Album Review: Messiah - Christus Hypercubus
Reviewed by Sam Jones
Messiah are one of those bands who, whenever they release a new album, I am immediately interested to check out. Formed way back in 1984, Messiah hail from Zug, Switzerland, and are amongst the country’s premier metal exports alongside their contemporaries, Coroner. The band have seen a turbulent history, having formed, broken up and reformed a number of times; the band’s earliest records date back to 1986’s Hymn To Abramelin and the hilariously titled and illustrated Extreme Cold Weather, released a year later. A number of other records were released in the following years but, after 2003, it looked like the band were finally done. Then, reforming in 2017, and currently within the longest period of activity in the band’s history, Messiah released Fracmont in 2020 to considerable praise and, now, the band are prepped to unleash their seventh full length album, Christus Hypercubus, for a March 1st date. Carrying on their partnership with High Roller Records, Messiah look again to throw out some quality death/thrash metal and I personally couldn’t wait to see what was what:
If there’s anything to be said about Messiah, it’s their aesthetic doesn’t change from record to record. Messiah are renowned for their particularly ruthless sonic assault but, frankly, id argue Christus Hypercubus sees that extreme metal attack double down on the bludgeoning factor Messiah are famed for. The band don’t merely play with excessive strumming to garner speed, nor does their production just render them with a sound that’s unmoving; Messiah’s aesthetic sees their performance constantly bouncing to and fro, often with segments of songwriting that sees whole riffs drop away leaving the audience alone with the drumming and vocals. It’s an album that knows it doesn’t need to constantly berate your senses with endless guitar work to keep you on board with what they’re doing. With that said, the guitar work herein is explosive as riffs are often coupled together and harness a serrated edge as they’re played; while we can’t seem this record as anything overtly clean nor dirty, Messiah saw to it during the mixing process that this record possess a keen bite.
In much the same way are the vocals projected towards us. This is one delivery that’s seemingly unconcerned with merely being left on record, and instead is constantly seeking your throat. This is in fact Martin Seebach’s first album credit on the vocals for Messiah and I must say, whilst Andy Kaina did a fantastic job over the course of Messiah’s career, Seebach has a vitriol and bloodlust within his performance that I can’t recall experiencing in the band’s back catalogue. Seebach doesn’t perform his vocal output as much as he flat out barks it out, complementing the band’s biting riffs excellently. It works wonders within a record that feels to have been taken completely off every conceivable chain and shackle; any such limiter the band have imposed upon themselves appears to have been utterly relinquished and the vocals, much like the songwriting, is actively seeking to destroy us.
Half the reason this record seems to hit us so hard boils down to the bass injected into the underlayer. If you pay attention, even early on, you’ll find the drums, even playing the most routine patterns, hit with a taut strike that immediately grabs your attention because the drums aren’t content to just play along in the back. Whilst the actual bass of the record is a pretty standard fare, the band did ensure the bass exhibited in the drums was a constant thing that would heighten their performance, especially when the songwriting sees the drums pick up in intensity. The double bass drumming is effective because while it keeps us interested and listening, it doesn’t attempt to overpower the rest of the band nor muddy the direction the band take us in; it’s powerful just enough to keep us on edge without the it’s bass becoming a sensory detriment to the rest of the instrumentation.
It’s a nice change to encounter a work of extreme metal that doesn’t feel solely committed to speed alone. Yes, Messiah play fast and heavy because that’s a sure fire way of getting your audience on board with your soundscape, new and old fans alike lean towards that, but the vast majority of Christus Hypercubus is so paced that while we recognise they’re playing quick, it’s not the be all and end all of the band’s approach to songwriting. Even when we know the band are playing a faster tempo, you always have a firm grasp on what they’re doing and where they’re taking to. Messiah have this knack at playing quickly but possessing an adept ability to bring their pace down to earth so we don’t constantly feel like it’s a race to keep up with their assault. Not only does this make it an easier album to experience, a record that could serve as a potential gateway to more extreme works, but it helps give their songwriting a more well-rounded aesthetic. Their songwriting feels far from slapped together at the last minute; real time and thought went into the songwriting as you can’t just piece together songs of this complex nature overnight.
In conclusion, Messiah return with their first record in four years with a new vocalist and a record that sticks the landing thoroughly. It’s certainly amongst the band’s most pummelling releases as the band have appeared to have doubled down on the death metal element of their sound. The record is approximately forty-five minutes in length, yet an initial listen would have us believing it considerably shorter; I think it goes to show the talent and prowess on display that this album has that it goes by as quickly as it feels to do. In addition, this is a record that isn’t solely dedicated to destroying you; we’ve covered how the band are seemingly reaching out if the record for your throat, but the production and mixing have been rendered in such a way that we can easily relax and breathe all the while Messiah subject us to this swirling maelstrom. Overall I’m glad to have another Messiah record and it’s a blast from start to finish.
