The current iteration of Yesterday's Saints, who play death-thrash-power combo, has been in existence since summer 2010 and with a self-released EP and some local touring under their belt. They knew that a full concept album was the next step they wanted to take. But they did not go about it capriciously. The decision to go with a concept for the 11-track Generation of Vipers was driven by the most important things —the songwriting and careful thought.

The album is assembled like an opera, with three acts, along with an instrumental interlude and outro. It traces the story of Satan, one of the most notorious characters in history, throughout time, from his desire to usurp God's throne to his modern infiltration of mankind to the indication that all of Earth's inhabitants are now his descendants.

The album opens with a flashback and what corresponds chronologically to a third song is actually listed as the first track. The story then resumes from its chronological beginning with the second track. The final song alludes to two theories of the universe: One that asserts we are all a figment of a man's dream, along with the multi-dimensional membrane theory, where the Big Bang Theory was/will be the result of an intersection or collision between our current dimensional membrane and a parallel one.

As a result of either theory, whether "the man" waking up or the collision between dimensional membranes, the end of days is the outcome. Time is then reset again by the man falling asleep again or the explosion of another Big Bang.

Still with us? It's a lot to process, but once you absorb that story along with the music, your appreciation will be furthered and deepened, as all senses are satisfied by Generation of Vipers, which targets one's brain and one's body.

"When I write songs, I write [from the point of view of] multiple characters, so I can pan those vocal styles against each other," said vocalist Matt Rice. "So, at times, it's like the vocals themselves are different characters. It's almost like a conversation going on in my songs, through the process of telling a story." It's not simply characters speaking back and forth to one another. The story is also compromised of a character's thoughts and things they may say to themselves." Essentially, it's like the internal thoughts and discussions we have while trying to make decisions or when trying to convince ourselves of something.

"The lyrics are written in flashback, using Paradise Lost, the Bible and other fiction," Rice said. "Paradise Lost is written in flashback and I wanted to do that in homage to John Milton in that sense. I have the most exciting part first, which is the war in heaven, rather than the scene of Satan contemplating picking his ass up and usurping the Throne of God."

Rice spent a healthy amount of time researching things he referenced while writing, taking "parts of valid supposed history and incorporated into my own fiction to tell my own story," adding yet another element of originality. He ultimately hopes that the listener will be both intrigued and stimulated enough by some of these topics and further educate themselves and their experience with the album.

You may raise your eyebrows at such ambition. With extreme music with alternately guttural and melodic vocals and mind-numbingly fast and loud riffs, you might ask yourself, "How can you understand a concept or discern a deeper meaning?" Well, you have to strap yourself in and pay attention, since the band has made it easy to follow along with the lyrics and details.

However, if it's not the concept but solely the music that interests you, well, you can appreciate the visceral sounds, played with surgical precision and cycling through multiple metallic sub-genres, and listen as you wish without giving too much extra thought to the concept. In that sense, Generation of Vipers is a full service metal album!

"We wrote it in a way that there should be something in this album for everyone that likes extreme metal," Rice said. "The first act is primarily melodic death, whereas the second act has doom and rock, and power metal and thrash, while the third act has thrash and melodic death."

Overall, Generation of Vipers is pretty advanced and intellectual extreme metal. But it's not stringing together big ideas for the sake of big ideas. The album, which was recorded in the band's own studio and Assembly Line Studios in Virginia, features atypical metal instruments, such as the piano, cello, violin, so it really is lush and expansive and there is a lot going on.

Rice also planted some hidden Easter egg-like references to other bands that he likes and respects in the song lyrics. Pay attention and you'll notice a nod to fellow Virginians Lamb of God and the late, great iconic singer Ronnie James Dio.

Yesterday's Saints and Generation of Vipers require considerate time and attention, but once you make the commitment and dive headfirst into the story and the sound, you'll find yourself doubly rewarded.

A further breakdown of the album's acts, so you can follow along, is below.

ACT I (PRIMARILY MELODIC DEATH):

1) "Fall of the Ancients": Characters: Satan and St. Michael. The war in heaven between Satan and his rebel angels against St. Michael and the remaining angels. Here, Satan loses and is cast from Heaven to guard gates of Hell.

2) "Origen Adamantius": Characters: Satan and his thoughts. Satan recognizes that he can usurp the throne of God through war. The song title based on a second/third century Greek scholar whose work led to theories on the Trinity and the bible stories known today, like the idea of souls, Satan as a snake, the free will of souls and more. Latin lyrics translated: "Ego Aeutem Venio Ad Te": "I am coming for you" and "Domine Agnus Dei": "Lamb of God" (LoG).

3) "The Recruitment": Characters: Satan and Rebel Angels. Satan recruits one-third of the angels in heaven to join his fight. The third of angels in heaven that were recruited have been biblically referred to as one-third of the stars in the sky.

INTERLUDE:

4) "A Priori": Latin pronounced "Ah Pree-or-ee"; Translation: "As it was before."

ACT II (DOOM/ROCK, POWER AND THRASH):

5) "Sangreale": Old French pronounced "s-ah-ng ray-all." Based on the term "sangreal," which can be translated from Old French to mean "Holy Grail" or "Royal Blood," depending on the placement of syllabic emphasis with before or after the "g." Characters: Satan and Eve. Satan seduces and impregnates Eve to spawn Cain.

6) "Cain's Agony": Characters: Cain. Cain's sacrifice to God to have the more beautiful wife than Able and fails. Cain coaxes Able to the fields to kill him.

7) "Sands of Nod": Characters: Cain and God. Cain is banished in exile from the Garden of Eden, east to The Sands of Nod, which is "no man's land."

ACT III (THRASH AND MELODIC DEATH):

8) "Generation of Vipers": Characters: Future descendants of Cain. Cain's lineage escapes peril of the 40-day flood by hiding in the mountains and surviving off of animals that flood waters bring them. "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come," said by John the Baptist, as quoted in Matthew 3:7. We used this to support our storyline of Satan's lineage surviving.

9) "Divine Tragedy": Characters: Matt versus a foe. The lineage of Satan continues through me, as I am cast to "The Inferno" (Paradise Lost), and what I witness on my way to the ring of hell for which I am destined.

10) "Recursion": Defined as the process of repeating items in a self-similar way. Characters: Hugues de Payens, who is the First Grand Master of The Knights Templar, along with Nostradamus, Vlad the Impaler, Visions of the Dreaming Man. Here, the storyline jumps around like a dream covering perspectives across time by the noted characters to dream visions of the Flight of Icarus, and current and future space exploration.

OUTRO:

11) "Luctus in Mane: Latin, pronounced "louk-toos een may-nay. " English translation: "Mourning the Morning." Instrumental, with church bells as a "death knell," along with cello and violin. The final measures of cello and violin take the musical key, tempo and rhythm of "Fall of the Ancients."