Overall Score: 7.5/10 Performances: 8/10 Dynamism: 8/10 Originality: 7/10 Pros: Wonderfully performed | Beautifully dynamic Cons: Does nothing to push the genres beyond their limitations
Few things in this life are absolute, but relentlessly excellent releases from Holy Roar are a certainty. On the cusp of releasing their fourth LP, France’s Fall of Messiah continue the trend of Roar’s unrivalled ability to represent the stars of sub-genres. But all this gives credit to the label, when in fact they would be nothing without the artists. Fall of Messiah are intrinsically linked to the likes of Caspian and Envy; a blend of post-metal, -rock and -hardcore that results in the shimmering beauty of Riveloup’s introduction juxtaposed with the aural massacre of Contreforts.
The album hardly reinvents the wheel when it comes to the various post subgenres it tackles. The way in which it approaches these stalwarts of heavy music however makes the band stand out as particularly considered: The name of the album is the reversed French word for ‘rooted’ but also takes from the Latin for ‘old flesh’. It’s in this curio that we find the record’s modus operandi; to examine the evolution and subsequent detachment between humanity and nature. Perhaps too philosophically heady for all listeners, it will more than satisfy the minority and represents another adept facet of heaviness enabled by Holy Roar.
Fall of Messiah’s Senicarne is released July 31st via Holy Roar Records
