PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
@planetmosh reviews The Fateful Dark by .@savagemessiah out on .@earacherecords
London metallers Savage Messiah return to the fold with their hugely anticipated fourth album, The Fateful Dark. It’s an archetypical metal album. It’s everything you would expect from a metal album. It is indeed the definition of heavy metal.
Like a mixologist creating and serving their greatest cocktails, so Savage Messiah work in a similar way musically on The Fateful Dark. A smattering of thrash riffs here, some melodic guitar parts there, thumping drums and bass, soaring and gritty vocals, they’ve all been pulled together into one big giant cocktail shaker and given a good old thrashing. This is a cocktail though that’s more likely to be served in a giant pint tumbler, minus the umbrella and glace cherry. It’s the kind of cocktail you take a huge swig of, grin evilly, then proceed to down the remainder in record time. It’s one of those albums that remind me why I love metal so much.
We Brits love our metal served, for the most part, traditional style. It’s something that Savage Messiah have down to a tee with this album. There’s moments they remind me of the very best of Puppets-era Metallica and the Bay Area thrash revolution, there’s riffs and melodies that pull to mind classic Maiden and Helloween, there’s elements of thrash, power and speed, all served in controlled doses throughout that make this album a joy to listen to.
Iconocaust sets the scene perfectly for what lies ahead, with its intro somewhat reminiscent of The Evil That Men Do before kicking into a real thrashy groove that just owns you completely. It segues perfectly from Maiden style to Bay Area thrash and is a brilliant start.
Current single Hellblazer is a perfect example of the power metal leanings, it’s the kind of track that wouldn’t seem out of place on a Helloween or Gama Bomb album. Fizzing guitar harmonies, soaring vocals, anthemic chorus. It has it all.
Live as One Already Dead is a beautifully haunting traditional metal ballad, replete with ripping solos and harmonies throughout while giving Silver a chance to flex his vocal muscles and show a bit of texture.
You get the picture here? Savage Messiah are masters of pulling together everything that was, and still is, good and great about what are very much the foundations of metal and distil them into a brilliant mix of styles. The album is like a greatest hits of metal.
I could go on about how much and how epic title track The Fateful Dark feels, as it brings every part of the album into one blockbusting monster groove. I could tell you how progressive Zero Hour feels and sounds or how brutally magnificent Hammered Down is, or how closing track The Cursed Earth has the kind of stomp you take for granted listening to the likes of Testament.
There’s even a few bonus tracks if you pre-order through the Earache site or itunes in the shape of Maiden’s Be Quick or Be Dead, Diamond Head’s Lightning to the Nations and Motorhead’s Killers that show perfectly just where some of Savage Messiah’s influences come from.
This is metal at its most majestically concise and epic, its most melodic and driving. This is a straight-up, no balls about it, cocktail of heavy metal purity… shaken and stirred indeed.
The Fateful Dark will be released on 10th March through Earache Records.
Track Listing:
1. Iconocaust
2. Minority of One
3. Cross of Babylon
4. Hellblazer
5. Live As One Already Dead
6. The Fateful Dark
7. Zero Hour
8. Hammered Down
9. Scavengers of Mercy
10. The Cursed Earth
11. Be Quick or Be Dead (bonus track)
12. Lightning to the Nations (bonus track)
13. Killers (bonus track)
Savage Messiah are:
David Silver – Guitar/Vocals
Joff Bailey – Guitar
Stefano Selvatico – Bass
Andrea Gorio – Drums
Links:
www.savagemessiah.net
www.facebook.com/SavageMessiahMetal
twitter.com/savagemessiah
