### Savage Messiah: Plague of conscience

#### 19/01/12 || revenant

If doing GD’s Audio Autopsy feature has taught me anything, it’s taught me to have a low tolerance to below average records. Think on it. We’re listening to 15 new albums every month for Audio Autopsy, plus whatever CD’s hit the GD mailbox from wherever, so is it really any wonder that when we have to listen to a mediocre record we can’t stop thinking “man, do I have to waste 40 minutes on this shit too?”. It took until track 2 of “Plague of Conscience” to get to that point.

Not that I was forced to listen to this. Actually the reason I am listening to this is, well, money’s a bit tight in Revenant’s world right now. Expenses are outweighing income. That shit happens sometimes, you just gotta work through it. Meaning no new CD purchases until finances are under control. That’s a problem for someone who likes listening to new music. Oh look, Earache are offering a free download of Savage’s Messiah’s third album on their website (physical copies are available Jan 23), I guess I can listen to some new music after all.

I think the thing that pisses me off most here is the mis-labeling of this band. For some reason Savage Messiah have earned the label “thrash metal”. Ummm…. No. Fucking Metal Archives, can’t you label anything right? There are two thrash tracks here. That’s two from ten. Hardly enough to earn a genre tag but there you go.

The opening track (which is also the title track) is definitely thrash, and opens the album well with plenty of energy. The riffs during the verse section aren’t to memorable, but a catchy chorus section makes up for that. Unfortunately track two (“Six Feet Under the Gun”) sucks any energy or excitement the first track gives the listener, stifling the momentum the first track gave the album. It’s a much slower, groove driven song that bears more resemblance to a mid paced power metal number than thrash. The third track threatens to be thrash, then slows down dramatically to become a more modern melodic piece.

And so it goes. Hints of thrash, but thrash moving aside to be replaced with slower paced sections with melodic choruses. I guess the correct classification would be traditional heavy metal, though power metal (without the cheese) and the odd thrashy moment do permeate the music.

Now at this point I should point out that I don’t dislike this because it’s not thrash. That isn’t true, I’m not that much of a thrash meathead. No, I dislike this album because of it’s bland modern production, it’s lack of memorable songs, it’s weak and exceptional riffs and it’s poor pacing in general. There are some positives here, I do like the singer’s voice, he certainly can hit the high notes while delivering well on the lower registers. Though please, for the love of music, do we have to fucking overlay two vocal tracks of him singing at two different pitches? I really fucking hate that shit. Plus the album closer is a genuinely good traditional metal epic. But positives are few from where I sit.

My general feeling towards this release is disappointment. I’m not familiar with the Savage Messiah back catalogue, but obviously the band has done the hard yards to get themselves a major contract, so credit to them for that. Giving the album away as a free download should also help get the word out and provide a lot of otherwise not gained exposure. What a pity the band just weren’t able to nail it. “Plague of Conscience” is an uninspiring and unexciting collection of songs with bland modern production. Maybe it’s not as bad as the score I’m giving it below but fuck it, Audio Autopsy has given me a low tolerance to mediocrity and that’s what this album is.

- Information
- Released: 2011 (free download) / 2012 (physical CD)
- Label: Earache
- Website: Savage Messiah MySpace
- Band
- Dave Silver: vocals, guitars
- Joff Bailey: guitars
- Stefano Selvatico: bass
- Mauricio Chamucero: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Plague of Conscience
- 02. Six Feet Under the Gun
- 03. Carnival of Souls
- 04. In Thought Alone
- 05. All Seeing I
- 06. Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt
- 07. Architects of Fear
- 08. The Accuser
- 09. Shadowbound
- 10. The Mask of Anarchy