{"id":480104,"date":"2018-12-20T13:03:08","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T20:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=771701"},"modified":"2018-12-20T13:03:08","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T20:03:08","slug":"song-you-need-to-know-messa-leah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/music-news\/song-you-need-to-know-messa-leah\/","title":{"rendered":"Song You Need to Know: Messa, \u2018Leah\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MESSA_2018-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Here\u2019s the thing about year-end lists: They\u2019re inherently imperfect. As editors, writers and critics, we take in as much as we can, assess what\u2019s in view and try to come up with rankings that make sense. But inevitably we miss titles that could have ended up in the running if we\u2019d known about them sooner. For this writer, one of those is <em>Feast for Water<\/em>, the latest album by Italy\u2019s Messa, which I checked out after seeing it cited in a <a href=\"https:\/\/yourlastrites.com\/2018\/12\/19\/best-of-2018-ryans-20-albums-that-did-the-damn-thing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">year-end list<\/a>\u00a0on the always-on-point metal blog Last Rites.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The write-up mentioned the band\u2019s \u201cbluesy haze\u201d and even cited Stevie Ray Vaughn, not your typical underground-metal reference points. After hearing the single \u201cLeah,\u201d it\u2019s easy to see why inter-genre comparisons were necessary. The track starts off with a crunchy doom-metal plod, but soon opens up into a jazzily noir-ish verse, with spare percussion and subtle Fender rhodes framing the breathy croon of a vocalist known only as Sara. When the distortion comes roaring back, this time with the singer belting mightily over top (\u201cRaise your chalice\/For your guide sublime\u201d), the effect is stunning \u2014 the crescendo all the more impactful thanks to the hush that came before. The track only grows more epic from there, combining the witchy mystique of Stevie Nicks\u2013fronted Fleetwood Mac with Black Sabbath\u2019s tortured churn.<\/p>\n<p>The whole album is equally captivating, wringing maximum drama out of its savvy stylistic clash. <a href=\"https:\/\/messa666.bandcamp.com\/album\/feast-for-water\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"><em>Feast for Water<\/em><\/a> \u2014 which the band calls \u201ca concept album centered on the introspective, symbolic and ritual features of the liquid element\u201d \u2014 is undoubtedly a metal record, even incorporating menacing growls and hectic blast beats (not to mention a surprise saxophone cameo) on the track \u201cTulsi,\u201d and but it isn\u2019t <em>just<\/em> a metal record. Any rock fan with an ear for immersive textures and epic dynamics could find something to enjoy here.<\/p>\n<p>Expect to hear more from Messa in 2019, as the band \u2014 also including bassist-guitarist Marco Messa, lead-guitarist Alberto and drummer Mistyr \u2014 will appear at high-profile overseas fests like the Netherlands\u2019 Roadburn and London\u2019s Desertfest. We may have been late to the party, but we\u2019ll be sure not to miss out on whatever comes next.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-news\/messa-leah-song-italian-heavy-metal-771701\/\" target=\"_blank\">via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s the thing about year-end lists: They\u2019re inherently imperfect. As editors, writers and critics, we take in as much as we can, assess what\u2019s in view and try to come up with rankings that make sense. But inevitably we miss titles that could have ended up in the running if we\u2019d known about them sooner. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-480104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 15:59:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KQZR - The Reel","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kqzr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}