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MISTRESS ‘In Disgust We Trust’ Earache(2005)
It may be that London is the one location in the United Kingdom with the most famous venues and well-known recording studios (Abbey Road, etc), but it is Birmingham that deserves the title of the birth place of some of the most important metal acts such as Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Napalm Death. Having the latter as their main influence, the quintet Mistress began their journey into the extreme metal world in 1999.
Their first few demos and 7” recordings went relatively unnoticed, but it was their live performances that caught the attention, not only of established music magazines like Metal Hammer and Terrorizer, but also of the underground label Rage of Achilles with which they released their first two studio albums – “Mistress” and “The Chronovisor”(2003).
The band’s reputation as one of the most explosive fresh UK-based outfits made Earache records offer them a contract, and with their support in hand, the members of Mistress are about to give birth to their third full-length release, entitled “In Disgust We Trust”. I must admit that the band had managed to score a few points in my evaluation table, even before I had properly listened to their album, and that’s because of their devotion and appreciation to bands like Brutal Truth, Napalm Death and Discharge. After I gave a few spins to the album, though, I realised that this long list of impressive influences should also include the Swedish groove-mongers Entombed - an addition which gave “In Disgust We Trust” a certain extra flavour.
The influence of the great Swedes is obvious from the very beginning, with the opening track "In Disgust We Trust” being built upon one of the grooviest riffs that you can find in the whole album. Things turn much heavier in “Happily Ever Disaster” as the drum beats per minute are significantly increased, and so does the frontman’s vocals. The band keeps things in a similar manner with “Fu*king Fu*k”, before we get introduced to the magnificent groove of “Static” – one of the best compositions of the album. After being once again introduced to the world of extremity by the sounds of “At Arms Length”, we come face to face with what I consider to be the second best song of the album, the quite simplistic “Alcohole”.
Up to this point, I had only good things to say about this release, but that was before the band decided to use some of the worst high-pitched vocals as the refrain of “Whiskey Tastes Better...”. I am not yet convinced whether this was the band’s idea to give a certain element of fun to the album, but the problem is that this unsuccessful experiment was once again carried through in “Talking to God (on a Microphone Made of Steel)” and made the last few moments of “In Disgust We Trust” sound less exciting.
Some may say that Mistress are not giving anything new to the extreme metal scene with the release of this album, and they are probably quite right. What I got from the majority of the compositions of this album was a reminder of what made me become a fan of the extreme sound, and the satisfaction that there are some new bands out there who have a pretty good understanding of what good quality extreme metal music is. “In Disgust We Trust” is a well-made release that is very enjoyable to listen to, and if it hadn’t been for these few moments of silliness, it would have definitely been rated much higher.
****
Review by John Stefanis
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