Dark Messiah - Rise of Black Dawn
March 22 2008 at 02:17:18 AM
Dark Messiah, a four piece from the city of Kozani in Northern Greece, have been around since 2000 playing Black Metal in the Hellenic style. What this broadly means is Black Metal composed mid- to up-tempo with scathing but uncrusted melody derived more from Folk and Heavy Metal than the standard Oslo fare, songs interspersed with acoustic breaks and an atmosphere that feels less positively evil than it is ancient and grey. This five-track MCD marks the group's debut on Full Moon Productions, having previously released about an hour’s worth of demo material in the vein of old masters like Rotting Christ and Varathron.
How Dark Messiah separate themselves from tradition, however, is by a wanton aggression which steps outside this cooler approach and rages for moments that sound closer to Teutonic thrash, marked with hoarse vocals, firm bass fills, and production that pacifies the quartet enough so that speed and drums actually matter. Of the myriad song titles to deal out some combination of the words "black," "storm," and "hate," their's is the most charged and refreshing to hear. Although the disc is collectively uncomplex, it’s also perfectly short on time and never tires in the midst of its own thunder and intensity.
[Todd DePalma]
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