Lee Aaron - Metal Queen (1984)

Whilst traditional heavy rock of the 1970s was an all-male preserve and the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the late 70’s/early 80’s had begun to spawn the odd all-female group and rock vocalist, it was the 1980s proper that really saw the emergence of a range of female musicians and singers and Canadian Lee Aaron was, for a brief period, at the forefront of this movement. Metal Queen was her second album released in 1984 and was her breakthrough album raising her to headline status in both her native Canada and throughout Europe.

The album opens with the title track and some menacing keyboards which moves to a stabbing metal riff and is, to be fair, formulaic 80s metal fare with Aaron’s powerful and, by and large, lower register vocals (imagine Dio on oestrogen!) belting out the chorus, such as it is: “Metal Queeeeeeeeeen”. It’s not a bad track but does wreak of a ‘metal by numbers’ approach which sadly pervades the album and as the chief writing team were Aaron and guitarist John Albani we know who to blame!

Lady of the Darkness continues where Metal Queen left off, however the overall sound is more leaning to the aforementioned Mr Dio’s band than the trashy end of 80s metal (ala Madam X). Arron’s vocals are very good too and she doesn’t get too caught up in high-pitched squealing which was much the downfall of many an 80s rock vocalist but with lyrics like “She’s the lady of the darkest night, she’ll take your soul when the time is right”, she hasn’t got a fat lot to work with. This track also features a mellow, picked chord mid-section before thumping into the guitar break . . . page 5 of the metal textbook on how to structure a track I believe! Hopefully things will improve . . .

Well, they do, almost with Head Above Water which opens with a good harmony guitar lick which sadly leads to a plodding, mediocre metal track once more with the occasional return to the harmony guitar piece being its only saving grace. Got To Be The One drops the pace with a chorused, picked guitar intro over which Aaron sings quite delicately which shows promise but you get the feeling – referring to the metal textbook – that any moment a chugging guitar riff is going to kick – in . . . and the track fails to disappoint! Fist clenching moments aside, this is a strong track with Aaron in good form, as she is throughout the album to be fair, but being a standout moment on Metal Queen isn’t the same as being a standout track per se.

Shake It Up is a good rocker . . . yes, I did say that. It’s a bit more of an up-tempo number with the unforgivably sin of lyrics including the words “rock n roll” but overall it’s a solid track with a good vocal melody and driving bass. See the video below from the Channel 4 ECT series for a strong live rendition of this track. Maybe things are looking up?

Possibly so, Deceiver takes a more Judas Priest approach – which can only be a good thing – although the multi-tracking of the vocals on the one-word repetition of a chorus is a little overdone. The guitar break is good too and features some good use of runs and harmonics and works very well however, Steal Away Your Love moves back to plodding anthem territory.

Hold Out actually breaks the mould quite well for its verse with a mellow chorused guitar and bass arrangement and is a strong mid-tempo track with a rockier chorus – of course. The following track Breakdown also follows the same formula which serves to showcase Aaron’s vocals well and the fact that she can actually sing well without having to verge on the semi-shouting approach she feels necessary for the choruses of the majority of the tracks here. The harmony guitar melody that crops up now and again is also melodically strong.

We Will Be Rockin’ closes the album and I can’t stress enough how much the word ‘Rock’ and its various synonyms strike fear into my heart on a tracklist as they usually indicate firstly an attempt by the artist to write an ‘anthem’ and secondly usually denote formulaic sh*te. This hypothesis is once again borne out here: “we will be rockin’ until the end of time” . . . I rest my case.

Metal Queen suffers from many a common faux pas in 80s metal circles. However, a formulaic and clichéd nature (in both writing and execution) is not always a bad thing, far from it. There’s just an unquantifiable element, a certain x-factor, that distinguishes (to use a Kiss analogy) an I Love it Loud from a Crazy Nights that makes one a standout and the other an embarrassment. Sadly, this album leans towards the latter and whilst Lee Aaron is a strong vocalist, for me it is only through her latter-day jazzier material that this has really become apparent and this album should really only be listened to as an 80s curiosity.

• Lee Aaron – Vocals
• John Albani – Guitar
• George Bernhardt – Guitar
• Jack Meli – Bass
• Frank Russell – Drums