Messiah - Christus Hypercubus Review

To some extent, when I heard “Once Upon aTime…NOTHING” from the veterans of Messiah I had a feeling that the band did what Ministry should have done with their later album reviewed here. Of course, I think I’m overreacting, but that’s the feeling I had – It’s just a crazy thing to listen to one album after the other as I do here. Sometimes it’s impossible to let the later album go. The thing is spirit is really here. Just add some more electronic effects, some white noise, and voilà, that’s it. The thing is that “Christus Hypercubus” has an amazing variety of moods. The album cannot be simple explained with few words just listening to a few songs. Messiah got the anarchic spirit from the 1980’s, gave it some polishing and made one of the most exciting albums of this year so far.

In just about time, Messiah were formed in 1984 and issued two truly ground breaking records on Chainsaw Murder Records, “Hymn to Abramelin” in 1986 and “Extreme Cold Weather” a year later. In the early 1990’s
the band signed to Karl Walterbach’s Noise Records label and issued three more full-length albums: 1991’s “Choir of Horrors,” 1992’s “Rotten Perish,” and 1994’s “Underground” before going their separate ways.

In 2018, the band decided to reform in the original line-up of their Noise Records albums with Andy Kaina on
vocals, Steve Karrer on drums, Patrick Hersche on bass and band founder R.B. Brögi on guitar. Lavish re-issues of “Hymn to Abramelin,” and “Extreme Cold Weather” came out on High Roller Records before a brand new studio album entitled “Fracmont” was released in 2020.

“Christus Hypercubus” commences with the very 1980’s intro of “Sikhote Alin,” whose guitar strumming and the eeirie voices address a lot to early Extreme Metal albums. As I said before, Metal albums’ intros are a show apart. They say a lot about the band and the album itself. It’s some kind of appetizer to what is to come. And what comes is a cutting edge Thrash Metal with slants of the good old times era. Album tittle “Christus Hypercubus” has more modern influences sounding more as Death Metal due to vocals, and especially, to the guitars. Following track, even though having second thoughts after two hearings, the aforementioned “Once Upon aTime…NOTHING” has a Doom Metal taste. To tell you the truth my dear child of the night, this album is a trip around Extreme Metal from past and present day. Useless to say Messiah did a great job here. Extreme attention to drummer Steve Karrer whjo carries the torch with high skills.

After hearing the album with lots of attention, it’s interesting to notice it how evolves around Extreme Metal. It’s clear to me that Messiah hasn’t slept a silent sleep for all the years. The band dealt with high level skills to update their music while maintaining the old spirit. As I said, one of the best albums of this year so far.

Messiah “Christus Hypercubus” was released on March 01st via High Roller Records.

Track Listing: