LIV SIN

Liv Sin has always been a diehard. From her days with gritty hard rockers SISTER SIN, through to her current solo status and role as one of heavy metal's most passionate advocates, she has been a reassuring presence for the last decade. The albums released with her self-named solo band have been particularly gratifying, as the Swedish powerhouse stayed true to the old-school values that have underscored most of her work, while also taking straight-ahead, melodic hard rock into unfamiliar, fervently modern territory. "Follow Me" was the brutish debut, "Burning Sermons" was the great consolidation, and 2023's "KaliYuga" expanded the band's sound, with relentless, lethal hooks, monstrous, deathly guitar tones and some of the most vicious vocals Liv has ever delivered. Getting heavier by the minute, Liv is plainly not interested in the sepia-tinted, double-denim market. Like her spiritual forebear, Dee Snider, she has an urgent need to rock, but by the heaviest means possible.

She always had a voice that could scalp all-comers at a hundred paces, but Liv Sin has become an absolute monster in recent years. "Close Your Eyes" begins with "Praise The Winners", which seethes with righteous indignance and features the singer in a state of infernal fury. As has increasingly been the case, her band's bedrock of muscular hard rock is now often closer to the punishing, pure metal of ARCH ENEMY than to anything from the '80s, and their leader's formidable roar has matured hugely as a result. She nails the hook with real venom on the breathlessly catchy "Run", makes like a steroidal LIZZY BORDEN on horror tale "The Mask", and delivers brutal defiance and a dash of adolescent petulance on "It's Not Your Life". At times, it is unashamedly direct: "Louder" and "I Refuse" are the kind of insolent, celebratory anthems that Liv was born to sing. In contrast, the closing "Hold It Together" is a lissome pop ballad with a big metal chorus that she nails to the wall with such furrowed-brow force that everybody within earshot is going to feel the splinters.

The finest moment when LIV SIN embrace the old school with renewed alacrity, "Above The Line", is a near-perfect metal song, with the bite and charm of JUDAS PRIEST, the skin-scouring pomp of W.A.S.P. and the deadly, melodic intelligence of IRON MAIDEN. It even takes a brief detour into doom territory, via an ugly, stuttering riff that blossoms into a textbook classic metal coda. "Close Your Eyes" is full of such moments, where the singer's infectious enthusiasm is mirrored by the feverish invention of her bandmates, and everything falls neatly and loudly into place. LIV SIN continue to rock, harder and better than most, and that voice will still knock you fucking sideways.