Christian Mistress - Possession

January 13, 2012

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If Christian Mistress’ second LP was a brand of cigarettes, it would be unfiltered and would contain a barely legal amount of nicotine. It’d come emblazoned with a label from the Surgeon General warning potential consumers that it may aggravate the conditions of those afflicted with Chronic Headbanging Syndrome and Air Guitar Disorder. And it would still be bought and compulsively ingested by every metal addict who could find a pack. I feel like I need a patch for this thing. The promo’s been on my hard drive for three weeks now and listening to it’s become a daily ritual.

Possession is heavy metal without prefixes or adjectives; heavy metal in its purest form, without the nudge-and-wink or ironic posturing many have come to loath from the current crop of “retro” bands slinging Flying V’s and belting corny lyrics under the banner of the music we hold so dearly. There was no doubt Christian Mistress were for real when 2010’s Agony & Opium surfaced from the depths of Olympia, Washington and garnered the band instant praise from every metal outlet worth a damn, including a now-famous quote from Fenriz that’s since been stamped on all of the quintet’s press releases for the last two years.

The only question that sub-half hour slab begged was if the Mistress could maintain their infectious energy on a longer format. Well, Possession has a good 15 minutes on its younger sibling, and it’s the stronger spawn in every way. Ryan McClain and Oscar Sparbel craft the best riffs of their young careers on the throaty V8 roar of “Conviction” and the beautifully paced verse and chorus tradeoffs on “Black Gold”, building and falling and building again until that hook hits us dead between the eyes. Possession is one of those albums from our youths, the ones we’d sit in our rooms and listen to on repeat, rewinding to hear that one part just one more time, because it makes us feel more alive than anything we’ve felt up until that point.

Which isn’t to say Possession is an entirely tallboy swilling, hair twirling party. In addition to flaunting her improved range on the boogie rock chorus of “The Way Beyond”, Christine Davis explores her most ambitious lyrical themes yet on “There Is Nowhere”, a pseudo-ballad directed at those who insist an afterlife not only exists, but is the best way to spend our supposed infinite life after we leave our corporeal forms:

“You said, don’t believe in heaven
Don’t believe in hell
There isn’t anything beyond the physical
Because eternity is along time
Would you want to know yourself that well?
Eternity is a fine time
But it’s all in your mind”

Yeah, not exactly your average “let the good times roll” rager, yet the wicked solos that slash apart the second half still make me want to speed away from the 5-0 while my buddies ditch our empties of Oly on the side of the highway. Christian Mistress are no longer a band to watch; they are a band to consume, to enjoy and, quite frankly, to envy. Now if you’ll excuse me, “Over & Over”‘s outro leads are beckoning my famished ears.

— Greg Majewski

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HEAR POSSESSION

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