Choir of Horrors

This has some of that undeniably tasteful first wave/start of the 90's death metal allure; where the song-writing was generally meaningful and rich, so very far from making the production the main objective. Bands were genuinely infatuated with the glittering yet still mysterious promises that death metal was showing, deep in its bowels. Those albums had that class, that ability to mix things up but do it with purpose, and with real coherence.

In the vein of a 'Testimony of the Ancients' (Pestilence), this is exalted death-thrash from an earlier time, with a taste for atmosphere; and a subtle touch of astute arrangement. Acoustic guitar breaks or choir-backed rhythm sections among the choice extra-curricular furnishings, granting a nice luster to the whole - rather than just showing up and claiming a job done, as is the case on certain albums.

As far as the influences from past bands going into this, the pointy Kreator/Slayer thrash riffs are here, but more interestingly the listener might notice traces of more contemporary bands: on the final track, that insidious palm-muted tremolo with the double kick 16ths broken down by the offbeat power chord triplet: that sounds like we're right in the middle of Decapitated's 'The Negation' album. And just like Vogg, Messiah back in '91 liked to mix it up with the fret-work.

The tracks feel like songs rather than mere early experimentation within a young death metal scene. We're given a few well crafted melody, with ensuing developments that feel like they're all connected in driving forward the intensity of one same song, ultimately displaying an appreciable palette. There's a bit of black-metal-like minor chord strumming (heard on the opener's chorus) as one feature within a generally liberal and free-flowing use of the fret-board. The band likes to play around with timing and will surprise on some occasions with a few intricate riff articulations, granting them somewhat of a prog status, as one component on the album although not the dominant tone.

The problem here is after a highly colorful and generally impressive opening track, this rests on its (unholy) laurels. We're given dark, gritty action to start where the death metal influence is obvious... but then the thick of it really is nearly conventional thrash, which wouldn't be a problem per se if only the album hadn't shown a promising depth at the start of it. From the cover to the title, this appears to be willingly promoting itself as death metal, but then it reverts back to rather ordinary material. It is technically well put together, but tends to lack that visceral quality, of digging deep into the listener. It's quite Swiss in a very stereotypical sense: strong execution and overall a good job, but rather on the neutral side. It's a shame it wouldn't expand on what can be heard on the opening, and closing tracks.

In today's recent obsession with gore and serial killers, it's truly a rarity in death metal circles for a band to delve into the subject of spiritual horror or some other non-physical violence mode of story pursuits. But during death metal's gradual evolution in the early 90s it wasn't all about reliving every single detail of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", particularly insofar as the growing European answer to the Florida scene was concerned. While much of the rage was going on in Sweden by 1991, there were a few other adherents outside of the Stockholm area that were building upon the creation of Possessed, Death and comapny, and Messiah stands as one of the more obscure ones, but also a very effective one.

In several respects, this album carrier some heavy commonalities with Death's "Human", though it's a bit more complex and revisits familiar thrash territory that is perhaps a bit closer to "Leprosy" at times. Perhaps the chief reason for the comparison to the former album is the extremely polished production job and generally chunky yet smooth guitar sound. Bring along for the ride some otherworldly keyboard and depressive acoustic guitar interludes (most of them centering on the instrumental "Northern Command") and it becomes pretty clear that this band is on a bit of a different wavelength than the gore-obsessed crop that Cannibal Corpse helped to reap, though there is a fairly horrific tale of man vs. beast violence in "Weena" that sort of points in that direction a little.

The overall sound of "Choir Of Horrors" is definitely still strongly rooted in the mid 80s Slayer influences that are frequently cited by the prime movers of the early death metal scene. A few select riffs on the opening title song have a melodic contour that is a bit closer to Possessed and Sepultura and occasionally seems to lean towards a quasi-black metal sound, and not only due to the usage of Gregorian Chant during the intro. Vocalist Andy Kaina is perhaps the one area where this band gets a little overtly derivative, as he sounds like a near perfect impersonation of Chuck Schuldiner, but he does a solid job at providing a vile counterpart to the largely methodical riff work and drumming.

While arguably not the most impressive thing to come out of the early 90s given all the exciting things happening both in the U.S. and Sweden, this definitely has a charm to it that will not disappoint fans of the likes of Dismember, Autopsy, and middle era Death. It hearkens back to a time when death metal was about more than just vocalizing incomprehensibly about mangled human anatomy and simply churned out hypnotic, redundant guitar lines with little to any detailing to speak of. Don't expect the sort of riveting fits of individuality heard out of Nocturnus and Darkthrone from this time period, but expect something with a respectable level of depth and brutality that is largely missing from death metal today.

Later submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on July 8, 2013.

Though I tend to associate the Swiss metal scene of the early 90s with Celtic Frost and Coroner, they were not the only bands making headway into the international scene. Death/thrashers Messiah were at it for years, forming in 1984 and producing a series of albums and short releases that bridged the band from a thrashing core to a more death-laced impact. Choir of Horrors was their third full-length album, and from a production standpoint a major improvement over the rough edged Hymn to Abramelin and Extreme Cold Weather (though I truly heart that last one).

Title track "Choir of Horrors" opens with the chanting of monks before the aggressive, gory throat of Andy Kaina heralds an onslaught of simple death riffing. I really enjoy when this band breaks out into a lead over some old school busszaw of a rhythm. "Akasha Chronicle and the pulverizing "Weeping Willow" add some velocity and a level of heavy ballast to the proceedings and the album gets even more groovy and evil through "Lycantropus Erectus". The latter half of the album has some good thrash pieces in "Northern Command" and "Cautio Criminalis". The lyrics on the album are steeped in the horror and occult traditions that dominated black/thrash metal in the 80s, and not badly written!

Choir of Horrors sounds polished, certainly more polished than anything the band had offered previously. To that extent, it feels a little too clean for the type of aggressive occult metal the band is performing. That being said, it still sounds pretty good, and at times when the band uses the choir or acoustics it's vibrant and alive. Messiah never got a lot of credit, and they weren't one of the real standouts for the mighty Noise records, but they were a good band and this is one of their better albums, worth a listen.

Highlights: Choir of Horrors, Weeping Willow, Northern Command, Cautio Criminalis

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

A year after the Psychomorphia EP Messiah was back with thier peak album, Choir of Horrors. Thankfully this sounds much the same as the EP, although the vocals are mixed a bit louder, and the production has an inch more clarity.

I think it's fair to say that the jump of quality from those first two albums (Hymn to Abramelin, Extreme Cold Weather) to Choir of Horrors can be attributed to line-up changes preceeding this album. This is a different Messiah with two new members and two original members remaining. The result is a tighter performance with the band's ideas better focused and organized.

Like any death/thrash fan I'm looking for a lot of guitar riffs, and quality ones... Choir of Horrors certianly delivers from start to finish, although I admit the title track 'makes' this album in a sense and is a clear stand-out.

Overall, I see Choir of Horrors as a nearly perfect death/thrash album. Maintaining a healthy thrash influence, while still taking a lot from the death metal scene at the time. Just the right guitar tone, clean/audible production, and -above all- a well arranged onslaught of guitar riffs. If you need a comparison... Think something along the lines of the first three Massacra albums, Thanatos (Hol)'s 'Realm Of Ecstacy' album, or pre-'Sublime Dementia' Loudblast.

95/100