#leather leone

[metalcultbrigade]

Leather Leone - Shock Waves 01/06/1989

[horrid-phantasm]

Chastain

[blacksabbathcoversproject]

Ronnie James Dio and Leather Leone (Chastain)

[vinylspinning]

Leather: Shock Waves (1989)

Though she hailed from San Francisco (*), singer Leather Leone became a fixture of Cincinnati’s 1980s hard rock community as the front-woman for local champions, Chastain, whose leader David T. repaid her by captaining this impressive debut from her own band, rather obviously named Leather.

Though he didn’t actually play the guitars on 1989’s Shock Waves, handing those off to one Michael Harris (bassist David Harbour and drummer John Luke He’bert completed the quartet), Chastain took on the production duties and penned most of its songs, half of them with Leone.

Oh, but there were a few surprises, too, which I’ll get to in a moment …

But first, I can’t say enough about the classy, bombastic, high-caliber American metal offered up by the galloping “Battlefield of Life,” the dramatically chorused “In a Dream,” the imperially paced “Diamonds Are for Real,” and the alternately pummeling and sublime “Something in this Life.”

You can double that praise for Leone’s versatile, powerful pipes, which she never disrespects with undue hysteria or histrionics, and which frequently recall those of her idol, Ronnie James Dio, especially on the doomy “No Place Called Home.”

Now for those surprises: the album’s opening staccato stunner, “All Your Neon,” was cowritten by Leone and future Nevermore and Cannibal Corpse guitarist Pat O'Brien, while the fine and furious title track (as close as they get to thrash here) was a gift from Manilla Road legend Mark ‘The Shark’ Shelton – nice!

And, most important of all, in a decade in which female-fronted metal bands almost invariably embraced hair metal trappings, Shock Waves stands as a victory of creative integrity over commercial temptations – even its token power ballad “It’s Still in Your Eyes“ is really heavy!

Ronnie would be proud …

p.s. – Parts of this blog evolved from my All-Music Guide review of Leather’s Shock Waves.

* Where she fronted a band called – don’t laugh – Malibu Barbi! 

More Late ‘80s American Metal: Agent Steel’s Unstoppable Force, Armored Saint’s Raising Fear, Fates Warning’s No Exit, Fifth Angel’s Fifth Angel, Manilla Road’s Mystification, Manowar’s Fighting the World, Metal Church’s The Dark, Queensrÿche’s Rage for Order, 

[metalsongoftheday]

Wednesday, August 23: Chastain, “Black Knight”

Chastain may not have broken out of the minor leagues, but namesake guitarist David T. Chastain never wavered in his mission to deliver straight-up roaring heavy metal, and the band’s material belied its low-budget status by kicking a surprising amount of ass.  Try “Black Knight”: the opening cut on Chastain’s debut Mystery of Illusion stormed out the gates with David Chastain’s charged riffing, Fred Coury’s pounding drums, and above it all, the aptly named Leather Leone’s banshee wailing.  It would be overly reductive to call Leone an American counterpart to Doro Pesch, but she forcefully made the case that women could rock out just as hard as the dudes, and easily out-wailed almost every domestic metal singer in the ‘80s.  It was easy to write Chastain off as another low-rent cheese metal act like Virgin Steele, but tunes like “Black Knight” should’ve lit up the underground and brought Chastain some measure of glory.

[xsrock-blog]

Poll: ‘Which Singer Deserves To Be Crowned The Queen Of Metal?’ All of these ladies have made incredible contributions to metal music over the years. But, only one of them can truly be considered the Queen Of Metal. Based on their work to date, who do you think is most deserving of the crown? Voting is open until October 23, 2017.

[girlsofthe80s]

Leather Leone

[metalkilltheking]

Chastain, the heavy metal band that introduced two of the genre's most underrated talents in David T. Chastain and Leather Leone. Chastain, of course, has made a name for himself as a shred artist and all-around guitar wizard, and Leone has such a distinct and powerful vocal style.