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Huntress: Starbound Beast

(Melodic) Heavy/Power Metal

4.5/5.0

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Napalm Records
by Craig Hartranft,  06.19.2013

Quickly following up on the success of 2012's Spell Eater, Huntress returns with their sophomore effort, Starbound Beast. If you haven't guessed by their name, or you've been living under a heavy metal rock, Huntress is a female-fronted traditional heavy metal band led by the exotic metal screamer Jill Janus.

Huntress: watch out for those nails.

While female-fronted metal bands are a dime-a-dozen these days, not so many are doing traditional heavy/power metal. Musically, Huntress strays little from Eighties metal, working largely from the American side of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Vocally, Ms. Janus generally sings clean and melodic, with an earthy timbre to her tone. Yet, on some of the songs here she sounds rough and raw, like she didn't bring her A-game to the studio, or muted, like somebody was messing unfavorably, possibly intentionally, with the mix. On several listens, I tried working with loudness, bass, and treble with little improvement to my listening experience. Conversely, on songs like the title track, Receiver, and the closing number, the genuinely epic, Alpha Tauri, Janus sounds terrific.

Yet, even with these reservations, Starbound Beast is, overall, a terrific platter of traditional melodic heavy and power metal. Huntress's strength comes from their ability to work from basic building blocks of the genre: strong rhythm section with a good groove, stinging melodic guitar solos, and clean vocals. Put together correctly and you have some solid 'keep it true' metal in Starbound Beast. It also doesn't hurt to have an experienced metal song writer in your corner. Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister penned the lusty I Want to F**k You to Death with Janus in mind, and probably much more. It's a rather catchy number. Once more, Starbound Beast is a solid and entertaining platter of traditional melodic heavy and power metal, and easily recommended.

Huntress Virtual Yard Sale for Mayhem Festival Tour Support

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

Huntress's Starbound Beast is a solid and entertaining platter of traditional melodic heavy and power metal, and easily recommended.

Huntress IGG Tour Support Campaign

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Three years have passed since Sweden's Cruzh dropped their second long-player, Tropical Thunder, also introducing their new singer, Alex Waghorn. Now the band returns with The Jungle Revolution ... [ Read More ]