I can best describe this two-track demo from Slovenia's MIST in two easy-to-understand words: sex appeal. This demo's sex appeal has very little to do with the fact that every single member of this Doom Metal band is female but it has everything to do with the string sorcery from Ema Babošek and Nina Grizonič woven together with Nina Spruk's voice, the first thing most people will notice when they first hear MIST.

It may be true that being an all-female Metal band gives them a bit of an edge in looking better in comparison to an all-male Metal band and even understanding what sexy means better than an all-male Metal band; but when you listen to the music of MIST, the sex appeal lies within the wilderness of their throwback riffs, regardless of whether-or-not you knew they were an all-girl Metal band or not before you heard them.

These ladies understand traditional Doom in a realistic sense that isn't debasing or degenerative from the genre's sound that the Doom bands of the 70's and 80's honed, breaking musical molds within their own respective eras. This era, however, belongs to bands like MIST, should they dare to step up to the calling. Doom has always been a subgenre that allows the artists to deal lyrically and harmonically with very real, somber and thought-provoking ideas and discharging the inner pain of life outward. The world is in need of Doom Metal now more than ever, specifically female-fronted Doom.

It's no secret that from an outsider's perspective, the entire Heavy Metal community and culture comes off as a "boy's club". But far be it for male Metal fans to even have the thought that females cannot be as true to the true spirit of Heavy Metal as any male fan. When you take the spirit behind Heavy Metal and you boiled down even more, you will find the androgynous spirit Rock N' Roll.

The presence of women in the genre is nothing new at all without any subgenre excluded. In Doom Metal and its various other forms (Stoner, Drone, Sludge), bands like JEX THOTH, BLOOD CEREMONY, ACID KING, WITCH MOUNTAIN & CASTLE have worked very hard to pave the way for bands like MIST to make a mark for themselves in this style that they feel best expresses themselves artistically. The women from these bands have not only made it acceptable for young women to want to get involved with this kind of music, they make it look really damn good while they're at it.

This demo will wet the appetites of mostly traditional Doom lovers though and leave anyone wanting adrenaline-fueled tempos, claustrophobic atmospheres and overdriven guitar crescendos so fat that they need their own ZIP code extremely dissatisfied. The production by Slovenian Metal head Benjamin Kic succeeds at putting the noise and power you would get from being at a Mist performance onto the demo. It does seem to be missing that love for guitar and amp tone that most doom bands go crazy trying to perfect. The drumming is where I would say the band lags behind the most. There seems to be something restraining the drummer from getting as creative at the lead guitars on the solo for "Phobia". I also feel like Nina Spruk, while being a perfect match for Doom Metal clean-vocals or any other forms of Blues Rock and Psychedelic Rock, I feel like there's more that she has to offer and she should get to work on utilizing more of her natural talent to MIST's songs.

My only feedback to the guitar and bass sound is to definitely keep craving for a better and better tone through amps/guitars/effect pedals although this demo's tone works just fine. When it comes time to cut an LP, MIST shouldn't have to make any compromises.

It's a promising start for MIST but when they complete an LP will be when we really get to see what they're made of.