Bridget’s Huntress Band Review

Now, I’ve heard many complaints about how metal has been taken over by symphonic metal bands and thus decreased the quality of metal. Huntress is not a symphonic metal, but a 2009-present traditional metal band.

Huntress is an American Metal band and is fronted by Jill Janus with Bake Meahl on lead guitar.
They currently only have two CDs and have been to Mayhem Festival 2013 ( I got to attend but sadly did not make it to see them.)

Their debut CD is the 2012 Spell Eater, with a total of 11 songs. The first song on the CD is that of the same title “Spell Eater” and was the first song I listened to from the band that made me a fan. The intro of the song has a nice strong guitar strumming along side a cool rhythm guitar melody. The drums follow shortly; this intro is nothing short from being bad ass. At about 0:30 the drums speed up and the guitar and rhythm guitar are dueling for the melody. Jill’s strong vocals then start at 0:34, leaving no time to get tired of the riffs and drums. Around the one minute mark, the guitar riffs change to this really cool melody but gives way to Jill’s strong voice so you are not overwhelmed. At 1;10 that changes into this really racing tempo for the lead guitar, right as Jill is not using her full vocal power. When she goes back to taking the focus, the guitar eases up. They really know how to be well balanced. If there was a way to copy the sounds of the riffs on to paper, I would…but would read “Bun duuuuun dun buh…digdiot do dit do do do DOOOOO” In English, the guitarist is pretty awesome. Specially since I lost hope for any American metal band out there. The whole purpose of the guitar riffs in this song is to convey power and greed and being unable to stop due to dying if the “spell eater” and her coven does. So it turns to not wanting to stop to not being able to.

“Night Rape” is another noteworthy song, however, there is not an official video for this song.
From 1:19 – 1:30, there is this maniacal riff before the vocals come back, following the riff with the lyrics “Can’t sleep can’t breathe”. The vocals describing victims and the riff adding the menacing atmosphere to the song. Starting at 1:45 there is a kickstarter to a longer guitar solo, which starts at 1:53 – 2:21, consisting of scales, shredding and string bending. Giving the song a new urgency besides the danger earlier in the song. Lyrics wise, I feel that “Night Rape” is about society forcing beliefs onto others, not actual rape. Or, you can go for the face value and say it is strictly fantasy lyrics talking about a demon summons gone terribly wrong. Either way, the lyrics are interesting even if they are a little short. And the song gives way to an awesome guitar solo due to how short lyrically it is.

“Terror” is another song from the first CD, the 9th track, actually. The very start of the song, the guitar and drums live up to the title, portraying, terror; shit is about to get real. “No one stays alive” is part of the beginning lyrics…”this is war, you will never get out” is after. The guitars definitely scream that this is strictly war and you won’t be able to fight back. Throughout the song, the guitarist adlibs quite frequently and nicely at that. At 2:05 the guitar solo starts, and it is powerful and distorted and angry and ends at 2:30. Jill’s growl at this point was pretty sweet at that too. Starting at 4:00, the rest of the song is instrumental, telling the listener it was not a very good outcome for those who were attacked. The guitar riffs throughout the end were well worth the wait. One of the best songs to listen to the guitarist in my opinion.

The Second CD is Starbound Beast from 2013, 11 tracks as well, the last track (gasping) a Judas Priest cover! In this CD, there is another guitarist, Anthony Crocamo. You can hear the two different styles of the guitarist throughout the tracks of the CD; it is really awesome to have two guitarists teaming up with two different styles! It gives a cool effect, like that in the song “Blood Sisters”. It is in the whole song, where you can hear the two distinctively. The song is not very thrilling, but musically speaking, especially the beginning until 0:28, the musicians are really talented. This seems to just be on the CD just to show off her band, which doesn’t happen often in a CD.

So, the next song is “I Want to Fuck You to Death”, The vocals are the main point in this song, and rightly so, she is amazing. And then at 2:01, the guitar solo reaps out even more lust to the listener. Back to the song though, at first listen, you will think it is just about, well, sex. However, to me, I hear this coming from a succubus, because “Let me suck your breath”. Succubi, are the female versions of Incubi. Both use sex to drain life out of the person they seduced and they cannot reproduce; so either way it is a provocative song indeed. The guitar solo really makes me want to dance and I can see this being used in a strip club. Not for the obvious reasons honestly, but for the guitar solo, which ends at 2:28. This song should also be noted for having the lowest note I’ve heard her sing so far. The ending instrumentals are pretty fun and her echo of the title until 3:30 is a nice touch and then it just ends. The guitarists do a splendid job all the way up to the last second of the track.

The Last song to judge is…the Judas Priest cover! “Running Wild”. She is very grudging and growly in the song, an aspect I don’t really enjoy. But the long notes she gets to hold out, has nice vibrato. The guitarists and drums have no issue covering this song and they seem perfect.
I wish, vocally, she would have just sang it. Because there is a couple of notes I hear that she is just amazing on and then she starts doing the growly thing. Otherwise, the musicians did perfectly and Jill, not so much.

The rest of the second CD is amazing along with the rest of the first. The Guitarists are fun and talented and the metal style is refreshing since metal is being overrun by “bands” like Cannibal Corpse.

My ratings:

CDs 9/10
Guitar(s) 10/10
Band 10/10

Review by Bridget. Bridget is a professional writer. Her hobbies include guns, knives, and archery. Image of Huntress by Floris Looijesteijn. Licensed under CC 2.0. Thanks Floris! Picture of Bridget used by her permission

Welcome back! This review is for the Swedish Metal band Dream Evil. Here is the brief background information to get started: Swedish band, formed in 1999-still formed, and they have had different guitarist and other band members over the years. There are five CDs from this band.

Bridget’s Dream Evil Review

The first CD, Dragonslayer, has 12 songs total. In the song “Heavy Metal in the Night”, you get this awesome riff, and the drums join in. It feels like the old epics from Homer if they had a Metal soundtrack; sounds like war, power, fame! About 2:50 or so into the song you get the start of the guitar solo. I loved how the guitarist entered in the solo by doing the sliding on the guitar. Throughout this song, they sound victorious. So, I listened to yet another song. So I tried the ballad “Losing You”, it is just the piano and the lead vocals, beautiful and painful, until 1:02 the guitar hits a strong strum, sending the shivers through even more than the start of the piano’s weeping melody. The guitar is slow, strong, and passionate, perfectly balancing out the piano’s sorrow and the vocal’s longing. The lyrics are powerful and it is done justice with the guitar and piano. As the song builds up vocally, the guitar solo starts using a lot of bending on the chords and strings and a lot of small slides; it makes the guitar sigh and cry.

The guitarist for this CD is Gus G. Hi is only 33 and is Greek. He has been with a lot of bands which include Arch Enemy and Ozzy. No wonder why he is so amazing! He is on Evilized and The Book of Heavy Metal. So, Evilized has 12 songs originally, however, since the band is infamous in Japan, they get three bonus tracks.

The song “Children of the Night” starts with a distorted rhythm guitar which leads into the lead guitar shredding. This song is calling out for all those lost souls, for all the insomniacs out there.

It is catchy and I could not help dancing to the guitars – lead and rhythm. “Children of the night, searching for the light…One can never be prepared” and then the shredding guitar solo kicks in at 2:33. I was singing along, the guitar solo picked back up. The guitar riffs are so…energetic and, well, metal! It seems to me, that the CDs going forward get better and better. The Rhythm guitarist has been there since 99’ – today; after all it is his band – Fredrik Nordstrӧm.

The second song for Evilized is “By My Side”, the moment I played this song, I went “woah…” my speech was taken from me from the drums and the rhythm guitar riff the started as soon as the YouTube video loaded. It is another fighting/war riff that pounds along side the drums. It is urgent and less about fun in a war like “Heavy Metal in the Night”. “By My Side” is more about pressing forward, loyalty and the stress of battle. You can hear the loss of war in the speed of the riff of the guitars and the drums. “dun dun dun dun…dun dun…(insert odd guitar solo here)”. By odd, I mean unique, I have yet to hear how the short solo is started anywhere else. It sounded almost techno like but is was purely just the guitar and how Gus G. was bending the strings and chords. You can hear the difference in the guitar riffs and solos from the two songs. “Heavy Metal in the Night” is saying “Yeah, let’s rape, pillage, and kill! We will win! We always are victorious, no matter the enemy!”. The guitars are joyous while you can still tell it is sounding like war, while “By My Side”’s riffs and solo is more about just surviving in war.

The third CD The Book of Heavy Metal, Gus G stayed around for the recording and was then replaced by Markus Fristedt for live performances of previous music and for the fourth CD United. I will not review the third CD as the line up of band members kept changing. You can hear the difference is though, and it is still a good CD musically. Just really confusing. As the singers, drummers, and guitarists were in and out of the album. The musical direction also changed slightly. But it isn’t of any complaint.

United, the fourth CD, has a great and fun opening song “Fire! Battle! In Metal!” It is just pure fun, with amazing entering guitars! It is, in my opinion, more pop-y however, because it is so catchy.

The lyrics are not intelligent at all, and it obviously for fun. 2:38 has a short guitar solo that should have been longer, as it was really fun and very enabling of dancing. The whole CD is very different. You can hear the change in drums and guitars, it is more tin sounding and more hammering and a kind of not so good but not bad either. I personally like it, yet miss the sound of the first two CDs. Some people might not welcome the change as much as I did, which is why I had stated it is not bad nor good. The guitar riff in “Let Me Go” is still really strong and unbridled, just, different in style. Markus is a lot different than Gus G and you can tell. This song’s major solo starts at 3:08 and is a lot more melodic and slower than that of Gus G. It is all about preference, I like both styles. So I will also talk about “Love is Blind” off of this CD. It starts slowly and builds up. no specific solo until 3:34. Until then, the slower parts are arranged awkwardly for the vocals and the heavier parts are better. The solo is pretty awesome as in one part sounded for Native American music-ish.

The Latest CD is In The Night. The first song “Immortal” had an awesome guitar riff and intro. the vocal are back to normal, the guitarist is Daniel Varghamne. His style is amazing, definitely better than Markus from United and is good if you preferred Gus G. No foul on Markus, he is just as talented, just a style preference for me. Even lyrically is back on track of the first two CDs.

“In The Night” is nice and heavy; it sounds like another war anthem. The riff during this song is distorted and angry; it seeps out demanding intentions to rally the troops. It is a war anthem for Metal music! The whole CD (not counting the Japan bonuses) is beautifully done. It is definitely a nice come back from all the line up issues.The only thing is, the CD’s theme, it is about being a rock star, about being in a metal band, about hardship and beliefs.

The only thing is, Daniel left and Markus came back, so the current line up is: Fredrik (rhythm), Niclas (vocals), Peter (bass), Pat (drums), and Markus (lead guitar).

Each musician is amazing. It just comes down to preferences.

Ratings:

I will rate things from a talent perspective to prevent my own biases

CDs Overall 10/10
Guitarist(s) 10/10
Band overall 10/10

Each member has talent, and each CD has something for everyone. I would have spent more time on each CD but probably would be a novella if I analyzed every detail.

Review by Bridget.

Bridget is a professional writer. Her hobbies include guns, knives, and archery. Dream Evil image shot in 2008 by Anchjo. Anchjo allowed this image to be used as Public Domain. Thanks Anchjo! Image of Bridget used by her permission.