Savage Messiah Babble On About “Babylon”

Despite the fact that they share a name with my favorite Arch Enemy song*, and despite the fact that they gave away their most recent release, 2011’s Insurrection, for the low low cost of free, I haven’t really paid London’s Savage Messiah any attention ’til now. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that for some reason every time I see their name my mind either goes to the aforementioned Arch Enemy song and I then get distracted listening to that song, or otherwise for some reason goes straight to Savatage and/or Shotgun Messiah, neither of whom are bands of which I am particularly fond.

I’m not saying these were good reasons to ignore Savage Messiah. I’m just being honest.

ANYWAY, the band has a new album called The Fateful Dark coming out next year, and they have now released the first single from that album, “Cross of Babylon,” and it’s actually really sweet! I mean, honestly, I wish that guitarist/vocalist Dave Silver’s singing was more Hetfield and less Belladonna, but it’s not a deal breaker for me. This is the kind of song which makes me wanna have drink cheap, watered-down beer and just headbang ’til my neck hurts. Could Savage Messiah be one of metal’s rarest of finds — a re-thrash band that isn’t boring as fuck??? I guess I should go back now and listen to their other albums and see.

While I do that, you listen to “Cross of Babylon” and see if it tickles your eardrums or not:

The Fateful Dark comes out on March 10 in Europe via Earache and on March 18 in the U.S. via Century Media/Earache.

*And a book about sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, and a cinematic adaptation of that book. I’m just acknowledging this fact before some smart ass in the comments section does.