Old CDS Reviewed Anew #1 - Chastain - The Voice of the Cult

Okay, here's a sort of new review.

Thanks to Record Store Day, I checked out a CD store that I hadn't been to before and found some decent bargains. I picked up a used but very good conditioned CD edition of the 1988 Chastain CD The Voice of the Cult.

I've long liked the band but didn't have a lot of their material.

This CD features David T. Chastain on guitars. He also wrote most of the songs. You've got Leather Leone on vocals, and she wrote the lyrics for two of the songs. Mike Skimmerhorn holds down the rhythm on the bass and Ken Mary pounds the skins.

The production on this CD sounds raw but not in a bad way. And oddly enough, Leather's vocals manage to sound smoother or perhaps I should say "cleaner" than on her solo CD from 1989 Shock Waves.

The CD features 9 songs and 8 of them are full on rockers. Only the closing track "Take Me Home" slows the pace down. Musically, I really liked the album. It keeps the blood pumping. But oddly enough, I wasn't enamored with most of the songs lyrically. Now don't get me wrong, I think Leone's vocals work was fine. I just didn't get into what was being said/sung all that much.

Of course there were some exceptions to that statement. Three of them to be exact. The songs "Child of Evermore" and "Soldiers of the Flame" were both well done. But for me, nothing can beat the incredible title track. "The Voice of the Cult" is just flat out awesome. Everything you could want in a song you can find within the track.

And I think that might also be why I ended up disappointed a bit in this CD. You know they can put the whole package of a song together because they did it with the title song and a couple of others as well. When you have 6 songs that don't measure up to that standard, it is to me disappointing.

The Voice of the Cult is now a part of my music collection for the first time. I just wish it had been more to my liking.

RATING: B MINUS