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Chastain: Surrender To No One

Heavy/Power Metal

3.0/5.0

Website
Leviathan Records
by Craig Hartranft,  11.30.2013

Surrender To No One, Chastain's tenth album, is a reunion for the band, of sorts. Guitarist David Chastain is reunited with original vocalist Leather Leone and bassist Mike Skimmerhorn; the fourth wheel is Stian Kristoffersen (Pagan's Mind, Firewind) on drums. Along with her Sledge Leather band, this album finds Leone rising from a nearly 20 year absence from the power metal scene.

Chastain:: guess which one is ...

I suppose if you liked some of those earlier Chastain albums, you'll probably like this one. Although, it's not all that remarkable. It's heavy, almost unnecessarily so. It seems to dominated mostly by Chastain's thick riffage and the pummeling bass and drums.

Leone barely rises above the music, and mostly sounds the same on every song. But that could be said of this album: it all sounds the same. I walked out of the room, forgetting to turn off the player, only to return thinking the same song was playing. I was gone better than five minutes. Chastain, a quite accomplished guitar, shoots himself in the foot as he falls victim to his own walls of riffage. Excepting few songs, his solos are minimal and somewhat interesting. The possible exception and best song here that shows some variation and more of Chastain's guitar dexterity is Save Me Tonight, maybe also Bleed Through Me. Other than this song, nothing stands out for me. However, as I said earlier, if you dig the guitarist and love the band's Leather period, you will likely enjoy this album.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

Surrender To No One marks the return of female power metal vocalist legend Leather Leone to the Chastain fold for some blistering heavy metal.

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Now entering their second decade in music biz, Sweden's Wildness returns with latest and fourth studio album, Avenger. Band personnel has remained consistent for the last four years with the addition of Erik ... [ Read More ]