MaximumMetal.com recently spoke with former CHASTAIN vocalist Leather Leone about her return to metal with her band, the SLEDGE LEATHER PROJECT. An excerpt is available below:

MM: David Chastain produced your solo album, Shock Waves, and this seemed to be a solo venture that was promising. Why did this journey come to an end after only one solo effort? This was also your last performance with Chastain as well. Did the passion go away?

Leather: "The solo album wasn't the final chapter. For Those Who Dare came after that. Did the passion go away? No. Did the journey end for me in America? Yes. It was time to disappear."

MM: So its 2011, roughly 20 years later and you are back. Tell me about this new project.

Leather: "I never lost touch with [Sandy] Sledge and I'm sure Delphine, if she was still alive, would be calling me. Sledge and I decided that we still had something to say. We wanted to finish what we started so we formed the Sledge Leather Project. After doing a demo tribute recording of DIO's song 'Egypt', we were immediately booked to play the Keep It True Festival in Germany. We'll be releasing the ('comeback') show on DVD."

MM: Is the new album finished up? What can we expect style-wise?

Leather: "No, we're writing it and it will probably be released in November. We're really excited about the opportunities that we're being given. It's great for me to finally have a huge say in what's written and how it's written. With Sledge, I feel like it's writing with a soulmate--same beliefs, same ideas--because we are writing what comes to us naturally and what comes to us naturally is HEAVY music. This is metal. It's just metal. Heavy, metal."

Click here for the complete interview. Check out the official Sledge Leather Project Facebook page here.