I’ve seen a fair amount of hand wringing on my Facebook wall concerning the use of the qualifier “female fronted” to describe a heavy metal band led by a woman, and to be sure, we wouldn’t bother to call, say, Manowar a “male fronted” metal band (machismo, maybe) but while there is a legitimate argument for inadvertent marginalization I think the majority of people employing the phrase mean well. Growing up in the 1980s metal scene, where what few frontwomen existed often had to sexualize themselves to the point of cartoonish garishness to go over with a predominately dude-centric audience, the matter-of-fact presence of a rapidly increasing number of modern women in the genre who require no such handicaps is obviously a positive signal: heavy metal is, however slowly, maturing beyond the infantile mindset that has largely kept the scene such a sausage fest for much of its history. Make no mistake, though, these female-led bands are no mere novelties, nor are they limited to one stylistic avenue or another, and it’s the underlying insinuation that either of those may be the case which has some folks reasonably chafing.
To wit, there is nothing particularly gender-centric about a band like Christian Mistress, beyond the general fact that singer Christine Davis brings a timbre to her vocal range that would not be expected out of a male. However, that voice proves to be a major asset of the band rather than an incidental contribution, warmly vulnerable while simultaneously brash and assertive, so to some extent it’s understandable that it might be deemed a comment-worthy feature of the band’s appeal.
Before we go painting Christian Mistress as an ensemble of musicians built to showcase a female singer, though, consider that Christine Davis isn’t exactly the band’s only ace in the hole: the twin lead guitars of Oscar Sparbel and relatively new recruit Tim Diedrich, both well steeped in the merits and proficiencies of the 1980s New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement, summon forth the sort of insistently catchy riffs that a peak level Saxon would be proud to call their own. On “Open Road”, their dual harmonics contribute as much if not more to the song’s instant appeal as Davis’s ever-commanding vocals. With “Ultimate Freedom”, the two prove themselves equally capable of both laying back in the cut and supplementing Davis’ torch singing as well as taking center stage with a few well-composed, restrained solos between verses.
To Your Death is Christian Mistress’ third album in five years, a measured pace that doesn’t keep fans waiting too long between releases but neither does it risk the resulting product seeming half-baked or compromised. Their developmental curve, too, has been fairly unrushed and gradual, with To Your Death an ebullient if unsurprising follow up to their 2012 effort, Possession.
Often when bands focus inward on enhancing their existing strengths rather than challenging themselves with brand new trials, they run the risk of advancing their song craft with qualitative gains at an inverse to the diminishing returns perceived by fans, and in those cases the third album can be the “make or break” record which proves to cull the herd, for better or worse. With To Your Death, Christian Mistress have passed their litmus test and proven they’re going to be around for a while, if not necessarily the gold medal winner within their own retro subset then at least podium-worthy contenders every time out. In staying true to form, they don’t attempt to be everything to everyone, but that hardly makes their virtues of limited appeal.