adg211288 Starbound Beast (2013) is the second full-length album to be released by US heavy metal act Huntress. The album follows hot on the heels of debut effort Spell Eater (2012), an album that earned my regard as one of the best debuts of the year (and indeed one of the best albums of the year). There's been a couple of changes within Huntress between albums though as bassist Eric Harris departed the band. Rather than find a new bass player guitarist Ian Alden switched instrument and Anthony Crocamo (DarkBlack) took over Alden's original role in the band. Lemmy Kilmister of UK metal legends Motörhead wrote a song specially for the album, entitled I Want to Fuck You to Death.

I'm always a little sceptical about bands releasing new material so soon after delivering such a killer album, as Spell Eater was for Huntress, just in case they ran out of steam. While I think it is fair to say in regard to Starbound Beast that it doesn't pack quite the same immediate punch of its predecessor, the reason for that is that once you scratch the surface you find that this is in fact quite a different album even though it uses the same basic elements as Spell Eater.

Spell Eater consisted of about an equal mix of aggressive traditional heavy metal and thrash metal. The thrash metal elements have been cut back quite a bit this time around, although they are still present. That's not say we're not dealing with a fair amount of Huntress' faster paced stuff, but some of the faster riffs put me more in mind of the US style of power metal this time. Overall though this very much remains a traditional metal album, but there is one more new element that deserves mention, the album's unexpected progressive touches. While Starbound Beast could never in a million years be considered a progressive metal album, there's a level of creativity within the song structures this time around, and more depth to the songs overall, which wasn't present on Spell Eater. Here it is quite the common occurrence that the music will go off on the odd little tangent every now and then rather than being in your face all the time.

Vocalist Jill Janus also seems more restrained in her singing this time around. There's still a bit of screaming and growling and overall her vocals still have that distinctive rough edge that make her so suited for the brand of metal that Huntress play, but she's much more melodic overall. I presume that's a conscious style choice given the direction the music has taken, and it pays off.

The songs themselves are another excellent bunch, and serve to diversify what fans of Spell Eater will be used to from Huntress. You've got the more traditional Huntress fare in a song like Blood Sisters in which Jill Janus shows off all her vocal prowess including both black and death metal suitable growling. Later in the album you have a belter of a track in the form of Zenith, which is pretty much pure power-thrash while in the closing Alpha Tauri they'll shock you with some unexpected mellowness.

While I do find that Starbound Beast is much less immediate than Spell Eater, requiring more time to sink in and grow on me, after half a dozen listens it's done just that, ultimately earning the album about the same regard from me as Spell Eater. As a matter of personal taste I do think the debut is slightly better, although it's difficult not to rate both albums on the same (highest) rating tier for the abundant quality and passion heard in the music.

If I'm honest though I have a feeling that Starbound Beast may enjoy more success than its predecessor because let's be fair, Spell Eater seemed to divide opinion (although perhaps that is always the way with such a highly hyped up debut release). For me though Starbound Beast is the work of a band who have all the makings of one of this generation's true classic acts. Starbound Beast was the album they needed to make after Spell Eater because as good as the debut is, even if not everyone realises it, it wouldn't have been in the band's best interests to make Spell Eater 2. Instead Starbound Beast keeps their sound recognisable, but shows their fans (and indeed, their naysayers) that there's more to them than meets the eye. I call that a winner, how about you?

95/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven: http://metaltube.freeforums.org/huntress-starbound-beast-t3022.html)