ALBUM REVIEW: Cursed To The Pyre – Slaughter Messiah

High Roller Records have released the debut full length offering from crusty Belgian thrashers SLAUGHTER MESSIAH. With a decade-long history, and three thoughtfully crafted EPs to their name, this wretched bunch has matured brilliantly into something to be reckoned with.

Cursed To The Pyre is an album soaked in the blood of extreme music. Though not an immediately obvious release, these eight tracks reanimate the mutated, early strains of the thrash, black and death petri dishes into their purest forms. It is a wild creature of an album, greedily feeding on the early 90’s corpses of DEATH, KREATOR and ENTOMBED, and retaining the chaotic production traits that defined that golden era.

With many contemporary heavy Belgian bands delving deep into post-metal territory for both sonic and visual aesthetics (AMENRA, OLDD WVRMS, and WIEGEDOOD), SLAUGHTER MESSIAH have decided to embrace “the fucking will” of their ancestors and bed down in the coffins of old. After sifting through SLAUGHTER MESSIAH‘s back catalogue, it becomes apparent that Cursed To The Pyre is the deliberate result of this decades-long trek into the wilderness of classic blackened thrash metal.

At the same time, though, this album displays a commendable command of manic skater thrash, typified by bands like SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, without compromising on brutal vocal delivery expected from a black metal band. Cvlt hero vocalist Lord Sabathan is at the front and centre of every track, often invoking TESTAMENT frontman Chuck Billy, and – very occasionally – the squealing majesty of early-era Phil Anselmo. The occasional double layering of high and low register growls adds an brutal undertone to the vocal element, as heard on tracks like Pouring Chaos.

In the same way that modern US and Canadian death metal explorers like BLOOD INCANTATION, ULTHAR, and TOMB MOLD have revealed new paths for the genre, SLAUGHTER MESSIAH nurture a progressiveness that keeps this album from being a run-of-the-mill narcotic. Tracks like the seven-minute Hideous Affliction indulge in lengthy, reverb-laden passages undergirded by choral samples, frenetic guitar tapping solos and tempo-changes. This aspect of the album, claims drummer John Berry, is a kind of tonic against the uninspired, generic or watered down gruel so prevalent in modern black and thrash metal.

Although Cursed To The Pyre stops inches short of totally annihilating the listener, SLAUGHTER MESSIAH has put out an admirable debut that continues down that the mucky, rotten path they set out upon in 2008.

Rating: 7/10

Cursed To The Pyre is out now via High Roller Records.

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