Bitten By the Beast

Album Review

If a few breaks had come his way, David "Rock" Feinstein would have left his mark on the heavy metal masses a long time ago. As the leader of local New York rockers the Rods, Feinstein supplied vocals and guitar work to quite a few cult classic albums throughout the '80s. Not to mention a little-known fact: Feinstein's cousin was none other than Ronnie James Dio, and the two played together while both were members of Elf. And in 2010, Feinstein got around to issuing quite possibly his best solo effort yet, Bitten by the Beast. His roots with Dio continued to run deep up until the end (Dio passed away a few months before the release of Bitten by the Beast), as the album was one of the first to be released on Dio's newly formed label, Niji Entertainment, and even features a track with none other than Dio himself on vocals, the anthemic "Metal Will Never Die." Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bitten by the Beast leans heavily on '80s metal sounds, including the NWOBHM/Motörhead-esque album opener, "Smoke on the Horizon," as well as "Evil in Me," "Kill the Demon," and a tune that was co-written by Feinstein and Dio, the album-closing "Gambler Gambler." From beginning to end, Bitten by the Beast is an inspired piece of vintage metal, and will certainly be of interest to metalheads, as it contains one of the last-ever recorded vocals of the great Ronnie James Dio.