Coming from the Steel City, Pittsburgh, PA, Lady Beast are a band on a mission to tear up places with their ferocious and hungry heavy metal madness! From having a passion for spiders to being a herbalist, Lady Beasts members not only create great driving music but sound interesting too! Deb and Twiz caught up with TheNwothm.com to tell us more about the band and what is next!

THE NWOTHM: For those who do not know who you are, can you tell us your band name, who is in the band and where you are from?

DEB: We are known as Lady Beast from the Steel City, Pittsburgh, PA.  On vocals is Deborah Levine, lead guitar is Andy Ramage, rhythm guitar is Christopher ‘Twiz’  Tritschler, Adam Ramage is on drums and Amy Bianco on bass.

THE NWOTHM: How did the band form and is there any interesting story surrounding its formation?

DEB: The band formed back in 2009 when there wasn’t much going on in the traditional heavy metal underground.  We were mostly playing punk shows in basements, small bars, etc.  Deborah Levine is technically the only original member from that 2009 line up.  In 2011 Adam and Twiz joined the group and we recorded our first album in 2012.  Andy joined and helped us write the Metal Immortal EP and 2 more full lengths.  In 2020 during the pandemic Amy joined us on bass and the rest is history!  Here we are better than ever and ready to keep writing and recording awesome music.  The band literally just runs off of our love for music and heavy metal in particular.

THE NWOTHM: Can you tell us how did the name Lady Beast come about?

DEB: It was the title of a song from an old band me and Greg (the original bass player for LB) were in called Long to Hell. We had only played a handful of shows and parted ways, but we loved the song Lady Beast and decided to keep it and make a new band with that name.  We have been playing the song Lady Beast at the end of every set for the last 15 years. Haha

THE NWOTHM: Since the bands formation what big milestones have you achieved?

DEB:We have had the opportunity to play on both huge and small stages all over the country and make life long friendships through music.  We come from the underground, and that stuff is really important to us.  We have had the honor of playing with some national acts like Doro, Manilla Road, Cirith Ungol, Diamond Head… And we will be crossing the pond for our first European Festival in July at Head Bangers Open Air.  The biggest milestone is honestly still having a productive and fun band after 15 years.  We have seen a lot of bands come and go over the years and it feels good to still be going strong.

THE NWOTHM: Can you tell us any fun/ interesting facts about the members of the band?

DEB: Sure! Adam and Andy are brothers and have been playing in bands together since they were kids!  Twiz just got his first dog Halen recently and is enjoying being a new dog dad. He is also a photographer and has taken most of our photos for promos and albums.  Amy is a spiderologist! She has so many spiders and loves sharing her knowledge about them! And I (Deb) is a herbalist!  She loves foraging and researching native plants to use for medicinal and magical purposes!

THE NWOTHM: From your previous releases do you have a record which you would say was your best ? Which release record would you say was the best received?

TWIZ: I don’t like to rank our albums as they all represent a different time and set of circumstances in our history as a band.  We learn something from each one.  I think my favorite album musically is probably Vicious Breed.  Favorite cover art was Lady Beast II.  I like the production on our albums in ascending order from the Metal Immortal on through Vicious Breed, The Vulture’s Amulet, and Omens.  I have some ideas for when we record our next record.

THE NWOTHM: Can you tell us more about your previous record ‘Omens’ and how the music came about? Any songs you would highlight?

TWIZ: Andy and I write music for songs separately.  Usually each album winds up being about half and half of our music.  Deb writes all the lyrics.  Sometimes we’ll suggest an idea or theme for something and she’ll run with it.  Most of the time though, Deb just comes up with the lyrics and ideas for what the songs are about herself.  Whenever Andy or I have music written for a new song, we bring it to practice and start teaching it to the band.  Sometimes we’ll collaborate as a band on some minor arrangement with the song, but they are usually completed by the time we all start playing them. 

My favorites on Omens are Poisoned Path and The Fool’s Journey.  I like the riffs and the melody in Path and the lyrics.  Deb had this really cool idea for the vocals on the bridge.  It turned out killer.  She’s having a conversation with herself, but playing 2 parts.  I just thought it was cool.  The Fool’s Journey I think is just a badass song.  It’s a fun song to play.  It’s my favorite song vocally on the EP.  Deb did these really soaring backing vocals after the guitar solo. I get chills every time I listen to it.  

THE NWOTHM: Where did the inspiration come from for your artworks and who are the artist(s) behind them? 

TWIZ: Adam usually comes up with the concept.  Adam has this natural ability to come up with a cool visual idea once we have things rolling on a new album.  He develops a color scheme for the cover art, and has ideas for colored vinyl if we go with something besides regular black vinyl.  Adam and Andy probably both have the nicest record collections in the band, and both have worked as screen printers.  -I think that is what makes Adam so good at coming up with ideas for cover art and anything special for the records. 

Before we did Omens, I honestly never heard of screen printing on a record before.  I thought it was so killer when I got my copy.   Deb does all the work contacting the artists and establishing the relationship with them and the band.  She is the one that does all the work with conveying the visual idea and concepts for the artistic direction we want to go. I do the band photography.  

THE NWOTHM: What bands and artists have influenced you and helped you to carve your sound? And how would say your sound has developed since you formed?

TWIZ: I can’t speak for the rest of the band, but basically I just like music that is guitar based.  That translates to mostly 70’s, 80’s and some 90’s rock/metal stuff.  I think my favorite bands are probably Blue Oyster Cult and ZZ Top but I don’t think anything I’ve written for the band sounds like those bands.  I try to draw influence and inspiration from bands I like rather than just mimic them.  Other favorites of mine are Black Sabbath (all eras), Metallica, Iron Maiden, Riot, Metalucifer, Captain Beyond, Dead Moon, Van Halen, AC/DC, Motorhead, Danzig.  When I was in college I was the music director for our radio station, so I was exposed to a lot of different music.  I also studied history of American Jazz.  I’ve always been mostly a rhythm player, so my main influences are James Hetfield, Malcolm Young, Tony Iommi, and Eddie Van Halen.  I love soul and rhythm and blues music as well.  My current obsession is 1960’s Japanese surf guitar music.  

THE NWOTHM: How would you compare the American Nwothm scene to other countries around the world?

TWIZ: I think in America it’s a little more underground than it is in other parts of the world.  People are just as passionate about metal as they ever have been.  Metal can transcend boarders, geographical locations, language barriers.  Last year when we played Hell’s Heroes in Texas, we made a lot of new friends, and reconnected with old ones.  Then a few months later, we saw those people again at our festival (Metal Immortal) in Pittsburgh.  I think that’s the thing I like most about this music (besides the guitar riffs haha).  Metal makes the world smaller.  It brings people together.  Great art has power and metal is one of those things.  

THE NWOTHM: What shows have you got coming up for 2023? Any major performances you would like to highlight?  

TWIZ: We’re playing at Headbanger’s Open Air in Germany this summer.  That is probably what we are most excited about.  We are playing some shows with our friends in Deceased, Night Demon, and Haunt coming up too in the US.  We are working on new music as well.

THE NWOTHM: Will we see any new music in 2023? With it being a new year, what do you hope to achieve in the upcoming months?

TWIZ: At the time of this interview, we have 3 new songs written and rehearsed. I have music for 3 others written that I haven’t shown the band yet.