Savage Messiah – ‘Demons’
Album Review By Adam McCann
Century Media Records/Thrash/Power Metal
When Savage Messiah delivered their rather bland ‘Hands of Fate’ album back in 2017, it was debated that the UK band’s run of decent albums had come to rather abrupt end. Therefore, when it was announced that ‘Demons’, their latest album was to be released, the pressure was certainly on. Would Savage Messiah fall prey to an endless stream of mediocre albums or would the band kick start themselves into former glories?
Thankfully, the answer is the latter. With ‘Demons’ Savage Messiah sound utterly revitalised and after an album which treads water, it is good to see that Savage Messiah have maturely assessed the issues and confronted them head on. Whilst this has seen the departure of Andrea Gorio and Sam Junior on guitars and drums, it does have Charly Carretón and David Hruska stepping up to the plate. ‘Demons’ is an album which admittedly does take a few listens to fully appreciate, but there are some excellent singalong tracks with memorable choruses here; thrashing riffs are coupled with soaring power metal melodies creating an impressive dynamic throughout; on one hand this appeals to fans of Testament, Flotsam & Jetsam and Death Angel, whilst simultaneously having all the majesty of Mystic Prophecy and Holy Grail. However, sift between the lines here and there hints of hard rock, ‘Parachute’, ‘What Dreams May Come’ and ‘Under No Illusions’ have a quality to it that, although may not be strictly metal, show just how talented this band is at creating decent, well-crafted music and at times having all the stadium swagger of Def Leppard, as Dave Silver even delivers a passable Black Album era James Hetfield impression during ‘Down And Out’.
‘Demons’ has Savage Messiah taking a different approach to their sound, yes there are a lot of mid-tempo big rock sounding tracks which shows a move away from what the band has been known to purvey, but, there is something very likeable and replayable about this album that has the potential to appeal to a large demographic.
Rating : 76/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
