year later, the band returned to the original sound with The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part I, an album of epic metal full of melodic and symphonic influences, very progressive oriented. This work (a concept regarding the different side of human nature) includes, among the others, the song "Life Among the Ruins" which is not related to the previous album with the same title. Virgin Steele went back to Europe supporting Manowar and Uriah Heep and at the end of 1995 released The Marriage of Heaven and Hell Part II, following the concept and the style of the first one. The band appeared also on the compilation A Tribute to Judas Priest: Legends of Metal – Volume II playing a raw cover of the song "Screaming for Vengeance". Another Judas Priest cover, "Desert Plains", is included as a bonus track in the Age of Consent album reissue. After another European tour (this time as headliner) in 1996, a new album was released in March 1998: the third and final chapter of the "Marriage" saga, titled Invictus. This was their heaviest album at the time and also very epic. Lyrically it is a concept album about humanity's rebellion against a pantheon of evil, uncaring gods. The band played at the Wacken Open Air festival in 1997 and in 1998. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell trilogy signs also the debut of drummer Frank Gilchriest. Always in 1998, Virgin Steele headlined a real long new European tour with Mark Reale's Riot and Stigmata IV as supporting acts. This tour included the headliner performance at the biker festival "Motorock" in Cremona (Italy). Metal opera Between the years 1999 and 2000, the band released the never done before project of a metal opera, writing the albums The House of Atreus Act I and The House of Atreus Act II, intended to be played by actors in theaters. The subject of the metal opera was Oresteia and the Greek myths related by Aeschylus, very familiar to David DeFeis, because of his father's theaterical background. On the albums all vocals and orchestrations are managed by David DeFeis himself. Just before The House of Atreus Act II, the single "Magick Fire Music" was published, with some metal opera outtakes. Inspired by Virgin Steele's metal opera, the German band Tobias Sammet's Avantasia wrote various albums using the same format. David DeFeis appears as special guest on the