Through the belly of the beast, and out into the world comes out a lady without fear, perceptive and determent upon reaching the highest levels of traditionalism in Metal music. However, as declared much earlier by AC/DC, "It's A Long Way To The Top", that historic pronouncement still stands. LADY BEAST, a newcomer Heavy Metal band from the US, first time offered their material to the world back in 2012 by issuing this very release on their own as an EP. As for any band, it marked the beginning of an hopefully long journey. A while ago the band signed with the French old school Metal label, Inferno Records, for the release of the self-titled issue as an official album, consisting of a bonus cover track for JUDAS PRIEST's "Ram It Down", on CD and Cassette. LADY BEAST seem to be inspired by classic 80s gods as IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, SAXON and RUNNING WILD, though there is also a fine proclivity towards the likes of the early era of HAMMERFALL (mainly the first two releases).

At first hand, LADY BEAST's self-titled onslaughts appeared quite amiable, traditional Heavy Metal delivery that on several annotations turned a little bit aggressive, yet retaining the same qualities of every now and then post NWOBHM output while not putting up an effort of an unordinary nature. Furthermore, I found the largest part of the tracklist to be quite memorable, heavy, addictive with great ideas on preserving the good ole' old school feel. "Armor", "When Desire Is Stronger Than Fear" and "Go For The Bait" are strong numbers in general, arranged well following the traditional Metal song formula, simple to grasp, energetic and quite catchy. Truth be told, I was ready for additional praises as I truly appreciated the band's resolve, up until I finished the second listening session, where regretfully I found too many blemishes that I didn't spot on earlier and just couldn't bear with.

It is true that there isn't a perfect release, yet most reasons rest upon the quality of the material in question. In the case of LADY BEAST, I had no issues with the material whatsoever. Sure that it wasn't an overwhelming nail biter; hitherto I don't believe that there was any apparent purpose for whoever was in charge of the album's production to leave it as is. Through the course of the songs I found lack of synchronization between the rhythm guitar lines, same as with several sections of the soloing distribution, sloppy base drum works, and lead vocals put far behind the mix. As for the vocals, it is a matter of a producer's perception, even though 80s driven releases mainly stack the vocalist out front, but as for the recording process, these mishaps should have been recognized and corrected.

This debut release began with fierce productivity, yet ended up being no more than decent. LADY BEAST proved that they have the talent to come up with great traditional Metal outcomes, yet as it would seem, lacked the capacity to demonstrate sufficient playing skills. Or better stated, lack the rightful producer to let them know that there have been shortcomings on their recording efforts.