History & Biography Black Messiah was formed in Gelsenkirchen in 1992 and released its debut full-length four years later. The band's starting line-up featured Zagan, guitarist Frohnleichnam and drummer Reverend Heidenbluth. A self-titled demo was issued in 1995. Frank "Blackfire" Gosdzik of Sodom and Kreator fame played on several songs on the debut album. The band dubbed its style 'Viking Metal' although the sound veered more towards Eastern Europe folk music than Norse sounds. A Demo 2001 and Demo 2004 preceded the new deal and album. Oath Of A Warrior was issued in June of 2005. A tour with Cruachan ensued. The band and Einheit Produktionen parted ways in January of 2006 and the group was picked up by AFM. Garm replaced Drahco in the meanwhile. Of Myths And Legends was issued in November of 2006. Drummer Surthur would be off next. Neon Sunrise’s Mike Bröker would guest with the band on drums for live dates. The band’s First War Of The World album was out on March 20th through AFM Records. The Final Journey featured four tracks comprising ‘The Naglfar Saga.’ The story of ‘Naglfar’ refers to a boat in Norse mythology constructed from the fingernails and toenails of the dead. Walls Of Vanaheim was on a new label for the band. Walls Of Vanaheim marked the second part of a story, which was first told with the 2009’s First War Of The World. It is all about the second war of the mythological Vanen tribe. Garm left in 2021. He had been in the band for fifteen years. New bassist was Flemming and announced in 2022. The band played select gigs and festivals throughout 2022 and 2023.
Reviews BLACK MESSIAH - OATH OF A WARRIOR - EINHEIT
Black Messiah is a speed metal band with copious amounts of K&F (keyboards & female vocals), mandolin, clean singing and even violin solos. This might be a new sound for the band given how the first proper track is called A New Messiah, but it is regardless safe to say that metal fans should stay far away from this album. Yes, there are fast metal parts and a screechy evil vocal in effect on most songs, but the meeting of the aforementioned instruments and other pop music elements and metal is nothing short of a fatal embrace. - Ali "The Metallian"
BLACK MESSIAH - OF MYTHS AND LEGENDS - AFM Black Messiah received a less than complimentary review for its last album, Oath Of A Warrior, at Metallian at the hands of The Metallian himself and, while I cannot offer a direct comparison between the albums, Of Myths And legends is not going to fare better.
The biography supplied for the release stresses the band’s pagan metal and Viking metal outlook, but all I hear is a voice (singer Zagan) which reminds one of those times when an adult is trying to feign an evil sound to scare little children. It sounds that kitschy. The music is mainly constructed off simple rhythms and straightforward riffs that are embellished with violins and keyboards. The violin parts will have any Leprechaun dancing a jiggy at a moments notice. Folk music rears its head on top of the Messiah at any moment’s notice. All this is on top of a fairly fast and pounding metal sound, which has fair production with the sole exception of the flat drums. The album also contains a song called Moskau which is a Dschinghis Khan cover and the German lyrics of Die Sühne Des Feuerbringers.
Didn’t Vader have a song called Black Messiah? If they did, I much rather listen to that (I am sure). - Anna Tergel
Interviews
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