Review by Michael on January 24, 2024.

After the tragic loss of their long-time vocalist Andy Kaina who died in 2022 the band didn't give up and managed to recover from this tragedy. Although Andy left a gap that is hard to fill for sure, the band found a great new vocalist Marcus Seebach who - let me emphasize this – does an amazing job on Christus Hypercubus.

So, here we are with the 7th full-length album in Messiah's career, however, it is a pity that the band is still that underrated and more underground than deserved. Of course they had some really mediocre albums like Underground in their discography but also some really cool stuff like my fave Rotten Perish or their latest output Fracmont which also had some lengths in the songwriting though. So, the Swiss have tightened up their songs and focused more on gloomy melodies and cool riffs. The approach is much thrashier than on Fracmont and the songs are much more comprehensible on this one. Apart from the strange title where in my mind I connect a flying Jesus in a Borg cubus, I have to admit that I feared for the new album when I listened to the title track the first time. 'Christus Hypercubus' is the bulkiest song on the album with a lot of technical, repetitive and sluggish riffs which doesn't make it the best one to introduce the album. There are many others though, much more interesting and varied ones on the album which could or should've been picked. 'Once Upon A Time…Nothing' is probably one of the fastest songs they've ever written and this one is a real brutal death-thrash metal bastard with super aggressive vocals. A lot of Slayer vibes appear here to kick ass and this is probably one of the best songs they've done since Rotten Perish. 'Soul Observatory' is pure thrash (only with some death metal vocals) and moves straight ahead. The riffing is simple but very effective and this is one of the catchiest tracks with some atmospheric twists and turns in the middle of it. There is an acoustic part where there was some thrash and all of a sudden it has gone again. Great effect!

'Venus Baroness I' and 'Venus Baroness II' are some really groovy closers of the album (though 'closers' may be the wrong term for two tracks with a running time of 11 minutes together), but Messiah managed to write some rousing melodies with great hooks. Again they mix up some heavy thrash and death elements to a galloping tempo and so these two tracks don't appear to last 11 minutes but like maybe some diverting 5 minutes or so. I guess this is what makes out a good album. Oh, and if you want to relax a little bit, they have written 'Speedsucker Romance' for moments like this which is a slow creeping song without too many exciting moments in it. But beware, after this song the 'Centipede Bite' is waiting for you to bite you in your balls! I would say that Messiah has written a very good album with Christus Hypercubus which probably is one of the best albums in their discography. Apart from two average songs they did a very convincing job on their songwriting and also the production is powerful and well-balanced. This wasn't always so – I just say Choir Of Horrors (where are the vocals???).

Rating: 8.7 out of 10 (Anti)Christian Borg cubes

Review by Carl on April 11, 2020.

Slovakia's Dementor had already been around for quite a while when they dropped this one. Playing in the same ballpark where you can also find the likes of Behemoth, Nile and Belphegor, the band churn out a similar sort of blackened death metal with an occult edge to it. I heard that in later years they switched to brutal death metal, a step that's not hard to imagine. It's not that far removed from what they present here.

Their style on this album is, as stated, the sort of death/black metal that was at the same time also employed by the likes of Belphegor and Behemoth, but in the riffing there are some other influences to be found as well. I sometimes hear Nile popping up and the guitar leads have an undeniable Morbid Angel feel. There is a difference however, the bands mentioned know when to take the foot of the accelerator to allow for dark atmospherics to permeate in their music. Dementor, however, just keep plowing away at top speed, bringing to mind Brazilian speed monsters like Abhorrence, Rebaelliun or Nephasth, but less memorable. I can't really put my finger on it, but where the Brazilians succeed in creating a vortex of highly volatile menace, Dementor fail to stay interesting for the whole run of the album. It all sounds massive (thanks to the Andy Classen production job) and the unrelenting barrage of hammering percussion and raging riff work smack you around without mercy but after 4 or 5 tracks I pretty much had it. It just begins to sound like one long song, not just because of the constant barrage of speed but also because the individual tracks all sound the same. Halfway through the album i started thinking "here they go again" and that can't be the intention here.

I admit that this isn't a bad album in any way. It sounds great, has energy coming out of the wazoo and has the adrenaline pumping through your system like mad but when I reach the middle of this piece, I've had it. Basically, it's a great album, to be consumed in bite-sized bits to avoid losing interest and yawning in general.

Rating: 7 out of 10