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| STAINLESS - Lady of Lust & Steel CD | |
HRR 1056CD, slipcase | |
| Larissa Cavacece: Vocals Jamie Byrum: Guitar/Drums Clifton Martin: Bass | |
| 01 Restless an' Ready 02 Whorefrost 03 (Don't Cross Me) Fool 04 Lady of Lust & Steel 05 Danger in the Night 06 Take a Listen Mama 07 Vitamin Tease 08 Rough Justice | |
AVAILABLE | |
“I would describe us as hard rock or heavy rock,” explains Jamie Byrum, guitarist of Stainless, “there are plenty of heavy metal elements in our sound but I think it would be misleading to call us a pure heavy metal band.”
Stainless officially started in Portland, Oregon, in 2022. Past and present members have all been active in the Pacific Northwest underground scene, playing in bands such as Black Breath, Long Knife, Nightfell and Ripper. The first sign of life by Stainless was the “Snakebite”/“Too Hot To Steal” single (self-released on vinyl), followed by the mini-album »Nocturnal Racer«, their debut for High Roller Records.
According to guitarist Jamie Byrum, the reviews and feedback from people around the world has been really positive for »Nocturnal Racer«: “That was a relief, honestly, because I was unsure how people would respond. We have really classic influences but the way we combine and execute them is kind of unorthodox in this day and age.”
Hot on the heels of »Nocturnal Racer«, Stainless are now back with their first full-length album »Lady Of Lust & Steel«, featuring eight brand-new compositions. ”I would say that our sound has just gotten wider and more accomplished,” comments the guitarist on the new album. “All the influences from the ‘Snakebite’ single and »Nocturnal Racer« are just as evident on »Lady Of Lust & Steel«. However, we just expanded our sound. The metal parts are even more aggressive and the rock’n’roll parts are even more groovy and rocking. The musicianship and vocals have leveled up as well.”
»Lady Of Lust & Steel« was recorded at Red Lantern Studios in Portland, Oregon, over the spring and summer of 2025 by Evan Mersky, produced by Jamie Byrum and mixed by him and Evan. Larissa Cavacece once again puts her stamp on the Stainless sound with her raw and raspy voice somewhere between Leather Leone and Wendy O. Williams (having started her singing career in a Plasmatics cover band). However, line-up problems slowed down the recording process of the album. Jamie Byrum: “I played guitar and drums on the record and did a few vocals. Clifton Martin is on bass. Towards the beginning of the songwriting process, the previous line-up of Stainless basically split in half and Larissa and I were forced to make the difficult decision to either put the whole project on hold and delay everything while we find a new rhythm section or continue the songwriting process and record as planned and I’ll just play drums on it and call my old friend Cliff Martin to play session bass and help me arrange the rhythm section. The latter of which we did and it worked out great. We were able to make a better record than we would have previously, and we now have a killer five-piece line-up that’s able to play all this new material really well and the band is better than ever.”
“Restless An’ Ready” opens up »Lady Of Lust & Steel« in true style, with a strong AC/DC and Accept vibe. It’s one of the catchiest numbers on the album. Jamie Byrum explains: “I wrote that song specifically as something that would go over really well live and the whole middle section with all the solos and everything is almost like something you would hear on a live album.”
“(Don’t Cross Me) Fool” is another strong number, a bit more 70s-influenced, with cowbells and massive wah-wah, almost sounding like Rhett Forrester-period Riot. “Yeah, that is one of my favorite songs on the record,” smiles the guitarist extraordinaire, “later UFO, Van Halen, Blackfoot, Riot, even Guns n’ Roses influenced that one. It’s also a bit reminiscent of the song ‘Too Hot To Steal’ from our first single.”
Another highlight is “Danger In The Night”, possibly the fastest song on the album, but with a sense of melody. ”That’s definitely the most ripping metal song on here but also melodic,” confirms the Stainless main man. “Bands like Riot, UFO, Thin Lizzy, Def Leppard, Whitesnake et al show that you can be bluesy and street level but melodic at the same time, and we like that.”
Talking about Whitesnake, “Take A Listen Mama”, does indeed sound like Sykes-era Whitesnake. The album does have a lot of variety indeed. “I think that just comes back to our love of 70s hard rock and metal where a lot of albums have stylistic variety and every song has its own identity,” adds Jamie Byrum, “we just tried to do the same thing but with 80s influences as well.”
With »Lady Of Lust & Steel« being such an outstanding debut album, Stainless are looking at renforcing their live activities: “We haven’t been to Europe yet but we are planning on it! We are in the process of trying to secure a booking agent as we speak and we plan on getting over there as much as possible for the release of this album.”
MATTHIAS MADER