Rotten Perish

Those who would remember the 90s era of death metal in America would find a world that was increasingly obsessed with gore, physical monstrosities, and an ever narrower understanding of brutality that began to dismiss the thrash metal roots from which it sprung from. This was the age of Cannibal Corpse insofar as any ongoing sense of tradition was concerned within the genre, while the growing New York scene was taking up a heavier, modernized character that would become alien to the sepulchral mid 80s works of Possessed. But Europe was a different story altogether, and even by the dark year of 1992 when the characteristic thrash style that had been born in America had been fully excised from the metal world, some bands were keeping up the old ways, and particularly on the death metal side of things.

Out of this era comes arguably one of the most astounding yet underrated opuses to ever grace the death metal genre, released by an early adherent out of Switzerland in Messiah, a band that had seen some lineup changes since their mid 80s origins and came out sounding quite similar to early 90s Death. "Rotten Perish" recounts a series of stories relating to the issue of sickness, failure and death, told through the perspective of a child narrator whose take on things is both skeptical yet largely objective. Lyrically it could be likened to a number of works that came out of Chuck Schuldiner's repertoire between "Spiritual Healing" and "Individual Thought Patterns", while musically this album pretty well covers the whole spectrum of Death's studio career from 1987 through 1993, culminating in something that competes with Death's 1993 album on many similar fronts a full year before it was put together.

Messiah has always been one for utilizing atmospheric intros and interludes of one type or another to separate the various chapters of their death/thrash audio books, ranging from corny spoken bits before each song to Gregorian chants. This album takes on the children's choir approach, while also putting a good bit more emphasis on acoustic guitar work as a means of atmospheric contrast and transition, to the tune of about twice as often as was the case on the previous 2 releases with Andy Kaina at the helm. Kaina's vocal approach here has become even more akin to Schuldiner's mid-level bark, remaining quite intelligible, but also with a bit more of a nasty, enraged character than a ghoulish one. At times the narration of both Kaina and the child employed at the intro and outro get a bit long-winded and awkward, but it's difficult to care given all the intricate musical elements involved.

Ultimately where this album really stands above the rest is the incredible display of complexity while still largely sticking to the basic doctrines of their mid 80s thrash roots. Much of what is heard on here largely functions as a slightly more aggressive version of the fast and fancy Bay Area riffing style that Schuldiner and the other Florida adherents were inspired by, dressed up with more of an early 90s progressive edge, featuring a lot of intricate mixed rhythmic sections that, once again, point at the same sort of epic "twists and turns" approach of songwriting heard on "Individual Thought Patterns". Essentially this album manages to be death metal without drenching itself in over-the-top dissonance and noise, while also generally toning down the flashy lead guitar displays to an occasional fury here and there. This approach tends to make sense as Messiah stands as one of the most auspicious death metal acts to only have one guitarist, and Brögi proves to be one of the more technically apt rhythm/lead oriented guitarists on the scene with an impressive mixture of influences.

Perhaps the reason why this album didn't quite soar to the astounding heights that it otherwise could have is that it was holding onto an older, more versatile sound in a time when bands like Pantera and Metallica were doing their best to dumb things down. Even when put next to its obvious 1993 counterpart "Individual Thought Patterns" (itself an album holding onto the past) and corresponding works out of Deicide and Morbid Angel, this comes off as extremely conservative and orthodox. There are some occasional hints of Entombed's death n' roll style and Obituary's more laid back approach to death metal can be found in their interpretation of Manilla Road's "Dreams Of Eschaton", but largely this sounds heavily influenced by the faster, Slayer-like character of "Leprosy" and "Spiritual Healing". But whether a late throwback to earlier times or not, "Rotten Perish" is an exhilarating experience that no fan of old school death metal should be without.

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

Maybe you will wonder why Messiah. Well, because they were quite unlucky (only because they were from Switzerland).

Death metal in the late '80s and early nineties was quite primitive and, although the "heavyweights" of the genre carved themselves some fame back then, many of the albums released during that period were more or less "bulk" releases, so honestly speaking, for me they don't really mean anything. Rotten Perish is different. It starts with acoustic guitar arrangements, accompanied by choruses and verses recited by a child, and you start wondering if you really got into what it says on the album's cover. Things change on the second track, when you are struck in the face by extremely complex riffs and apocalyptic voices, supported by stunning blast beats which frankly leads you into thinking that the band uses a drum machine. Things continue pretty much in the same direction on the whole album, interrupted at times by interludes consisting of acoustic guitar passages and reciting lyrics. The few guitar leads heard on the album are quite effective. Although some riff structures are repeating, I still believe that the album is one class above the competition, mainly because the musicians are really mastering the instruments. The lyrics follow the same pattern, describing cases more or less imaginary of people suffering from incurable diseases or of criminals, emphasizing their inner feelings on their way to a "divine ascension" questioned in the end. The most striking aspect of this album is the rhythmic section, particularly rapid as well as very advanced for the time when the album was released. This is also the main point in making a 15-year old record a candidate to audition, if not to your very collection.

I had never heard Messiah before I picked up Rotten Perish. On this album, the band play a blend of thrash and death metal, which was not all that common in 1992. This album was released on Noise International Records. I can't help but compare this to Coroner, also of Noise International. Noise's releases, whenever I've been able to find them, tend to fly under the radar, unless your band's name was Celtic Frost or Coroner. That said, it was no big surprise that I knew so little about Messiah.

Musically, this is a bit simpler than anything you'd hear from Coroner, but that by no means dismisses their talent. This album is packed with back and forth riffs, drum tempos that change multiple times throughout a single song, an audible bass that holds its own, and a rhythm guitar style that is likely to lull you into a slow nodding headbanging before trying to break your neck with an extremely fast riff in a very sudden manner. Other noticeable little touches placed into this album are acoustic guitars in just the right places, and a strange into with suspiciously mellow music and a child's voice doing a spoken word intro.

The production is perfect for this era and this style of music. Coming from Switzerland, and recording this in Morrisound (Florida) makes for an interesting mix, especially in 1992. I think this may have had an effect on the vocals of this album, as they range from Coroner-esque to some lower-register death grunts that could have come from a couple of bands from Florida at the time: Glen Benton and David Vincent's post-Blessed Are The Sick vocals, raised by one octave, mixed with a bit of Thomas G. Warrior (another Noise connection) would be pretty spot on.

Unfortunately, the songs on Rotten Perish do become a bit repetitive at times. They'll repeat three to five riffs per song on average, and just when you think it's going to be good and carry the song, the opposite happens and the listener becomes extremely bored. The riffs outplay themselves: a few more changes and a few new riffs and this album would've gotten a much higher score. The skeleton was formed well, but they forgot to flesh out the body.

Lyrically, there is a lot of social commentary and questioning of one's beliefs and faith. Other topics include depression, drug abuse, insanity, physical abuse, prison, Alzheimer's Disease, bigotry and a lot of time is spent dwelling on whether fate and redemption even exist. The overall concept seems to point directly at religion and "god", if "god" exists, as a cause of pain and suffering.

Overall, I would say that if you're a fan of late 80s & early 90s thrash with a hint of death metal and a touch of experimentation, you'll like this. If you're not a fan of thrash or death metal, though, don't bother. Quite simply, there are other bands that have done this style better and more memorably.

This album opens with some child's spoken voice introducing the significance of the album's lyrics. It's a labored recital, and comes across as a bit of a cornball gimmick, but then again it's all downhill from there.

Above all else, the metal vocals on this album are really terrible -- strained, dissonant, delivered with no sense of timing, and way too loud in the mix. Really I don't think any of the instruments are played well. The double bass drumming is uneven, and the guitar work is sloppy. There aren't many guitar leads; the few that do occur are not well executed.

And beyond the instrumentation flaws, there is no melodic coherency to these songs. The riffs seem pointless and irresolute; the rhythm guitar track sounds like a bunch of chromatic patterns haphazardly pasted together. The band seems to love using the full-stop in the middle of a song, but its an effect that grows a little tiresome. On a rare few occasions, the band stumbles on an agreeable melody, but I don't know whether by design or by accident. You know what they say, if a monkey types on a typewriter long enough ...

So I just picked up this little gem and listened to it on the way home from the store. I was impressed. So I listened to it again and again. Now here is a review for this monolith of early 90s death metal, in the vein of GODS like Death, Deicide, and Oppressor. This DM band from switzerland were indeed onto a solid winning formula, sad they only released one more album after this one. But the first thing I noticed...Amon Amarth must be major fans of these guys. Messiah don't sound like AA at first, but looking at song construction, themes, riffs, it just seems AA owe a lot to Messiah. This may or may not be true. But whatever, onto the review...

"Prelude: Act Of Fate" begins us off with some acoustic guitar and child explaining the whole concept of the album. This is pretty straightforward, a song by song explanation. It put me a little off at first, but when "For Those Who Will Fail" hammers down with its basic death metal formula and sweet stop-go chorus riff...you know you're in for a death metal romp. Following the excellent opener, the songs tend to flow together if you're not paying attention, which is pretty interesting. Standard stuff until you get to "Dreams Of Eschaton" and "Anorexia Nervosa" which are back to back, mid-tempo, bone crushers with kick ass riffs that provides a major high spot in the album. They should've mixed those songs apart, would have made this rating higher. Then the album wraps up with a 10 minute closing track of multiple porportions. All things considered, this cd is superb. If you already dig early 90s death metal, or throwback DM bands like Pentacle or Armoured Angel, check Messiah out immediately.