Messa – The Spin | Album Review

On their latest album The Spin, Italian "scarlet doom" quartet Messa leave the desert sands of previous album Close behind and go full throttle down a highway of new sounds and possibilities.

Although Messa have been a band for just over a decade, they already boast a flawless triptych of albums under their belt, each of them having their own distinct identity and each having reinforced their status as rising stars of the doom metal scene with a sound that is unmistakably their own, thanks to their sophisticated blend of doom, old-school heavy metal, jazz, blues rock and black metal.

Their previous 2022 work Close in particular, made ripples across the underground and garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews, praising the band’s conceptual songwriting and their ability to organically weave Middle-Eastern traditional folk into their sound, inviting listeners to trek through dreamlike arid landscapes.

Close presented Messa as a band ready to break through the underground, where they had already amassed a cult following, and take their shot at the “bigger leagues”, going from underground doom favourites to new metal sensation. That is precisely what The Spin aims to accomplish and succeeds in doing so.

Here, Messa have traded ouds and duduks for 80’s synthesizers and authentic recording gear of that decade as well as favouring a more streamlined approach to songwriting, putting more emphasis on vocal hooks and slightly more “conventional” song structures rather than sprawling progressive doom epics.

From the very first seconds of the album, Messa are keen on presenting this completely different vision, tone and approach for The Spin as ‘Void Meridian’ greets listeners with ominous pulses of analog synths before the song turns into a catchy post-punk opener, brimming with 80’s influences ranging from nods to Killing Joke or even bands like Mercyful Fate for the more classic heavy metal aspects such as the outro guitar solo.

Alongside shorter song lengths and emphasis on memorable, catchy vocal hooks, The Spin also feels slightly more guitar-focused than previous releases as there is a noticeable amount of times where Alberto’s dexterous and soulful guitar solos take the spotlight, which is in line with the band’s intention of re-creating some of the 80’s rock music tropes as authentically as possible in their own signature style.

Nowadays, guitar solos often risk being perceived as cheesy and out-of-fashion, especially if they serve no real purpose in a song beyond just flexing musical muscle, but Messa are able to make blues-rock or classic heavy metal inspired guitar solos cool again and each occurrence feels purposeful in tandem with Sara’s vocals and the background synth arrangements.

Speaking of Sara, whose vocals are often considered to be the crown’s jewel in Messa‘s sound, driving the ensemble forwards, her delivery on The Spin is noticeably more nuanced than it has ever been before.

Take lead single ‘At Races’ for instance (perhaps the biggest standout track of the whole record) where Sara switches from commanding belts matching the track’s energetic drive, borne by Rocco’s powerful command of the drum kit and Marco’s galloping bass lines echoing the song’s lyrics, into more delicate vocal ranges suiting the track’s eerie, dreamlike tone shift before exploding again, leaving listeners behind in a cloud of dust as the band speeds away.

Haunting ballad ‘Immolation’ is another great example of Sara’s range, showcasing a more vulnerable side both from a technical and lyrical standpoint. In fact, ‘Immolation’ and the more familiarly progressive ‘The Dress’ are perhaps the most vulnerable and personal Messa have ever been on record, slightly lifting the veil of metaphorical songwriting to briefly open a small window into the emotional struggles of the musicians behind the music, whether that may be the weight of expectations from being in the spotlight or the toll of touring life on some aspects of personal life.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Messa album without at least one snazzy mid-track saxophone solo duetting with a jazz guitar solo, backed by moody synths and somber vocalisations to reinforce Messa’s classy “noir” atmosphere and mystique, which ‘The Dress’ gracefully provides alongside a massive main riff motif and chorus to go along with; what an earworm and what a journey this track is.

As The Spin reaches its last three tracks, it does seem like it takes a backwards turn towards the more progressive and lengthier song structures of past albums, with ‘The Dress’ and closer ‘Thicker Blood’ going past the eight minute mark, allowing for more time to play around with different styles and ideas, and although ‘Reveal’ is on the shorter side, it presents one of the biggest surprises of the album with its transition from bluesy slide guitar into ferocious black metal blast beats while Sara belts away the repeated chorus like some sort of apocalyptic, prophetic chant.

‘Thicker Blood’ is a perfect choice of a closer for the record given how it has the most progressive structure on the album and to an extent, feels like a recap of where Messa stand as a musical entity at this point in their career.

The track gently builds up as a synth-backed slow-burn before suggesting a flamboyant finale of guitar solos. That is until at the midway point, vocals take centre stage, shifting the direction of the track with a mantra-like melody as both drums and synths build tension and anticipation before the release comes in the form of one of Messa‘s proggiest sounding riffs and one of the album’s heaviest moments.

From that point on the band only ramps up in intensity, from the guitars harmonizing and the drums getting more restless with occasional flurries of double-kicked bass drums. As the tension keeps building and the anticipation becomes unbearable, ‘Thicker Blood’ concludes with an animalistic burst of black metal, with the only occurrence of harsh vocals on the entire album, making those final moments that more impactful.

With The Spin, Messa successfully manage to present a new incarnation of their sound using 80’s synth work and production tropes as both their backbone and canvas to build upon as well as more “direct” songwriting inspired by classic rock, metal, coldwave, goth rock and post-punk of that era without sacrificing their desire for  experimentation or adventurous genre-blending. Where other bands might have fallen into “pastiche” territory by going for this approach, Messa on the contrary use it as a strength and newfound inspiration to broaden their musical DNA, adding one more arrow to their bowstring.

A nasty road accident while on tour in 2022 could have vastly hampered Messa‘s growth or, in a worst case scenario, put an end to it. But instead, since then the band have only taken strides to rise above, between their first U.S. tour, getting access to wider distribution by signing to Metal Blade Records and now having a more accessible album for newcomers that is still authentic and representative of their musical identity.

It’s safe to assume we will only keep hearing more and more about the Veneto crew from here on out, and the world is all the better for it given how every single bit of hype is fully deserved.