REVIEW: Asada Messiah - S/T | Noise From Below

You read that right: Asada Messiah. Although this heavy metal four-piece is not strictly steak themed, they do describe themselves as “taco metal”, which isn’t something you see every day. And I must admit, it did grab my attention, as did the super sick vertical-mouth demons on the black and white hand-drawn style cover art. Now that I think about it, those vertical mouths would probably be incredible for eating tacos without having to turn your head to the side to get a proper bite, unlike us lowly horizontal-mouth plebeians. Taco metal is starting to make more and more sense here, and those demons may just be onto something.

Anyway, it’s been about five years since the release of San Francisco-based Asada Messiah’s sophomore full-length, Steel Coffin. Ahh, 2019. What a simple time that was. While I vaguely remember having a decently enjoyable time listening to Steel Coffin all those years ago, nothing about the record particularly gripped me, and I ended up mostly forgetting about this group. You can understand, then, that upon returning to Asada Messiah with this self-titled LP (not too common for a band’s fourth release), with the caveat of having tacos on the mind, I had very little in terms of any expectations for what I was about to get into.

Asada Messiah have been around since 2008, and I know I described them as heavy metal earlier, but their style is tricky to pin down in any sort of neat manner. If I had to describe it, however, then this is thick, thrashy, old school metal with splashes of doom metal, hardcore punk, and sludge metal. The closest parallel band I can think of would be High on Fire, although Asada Messiah are more on the traditional, rock ‘n’ roll side of things, while High on Fire take it in a stoner metal direction. The parallel between the two bands is only exacerbated by the coincidence that Asada Messiah and Cometh the Storm, High on Fire’s newest album, were released a mere five days apart. Don’t let that fool you into thinking Asasa Messiah are a rip-off in any way; while the music on this record might bare similarities to other bands and is undeniably rooted in metal of old, Asada Messiah establishes a unique sound for the band, and has quickly become one of my favorite records of 2024.

If you haven’t listened to this album yet, I can imagine you might be thinking “But what about the riffs?” It’s a fair question, and fortunately you don’t need to worry about it here because they absolutely rock, and span a rich range of styles and flavors. If you like thrash metal or crossover, songs such as “Southern Lights”, “Asada Messiah”, “Lord of Scorn”, and “Flatline” the future will give you all the adrenaline you require. Need something a bit slower and doomier? Check out the fantastic “Bring Forth The Gore” or “Slaves Beyond The Grave”, both of which simply ooze Candlemass influence, and even a bit of the more epic side of NWOBHM giants Satan. More into simple, rockin’ heavy metal tunes? Try out “Between Hydra and Argo Navis” or one of my personal favorites from this album, “Hound of God”. Some of the licks on that one even remind me a bit of Judas Priest or Slough Feg. I know those aren’t the most similar bands in the world, but you’ll see what I mean after listening.

Another standout aspect of Asada Messiah is the wild, unpredictable vocal performance from Rodrigo Garcia. This man can do it all with his pipes, and you hear all kinds of singing from him across this record that always fits the energy perfectly. For the thrashier, hardcore-influenced sections, he shouts and screams as well as anyone else. For the epic doom style sections, you may mistake him for Johan Längquist, Messiah Marcolin, or possibly even Brian Ross. Seriously, This album would lose a significant chunk of its personality without Rodrigo’s sundry vocal performances, perhaps with the exception of one or two clunky deliveries on “Lord of Scorn”, which is still a solid song despite those blips. Major props.

If you’re a modern-metal kinda person, I’m impressed with you for reading this far, but I can’t imagine this album is for you. If you like wild, rough, rockin heavy metal however, do yourself a favor and check this album out. It might not be super technical or flashy (don’t expect any mind blowing solos), but it doesn’t hold back their ability to write compelling metal. Could they become even better if they were to add in more displays of virtuosity or “progressive” songwriting? Maybe. Do they need to? Absolutely not. For what these guys are presumably trying to achieve, I think they’ve nailed it. I’ve even needed to stop myself from listening to this record too much, since I have so much other music to listen to, and so that I don’t end up burning myself out on it so quickly. In my eyes, that’s a clear sign of quality, and makes me that much more excited for what they have in store for us next time.

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RATING

8 / 10

Follow Asasa Messiah: Bandcamp, Facebook
Label: Independent
Recorded at: The Atomic Garden
Release Date: April 14th, 2024
Release Type: Full-length
Cover Art: Stephen Oriolo