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I've always been a fan of metal bands with female singers going back to Chastain and Warlock, but apart from those bands and a few others, women have mainly been heard in power/symphonic metal or one of the extreme genres. What is great to see in the 2020s is more and more traditional metal bands featuring women, and not only singing but playing the instruments as well.

This split features two bands helmed by guitarist Sage Savage, Curse Breaker and Blade's Edge. Both bands have a similar, '80s-influenced sound that combines heaviness and guitar wizardry with a keen ear for melody and hooks that sink in deep. Curse Breaker is fronted by Alen van Tassel who has a belt-it-out style not far removed, though not as powerful, from Leather Leone, Marta Gabriel and Mandy Martillo (from Midnight Dice). The songwriting is solid, with tracks like "Warriors of the Night" and "Black Flame" possessing lots of replay value. Blade's Edge is something of a solo effort from Savage, who is listed as handling all the instruments and vocals, but it sounds to me that in addition to his high-pitched voice, van Tassel (or another female singer) is heavily involved with harmony vocals on most of the songs. Once again there's a combo of metal bones on which are hung plenty of catchy vocal lines and even more flashy leadwork than on the Curse Breaker cuts. Savage surely listened to a fair amount of George Lynch while learning his craft. Overall, Blade's Edge's songs might be a little less memorable than Curse Breaker's, but perhaps more technically impressive, though the split between the two is close to 50/50 and if you didn't know it was two different bands, you could very well miss the fact as they are quite similar all in all.

If you are into some of the bigger bands from the '80s like RATT and Dokken that featured really strong guitar work or are enjoying the rise of bands like Tower, Midnight Dice, and Filosa, you owe it to yourself to check out Cursed Blade.