Messiah - Psychomorphia

MESSIAH - Psychomorphia (FLOGA Records - LP 2011)

Couple of days ago, Messiah returned with their first album in sixteen years, called "Fracmont". Well, I gave a listen to couple of these new songs and I am afraid I really didn't like them. This is not the Messiah I like. And which Messiah I like the most? My personal favourites are "Psychomorphia" and "Choir of Horrors", where they had the most death metal and brutal sound. These two releases from 1991 are just brilliant. So, instead of wasting my time on a useless return, I decided to remind myself the brilliance of "Psychomorphia". 

"Psychomorphia" is only an EP, but it is a fantastic effort. After a creepy, sinister intro the title track kicks off with truly relentless riffs, played in the most aggressive and vicious manner. This song is nearly eight minutes long, but it's impressive throughout. It is fast, with a wonderful mixture of death metal and Bay Area thrash metal, where you could definitely say that Messiah had their own style and sound here, unmistakable with any other band. Great technicality, brutality, amazing feeling, Broggi's gigantic RIFFS, there's even a bit of surprising melodic stuff in "Right for Unright"... I also really like vocals of Andy Kaina, who was a better vocalist than Tschösi, in my opinion. And the production - as I already mentioned, Messiah sounded like no other band and you could hear it on both "Psychomorphia" and "Choir of Horrors". Taking all elements together, we get one of the best European death metal recordings of that particular period. And let's not forget that when compared to their earlier albums, these 1991 recordings sound really different and more brutal and more death metal. The band took a huge step forward, for me it was a step in the right direction, although I know that there are fans, who prefer "Extreme Cold Weather" for instance. Sure, it's also a good album. But this stuff is much better. In my opinion, this EP (and "Choir of...") are equally special albums as Protector's "A Shedding of Skin", gigantic thrash / death metal albums from the early 90’s. 

I need to mention also that I have a 2011 "Psychomorphia" reissue from Floga Records. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with the quality of the vinyl or the gatefold, this label knows how to please collectors. There's also some bonus material on side B, with "Promo 1990" (which I don't like so much, to be honest) and "Demo 1990" (which is basically the same material as "Psychomorphia", including the intros). And on the end, there are two live songs from 1990 – nothing interesting, but unnecessary addition to this vinyl. I sometimes wish labels just stack to the original material, without filling the vinyl with bonus material. Sometimes it just doesn’t work. 

Verdict: 90/100