Band:	Slave To Sirens
Album:	Terminal Leeches
Style:	Death metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	March 11, 2018
A review by:	Windrider

01. Terminal Leeches
02. Humanesticide
03. Slave To Sirens
04. Congenital Evil

While metal still remains a male-dominated music genre (and probably always will), some refreshments here and there are always a pleasant surprise. Because, at the end of the day, hot chicks are what we want, right? And if they are playing metal, even better so.

So with Slave To Sirens, a new all-female band playing some in-your-face death and thrash metal enters the scene with their first EP, Terminal Leeches. And guess what, they're from Lebanon, so it's even more of a rarity we're facing here. But let's go in medias res. Terminal Leeches consists of four straightforward tracks and clocks in at 20 minutes in total. Starting off with some atmospheric winds and guitar work, it does not take long until the headbanging parts set in. The title song already calls for crushed necks and goes on through various tempo changes and style varieties, showing what the ladies are capable of.

Even though it's a quite young band, they sound mature in a positive way. Riffs and song parts are well worked out and it never sounds as if they are just blasting out what first came to their mind. Speaking of female bands with harsh vocals, the singer's duty is of course always under close observation. However, vocalist Maya S. Khairallah delivers a great job, recklessly screaming her way through many pitches and never giving a fuck it seems. Compared even to veterans, probably one of the best female harsh vocals I have heard yet. But all the members perform in an extremely professional way, also the guitar work (both rhythm and soloing) deserves additional praise.

Production-wise there will be many small bands in the Western hemisphere that will envy how Terminal Leeches sounds. One note also about the lyrics: Being from Lebanon, where independent women presumably don't have the easiest stand (I don't have much firsthand information so forgive me if I'm wrong here), Slave To Sirens never give a fuck and stand up against male domination. This is well summed up in the line "He's a merciless creature / Always feeding on your pain / Making you his toy / Why do you always have to obey? / Zero degrees of empathy forever coming your way" from the track "Congenital Evil". Ouch, guys.

After this first EP, one can expect a lot more to come from these girls. First it will be interesting if they can hold their already quite high standards on a longer album, but definitely it will be something to enjoy when you just want to fuck shit up and need some quality background music for that. When Slave To Sirens come along, they don't give a fuck, and guys better protect their nuts.