STAINLESS – Lady Of Lust & Steel (2026) *HQ*

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Raging out of Portland, Oregon come 4-piece act STAINLESS who officially started in 2022 with the members having been in bands throughout the Northwest U.S. metal underground. They released an EP in 2024 and “Lady Of Lust & Steel” is their upcoming first full album.
So, what gave it away this band makes music for the New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal? The name, logo, album title, or artwork? And that’s good, I like it, clearly identifies what style of metal it is. However… Stainless has stated they don’t believe themselves to be a ‘heavy metal’ band. For them, that’s not cowardice, it’s merely an advisory, and the music backs up the warning.
It’s immediately clear, whether you know the band’s prior output or not, that this album is gonna walk the fence between steel & metamorphic. Stylistic touchstones would be “Fire Down Under” era Riot, 70s Aerosmith, early 80s Judas Priest, and Motley Crue circa 1982. Singer Larissa Cavacece has a voice much like Wendy O’Williams – not surprising as she used to sing in a Plasmatics tribute act, and guitars just melt your face but with melody too.
This album is a fresh blast of attitude that isn’t generally found within the metal canon. Phony swagger is easy to suss out, but there’s something very legit about “Lady Of Lust And Steel”, and that title really does indicate a lot of what this band sounds like and stands for.

The album doesn’t waste time getting into it. Kicks off stomping with an absolute 1-2 punch of hard rocker “Restless an’ Ready” (check that tambourine!) with AC/DC & ‘80s Accept style crunchy riff and punchy swing, and the much more metallic “Whorefrost”. Lots of great rolling double bass n’ D-beating in that latter track which will have you scratching your head saying: “This isn’t metal?”.
By the time you finish that thought, you’ll have already run into the wah-wah soaked funk rock intro of first single “(Don’t Cross Me) Fool”, very Hendrix, yet the rhythm drops in like a Lynch Mob song.
For me, this is where the toughness of riff and attitude of voice take over this album. More of a trope with classic rock & hard rock than metal, guitarist/singer dynamic is so huge to separate bands from the pack.
In Jamie Byrum and Larissa Cavacece, Stainless have a winning combination. The guitar playing is dynamite, and to properly walk that stylistic line, you gotta know your shit and how to play the nuance within it. Byrum gets the assignment, check out “Danger In The Night”; dual guitars fade into a gallop with slashes of double bass, good mix of tempo changes and melodic mid-section and power solo ride out.

It’s easy to make a big deal about having women in a heavy band, especially a frontwoman. Shouldn’t be, but that’s the way it is. It’s 2026, so the shock factor should be rightfully long gone, but it’s still less common enough in this scene to make note of because to not, might even be disrespectful.
Part of what makes this album awesome is women presence, and pudding proof says it’s a powerful asset for Stainless. Nods to an obvious suspect like Wendy O. Williams when talking about Larissa Cavacece are sure to pop up, and while it’s kind of lazy and not totally accurate (Larissa has better conventional pipes), it’s also apt and complimentary. She’s just got that Wendy O. “not fu**king around” vibe in her voice, and dudes just can’t sell & portray that like a woman can. If you can’t feel it when she says “Sex is all I smell” in the title track, then you just don’t sweat enough.

The song that puts Stainless over the top as far as what they’re going for is “Take A Listen Mama”. Like a more aggressive “Black Velvet” by Alannah Myles, this thing grunts, grinds, slices, dices, and then pours whiskey into the wound. If you ain’t buying what Stainless is sellin’ by this point, then your money ain’t shit here. We don’t use the word “sultry” enough, but if we had to sum up this song in one word, that’d be it. It pulls the pace back a little on the album, which is great for sequencing so that you can get a little (heavy) breather in, before they rock your ass on outta here with “Vitamin Tease”, and then “Rough Justice”, which takes a page right out of the ‘80s Saxon handbook, riff and tempo.

Stainless drop a really nice and tight anchor into the album queue of 2026. It’ll be tough to move it from playlists as it’s not something that I think can be consumed in only one sitting, and subsequent meals will only lead to more subsequent meals.
There’s always something to be said for albums & bands that, even if only slightly, are off the beaten path of the ordinary. This’ll be an eyebrow raiser among a lineup of more conventional headbanging albums, and amen to that. If this band hits the road hard, I don’t see how they don’t crack the pavement.
Very much looking forward to following the ride.
Highly Recommended

01 – Restless An’ Ready
02 – Whorefrost
03 – (Don’t Cross Me) Fool
04 – Lady of Lust & Steel
05 – Danger in the Night
06 – Take a Listen Mama
07 – Vitamin Tease
08 – Rough Justice

Larissa Cavacece – Vocals
Jamie Lee Byrum – Guitars
Mira Sonnleitner – Bass
Terrica Kleinknecht – Drums

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