LADY BEAST
“The Inner Alchemist”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

10/10

Lady Beast are a heavy metal band from the USA formed in 2009, releasing to date two E.P.’s – ‘Metal Immortal’ (2016) and ‘Omens’ (2021), and five albums – ‘Lady Beast’ (2012), ‘Lady Beast II’ (2015), ‘Vicious Breed’ (2017), ‘The Vulture’s Amulet’ (2020) and ‘The Inner Alchemist’ (2025).

And has it really been five years since the last Lady Beast album? Fuck me where does the time go – it seems like only yesterday I was head banging and singing along to Deborah Levine and co.’s energy fuelled brand of foot to the floor, “foot on the monitor” traditional heavy metal! And now the “beast” are back with nine new songs across thirty six, eighties metal drenched minutes, the band raising the bar to new heights with immense power, poise and panache – Lady Beast storming outta Pittsburgh with more steel than the city’s produced since steel production began way back in 1875!

‘The Oracle’s Omen’ is a thundering opener, the band building bombastic tension across the first fifty seconds or so before launching headlong into a NWOBHM fuelled barnstormer – the level of head bang ability shooting right through the roof! The urgency here is immense, Lady Beast forging a savage path across metal territory, shoving everyone and everything outta the way with no remorse – ‘Through The Eyes Of War’ maintaining the albums incredibly infectious start! At a much faster pace too, the vocals of singer Levine spitting venom as a highly menacing atmosphere descends upon ‘The Inner Alchemist’ – Lady Beast meaner than ever before! The opening brace has been sensational, every listener boasting a grin from ear to ear as the band storm on with (presumably the title song) ‘Inner Alchemist’ – a glorious old school metal gallop shuddering the ground beneath the bands feet! And the melodious intent here too is higher than the fucking sky as Lady Beast deliver the sound of melodic heavy metal at its very best!

A jaw dropping threesome becomes a pants wetting foursome as ‘Starborn’ slow burns into life with a spine tingling, tension fuelled atmosphere that explodes into life after ninety seconds to resume the mesmerising traditional heavy metal onslaught! At seven minutes in length, ‘Starborn’ is far and away the longest song on offer, firmly rooted in the eighties at a time when the likes of Iron Maiden, Raven and Samson re-wrote and defined the sound of heavy metal into the beautiful beast we all know and love today. Lady Beast may be around four thousand miles and forty plus years away from where metal was born in the UK, but boy do the band ooze the essence of classic heavy metal perfectly. So perfect in fact, that I reckon many first time listeners may mistake Lady Beast for an eighties band – which of course they’re not, ‘Crone’s Crossroads’ accelerating outta the blocks at an electrifying speed! The fastest song heard so far, ‘Crone’s Crossroads’ displays a little thrash metal ferocity as it invokes vigorous head banging among listeners, fans and followers all around the world. Not to mention every mosh pit going completely bananas over this one – the glorious sound of heavy metal in full flight returning with a vengeance courtesy of ‘Feed Your Fire’, Lady Beast maintaining a phenomenal level of intensity! A level which hasn’t dipped once since the album began, and doesn’t look like dipping anytime soon, the band keeping a very tight hold on everyone’s attentions and not ’em letting go.

But let’s be brutally honest here, why would you wanna go anywhere else when the metal on offer is this fucking good – ‘Witch Light’ storming into sight to keep the pace, power and oomph of the album flowing freely. And it’s a barnstorming instrumental too, one of those rare instrumentals that holds your attention right from the off ’til the very last second – all one hundred and thirty nine of ’em! Returning the red hot old school metal gallop to the fore, ‘The Wild Hunt’ shudders the ground as the band storm on across heavy metal territory, Lady Beast flying the metal flag very high, ‘The Inner Alchemist’ coming to a close with the speedster ‘Off With Her Head’. Aggressive, menacing and mean in equal measures, ‘Off With Her Head’ is devilishly intoxicating, Levine’s snarl across the chorus line “off with her head” sending a shiver right through me!

Overall, an infectious foot to the floor, foot on the monitor gallop of immensely head bang-able traditional heavy metal.

TRACKLIST

The Oracle’s Omen
Through The Eyes Of War
Inner Alchemist
Starborn
Crone’s Crossroads
Feed Your Fire
Witch Light
The Wild Hunt
Off With Her Head

http://ladybeast.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/ladybeastofficial/

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