What can I say? It's just all about the metal the moment. After a rush of surprisingly diverse heavy releases over the last few months, Christian Mistress popped up on my radar with this rather fine slab of female-fronted trad metal. I don't really know much about this lot, I think this is their debut and if so it's certainly a promising start - musically they've got a lot of NWOBHM in there, think the first two Maiden albums when they were still basically a pub band rather than a stadium act writing galloping heavy metal epics. The guitarists get to noodle away a fair bit but their solos don't slow the songs down, these guys have a real aggressive motor to them and a singer whose voice fucking RIPS. She sounds like a mix of Janis Joplin, the chicks from Heart in their 70s heyday and the guy from Bad Company if someone jammed his nuts in a cutlery drawer. Without her upfront this would still be good but it'd probably get lost in the fog of stoned retro-metal groups already doing the rounds, whereas with her onboard they've got something really potent going on. This fits nicely in with the new wave of occult rock bands gaining popularity at the moment - if you caught last year's bitchtastic 'The Thousandfold Epicentre' by Dutch kooks The Devil's Blood (check out 2011's best of list for more on them) then you'll probably like this, likewise if the last Ghost record floated your Satanic boat. As the name suggests, Christian Mistress are more irreverant than genuinely Satanic but this is still a serious kick in the balls and they're not messing around with their delivery. Line this one up against some classic Diamond Head and Di'anno era Maiden, get your sweaty denim on and start annihilating beers and banging your head to this slab of stonking modern metal.
Check out : 'The Way Beyond', starts slow but you'll feel the weight soon enough.
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