CHASTAIN – In An Outrage

In An Outrage is the 8th album by Chastain, and marks 2 full decades of making music, although you’d have to go all the way back to 1997’s Dementia to find Chastain’s last release. For the 2nd time, Chastain has the voluptuous Kate French writing the lyrics for all the songs on this album and emitting the vocals. New to the band, however, are Dave Starr and Larry Howe (from the classic Vicious Rumors years) on the 8-stringed bass and drums, respectively.

In An Outrage contains 10 tracks of unique Classic Style Metal with a very new, original, and contemporary feel to it. The songs are all roughly 5 minutes long (give or take), and each showcases Chastain’s original guitar playing style via extended musical passages.

WHAT’S GOOD

The musical style of the album is clearly its main highlight. It’s somewhat difficult to explain. As mentioned above, essentially In An Outrage is no-frills Classic Style Metal, but Chastain has a unique sound to his guitar playing, and the musical patterns are varied enough to give this album a very modern flavor … not modern as in the Modern Rock sub-genre, but modern as in Chastain “thought out of the box” when configuring the ambience to In An Outrage. There’s an evil undertone in there, but not overly so, and there’s hostility, but not so much that the music becomes disorganized. Overall, Chastain has created a Metal gem from a pure musical perspective.

Starr and Howe were solid additions to the band this time around. Howe’s drum playing comes through varied, and with power and purpose … he sets an excellent foundation for each song. Likewise, Starr’s 8-string bass play adds some distinctiveness to the deep tones, and fills in the gaps quite nicely.

Mix all of this great instrument work together and you’d better have solid production quality to allow the talent to shine … and sure enough, Chastain does. The sound is stable, steady, and clear, and no one aspect of the music is overemphasized (or underemphasized for that matter).

WHAT’S LESS THAN GOOD

The Report Card below shows an Overall Rating of “B,” which is a solid grade … however, the grade could easily have been an “A” with a vocal performance as stellar as the musicianship. Lita Ford has always been known for coming across in her vocals “off-key” at times, and Pat Benatar has always been known for coming across as someone who has a chip on her shoulder and may want to kick your ass. Kate French meshes both of these styles, but unfortunately takes both too far. The “outrage” within In An Outrage essentially emanates entirely from French … and the truth of the matter is it takes away from the absolute success of each song. When French tones it down a bit, such as in “Souls The Sun,” she comes across as a very capable vocalist, and there are other times where she loses the “tough girl” persona for a moment and wails out some fairly impressive high notes. Most times, though, her performance comes through with “over-the-top” hostility and anger that clashes with the music.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Regardless of the above, all 10 tracks on In An Outrage are very good songs. It’s hard to pick out one tune that shines above the others because they’re all without musical weakness. French’s performance causes each track to fail to reach full potential, but every song is still solid with plenty to offer Metal fans in search of a quality sound along with skilled musicianship and songwriting. If you can listen past below average vocal delivery (and you should), this Chastain album is definitely worth checking out …