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You may call it 'doom with a modern twist'. I really adore the album's overall atmosphere, and they also were able to reproduce this on the stage when celebrating a gig at the Roadburn Festival by the way. The MESSA quartet is hailing from Italy, their music blends doom metal, psychedelic occult rock and oriental folk flair to something unique and appealing. And so exemplarily I'd like to mark the melancholic Orphalese as one album centerpiece. Front singer Sara Bianchin turns out to be a special addition to the staff in any case. Her soulful voice, expressive and ethereal in both ways, has an important part, that's for sure. The other core members are drummer Rocco Toaldo, as well as Alberto Piccolo and Marco Zanin, sharing diverse keyboard/synth and stringed instruments, also including the comparatively rare dulcimer, oud and mandolin.

Regarding the aforementioned highlight there's another instrument involved too anyhow. Played by guest musician Giorgio Trombino the duduk makes the real sensation here, to a lesser extent when standing on its own, moreover due to that charming liaison with the vocals. Awesome! The moderate guitar variations are serving the perfect compact frame, or background, if you will. Suspended comes in with a slow-tempo flow, the guitars are meandering between hard riffing and jazz touched solos. Then a Dark Horse takes us on a ride with everchanging pace, from wild to easygoing, back and force. Every further song has its own characteristics, hence here we have an entertaining production at hand, no doubt. They are not coming from my favoured subgenre actually, but this songs are multi-faceted and very touching nevertheless. Definitely a recommendation.