Having lived in Ohio throughout most of the 80s, was familiar with the original band and saw numerous gigs. Time was, guitarist David T. Chastain’s Leviathan label released a plethora of shredder solo/band efforts. However, have not heard much from him lately. Now reunited with raspy female vocalist Leather Leone (guess her Sledge Leather album, panned here last year, didn’t set the world on fire) and longtime Cincy bass pal Mike Skimmerhorn (CJSS), Chastain (man and band) has added Pagan’s Mind drummer Stian Kristoffersen, looking to pick up where a quartet of mid-to-late 80s albums left off.

Lead track ‘Stand And Fight’ falls right in line with the decades’ old material, Popoff’s meat & potatoes metal, through and through, ultimately segueing effortlessly into a gritty, mid-tempo ‘Call Of The Wild’. Guess it takes a couple of tunes to blow the cobwebs off his fingers, but it’s not until the fourth cut, ‘Freedom Within’ where things pick up. ‘Rise Up’ is a fitting title, another agro number, although ‘Save Me Tonight’ is the lone inclusion that really features a genuine speedy guitar solo, the rest being concrete songs, not just instrumental workouts with lyrics. The title track is a drum laden anthem and the closing ‘Bleed Through Me’ sees Leone accompanied solely by keyboards, to start. Welcome back!