Band's List Thrash Metal Metal Messiah (UK) Honour Among Thieves

Metal Messiah were undoubtedly one of UK’s best known thrash metal bands and performed at a lot of shows in their nation. However, this release doesn’t represent their credibility, not because it’s got bad songs on it or the musicians sound like a bunch of amateurs, but because the production on it is absolutely terrible and downright shoddy. What the hell was the record company thinking when they produced this record? How on earth were they even thinking of marketing this record with the amount of work put in on the production? Even demos sound a whole lot better than this. I suppose their brain cells were not functioning at the time. It’s a shame because the songs on this album are neat pieces of thrash with excellent songwriting and brilliant musicianship and showcases the immense talent this band possessed.

Barring the production values, this album’s got a lot of catchy brilliance and good tasty riffs that competes with the best out there. While some tracks thrash hard there are others that display a good deal of NWOBHM styled riffs and solos as well. “Metal Messiah” has an awesome Middle Eastern sounding intro riff that rivals the best in business while “Curse Of The King” is a little more laidback showing off a Diamond Head influence but still managing to stay in the thrash territory towards the end when the frenzy begins. Stompers include “Mad Man”, “Night wing” and the title track which pulls off some awesomely stylish riffs and background shouts that meant business. Undeniably the best song out here is the monster “Kiss Of Nosferatu” that may well be one of the catchiest heavy metal tracks I’ve ever heard. It sounds like “Ride The Lightning” era Metallica on an overdose of speed. That’s the kind of intensity this track carries.

Had it not been for the shitty production, this album would have ranked amidst the best releases from the UK the same year that was 1989. Although this album is available for download at a few blog sites, but I would highly recommend giving the band’s best tracks a hear at their myspace page because they sound like they’ve been reengineered to a certain degree. Now that they’ve reformed again, I am hoping for a remastered version of the album to be released sometime soon.