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I never got into Chastain back in the day. They were always a bit under the radar, and I think from the name and the song titles I assumed they were more glam or shred than metal, and so I had no real interest in them. Now, decades later, I have promos from the remastered album releases Pure Steel is doing, and so thirty years after the fact I find this album is a fucking gem.

I suppose it's not news to anyone else that this is some raw, pulse-pounding metal, with that classic US-Metal sound topped by the megavolt power of vocalist Leather Leone, who was kicking in doors as a woman in heavy metal long before it was trendy. I was really expecting this to have a more Yngwie vibe, but Chastain, as a player, is very much part of the band, never taking center stage and letting the songwriting speak for itself. Not to say he can't rip, but he's not showboating here.

Songs like the pounding title track, "Chains of Love", and "Soldiers of the Flame" are pure metal classics. But really, there are no bad songs on here, and not any that I skip. This is just a solid album from first to last.