LEATHER LEONE Releases New Single 'We Take Back Control'

CHASTAIN singer Leather Leone will release a new solo album, "We Are The Chosen", on November 25 via Steamhammer/SPV. The LP's lead single, "We Take Back Control", can be streamed below. It marks her first solo material since her 2018 effort "Leather II".

Leone has a mission, and not just recently, but since the beginning of her life as an artist. As a thoroughbred musician, as an exceptional metal vocalist, and above all as an unconditionally positive person, her message has always been: Never give up and stay the way you are! You don't have to look far to find this encouraging credo on "We Are The Chosen": It features immediately on the opening track "We Take Back Control", and it would be difficult to express her self-confidence and zest for action more unequivocally. The song sets the direction for the whole album, for Leather's ambitions, and for her future as a committed musician. Her positive lyrics run like a leitmotif through the album's ten songs and create an atmospherically dense arch up to its programmatic finale "The Glory In The End". A second single will follow on November 4.

Leather undeniably counts among the most charismatic metal vocalists of the past four decades. She already caused a sensation in the 1980s as frontwoman of CHASTAIN, the band of guitar icon David T. Chastain. Together with him, Leone produced a series of successful albums up to the present day, some of them for legendary U.S. talent scout Mike Varney's imprint Shrapnel. She has also released successful recordings with MALIBU BARBI, SLEDGE/LEATHER, among others, and as a solo artist.

"We Are The Chosen" has allowed Leather to break free from the oppressive situation of the past two years. Leone remembers: "Things had been going really well for me just before the lockdown started, but with the arrival of COVID, all my touring plans had to be shelved and things were threatening to go down the drain. But my friend and guitarist Vinnie Tex was totally right in saying, 'Now more than ever! We'll do everything ourselves!' The very first number we composed for the new record was 'We Take Back Control', which pointed the direction for the rest of the album."

Among other songs featured on the album is "Who Rules The World", which is, as Leather explains, "a typical example of my style, a kind of retrospective of my entire musical life." In addition, there are a number of surprises: "Off With Your Head" has the American chanteuse embark on pastures new. Leone explains: "This song is one of my absolute favorites." "Hallowed Ground", which she has dedicated to her great idol Ronnie James Dio, also deserves to be mentioned.

"I met Ronnie lots of times and had wonderful discussions with him," Leather says. "He knew that I first got into metal thanks to his music and that I owe him lots."

"We Are The Chosen" was recorded at the Hertz Studios (BEHEMOTH, VADER, HATE) in Białystok, Poland, with Leather Leone and Vinnie Tex in charge of songwriting and production. Woitek and Slawek Wieslawski mixed and mastered the material, and Marcelo Vasco (SLAYER, KREATOR, TESTAMENT) contributed the cover artwork.

Leather and Vinnie Tex have invested vitality and passion in every last detail of their new metal anthems, so it comes as no surprise that Leone sums up her latest offering as follows: "To me, 'We Are The Chosen' is a labor of love and I'm incredibly proud of it."

01. We Take Back Control 4:49
02. Always Been Evil 4:06
03. Shadows 4:08
04. Off With Your Head 5:17
05. We Are The Chosen 5:27
06. Tyrants 4:29
07. Hallowed Ground 6:56
08. Dark Days 3:41
09. Who Rules The World 5:09
10. The Glory In The End 3:26

The Leather-fronted version of CHASTAIN recorded five CDs in the mid-to-late 1980s: 1985's "Mystery Of Illusion", 1986's "Ruler Of The Wasteland", 1987's "The 7th Of Never", 1988's "The Voice Of The Cult" and 1990's "For Those Who Dare". After the "For Those Who Dare" tour, David Chastain and Leather amicably went their separate ways but kept in touch over the years before reuniting in 2013.

Leather released one solo album, "Shock Waves", in 1989, before taking a two-decade break from the music scene. In a 2015 interview with MusicLifeMagazine.net, she said: "For 20 years I got into animal medicine and animal rescue I got into pitbull rescue which totally blew my mind and took my breath away. But I went away from music because it was so frustrating for me. Some people have said that I just gave up and that those sorts of comments really dug into me but maybe it seems to outsiders that I did."

Leather in 2012 released the debut album from her SLEDGE LEATHER project, "Imagine Me Alive". The CD was inspired in 2010 when Leather called Sandy Sledge to collaborate on the Ronnie James Dio track "Egypt" for a demo tribute recording. Due to the overwhelming response for more material, SLEDGE LEATHER was born and performed at Germany's Keep It True festival in April 2011.