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HUNTRESS
Starbound Beast

Napalm (2013)
Rating: 9/10

Just a little over a year past the release of their 2012 debut album, Spell Eater, Huntress return with Starbound Beast. The band’s sophomore release was recorded by Zeuss (Hatebreed, Shadows Fall, Agnostic Front etc.) in Los Angeles, California, at Hobby Shop Studios. While the band’s debut focused solely on witchery and occult themes, they branch out here more lyrically by adding in themes centred on the “galactic unknown” and the craving we have to connect with it.

The album begins with the epic and atmospheric ‘Enter The Exosphere’ intro. Normally, I despise intros but this one really sets the tone for the album as a whole and proves an interesting addition to the album by virtue of making you feel “spacey” before the band launch into the songs.

‘Blood Sisters’ kicks it all off in a pretty grand way, with some excellent guitar grooves that bring the traditional metal sound into the mix more heavily and a dynamic vocal performance, that includes a hearty portion of clean singing, some banshee wails, and even some growly bits by ringleader Jill Janus. The Highland Park, California-based band set the tone right from the get-go with these two pieces and the rest of the album follows suit.

The title track wraps itself around a mid-tempo groove that leaves lots of room for Janus’ vocals to breathe the atmosphere into the song, while boasting a chorus that borders on a stoner-style breakdown with echoic vocals and a trippy lead that creates plenty of dissonance.

‘Receiver’ is one of the most aggressive tracks and reminds me a little of really old Hades tunes. Janus is still mostly clean singing throughout this one, but she adds a little “smoker voice” flavour to the verses that makes her sound a lot meaner than she does on some of the other tracks. Meanwhile, she mimics the guitar solo vocally, showing off her multiple octave range (Screw you Mariah Carey!).

‘I Want To Fuck You To Death’ gets the award for most stupid song title of 2013, but once you get past that it’s one of the album’s best tracks. Janus wails on it as the band lay a nice groove. It has a short and sweet chorus melody that makes it sound more dynamic without wussing it out. The twin guitar lead is noteworthy here as well, as it’s a lot more laid-back than the leads on some of the other songs, really giving each note some space and allowing you to really feel it.

In the end, there isn’t a bad song on Starbound Beast. I was very excited when this band hit the scene, but Spell Eater ended up being an album I really couldn’t connect with. It just never felt, to me, like it gelled at all. Janus was screaming like a banshee seemingly non-stop and the band sounded thin. All of this is rectified on Starbound Beast. This one has a full but aggressive sound and Janus’ vocals show off much more of her ability than the debut did. The band sound like they are completely locked in, but beyond that the songs are much better written, as proven by the fact that each one is memorable.

Huntress have successfully avoided the sophomore slump with Starbound Beast and have become the monster metal fans hoped they could be.

Mark Fisher

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