There’s this rather old-fashioned proverb: “Good things come to those who wait.”
It’s actually not 100% true in the case of Los Angeles, California’s In Virtue – since they have been providing us with a constant output of new, highly-praised content over the last years. But it’s been a while now since the releases of their first two full-length albums “Embrace the Horror” (2012) and “Delusions of Grandeur” (2009).
So in their case it’s more like: “Good things finally come to be another album.”
Well, the wait is finally over. The quartet of Gear Gods Masterminds Trey Xavier (lead vocals, guitar, bass, orchestration, synthesizers, production) and Alex Nasla (The Mourning, ex-Witherfall; keyboards, vocals), Rami Khalaf (guitar), Jamie Hush (bass) — live drums being handled by Bruno Valverde of Angra — has just announced that their third album “Age of Legends” will be released on November 21, 2025.
So: What took them so long? Singer Trey Xavier explains: “We started tracking this album on January 2nd, 2019, and got most of the way done with it when the pandemic hit. That, coupled with a series of setbacks, postponed its completion until 2024. Some of the songs were ideas that were written over 10 years ago, so as you can imagine, we’re very excited for it to see the light of day.“
Three songs on the album have already been released in the meantime — “Purgatory” (2019), “Where The Edges Meet” (2020) and “SCREAM” (2023), proving the band’s variety and why it’s not easy (if not impossible) to put them into any kind of genre. If you want to call them progressive — that’s what they really are, combining elements of Power Metal, Groove, Progressive Metal, Pop and so much more on this album. When experiencing “Age of Legends” from front to back, it’s thrilling to feel how each song also stands on its own, as tiny microcosms of the overall concept of the album.
Trey underlines: “It’s a concept album about someone who has made poor choices in the past and is on a journey of self-forgiveness. The character in the story is based on Sisyphus, who was a terrible tyrannical king who was deserving of punishment – but is there truly anything someone can do to deserve eternal punishment? In it, this Sisyphus character decides (with a little help from a character called The Catalyst) that after thousands of years of torment, he’s done his time and that he’s going to seek forgiveness from the most important person we all need it from – ourselves.”
The obvious cathartic overall theme, the dynamics of every track are carefully curated to build to a huge and meaningful climax — “Age of Legends” is an album that has the potential to be one of those albums that lead you through not only a certain phase in life but rather define it. It’s an album more than worth waiting for.
As the next foretaste of the forthcoming “Age of Legends,” In Virtue treats us with is the Postapocalyptic “Gunslingers of the New American Desert”:
The heaviest song from the upcoming album — and the slowest song in the entire In Virtue catalog so far — musically and lyrically combines a Wild West theme of lawlessness and survival conflict with crushing riffs, electronic sounds and soaring orchestration. The band explains: “‘Gunslingers of the New American Desert’ explores a world where order is replaced by the will of the powerful, where suffering is imposed every day by tyrants who forget that the pain they inflict on others is a betrayal of their own humanity.”
Check out the single now on all platforms: https://orcd.co/invirtuegunslingers
“Age of Legends” features guest appearances by vocalists Charlotte Wessels (ex-Delain) and Chaney Crabb (Entheos), as well as guitars by Dave Davidson (Revocation) and the already released singles “Purgatory,” “Where The Edges Meet” and “SCREAM.”
The album will be released on November 21 and is available for Pre-Save 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.