Artist: Christian Mistress
Title: Agony And Opium
Type: Album
Label: 20 Buck Spin

Of late there seems to have been a mini explosion of top quality US bands that are drawing on the roots of real heavy metal for their inspiration, drinking deep from the chalice of the NWOBHM. Recently I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing the excellent Valkyrie and the slightly more epic sounds of Realmbuilder and now the most gloriously metal of them all – Christian Mistress. Fronted by the fantastically rough and passionate vocals of Christine Davis with searing guitar work from Ryan McClain and Oscar Sparbel and a real rock solid, driving bedrock of rhythm laid down by drummer Rueben Storey and bassist Johnny Wulf, Christian Mistress have got it all in their arsenal. It’s great to hear a female vocalist in the tradition of Betsy, Jody Turner, Kim McAuliffe, Doro Pesch et al, rather than the sickening glut of cod operatic, gothic wailing that has been clogging up the metal scene for so long. Christine Davis definitely has the vocal prowess to be mentioned in the same breath as those aforementioned groundbreaking singers. I haven’t mentioned the songs yet and they really are of the highest quality; ‘Riding On The Edges’, ‘Desert Rose’, ‘Home In The Sun’...they’re all genuine heavy metal monsters, built from steel, bursting with energy and melody. This music harks back to the glory days of Diamond Head, Raven and Elixir and the production is perfectly suited, being organic, raw and fiery. Every instrument is clearly audible and all the energy of a live performance crackles through every song. For fans of real heavy metal I can’t recommend this highly enough.

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