DisAgreement Online

After their album In An Outrage from 2004, Chastain went on a longer hiatus. Nearly ten years later they were back with Surrender To No One in 2013. Fans really liked that album as original singer Leather Leone was back on the microphone. This time it took the band only two years to come up with the follow-up We Bleed Metal, recorded with the same line-up as its predecessor. Maybe they changed the cover artist. Last album’s artwork was located somewhere between kitsch and cliché, this time it’s just pure ugliness.

Fortunately we don’t judge a book by its cover, because what David T. Chastain and his band are fabricating throughout the three quarters of an hour will have the hearts of every heavy metal fan beat faster. The opener and title track shows right from the start that time must have stood still for Chastain. The first seconds into the song reveal that a true guitar hero is at work here. Front woman Leather Leone’s raw vocals are among the most charismatic in the metal world. The rhythm section is providing the necessary backbone, and especially the impressive drumming of Stian Kristoffersn (Pagan’s Mind, Firewind) is of pure excellence. Were it not for the incredibly powerful production, one might think that the last twenty-five or thirty years have not happened for Chastain. The nine songs are all between four and six minutes long, and the band takes care to add pace changes without forgetting to include rousing guitar riffs. Against All The Gods is not so fast, and Search Time For You is an even more crawling piece of music, and yet both tracks manage to make it over the rounds with the necessary bite. Only Evolution Of Terror stands apart and it is more hard rock than heavy metal, which in this context is a welcome surprise. Occasionally there are really long, nearly unending guitar solos, but if David Chastain hasn’t got the right to play those, then who has?

If you are looking to be surprised, We Bleed Metal is probably not the album you are looking for. Just as with Motörhead or Powerwolf, you will always know what to expect from Chastain. The quality is flawless, so you can unworriedly go on listening to this band that has been perdorming great music for the last thirty years.