Review Summary: Hell Kitten and Leather Messiah turn back time and deliver a satisfying assortment of blues-tinged rock songs.
Sky Valley Mistress is a blues-rock duo from the U.K. consisting of lead vocalist Kayley “Hell Kitten” Davies and multi-instrumentalist Max “Leather Messiah” Newsom. Frankly, if hearing those two nicknames doesn't make you at least a little bit curious to check out this album, you might unfortunately be beyond saving. Badass nicknames aside, despite the fact that Newsom is the sole instrumentalist in the studio, the band has built a reputation for having a very unique live set-up: Davies and Newsom both man the drums (Davies plays the kit and Newsom plays the kick drum), while Davies sings and Newsom plays guitar. They also opt not to use any backing tracks or samples in their performances, creating a very DIY feel to their concerts.
Their latest album,
Luna Mausoleum, puts the duo’s impressive musicianship at the forefront. Max Newsom is one hell of a guitar player, and knows how to deliver riffs that are fast, catchy, and fit their respective songs perfectly.
No Sleep and
Thundertaker are both album highlights largely because of the guitarwork present on both tracks. In terms of style, if you’re a fan of 2000’s era rock bands like The Black Keys, Queens of the Stone Age, or The White Stripes, this album will feel tailor-made for you.
Kayley Davies cements herself as a more-than-capable frontwoman for the band; her powerful, anthemic and bluesy vocals serve as the perfect compliment to Newsom’s instrumental work. Her performance on
Luna Mausoleum is akin to Emily Armstrong’s vocals with Dead Sara. Most impressive of all however is the fact that Davies knows exactly how and when to tone down the gritty bravado and deliver softer, more emotional vocals such as on tracks like
House of the Moon.
As impressive as this album is, it’s certainly far from perfect. There are moments throughout
Luna Mausoleum that feel a bit overambitious, as well as a handful of songs that sort of meander aimlessly for a couple minutes too long. This critique manifests mostly clearly in the album’s closer,
Blue Desert II. While it’s far from being bad, it unfortunately doesn’t do enough to justify its nearly ten minute runtime. It feels as though the duo is building and building towards an exciting climax that just…doesn’t happen. Another noteworthy criticism is the fact that the band has a habit of reusing the same song structure formula multiple times throughout the album. They have a penchant for quiet (almost too quiet) introductions that eventually explode into the bluesy sound that they do so well. Again, this isn’t enough of a gripe to make any song go from good to bad, but it results in certain songs being a bit too predictable, and it makes you wish they had shaken up their song structures just a bit more.
All in all, criticisms aside,
Luna Mausoleum is a damn good time for any fan of rock or blues music, and the level of talent present on the album from both members is nothing short of admirable – especially considering this is only their sophomore album.
3.75 out of 5
