In a world lost within a sea of endless repetitive metal, it’s nice to come across something, that while isn’t totally original, doesn’t sound like anything within it’s genre in recent years. What Christian Mistress bring to the table is a love for late 70’s and early 80’s metal, along with a fondness for Black Sabbath, a female lyrical delivery that while not overly aggressive, is brooding and pensive enough to incur a reaction.

If you look at a picture of this band, you will see a bunch of musicians who were clearly born in the wrong decade. Through the music you can definitely tell, but more importantly it’s a breath of fresh air to this really muddy, loud, and repetitive genre. The music itself doesn’t come off as a band trying to relive the past, but forge a new future with these direct influences at the fore front.

The albums opener, “Over and Over” is a tour-de-force kick to the gut. Christine Davis’ voice sounds like a hybrid of the Wilson sisters from Heart’s sound and the vocal delivery Yes a-la Jon Anderson. As a metal album, it shows a great amount of variety; it’s rockers do indeed rock hard (“Over and Over,” “Black to Gold,” “Haunted Hunted”), but the band also embraces acoustic moments surprisingly well (“Conviction” and “There Is Nowhere”), which stems from Davis’ subtle, but forceful vocals.

If you enjoy all the past influences mentioned, you will enjoy this for sure. Modern metal fans should also give it a try, you can’t really go wrong.

Album Rating: Stream It or Digitally Download It

Listening Co-efficient: Active Listen

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