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Messiah's Kiss > Metal > Reviews
Messiah's Kiss - Metal

From metal with balls to cheese balls. - 84%

hells_unicorn, May 26th, 2008

Messiah’s Kiss play a very formulaic brand of power metal that draws heavily upon traditional and NWOBHM influences, which puts them in a pretty large crowd of acts in the German scene. While originality was never high on their list of priorities when they put out their amazing debut, their sound was distinctive in that they selected a much more guitar driven approach to the style, and tended not to dwell too heavily upon the extremely cheesy elements that had been featured from acts like Metalium and Dream Evil. However, with the advent of excessive pomp and metal worship in 2004, everyone seemed to shift gears and instead concentrate on constructing their own books of heavy metal.

“Metal” is essentially a better version of Dream Evil’s 2004 cheddar factory release and Hammerfall’s near equally overbearing metal conception “Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken”. Rather than blaze away at the speed of light and take no prisoners like the band’s previous masterpiece, it seems more content to stick around mid-tempo land a lot more and put more emphasis on chorus fanfares and melodic guitar work. Tirelli’s vocal work has been toned down a little in order to fit the mold of crowd pleasing impresario, an obvious departure from the near berserker-like madness heard on “Prayer for the Dying”, which rivaled the passion of Eric Adams at times.

Although now modeling themselves after some albums in a less exciting part of the power metal world, these Germans do well to outclass their Swedish counterparts in the songwriting and lyrics department. Faster and more compact songs like “Uncaging Rebellion” and “Hell or Victory” spare no amount of heaviness, especially with the added element of Wayne Banks’ raunchy bass attack. The choruses carry the same arena friendly atmosphere, the quiet interludes are compact and simplistic, but everything falls together nicely and a fine set of songs emerges. Tirelli pulls off the cleaner version of the power metal front man quite well, and still makes room for the occasional gut wrenching shout here and there.

Some of the work on here sounds a little more rock oriented at times, introducing something of a Jorn/Masterplan element into the mix. “Tears in the Rain” definitely sounds like something that could have been on Aeronautics, featuring a heavier amount of keyboard atmosphere than usual for this fold, and a much more subdued tempo and flow. “Blackhawk” also features Tirelli doing a good amount of Jorn Lande sounding vocal work, matching up against another really slow and rock-like atmosphere, pretty similar to mid-90s Riot actually.

The best of what is on here is divided up into two very different songs. “Metal ‘Til We Die” makes use of that classic Dio/Sabbath “Heaven and Hell” slow gallop bass groove as a backdrop to a fanfare, dedicated to their musical genre, that has been used by many a 80s and 90s power metal outfit. It consistently works whenever it merges with a solid set of simple melodies, despite how cliché it has become. The album’s climactic epic “The Edge of Eternity”, while not quite the extravaganza that “Blood of the Kings” was, just works on every level. There are a good many slow interludes, most bearing similarity to Dio, but the best moments are when the song is in full swing.

In spite of the departure from a winning formula, and perhaps having one of the most pointless and idiotic closing tracks ever (bunch of weird dog noises for almost 2 minutes), this is a worthwhile pickup for fans of Hammerfall and other acts who delve into the cheesiest extremities of the power metal realm. The bass sound on here is particularly impressive and something that Manowar enthusiasts will be able to sink their teeth into. This album offers nothing that can’t be heard in a lot of other places circa 2004-2005, but it listens better than a lot of what is heard in most of those places.