Artist: Messorem
Country: Poland
Label: Self-Released
Formats: Digital EP
Year: 2026
Estimating ages is always tricky. But even taking into account the fact that Messorem were formed back in 2018, it’s likely, judging by the band photo too, that these Polish lads weren’t even born when Raw Black Metal exploded onto the scene in the late 90s. And even if they had been, they were almost certainly too young to have experienced it with any real awareness. Yet it was those times that immediately sprang to mind when listening to this debut demo.
‘Towards The Damnation’ is by no means a demo that will end up in the year-end lists, but its simplicity is surprisingly intriguing. I have no idea what took them almost eight years to come up with a debut demo, or in fact they seem to call it an EP, but it is most certainly not because they have been refining and polishing their sound and concept.
Personally I really enjoyed the raw energy that radiates from ‘Towards The Damnation’, that takes away almost every flaw or imperfection. For example, some songs seems to have been recorded during different sessions than others, giving the demo a rather incohesive character. Also within individual tracks there are ideas that are carried out in a very haphazard manner and many of the chugging riffs reveal that some of the musicians have a completely different musical background (i.e. modern metal/metalcore). Maybe that is why this reminds me a lot of those endless streams of demos of B-grade bands that I still tried to collect, as many as possible. So, even when these guys might not have been there when “it” happened, they kind of captured that zeitgeist with this first little effort of 25 minutes.
It is exactly that musical clumsiness, the rugged overall sound and a true sense of purity that made me smile. In no conceivable way does Messorem come close to the many visionary bands that set the tone in the second half of the 90s and the early 00s, yet a comparison with, say, Krieg is not entirely out of place. ‘Towards The Damnation’ was just a very enjoyable and entertaining listen and I sincerely hope that these guys keep on going.
