It’s safe to say that you cannot call yourself a true Metalhead and have not heard of MESSIAH. I will be the first to admit that I was not an active listener of the band, but I do own “Rotten Perish” from ’92 and I’m aware of their legacy. For me, even from the early days, they always had a slightly different sound compared to their brethren SODOM and or KREATOR. They always seemed more along the lines of CORONER and POLTERGEIST (more on that later). With this latest release, they seem to continue that trend, but there is a bit more vitriol involved. Listen to the vocals on the title track and you can see for yourself. Also along with track #3 ‘Once Upon A Time… Nothing’, with its more upfront speed, there is some anger going on lyrically and musically. I can imagine this soon to be a crowd favorite. Can you imagine the crowd singing in unison on the main chorus? Ha ha, I can. This more intense song dynamic gives a nod to MACHINE HEAD at times. Also with this release, there seems to be more variation involved with songwriting and also a bit with sampling. The song structure as well as more of those little melodic interludes give the listener a much more varied soundscape. I do wonder also and I made the band comparison at the beginning, but it seems the current guitarist is also doing time in POLTERGEIST as well. Speaking of interesting, as I was listening to this release, I kept thinking who do they remind me of? It was then that it dawned on me on the final two tracks ‘The Venus Baroness I’ and ‘The Venus Baroness II’, but they remind me much of a thrashier sounding BELPHEGOR. Take a listen, and let me know what you think. Kudos for adding a bit of the new and modern to their sound that’s lasted the ages. All in all, it’s a good release for a band that’s been there since the get-go. Horns up to them for keeping the flag (of hate… haha, sorry) flying. www.facebook.com/messiahthrashingmadness, www.facebook.com/hrrecords