The feminine side of nu-metal never really materialized as the likes of
Lennon and
Spike 1000 fizzled, leaving the genre's only real success story the girls of
Kittie. Even they seemed far from girly with their penchant for death metal grunting, whereas Anna Christine of
Luxt is all woman. Though she can get wildly assertive with pipes that are as powerful as any guy's, her voice is sultry and completely muliebral, whether singing about blow jobs (or not, since "Suck It Down" is probably a metaphor for something) or the pangs of anguish that one feels just trying to make it through the day (or not, since "Life Is Pain" is not a metaphor, since it stems from the singer's time working in a tattoo parlor).
American Beast comes off like
Shirley Manson fronting
Marilyn Manson: moody and with gothic overtones, but also quite metallic and loaded with
Rammstein-inspired industrial-strength electronics as well. The band could employ a wider breadth of tempos, since most of the disc settles into and never deviates from a mid-tempo mosh, but the debut fits in well with the post-millennial influx of radio metal in spite of offering a relatively original sound. ~ Brian O'Neill