Following up from last year’s highly acclaimed debut ‘Spell Eater’, ‘Starbound Beast’ focuses more on the cosmos this time around. I have seen quite a bit of negative press based on their last release and in my mind it was quite unjustified, this usual forum mentality of slagging bands off who have good and frequent press notoriety is just tiresome. So…to set the record straight ‘Starbound Beast’ develops that first album style further and shows the band maturing in the process.
The album was recorded at Hobby Shop Studios in Los Angeles by the same guy that has dabbled with Shadows Fall, Hatebreed and Agnostic Front. But I should stress that this record does not sound nothing like those bands, nor does the studio sound. Melodic heavy metal maybe a throwaway genre to some folks but this album encompasses blistering solos, catchy memorable choruses and a lot of metal heritage. Their song ‘I Want to Fuck You to Death’ was lyrically penned by Lemmy (Kilmister) himself and if you listen to the verses, then you get the idea and the overall context of the song title. I initially held my hand to my forehead based on the title alone, but no, there is more to it, so don’t dismiss it.
‘Destroy Your Life’ gallops into action and throws away the standard verse chorus approach by integrating these laid down blueprints into one track without such defined breaks, thus the flow is effortless. The music continues in the same vein of the debut but Jill Janus sings clean a lot more in her own style rather than mix rather frequently the odd female death metal vocalist grunt that was a positive feature to be fair on the debut album. ‘Receiver’ is another track to get your singing shoes onto and this is lyrically infectious and so much so in general summarizes ‘Starbound Beast’ as an easier album to digest.
‘Starbound Beast’ is a step forward; it embraces more melody than their debut but also shows more talent in the song arrangements. Huntress have nailed their ability to craft their individual arrangements making it a more consistent release that should open more doors for this band. As time has progressed this album can be embraced further, it wasn’t an instant hit with me. To put it in context, this is a more mature metal album filled with rousing choruses and plenty guitar abuse, although I still tip my hat more towards their debut effort.
(7.5/10 Paul Maddison)
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