Origin:	Highland Park, California, USA
Genres:	Traditional Metal

Page online:	January 16, 2016
Last update/review:	January 16, 2016

Huntress

This SoCal band generated quite a bit of buzz surrounding their debut full-album release in 2012 (Spell Eater), thanks to quite a bit of promotion from Napalm Records proclaiming them a potential Next Big Thing. The jury's still out on that, but the band has been making some noise. The focal point, both visually and musically, is singer Jill Janus, with reviews and opinions all over the place. Interestingly, though, her performance has varied from album to album -- on Spell Eater, she shrieks and screams at every opportunity, while on the followup Starbound Beast she retains her higher pitches but sounds less forced, less screechy, and altogether more controlled as a singer. Musically, Huntress plays a thrashy power metal style with traditional metal roots that's more retro than not, but not sounding too dated. It's a pretty familiar sound, the band isn't a trendsetter but rather one upholding the name of true metal.