Artist: Sex Messiah
Country: Japan
Label: Sex Desire Records
Formats: CD
Year: 2024
Without a doubt, Sex Messiah is one of Japan’s finest products of uncompromising Extreme Metal. With a much more Death Metal driven sound in their early stages the band slowly drifts more into the Black Thrashing confines in the south American fashion. This musical transition is evidenced on their rather steady stream of releases ever since their inception at the end of the 00’s. ‘Sexus-Mortem, Ouroboros’ is the band’s latest offering, the full-length follow-up of 2018’s ‘Eastern Cult Of Sodomy’.
My first introduction to the band was the 2012 Me Saco Un Ojo-released ‘Hymn Of The Apocalypse’ 7” EP. Although at the time I was following the label quite religiously, admittedly, I was also quite intrigued by the a few of the band’s main cosmetic assets: the band name, the band’s origin and the fact that it was led by a woman. A golden combination to peak some interest from Extreme Metal fans from around the globe.
But while the band name and its origin haven’t changed, the enthusiasm over the novelty of a female-helmed band feels a bit embarrassing in hindsight. But regardless, Moenos has led her band through a rather impressive series of interesting and downright blazing recordings. In that very same tradition, ‘Sexus-Mortem, Ouroboros’ is the latest addition to the ever-growing Sex Messiah discography.
Over the fifteen years and a bit that the band has been around, Moenos’ creation has pretty much matured into something that is probably far more lethal than people might have expected upon hearing the band’s earliest output. While I don’t want to take anything away from those solid releases the earlier stages of the band’s carer, ‘Sexus-Mortem, Ouroboros’ by far is the best thing it brought forth.
The very essentials of the band’s core hasn’t even changed all that much, but it all comes across much more convincing. Not in the least due to the improved musicianship. The emphasis, over the years, has switched to a more chaos-driven brute force, but it doesn’t go all bananas like Bestial Warlust or Sarcófago, instead it feels rather controlled but without losing much of its fury. Moenos’s raspy and croaky vocals do sound more mean and seriously menacing on this recording, mostly because it is very loud in the mix. That same goes for the thunderous and maniacal drums which vies with the vocals for the lead role on this second full-length album. The guitars are a bit more tucked away in the mix, mainly supplying the deafening and roaring backdrop; truly like a deathly chainsaw.
This sort of music usually is played rather safe, following the trodden paths of the Black/Death Metal or Black/Thrash genres, ‘Sexus-Mortem, Ouroboros’ has a few nice little treats for the true connoisseur. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that Sex Messiah is reinventing or redefining the genre, but the album definitely has some surprises in store. ‘Lujuria Maníaca’, for instance, ends in a totally unexpected almost incantatory way in which Moenos (I guess) shows off her clean vocal skills, a nightingale. And the album as a whole really does have a bit more complexity musically than those aforementioned colleagues; Moenos definitely puts in some tasty twists and turns. For those who have been following the band for a bit longer this might not come completely out of the blue, but I feel that on ‘Sexus-Mortem, Ouroboros’ everything falls into place much more persuasively.
Not only is this new album a clear step-up from the previously released recordings, it is also a far more all-round album, embracing both the band’s roots as well as the more recent musical direction. A song like ‘Descenso Al Infierno’, for example, has some pretty heavy and generally compelling Death Metal riffs revolving around some classic Heavy Metal-like songwriting. Sex Messiah never fails to amaze…
