Leviathan
2013
1. Stand And Fight
2. Call Of The Wild
3. Deep Down
4. Freedom Within
5. I Am Sin
6. Rise Up
7. Evil Awaits Us
8. Fear My Wrath
9. Save Me Tonight
10. Surrender To No One
11. Bleed Through
It's been awhile since Chastain has interested me all that much. It's also been awhile since the band has released anything. That all changes though with a new release featuring their classic vocalist Leather Leone. Certainly my interest was peaked hearing that she was coming back to the fold here. It's the same with any sort of classic reunion. It gets you to remembering the old/classic days. I started remembering how good The Voice Of The Cult and The 7th Of Never were. Still, I also had to remember it's been awhile since those releases and Chastain had moved in a different direction on more recent albums. The question was would we be getting the shredding of old or the less interesting chuggy riffs off the more recent material. One also had to wonder if Leather would sound as good as she did back in the day.
Listening to Surrender To No One it seems to fall somewhere between the old and the new. For the most part the riffs are more old school sounding and up tempo which does bring things back more towards the style of the old. Leather Leone also contributes to the feel of this being more of a traditional sort of metal album with her raspy snarls. That being said there is still a somewhat modern feel at times and things do get chuggy here and there. The mix of styles isn't bad for the most part and I do like some of the groovier stuff like the thick chug and attitude of Fear My Wrath. The album is at it's best when the guitar sounds a bit cleaner and swifter though. Energetic tracks like Freedom Within and Call Of The Wild keep a good pace going and are pretty rocking.
One thing I can't help thinking about the music here though is that the guitar does seem to lack some of the more showy neoclassical leads and solos that made old Chastain for me. Things are direct to a fault at times and I can't really point to any song that gets creative enough to be truly exciting/memorable. Nothing on hear really lives up to the classics more or less. Another issue to me is that Leone doesn't seem to have the same melodic moments she did at times on the old stuff. There's way less clear, soaring wails and a lot more rasping and growling. Of course she always had some of that, but I can hear the age in her voice. There are a few moments of the more melodic in the solid Deep Down In The Darkness which also has a bit more flair to the guitar than a lot of the tracks. Save Me Tonight uses cleaner vocals more than any other track, but the use of them and the song in general is not great. The clean moments come in the form of some super cheesy sounding 80s ballad moments that I could have really done without. Listening to this next to the 90s sounding chugging of Fear My Wrath is pretty strange. They honestly don't sound like they belong on the same album.
Surrender To No One is the kind of album that excited me for about a minute. At first it sounded more traditional and it was good to have Leather Leone back. By the time the album was done though Surrender To No One didn't have the songs to make it memorable and Leather Leone sounds a bit tired. It's just not the same really. Between the lack of flair in the leads and solos, Leather Leone not quite being what she used to be, and the album sounding a bit confused at times this is just a flawed release. Not really bad, but certainly underwhelming. This is at least worth a listen from fans of the band, but this isn't the sort of release that's going to really revive Chastain or bring in New fans. Pretty middle of the road stuff. It has it's moments and it's interesting hearing a more old school approach from Chastain, but this album doesn't have much of any staying power.
Highlights: Rise Up, Freedom Within, Deep Down In The Darkness
Rating - 3.0/5
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