The long-awaited return of cult, seminal Northwestern metallers! The first studio album from Christian Mistress in ten years, Children of the Earth blends traditional metal glory with pure, old-school conviction. Ten years removed from their previous studio album To Your Death, cult Northwestern metallers Christian Mistress have returned with Children of the Earth. Recorded as a four-piece the new album features vocalist Christine Davis, guitarist Tim Diedrich, drummer Reuben Storey and second guitarist/bassist Jonny Wulf. Christian Mistress recorded in their native Olympia, Washington on 4-track half-inch reel-to-reel at High Command Studio. The album finds Christian Mistress reaffirming their position as one of North America’s finest traditional metal bands—a unique combination of the old-school paired with energetic, dueling guitar work and the imitable vocals of Davis. Davis feels Children of the Earth is now the “line in the sand” that separates it from previous efforts. As a result, the album sounds like the band’s classic setup, yet the guitars and vocals have more in common this time around. The cover artwork is an ink painting done by Lauren O’Conner, with Johnny Delacy handling the photography. Annick Giroux is responsible for its layout. It brings image from the art off the Christian Mistress 2009 7” EP (also drawn by O’Conner) back as a reflection in the water that is also reflecting the starry sky. The starry sky is referred to in the same orphic inscriptions as the album title. In this reference, the children of the Earth speak of themselves as existing within the starry sky, which we all do as inhabitants of the Earth. The artwork brings imagery from the early days of Christian Mistress back to the foreground and helps connect the band to the raucous spirit of their beginnings. The Children of the Earth title ties to the thread of the lyrics throughout the rest of the songs. The idea for the album came from ancient writings found on a gold tablet or orphic inscription in an unmarked grave within a large necropolis in southern Italy. It is thought to be one of the oldest items of writing ever found. The orphic inscription referred to instructions on how to find the Lake of Memory in the realm of Hades on the journey of the dead. The seeker was to pass by and say, “I am a child of the Earth and starry Heaven,” to pass on to death. Davis adapted this line and the story from this ancient text to become the basis for the song “Lake of Memory.” From there, the ideas for the rest of the songs came easily. The songs all tie back to a central theme of acknowledging the vastness of the universe and how in the scheme of that vastness, we are only passing by on this earth briefly. Even so, what we do here does have an impact. Davis affirms that Children of the Earth is about using what we have to live intentionally. It’s about speaking up for those who have no voice, and it’s about myth and how we ourselves are the mythmakers for future generations. She notes that if we could think of ourselves as the future ancestors that we are, our actions would have more meaning and value. It sounds idealistic, but it’s true. In the song “Shadow,” the line “Tonight we could be gods in the Pantheon, we could be anything” refers to the idea that a typical person holds the capacity and probability of creating the myths of future generations. Humans are often too short-sighted to remember such things as the vastness of the universe on a day-to-day basis. Understandably so, with all the preoccupations we spin ourselves into. For Davis, the album addresses the lack of connectivity to the vastness of the human psyche. It sets a reminder for us that, written in the most ancient gold tablets, our ancestors attempted to forge a path that connected them more wholly to the universe. Davis thinks we, as a society, could benefit from getting back to a connection to the vastness of the universe: “This album, Children of the Earth, is a declaration and a reminder of who we are and what we could be. We could be so much more than we give ourselves credit for.”
