Dark Messiah-Dark Messiah

Self-Release/Independent
2016

Dark Messiah is a up-and-coming metal band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada that is currently fronted by lead vocalist Stephen Chubaty. Formed in the summer of 2015 by guitarist Jonathan Hayward, Dark Messiah (who should not be confused with Greek black metal band of the same name) has seen members come and go in the short amount of time that they have been together, but as of this writing they seem to have a steady line-up in place. In addition to guitarist Jonathan Hayward and front-man Stephen Chubaty, Dark Messiah features the services of Lawrence Reimer (lead/rhythm guitar), Lagg Walker (bass), and Robert Schau (drums). This self-titled EP (which you can find by heading here) serves as the group's studio debut and it produced and mixed by Matt Copper at Atomic Twenty-Nine Productions. Opening up with the raw street metal title track, "Dark Messiah" is admittedly rough around the edges in terms of it's production, but in a way that works to the group's advantage. Given the gruff voice of Stephen Chubaty and this band's apparent list of influences (early Metallica & Megadeth, Slayer, and all things Pantera!) there is no way that a shiny production job would have been appropriate. As it stands now, "Dark Messiah" the EP and Dark Messiah the band both lean closer to raw thrash/rough garage metal than they do their supposed genre (groove thrash) and yes, that is even with the Pantera reference points! Ultimately "Dark Messiah" is a nasty, down and dirty metal recording with a pissed-off attitude and a real sense of "Knock down the fucking door now you pinheads!" urgency!! Groove metal or not, "Dark Messiah" has got some set of balls of it!!! If you liked your metal big, bad, and ugly then you are going to want to check this one out...