EP Review: Mystic Priestess – Part Time Punks Sessions

Oakland, CA’s Mystic Priestess are set to release their latest EP on the 27th March, the “Part Time Punks Sessions” follows on from the band’s 2017 self-titled EP and the 2018 EP “No Tomorrow, Only Today“, two tracks from the latter EP appear on their latest release in the raw live style of the “Part Time Punks Sessions“. Mystic Priestess are the second band I’ve encountered to release the recordings from KXLU‘s “Part Time Punks Sessions“, the first being Ötzi‘s EP of the same name that was released last year, and based on my experience so far of the “Part Time Punks Sessions” it seems to be bunker for the bands that have emerged from the shadow of the post punk movement.

The “Part Time Punks Sessions” were performed live at the Cave Studios in Los Angeles, something that is another common theme in this series, and in it’s forerunner, the much missed “Peel Sessions” that were recorded in the same manner for John Peel‘s legendary BBC Radio show. At first glance their chosen moniker suggests heavy metal clichés from the eighties, thankfully this is not the case, Mystic Priestess have a dense and claustrophobic sound that is far removed from the excesses and posturing of that scene, although the “Part Time Punks Sessions” do hark back to that same decade as it carries all of the hallmark of the UK’s gothic scene of the same era.

The spirit of the likes of Skeletal Family and Xmal Deutschland have been summoned for the entirety of “Part Time Punks Sessions“, along with a defiant and anarchic attitude that blends perfectly with the gothic, dark wave and post punk influences that permeate this throwback of an EP, a release that really should come with it’s own cloud of dry ice. The “Part Time Punks Sessions” can be pre-ordered on cassette and digital formats via Bandcamp here, Mystic Priestess will also be celebrating the release of the EP at Oakland, CA’s Elbo Room on release day, with support from fellow Bay Area acts False Figure, V.E.X. and Deaths Head.