Matt Hunt at Retroactive Records continues to find and put out rare and quality out of print hard rock and heavy metal with a Christian point of view. One of those bands is Messiah. You never heard of Messiah you say? Well you wouldn’t be alone in that, they were virtually unknown outside of a few isolated pockets in the Midwest in the early 80’s.
Yet over the years the few copies of their vinyl albums that made it out into circulation have continued to escalate in value, with some collectors paying up to $1000 for a copy! Simply amazing if you ask me, well Messiah’s debut album entitled The Final Warning is now available for the first time on CD. Retroactive will also be making a limited run of vinyl available as well.
The band also released an EP called Going Insane that will also be available from Retroactive. The Final Warning however is a solid slab of American Hard Rock/Metal taking a large slice from the Blue Oyster Cult (Buck Dharma inspired) playbook, with that slightly more mysterious and moody atmosphere aka Don’t Fear the Reaper, Astronomy or Shooting Shark.
With that in mind The Final Warning is surprising with some solid hooks and above average song writing. Who’s to Blame, Outta Control and despite its lackluster title, Heavenly Metal, all deliver the above average metal goods. The musical whimsy is strong and heavy (late 70’s early 80’s heavy) with a nice polish to it.
Over the years I had heard less then complimentary evaluations of this album. Yet I’ve found this a pretty enjoyable listen. The production is a bit dated but compared to many other releases from the same time era it’s very comparable.
Messiah’s The Final Warning has shown itself to be a surprise. It is even more surprising that this release wasn’t made more available back in the day. With that said this album is one to grab and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
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3 comments:
very unique i use to listen to you guys alot when i had the final warning ep i was wandering if you had any others besides going insain
You should hear the 1981 release of the first version of Final Warning with the first Messiah. It was the winning song in the rock category for the Talent N Texas album released in 1981. With band members Jeff Basham (drums) John Echlin (bass) Mike Lopez (guitar co-writer) and Dan Arens (keyboards) I like the first version better.
I didn't know anything about this band when I found an original Going Insane EP (sealed no less!). Now, I am afraid to open it and listen to it. It's like owning a 1959 Les Paul, yes it's beautiful and rare but I'd be too afraid I might drop it or scratch it! So, I bought the Retroactive CD reissues. Now I can stop worrying about damaging the Going Insane EP which seems to be a Holy Grail xian metal album.
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