Chastain – In Dementia (Release Year – 1997)
Recently, a friend of mine let me borrow a copy of his Chastain CD, In Dementia. I have always enjoyed David T. Chastain’s guitar work, but I have not checked out his latest music.
The one thing that surprised me about this Chastain disc, was the razor sharp vocals of Kate French. There are some exceptions to the rule, (i.e. Doro Pesch, Lita Ford, etc.) but I usually don’t care for female lead singers in most hard rock or heavy metal bands.
Kate French has made me rethink this once more. You would not expect a metal style voice to come out of this blonde bombshell, but she delivers the goods. Her Mustaine like snarls seems to be tailor made for David T. Chastain’s virtuoso style of guitar playing.
Chastain’s playing on this record seems to be a good balance of chugging heavy riffs, and melodic fret work that he has always been known for.
I am not sure how In Dementia compares to other Chastain releases, but I thought this was a pretty solid metal record. If anything, this disc put Kate French on my radar. Kate recorded one more CD, after this with Chastain before moving on to the band Vainglory. I will be checking out those releases as a result of hearing this disc.
If you are looking for some good metal to add to your collection, give In Dementia a look. You can hear samples of this record at Amazon.com.
Rating:
Out of 10
Track Listing:
1. Human Sacrifice
2. Blackening
3. Seven
4. Sick Puppy
5. Tongue
6. In Dementia
7. House of Stone
8. Conformity
9. Desperately
Chastain is:
Kate French – Lead and backing vocals
Kevin Kekes – Bass
Dennis Lesh – Drums
David T. Chastain – Lead guitars and keyboards
yeah, LEATHER used to rock it!
she is VERY-under rated. David re-released her CD and re-mastered it and it sounds smokin! of course, he produced it and help right some of the material.
I was lucky enough to see CHASTAIN several times at Bogarts in Cinci, OH. since I lived in the Midwest area.
Good to see he is still around. Check out You Tube for some killer videos too.
Have a peep at my 80′s Metal Blog for some pics and such:
http://demolishmag.wordpress.com/
Take care,
Curt King
DEMOLISH HQ
Great music but the vocalist’s pitch and control problems greatly take away from the melodies. On occasion it sounds to me like she’s not quite sure what note she’s on. It’s too bad because she really does have a great voice but needs to work on pitch accuracy and control. I much prefer Chastain’s previous vocalist Leather Leone – she is truly great – in my opinion, one of the best, most underrated female vocalists in all of rock history.
Kind of a Janis Joplin does Rock….
Sounds pretty good.