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Lady Beast: Vicious Breed

Traditional Heavy/Speed Metal

4.5/5.0

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Cruz Del Sur Music
Review: Craig Hartranft
Added: 08.11.2017

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

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.

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

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.

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The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]