Recent Reviews

November 2024

October 2024

September 2024

August 2024

[ More Music Reviews ]


Lady Beast: Vicious Breed
Lady Beast - Vicious Breed CD Album Review

Lady Beast: Vicious Breed

Traditional Heavy/Speed Metal
4.5/5.0

On the heels of 2016's EP Metal Immortal and the promise of a new album, Pittsburgh's Lady Beast makes good, delivering their third long player, Vicious Breed. Now signed to Italy's Cruz Del Sur Music label, home to more than a few Pennsylvania bands, Lady Beast continues to deliver traditional heavy metal with female vocalist Deborah Levine at the forefront.

Lady Beast Band Photo

Lady Beast

Lady Beast strays little from the classic metal roots that brought the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWoBHM) to the the New World. If anything, the band leans more to the speed metal side of the classic genre. Led by Ms Levine at the microphone, she has a straight forward heavy metal voice: strong, melodic, clean, and often in harmony with the guitar parts. A twin guitar presence follows this, allowing for the depth of riff harmony and bunches of fiery solos. Underneath and alongside, the rhythm section delivers speed, power, and groove. The formula is tried and true, and Lady Beast follows it with consistency.

Turning to some of the songs, with Get Out, The Way, and Vicious Breed you get the energetic pacing of pure speed metal, all quickened by rabid guitar solos in the end. The fury of twin guitar harmony can be heard within Every Giant Shall Fall, a rather epic sounding tune where the rhythm section embellishes the heavy metal drama. Something more steady comes with Always With Me, a song with a persuasive rock groove from the bass and drums, then accentuated with ongoing guitar harmony. Perhaps the song with most NWoBHM metal overtones is the opening Seal The Hex. You know that old adage, beware the songs that start slow? Seal The Hex begins with some light acoustic guitar before opening to and ambushing you with some speedy American power metal that finishes with a killer solo. Finally, Lady Beast offers an totally instrumental piece with Sky Graves; it's five minutes of guitar loving riff and fret magic.

Needless to say, with Vicious Breed Lady Beast scores another win: a powerful and entertaining album of traditional and classic melodic heavy metal with the power of speed metal tossed in for good measure. Easily recommended.



CraigHartranft.net - New fiction, crime fiction by Craig Hartranft

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

The Bottom Line

With Vicious Breed Lady Beast scores another win: a powerful and entertaining album of traditional and classic melodic heavy metal with the power of speed metal tossed in for good measure. Easily recommended.

Find A Review

Alphabetical Index

a b c d e f g h i j
k l m n o p q r s t
u v w x y z #
New & Notable
Read the Lionville: Supernatural Album Review

eviewing my archives, I was pleased to find that I have had the privilege to review every Lionville since their self-titled debut in 2011. Formed by Stefano Lionetti, a songwriter, singer and guitarist based in ... [ Read More ]