Lady Beast – The Inner Alchemist
Release Date: 28th March 2025
Label: Dying Victims Productions
Bandcamp
Genre: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal.
FFO: Iron Maiden, Dio, Black Sabbath, Mercyful Fate, Judas Priest, Burning Witches.
Review By: Mark Waight
Hailing from the appropriately named steel city of Pittsburgh, USA, Lady Beast have been flying the flag for traditional heavy metal over there since 2009. The Inner Alchemist is Lady Beast’s highly anticipated fifth studio album as well as being their first full length release for five years too. This means that Lady Beast have had plenty of time to harness, nurture and hone ideas before finally releasing the dam and letting those creative juices flow and boy does it show, what a stunner!
By retaining their blue-collar roots, Lady Beast have that same impeccable pedigree as many of those early traditional heavy metal bands as well as continuing to carry forward the banner of that cherished classic sound too by bringing it to a whole new and younger audience. With the stars seemingly aligned and the current resurgence of traditional metal in full swing, The Inner Alchemist could be just the brew we all need to restore some balance to this topsy-turvy world in which we live with some much-needed hard rock escapism!
Lady Beast is Adam Ramage (drums), Chris Tritschler (guitars), Deborah Levine (vocals), Andy Ramage (guitars) and Amy Bianco (bass).
Opening track, The Oracle’s Omen slowly builds up the intensity before fully exploding into life with precision power and a thundering pace. Hot on its tail the fast and furious Through the Eyes of War again rips through at a gut busting rate of knots, leaving barely even a moment to take a breath.
The riff infused title track Inner Alchemist is an anthemic epic complete with a smile inducing and finger numbing guitar solo that is simply built for your listening pleasure. The beautiful ballad opening to Starborn is absolute metal poetry before the hard ‘n’ heavy hooks kick in once more and away we go again at breakneck speed!
The electrifying Crone’s Crossroads is a much darker and heavier proposition altogether, with its bone chilling laughs and chain sawing riff bludgeoning their way into your brain. Now that’s a tune!
Tracks like this will indeed Feed Your Fire, this is traditional heavy metal at its very best, showing that Lady Beast are bang on point and right at the top of their game at this moment in time! With echoes of early Iron Maiden, the short n sweet instrumental Witch Light blitzes its way through to a very satisfying conclusion and allowing us to rest those vocal cords just for a minute or two.
Never letting up even for a moment, The Wild Hunt relentlessly pursues its prey right to the death before the Queen of Hearts favourite track Off with Their Heads has you completely losing yours as you frantically shake it off in the metal mayhem of irresistible headbanging! If you have any energy left after that, then you can use it to hit that play button once more!
Lady Beast have delivered a mesmerizing and potent potion that The Inner Alchemist within us all will adoringly appreciate for many years to come. Striking the perfect balance between the traditional and the new with The Inner Alchemist, Lady Beast blend them skilfully together to create the perfect uplifting heavy metal tonic that not only nourishes the mind but cleanses the soul too. The Inner Alchemist is a bona fide modern classic heavy metal composition, with Lady Beast being without doubt one of the very finest bands in the genre today.
If you are a true fan of old school heavy metal, then The Inner Alchemist is a must-have addition to your playlist, as it and Lady Beast will fit very snugly indeed with what you already have in there. It’s an absolute (Lady) Beast of an album, very highly recommended, so when it drops make sure you check it out!
(4.5 / 5)
