After a few year hiatus, Virtue has re-entered the Melbourne local live music scene and are making it count. The three piece rock-pop band has come back with new tunes, and new determination to bring their music to the masses. They have managed to do this in spades, in their first year back in action, they have worked their way all the way to the top – they are one of 14 finalists for the Emergenza International Music Festival in Melbourne. This will have them playing a show at HiFi in December, for a chance at the national final in Sydney later that month.

They’ve only been back on the scene for about a year, but their online presence has not wavered, in fact, I’ve been able to find them on just about every national and international online portal for emerging/up & coming bands. Aside from the usual suspects, they’ve got a full EP available for purchase online via CD baby and you can listen to it on soundcloud. The band is now busily promoting the final show for this international battle of the bands – they need as much support as they can get as the competition is tough and all the bands are working hard at their marketing and promo strategies.

A mix gender band, virtue features the musical styling of a bassist and drummer combined with the vocal and guitar talents of the lovely Elly. She has a very distinct vocal sound that I would venture to describe as fragmented, and when backed  by her bandmates the harmonies give the music a multi-dimensional characteristic. This really jumped out at me in Get Started… so much so that I was tempted to purchase the entire song to gauge just how deep this effect is. Their other song each carry their own distinct quality, and while it’s clear it’s still the same band, the variation in tempo and arrangements makes me glad Virtue came out of their retirement to bring us this music.