Leather – We Are the Chosen Review

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Ah, Leather Leone! The girl is legend around here. All female extreme metallers vocalist owe her a lot. Girls like Alissa White-Gluz, Angela Gossow, Diva Satanica, to say a few have Leather Leone as an inspiration. Her unique harsh voice is legendary. For the ones who are about to Metal and have never heard about her, her long career started as the vocalist of Rude Girl to then in 1984 join Chastain, the band of guitar icon David T. Chastain. Together with him, Leone has produced a series of successful albums up to the present day, some of them for legendary US talent scout Mike Varney’s imprint, Shrapnel Records. 1986s “Ruler of the Wasteland” and 1988’s “The Voice of the Cult” are examples of remarkable albums she recorded with the band. She has also released successful recordings with Malibu Barbi, Sledge/Leather, among others, and as a solo artist.

What my dear child of the night will have here is the mighty American Power Metal with strong fast drumming and pounding guitar riffs with, of course, Leather Leone’s harsh iconic voice. Songs are hard as iron with a dark side and mooding. Even the would be ballad “Hallowed Ground” has that hard as iron trademark. There is something of Metal Church’s “Watch the Children Pray” in this track with all its power as Leone’s strong soaring, but melodious, voice. To this mix she added some epic traits as some white noise and other effects to make the song even grandious. Well, grand is the right term to express the music my dear child of the night will hear with “We Are the Chosen.” The girl didn’t save any penny of power in this album. The guitars and drumming in “Dark Days” address to another Speed Metal classic leveraged to the status of mythic of Accept’s “Fast as a Shark.” By the way, I recommend my dear child of the night to start by this track. Great tune. Never forget to check album’s tittle track “We Are the Chosen” for its emotional powerful mooding. Maybe one of the best tracks of the album and the one that explains it better. The girl has a prone to combine grandness with epic. As I read the other day “Girls twerk, women headbang.” There is nothing more truthful to that.

“We Are the Chosen” an album to never stop headbanging. An album to make the grumpiest headbanger smile with lots of satisfaction.

Leather “We Are the Chosen” will be released on November 25th via Steamhammer / SPV Records.

Track Listing:

  1. We Take Back Control
  2. Always Been Evil
  3. Shadows
  4. Off With Your Head
  5. We Are the Chosen
  6. Tyrants
  7. Hallowed Ground
  8. Dark Days
  9. Who Rules the World
  10. The Glory in the End

Watch “We Take Back Control” official music video here: