Messiahnide - Demonic Possession With Intent to Distribute
Sometime around 1997 Steven Austin grew tired of the trappings of noise rock. After a string of critically acclaimed demos and albums on one legendary Amphetamine Reptile Records, he wanted to further explore the myriad metal influences that informed Today is the Day’s orgiastic sound. Philadelphia’s own metal mecca Relapse Records was contacted and a three album deal inked, ultimately culminating in 1997’s seminal Temple of the Morning Star and 2002’s Sadness Will Prevail.
Fundamentally these albums helped to change the face of noise rock. Embracing the blister of grindcore and suicidal-adoration of a still adolescent second wave of black metal, they stood in stark contrast to the college-radio sheen of Sonic Youth and fellow AmRep alums Unsane and 16. Lyrically, the unaffected slacker daze of the post-No New York city was spit on with righteous zeal while Austin’s twisted wit mocked the self-serious ramblings of his heavier peers.
It is perhaps appropriate then that two albums born of Philadelphia’s grime have so heavily influenced the city’s next generation of scum. Somewhere between Totalselfhatred and Raspberry Bulbs is Messiahnide; a self-proclaimed depressive suicidal black metal and negative hardcore band that owes as much to Austin’s insipid ranting as they do to Mütiilation.
However suicidal ideation disguised as clever witticisms isn’t the only thing the band has borrowed from noise rock’s perverse procurator. Throughout Demonic Possession With Intent to Distribute’s 40-minute runtime, Messiahnide bathes the prototypical tremolo-riffing of their forefathers with the compression-laden sounds of Sadness Will Prevail.
The result is a disconcerting cacophony constantly teetering on total breakdown. Opener “the Hallway to Hell (the orphan)” roars with the apocalyptic crust by-the-way-of black metal of Iskra, while its successor, “Out Through the In Door”, swells with the depressive grandeur of Negative Plane. Throughout each, the unearthly wails create an ambiance akin to Jeff Whitehead’s work (Leviathan, Lurker of Chalice, Twilight). So goes the rest of Demonic Possession With Intent to Distribute, constantly swinging between disharmonic extremes as it crashes through a noise rock filter.
Through a careful accumulation of noise rock flare, Messiahnide manages to set them apart from the ever growing hordes of post-Iskra blackened crust. Demonic Possession With Intent to Distribute is instead its own a beast, a shrieking, disconcerting amalgamation of those genres that hold dissonance so close to their heart.
