By Rosie Walker
Just over a decade ago, the band Savage Messiah launched out of London and has been climbing up the popularity ladder rather quickly. Young, hungry, and eager, this quartet has the means to make a dent in the heavy metal scene. Drawing international recognition with their 2014 record, ‘The Fateful Dark’, for its refreshing creativity and honest heavy metal anthems, folks have been anticipating what these British metalheads would come up with next. On October 27, they released their fourth album,’Hands Of Fate’, and it is one of the biggest new release letdowns of 2017.
The band claims they wanted to be more song-based and straightforward on this record. Which must mean lukewarm, stale songs that have zero originality. The listener might think the opening, title track, ‘Hands of Fate’, is a fluke. Yet as one listens on, the sad realization that these guys decided to be more generic is indeed true. The only original member and frontman Dave Silver delivers a half-hearted, tired-sounding vocal performance that loses more power as the album goes on. The concise catchiness of this number will get stuck in your head and though fun, gets monotonous when the exact same approach occurs on every single track. ‘Wing And A Prayer’ is supposed to be a softer, more sensitive piece, but the slight eeriness of the number makes you feel uncomfortable. The song manages to pick up a little, but offers false hope that things might improve, because the poppiness of the piece overtakes the riffs and just ends like a wet fart. The expectation for newest member, guitarist Sam S Junior, of assisting the band in making their music more dynamic does not happen. Tracks like ‘Blood Red Road’ and ‘Solar Corona’ reveal that his addition to the band has done little to improve their sound.
This record is a major step backwards when it comes to song structure, lyrics, and production quality. The number, ‘Eat Your Heart Out’, showcases how intentionally Dave’s vocals are buried in the mix. Even with his voice sounding slightly muffled, you can still hear how underwhelming and begrudging his proficiency is. Drummer Andrea Gorio and bass player Míra Sláma offer a little bite to the band’s dullness, but they still lack the heaviness and imagination that their previous material has. Final tracks, ‘The Crucible’ and ‘Out of Time’, sound like the band is trying too hard. They are attempting to conjure an emotion that they are clearly not feeling. The emptiness and force in the lyrics, the simplicity and boring guitar tones lose the listener and makes this nearly 45-minute album drag. There are a few brief glimpses of their past selves and it gets you excited. It just hurts that much more when every number turns into a slow, generic, piece with uninventive songwriting skills and lazy chord progressions.
This band is posing. They simply made this album to appeal to the masses. The over-processed and amateur approach is offensive considering their past, unique, badassery. Their last few releases have been impressive, authentic, and original. This record is not from the heart and it does not sound genuine. The reason for this drastic change does not matter, the simple truth is that, ‘Hands Of Fate’, is extremely disappointing and boring.
Rating: 3/10
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Record Label: Century Media
Release Date: October 27th 2017
Track Listing:
01. Hands of Fate (4:40)
02. Wing And A Prayer (3:29)
03. Blood Red Road (4:28)
04. Lay Down Your Arms (4:40)
05. Solar Corona (4:25)
06. Eat Your Heart Out (4:17)
07. Fearless (4:58)
08. The Last Confession (5:13)
09. The Crucible (4:33)
10. Out of Time (4:52)
Total Duration: 45:35
Savage Messiah links: website | facebook | twitter | instagram