SHORT HISTORY OF THIS SITE
Virtuosity One was founded in 2003 by Andy Craven, a then writer for the now archive only website Rainbow Flames Metal Domain who left with limited web design skills but a thirst for getting reviews online quicker and in a more professional package. Granted not much has changed on the web design end but we feel the content is more important than being visually appealing, essentially we deliver views pure and simple.

The name Virtuosity One was decided on due to its ties to our preferred chosen genre of music i.e. rock/metal delivered by players that can actually play - you will find very little "alternative" music here, you might find the odd blues rock album but essentially we focus on good old rock and metal with sub genres such as progressive, neo-classical, fusion and guitar instrumentals all being covered.

REVIEWS MISSION STATEMENT
Simply to bring you honest opinions on the music we review. We do not feature advertising on this site as we don't want to fall prey of being seen as favouring any one band or label, there is enough of this in printed media - ironically we have built up good working relationships from our music partners because of this stance and also more importantly with artists direct. Our reviews are a mix of long in depth and shorter "reviews in brief". All are accompanied by a % score which covers numerous factors such as musicianship, songwriting skills, production etc. If we give something a negative review we tell you why, but we genuinely do look for the positives in most releases.

INTERVIEW STANCE
The interviews segment is another avenue of exposure for artists. If we like an album we generally want to talk about it further and we try to avoid the clichéd questions you find most other places. As a result our interviews are in depth and informative and some with incredibly hard artists to pin down such as Katsu Ohta of Ark Storm which at the time of writing was the first interview he did in English. We carry out all our interviews via email, unfortunately we do not have the time to transpose recorded interviews nor indeed the money for the phone calls. Yet we try and avoid the normal problems with this method by providing a flow of questions aimed to follow a more normal conversation.

OUR STAFF
Andy Craven - Chief writer and website owner/webmaster.

Joost 'Sancho' Vlasschaert - Based in Belgium and our associate writer and all round good guy.  Once a member of Belgian metal band Crusader and released two albums - "Fools" and "This Mortal Flesh", now earning his dues with Monster Joe.

Mike Blackburn - Based in Canada, Mike is our resident guitar virtuso/instrumental guru and a writer with a considerably knowledge of guitar legends and friends with many!

Former staff members include - Stephen Leon, and Bob Edwards. We thank them for their past contributions.

RULES FOR REVIEWING MATERIAL / SUBMISSION INFO
We are happy to review official released material in the rock/metal genres covered by this site. If you are unsure of what that is then please have a look at the review archive.

To save you time we do not review
GRUNGE/NU-METAL/BLACK METAL/RAP METAL/ALTERNATIVE METAL/DANCE REMIXES

RECORD LABELS - WE ARE HERE FOR YOU
We are happy to accept promo cd/cd-r's, or digital promo material i.e. I-pool. Whilst many sites do not like the way the industry is going in terms of offering digital promo mp3's we at Virtuosity One appreciate that this is now a viable means of promotion in the musical climate.

RECORD LABELS WE CURRENTLY WORK WITH
AFM Records.
Avenue Of Allies Music.
Black Cat Music.
Escape Music.
Frontiers.
Lion Music.
Mad Guitar Records.
Metal Heaven.
Nightmare Records.
SPV Records.
Ulterium Records.


UNSIGNED ACTS SUBMISSION INFORMATION
Virtuosity One used to offer reviews to unsigned acts and labels, unfortunately this is no longer possible due to time. The general advice from those we have received in the past is save your money on postage to get reviews at places like ours and use that money to make a better sounding product to which record labels might actually take notice!

CONTACT
Email - virtuosityone(at)yahoo.co.uk
Record Labels wishing to add us to their promo music list please contact Andy via the email above for mailing address.