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LEATHER
We Are The Chosen

Steamhammer (2022)
Rating: 9/10

In 2018 heavy metal goddess Leather Leone returned to the metal scene with her long-awaited second full-length solo opus II, which emerged several decades after her classic 1989 debut Shock Waves. In spite of good reviews the album seemed to drift under the radar of many. However, the Chastain frontwoman is back again to make sure her metal message is heard loud and clear this time.

We Are The Chosen comes fully armed and armoured; a metallic colossus brimming with dynamism and exuberance and, most importantly, weight and melody. The title track stomps in like persistent thunder and yet streaked with a Gothic orchestration as Leather bellows the insistent chorus. For me, Leone remains one of the genres most underrated vocalists; her tone rises above the instrumentation like a great, swooping eagle – gracile yet powerful.

Opener ‘We Take Back Control’ is a piledriver of a cut. Charging like a horde of sword-wielding, muscle-bound warriors, it delivers like a thrashy menace, harkening back to Judas Priest’s 1990 Painkiller opus with its glinting steel and aggression. And there’s no let up from this power metal extravaganza.

‘Always Been Evil’ sizzles with that nostalgic 80s menace before launching into a high powered missile attack whereby the drums compete with the riffs for domination, but in equal measures they slay the ears and lay waste to the poser competition. Meanwhile, ‘Shadows’ lumbers like a brooding beast writhing to the soundtrack of the cutting, jagged axe work. There’s a strut at play here and then comes the orgasmic melodies entwined which twist to the sound of a spiralling solo. If you’re going to feast your eyes upon any true heavy metal track this year then make it the swaggering ‘Shadows’.

And the high points continue. ‘Tyrants’ is a masterful, driving traditional metal rocker, ‘Who Rules The World’ is another speed fest with snarling vocals, and ‘Off With Your Head’ again opts for that sneering, lower pace before unexpectedly shifting gears into a fiery gallop.

It’s all here. Huge dripping lumps of molten metal that burn to the touch, and as Leone booms “We take back control” in such commanding fashion one cannot help but join her in the bloodstained trenches in a fight until the death, but knowing of course that like this album all will be victorious, however battle-scarred we may emerge. We Are The Chosen is a lesson in metal that you have to not only learn but also bow down to.

Neil Arnold

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