II

making waves that may vary greatly in size depending on the goddess’ ire… well, in this case one shouldn’t expect a tsunami or thereabouts as Ms. Leone doesn’t sound too belligerent leaving her more boisterous vocal exploits for the Chastain efforts. Not that she croons and soars like a timid soprano throughout, no; her performance behind the mike doesn’t differ drastically from the one featured on the Chastain works; it’s just that the musical accompaniment is not exactly the one of the cult and would hardly qualify for Never’s top seven list of the year.

The singer’s first venture outside the Chastain cloak nearly 30 years earlier was quite close sound-wise to her main band, fitting nicely between “The Voice of the Cult” and “For Those Who Dare”. The setting on this second solo effort is a bit different, though; the approach straddles between more mainstream heavy and power/speed metal the whole time, Leone intentionally or not trying to give the latter side more of a second-fiddle status, probably in order to avoid the comparisons with her main occupation.

As a result the delivery is not as rowdy excluding the rousing hyper-active opener “Juggernaut” which nicely winks at the early German speed metal movement with its restless rhythms, Leone’s traditionally strong manly vocals matching the music’s intensity every bit of the way. However, fast-paced feats of the kind are not that common (the short bursting “The One” the exception) as the album acquires more peaceful heavy/power metal parametres with time, the highlights coming either from the lead department (“Lost at Midnight”) or from Leone’s more passionate tirades (the ballad “Annabelle”). The more epic side of the 80’s American power metal movement is nicely reflected in the dramatic pounder “Sleep Deep” as well as the American women’s continuous strife for emancipation on the more radio-friendly rocker “American Woman”.

The album tends to the tastes of a wider gamut of fans without ignoring the Chastain crowd, Leone pairing well with the live crew from the vocal guru Rob Rock’s solo project. All the separate nuances eventually merge into one feelgood, not very pretentious listen that will certainly entertain the crowds, and not only due to the lack of too many solo efforts from female metal artists at present. Leone still stands proud on the very top of this music branch, alongside Doro Pesch, and although one can never tell how much water will flow until a third coming with the “Leather” stamp befalls us, it’s always good to know that somewhere out there there’s an untamed lioness whose roar can be heard over the hills and far away, even during the few times when she can be seen walking alone.