History & Biography The young solo act of serial band member Nick Stewart wrote, recorded and issued the Immolation Ritual demo in 2021. A couple of quick uploads, including cover versions, followed in rapid succession. Someone called WereGnome Records uploaded a bunch of songs for the act and called it Hymns Of The Damned. More Hate Productions of Russia issued a split for the band with Russia-based ambient act Astarium. The uploads became a torrent. Salt In The Wound was a 2023 demo, as was Calamity and Scraping The Veins Of Youth.
Reviews ASTARIUM/FIRE MESSIAH - Split - MORE HATE 
This is a six-song split release between two underground acts courtesy of Russia’s More Hate Productions. Aside from the music, which is obviously unique to the respective bands, there are a few peculiarities in these songs.
Astarium’s brand of synthesized music bears a few Pan-Thy-Monium style curious keyboard sounds, but the music is linear, which perhaps helps the man in charge keep up the speed vector. Hearing the second track Echo Of Niflheim is hearing that the keyboards are not just background fodder either. They act as a lead instrument with the guitar pounding away and the vocals shrieking both high and snarly low in pitch. Those harsh vocals are the act’s best feature as cold and ridden with effects as they are because they add menace.
Astarium has the slightly longer songs, but each band gets three tracks to its name. While Astarium gets the ‘cold’ themes contained in its songs, Fire Messiah takes on more scorching metaphors. This is a new band to me and, like Astarium, is drenched in synthesizers. The difference is that this band’s keyboards are even more Alphaville and the music has a slight industrial tendency. Misadventures In Creation is quite cheesy although Flirting With The End does veer aggressive.
Fans of Bal-Sagoth and Emperor would love this stuff, but metal fans should tread cautiously. Between them, the two solo acts wield keyboards and drum machines in and out of the 30 minutes and come with anti-futuristic productions, but forced to make a choice between the two Astarium wins and Fire Messiah loses for me. - Ali “The Metallian”
Interviews
|
