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LEATHÜRBITCH
Shattered Vanity

Shadow Kingdom (2023)
Rating: 8/10

I enjoyed Leathürbitch’s debut full-length album, Into The Night, which was released back in 2019. The Portland, Oregon-based combo provided a steamy mix of 80s throwback metal, glam and speediness. The brew was, and remains an interesting one for this latest outing, Shattered Vanity, which is a strong return that stirs together Mercyful Fate (without the evil), Exciter and all manner of other influences from 1984, ranging from darkly clad Euro metal to a sleazy swagger.

This is fiery and fast stuff that genuinely sounds as if it’s been stored away in some dusty vault for 40 years and once prized away from its secret lair it is unleashed upon the world. Of course, there are cheesy elements to the sound and appearance, but the positives outweigh the negatives because this is such a rollicking album where the vocals scream at you with such conviction and work in wild tandem with the sizzling instrumentation.

There are a lot of band’s attempting to conjure the spirits of the 80s and many fail as parody, but Leathürbitch has found the right formula and probably due to the variety. For example, ‘Betrayal’ is not that far removed, surprisingly, from classic Candlemass! Meanwhile, the title track is a lethal dose of speeding metal, as is ‘Graveyard Eyes’, but ‘Nasty Reputation’ boasts a mid-tempo sleaziness. Closer ‘Horror’s Unseen’ exhibits subtlety alongside traditional metal structures, as does the Gothic chug of ‘Morphina’.

One certainly cannot pigeonhole Leathürbitch because they have the ability to drift seamlessly through styles while retaining that strong metal edge laced by Joel Starr’s commanding vocal presence. Good stuff then from the five-piece that prompts me to chant that “the bitch is back!”

Neil Arnold

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