MYSTERY BLUE – Metal Slaves

There has been a recent glut of heavy metal bands that are fronted by females. In the past three or four years, female vocalists are finally being appreciated for their talents. And no, not all of them sound like Evanescence. While some of the bands use a docile, operatic soprano to be the voice (ala Nightwish), others just let them wail. With Mystery Blue’s new release, Metal Slaves, you’ll definitely hear the latter.

Mystery Blue was founded in the early ’80s by guitarist Frenzy Phillippon. They’ve gone through a few lineup changes over the past 20 years, but now are set to tear it up again, this time with singer Nathalie Geyer.

The CD starts with a strange instrumental that just doesn’t add anything to the meaning of the CD. It’s tribal in nature, almost like an aborigine sock-hop is happening. But, Geyer does play the didgeridoo during this song, so that’s novel. Just skip that and get to the first song, “Slave to Blood.” This is a fast, heavy song, with violent lyrics like, “I am chained to your corpse, time here forever stopped, the moment I saw the shiny blade penetrate into your flesh …” The drumming is top notch here as well.

“S.T.A.G.E.” is another fast song that changes tempo and gets creative at the chorus. The chorus here is the best one on the whole CD. Geyer’s voice sounds somewhat shrill at times during the verses, though. Sure, she can sing really really high, but a high-pitched vibrato yell is just a “no no,” regardless of gender. The guitar solo screams viciously as well, but hey, the guy’s name IS Frenzy …

When they do slow it down a little, it works. The song “Dark Visions” sounds almost like something Dio would write. The song is melodic, eerie, and lyrically offers vision of despair and desolation. Fun stuff. “No more summer, no more winter, just a ballet of wind and rain.” This is when you’ll start to realize you can’t categorize Mystery Blue as anything except heavy metal — not power metal, neo-classical, progressive, black or stoner. Just heavy metal. (That’s a good thing.)

If you want to sing along, then the best song by far is “Silent Whisper (Bloody Bastard).” This track gives you the best lyric on the whole CD: “I thought my head was gonna explode, but fucking shit it didn’t!” Geyer puts a definite edge into her voice, and she sounds her best when she keeps her vocals low key and in control. Plus, what’s better than calling someone a “bloody bastard?” Not much, so there ya go …

For a band that has been around so long, they have a new rawness to them that you won’t hear from many of the new bands today. It seems that everyone is so polished by the time they have their first release, we come to expect nothing less than perfection. Well, Mystery Blue isn’t perfect. They aren’t perfect like Motörhead isn’t, like AC/DC isn’t, like many heavy metal bands that aren’t striving for perfection but instead are out there to rip things up and release the demons aren’t. So you won’t get moment’s rest here. Metal Slaves is full speed ahead metal, and if Geyer tones down some of her screams (although if you read other reviews they critique her voice as the best thing since rabies shots) they may stick around long enough to truly create a frenzy.