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Messa, Feast for Water: Tidal Consumption

Messa Feast for Water

Italian four-piece Messa conjure a genre cornucopia with their second record for Aural Music. The somewhat quizzical title Feast for Water, taken in context with the cover art of a diver breaking the surface to plunge beneath, speaks directly to the idea of immersion; there’s no guarantee that diver is going to reach the air again, in other words. With eight richly varied tracks presented in a front-to-back linear flow across a still manageable 49 minutes, the band demonstrates a clarity of purpose and a heaviness beyond tone that do indeed seem to be geared toward swallowing the listener as a part of the experience of the album itself.

In quiet stretches of drone, it is hypnotic, and at times it owes some elements of cultistry like those that emerge in the galloping post-intro opener “Snakeskin Drape” to The Devil’s Blood, the impressive lead work of guitarist Alberto playing well off Marco‘s riffing and Sara‘s overriding vocal melodies while Rocco‘s snare pushes the charge from deep enough in the mix to still be a presence, but not dominant.

From the very humming start of the 2:31 intro “Naunet,” Messa set an ambient foundation in cello-style string sounds and backing drones — courtesy of Marco — but there’s a tension created as well as the short cut builds a high-pitched tone to a wash of noise before cutting cold to the quiet beginning of “Snakeskin Drape,” so clearly a drive toward a dynamic approach is a factor as well. That was the case on Messa‘s 2016 debut, Belfry (discussed here), but creative growth is evident in the fluidity of the band’s presentation, and Feast for Water has a sonic persona that transcends its familiar aspects and casts an individual identity that continues to expand its depth as the tracks play through.

To wit, as “Snakeskin Drape” so intentionally builds momentum throughout its five-minute run, the subsequent “Leah,” at eight minutes, brings together Rhodes-infused lounge jazz topped with Sara‘s breathy vocals with crush-minded noise riffing, angular and catchy at the same time and crafted in cyclical fashion to contradict the quieter stretches without necessarily undercutting their effectiveness in terms of mood.

Rounding out with a brazen display of low-end wash before ceding ground to “The Seer,” “Leah” is a standout and a highlight for its central riff alone, but it remains best when taken in the context of following the metallic thrust of “Snakeskin Drape” and leading into the bluesy guitar that follows in “The Seer,” which itself arrives married to significant tonal heft. There isn’t a centerpiece on Feast for Water, but if one examines the record front-to-back, it not only breaks into even vinyl sides, but follows a parabolic course in putting its “meat,” as it were, in the middle. “Leah,” “The Seer” — which returns a bit to the gallop of “Snakeskin Drape” while adding some minor-key Eastern inflection in the guitar around a riff that, in another setting, one might say was culled from Goatsnake — and the following pair of “She Knows” and “Tulsi” each broadening the range from the track before it.

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At what one presumes would be the start of side B, “She Knows” digs into further Rhodes-ery courtesy of Alberto as quiet drums from Rocco build toward a post-metallic roll somewhat hopeful in mood but still very much as it approaches the midpoint in the vein of what’s come before, cutting back to quiet at the midpoint and this time being joined for a verse by Sara, whose vocal command is able to carry these quiet parts and the heavier stretches with likewise malleability. That makes “She Knows” all the more an exemplar of Messa‘s dynamic as it stands throughout their second long-player, and as it hits its crescendo, the song is neither overblown nor underserved, feeding directly into the grunge-style riff and solo that begin “Tulsi.”

To an extent, the shift between “She Knows” and “Tulsi” mirrors that between “Naunet” and “Snakeskin Drape,” but it’s not necessarily a reintroduction happening so much as a perpetuation of flow. Sweeping into and out of blastbeats with blackened screams from Rocco for atmospheric effect, the beginning of “Tulsi” is the most blatant nod to extreme metal on Feast for Water, but through guitar squibblies play a role in the subsequent verse, the chug they complement is all doomer bounce.

An ambient break leads to a second half revitalizing the jazz feel with sax (yup) atop echoing drums and guitar, and it’s with “White Stain,” which follows, that Messa hit the inevitable reset point and returns to the Rhodes-backed loud/quiet trades heard earlier. That this in itself feels familiar shows how thorough a job the band does in setting their own terms across the long-player’s span, and if they take a victory lap anywhere in these songs for that success, it’s in the soaring guitar solo in the second half of “White Stain,” which recedes into roll and rumble in order to let the quieter “Da Tariki Tariqat” finish out.

There’s a linear build to the four-minute guitar-led instrumental-save-for-ambient-buried-singing piece, backed by cymbal washes and string and/or sax sounds, but as it comes to its loudest and most distorted point, the tension built leads not to a blowout noise-laden finale but a smoothly executed, classy apex that’s come and gone in under a minute’s time, letting the atmospherics end the proceedings. As they do so, it’s hard not to appreciate the boldness of that choice and the confidence in their approach that it represents.

Ultimately it’s one such move among many peppered across Feast for Water, but like everything before it, the contemplative capping of “Da Tariki Tariqat” echoes the notion of willfully progressive songwriting that serves to unite this material nearly as much as the overall quality level of the craft itself. Might take some time to grow on a certain type of listener looking for a more immediate impact, but if one is willing to chance diving in like the figure on the cover art, Feast for Water unfolds a world well worth taking the risk of not making it back.

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One Response to “Messa, Feast for Water: Tidal Consumption”

  1. Aris says:

    Thanks a lot! Messa rules!

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