Savage Messiah
The Fateful Dark

[colored_box color=”grey”]Rating: 8.5
Label: Earache Records
Website: Link
Author: John Savvidis[/colored_box]

Another band from the UK trying to make it happen in the New Wave Of thrash metal, Savage Messiah. Just like Evile, a band well received by the media with its previous works, showing mood for progress. Their style balances between Power metal elements in the vein of Gamma Ray and Bay Area Thrash in the likes of Heathen, Testament and Exodus.

Their new album “The Fateful Dark” kicks with the melodic intro of “Iconocaust” leading to a thrashing part with strong bay Area influences especially on the vocals reminding a bit of Heathen ending to a great chorus bringing some great melodic soloing in the album (yep they are lots of them). “Minority Of One” comes up next with an up-tempo riff ripping fast just before it turns into a groovy melodic chorus and after that we go into a beautiful solo right before the final chorus. “Cross Of Babylon” follows bringing up the tempo of the record before it comes into a Power metal chorus, from that into a great midtempo solo part and a Maidenesque dual harmony then back to the speed and the final chorus. One of my personal favorites. Another Gamma Ray influenced intro leads to “Hellblazer” a more classic metal headbanging midtempo track mostly with great solos.

“List As One Already Dead” is the ballad of the album going mellow until the second chorus where driving guitars kick in, and then comes the chorus and a kick ass solo leading to the final chorus. Heavy riffage sets the tone for the title track going into a melodic chorus that could easily be an album single if it didn’t clock at a bit under 6,5 minutes. Doesn’t matter it’s still an awesome track. Following that one we have “Zero Hour” showing some diversity between clean chords and heavy riffage including a great solo after the middle clean part and a Thrashing part. Next comes “Hammered Down” comes in Thrashing in the vein of Exodus after a movie sample being mostly a fast track for live shows and violent moshpits. Another fast track kicks in with “Scavengers Of Mercy” with a groovy chorus showing some Testament-ish riffage and great screams by Dave Silver (great performance on this record). One more heavy headbanging track comes to snap some necks “The Cursed Earth” with its melodic chorus and acoustic break in the middle before the solo and then back to the chorus.

Savage Messiah managed to write a great Power/Thrash record with lots of emotion, melody and passion balancing the key elements of their sound stated in the beginning: aggression and melody. Their vocalist is simply amazing and I strongly believe he is the key member of the bands identity. Cheers guys keep it up like this!