PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Germany’s Messenger return with an eight track album of original tracks and covers, delivered in the classic Heavy Metal style, and with the subtlety of a brick.
For a start, Siegfried Schüssler has the most Metal of Metal voices anywhere on the planet, when this guy screams, windows shatter and virgins run for cover. Couple that with some immense and technically mind boggling guitar work, and this album reaches dizzy heights indeed.
I must admit, when the album appeared, the prospect of listening to the potential destruction of classic Metal tunes filled me with more than a tad of dread. None of it though, to be perfectly blunt, it works. Messenger have paid homage yes but stamped their own authority on the songs as well, cleverly throwing in a few original compositions into the mix, making the album flow really well. I’m guessing the idea behind this release was to give the fans something to bite on until a new album proper surfaces in the not too distant future, coupled with the desire just to go into the studio and have some fun knocking out some anthemic songs. Indeed, it is that feeling of shackles off, unbridled fun that comes across in large volumes.
Possibly, a lot of fans and listeners will home in on the Dio and Rainbow tracks but for me, being a huge Helloween fan ( to the point of having a few evil pumpkins inked on my skin), I was expecting to be cringing at the Dr Stein cover but no, they absolutely nailed it, faultless in fact. Don’t Talk To Strangers is just immense, and Kill The King will leave you breathless, a job well done all around really.
If you want to be super critical, you could say that the album offers little new, hardly surprising for a covers dominated release, and that it is stuck within some very narrow generic confines but so what. This is an album designed with one thing in mind, to rock your socks off, and that it achieves with ease. A great choice of tracks, superb vocal delivery backed by some seriously top level musicianship make this worthy of a place in any Metal fans collection.
Track Listing;
1. Sign Of The Evil Master
2. Tod dem DJ
3. Asylum XTC
4. Kill The King
5. Port Royal
6. Black Bone Song
7. Dr Stein
8. Don’t Talk To Strangers
Messenger are;
Siegfried Schüssler – Vocals
Patrik Deckarm – Rhythm Guitar
Frank Kettenhofen – Lead Guitar
Benny Strauß – Bass
Markus Merl – Drums
Out now via Massacre Records
https://www.facebook.com/messengerband
