to today and In Virtue have broken free from their very own purgatory, just like Sisyphus in their story, and everything has finally clicked into place. All the more reason for the band to massively celebrate the release of their third album “Age of Legends” and make the day even more special with a final album single release — featuring a very special guest appearance by Dutch Symphonic Metal legend Charlotte Wessels (ex-Delain) in “Karma Loop.”
Watch the video for “Karma Loop” featuring Charlotte Wessels via the YouTube player below:
“Karma Loop” is the perfect final taste of the long-awaited album. As the last track written for “Age of Legends,” it gives us an idea of the band’s path since that first album single back in 2019. All songs on the album show great stand-alone potential and are inevitably products of certain moments in time with an album so many years in the making. Yet it’s undeniable how they all fit into the overall concept of the album, flawlessly merging into one big picture — following the cathartic journey of a character based on the terrible tyrannical king Sisyphus and processing ideas of suffering, eternal punishment, and, ultimately, (self-)forgiveness. The Catalyst, who as a character has been brought to life peerlessly by Charlotte Wessels in this duet, gives Sisyphus a reason to want to try and break free, to feel worthy of a life free from his eternal punishment.
Following the releases of the Heavy yet slow “Gunslingers of the New American Desert” and the powerful “Desolation Throne,” “Karma Loop” serves as another proof why In Virtue will never just meet any genre clichés, as singer and composer Trey Xavier puts it: “‘Karma Loop’ is a groovy, melodic banger that’s more than meets the ear. It’s a powerful conversation between a condemned man and the woman trying to convince him that he’s worth his own redemption. It’s a song that asks the question – are we really just going around and around, dying and being reincarnated again and again, stuck in a Karma Loop? Do we really have free will if we’re slaves to this endless cycle? How can we avoid the mistakes of our past lives with no memory of them? Soaring vocals, harmonies to die for, darkness and light, chaos and consequences.” But “Karma Loop” is more than a dialogue between Sisyphus and The Catalyst. It’s nothing short of the fight for a person’s very own soul, a fight that requires the conviction to be worth it, to deserve redemption – perfectly mirrored in the haunting energy Trey and Charlotte deliver and that makes this final single release of the new album an even more special one, as the In Virtue singer underlines: “Charlotte brought so much energy and beautiful harmony to the song that it wound up becoming my favorite.”
“Age Of Legends” was released on November 21, 2025 and is available for order and stream now via: https://orcd.co/agofle
Tracklist:
01. Ascent Glorious
02. Sisyphus Awakening
03. Karma Loop
04. Push That Rock
05. Purgatory
06. Exposed
07. Scream
08. Where The Edges Meet
09. Gunslingers of the New American Desert
10. Desolation Throne
11. Thoughts in Freefall
12. The River
13. Tempus Fugue
14. Descent Limitless
— About In Virtue —
Los Angeles, California’s In Virtue is a band forging a new path, abandoning outdated conceptions of what heavy music is to redefine metal for a new era. Although In Virtue was initially formed in 2004 in California’s Bay Area, the band’s rebirth in 2015 is where the real story begins. That’s when founding guitarist Trey Xavier made the difficult decision to take over lead vocals, move south to LA, and start the band over with a new lineup. This was the catalyst they needed, and the band’s final form took shape. Adding keyboardist Alex Nasla (The Mourning, ex-Witherfall), guitarist Rami Khalaf, and bassist Jamie Hush, their new sound was freed.
“I was tired of other people singing what I was writing,” says Trey (who you may know from his popular YouTube channel, formerly known as Gear Gods). “We had some pretty good singers, but it always felt like a compromise. It was pretty scary – I was 28 and I had never seriously sung before. But all the work I put in paid off, because now I can create my music as I envision it.”
And what a vision it has become – the band’s forthcoming album “Age of Legends,” due out in 2025, tells a haunting tale of Sisyphean struggle and redemption through a modern lens. This new era of In Virtue brought their first new music, 2019’s single “Purgatory”, which gave the world a brand new sound. Combining elements of Power Metal, Groove, Progressive Metal, and Pop, but somehow sounding like none of the above, “Purgatory” defined the sonic future of the band. The singles “Where The Edges Meet” and “SCREAM” followed soon after to expand on the story, each moving the story forward and bringing new life to the characters and their pain.
With way more to come on “Age of Legends” (release: November 21, 2025), In Virtue is looking forward to the next chapter and bringing their story to the world.