This compelling debut full-length effort from Kansas City, Missouri’s The Messiah Complex borrows its obvious main influence from other top American metalcore bands, Killswitch Engage and The Agony Scene, utilizing a solid mixture of powerful guitar riffs, double bass drumming and dynamic vocals with well-written, deeply affecting lyrics. The opener ‘Nervosa Crux’ even brings to mind Lamb of God with lead vocalist Rikk Wolf’s gut-wrenching growls and demonic cries, displaying very technical and demonic sounding guitar work from Ryan Hundley and Chris Frost.
The second track ‘Emmity’ wastes no time at grabbing you with its intense blast beat from hell and death metal-ish fret work. Wolf here sounds even more pissed off than the first song and the cleanly-sung chorus works well tied into it all, whereas most times it usually ruins the heavy vibe trying to be brought forth. Track three ‘A Storm of Fireflies’ is easily my favorite off the disc because it just hits you right between the eyes with its literal intent to stamp the band’s own name into this over-populated genre. Track four, ‘Blue Eyes Bleeding (In The Grave),’ starts out with similar gusto, including an interesting bass line from Mitch Peters and continues to demonstrate the band’s seemingly uncanny ability to not just sound like every other metalcore act. Though most new acts from this genre take unmerciful beatings nowadays, this group has clearly found a way to incorporate the best elements and flatout deliver great songwriting.
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