Pic/copyright Karina Wells
Three years back we, as so many, more than enthused about the impressive debut album from Australian metallers Meshiaak and now we find ourselves doing the same again with even greater rigour for its successor, Mask Of All Misery. Everything striking about that first album has been intensified and melded with even richer and bolder adventure resulting in an encounter which left us simply greedy for more.
Calling the band’s sound as metal is the easiest option but does not explore the richness of its tapestry. Thrash and groove metal collude with progressive and voracious rock ‘n’ roll across its unpredictable body with plenty more involved in its imagination. Equally familiar textures invite and tease alongside the band’s own uniqueness as songs rise drenched in drama and invention as well as contagious endeavour.
Formed in Melbourne by Danny Camilleri of 4ARM and Teramaze’s Dean Wells, Meshiaak’s line-up is completed by bassist Andrew Cameron and drummer David Godfrey who has replaced original rhythm caster Jon Dette between albums due to logistical reasons. Together the quartet snarl at and trespass, seduce and fascinate the senses across the ten tracks of Mask Of All Misery bringing reflections on toxic issues, intimate and worldly, to the fore.
It begins with the enthralling Miasma, a piece of music which instantly hooked the imagination with its mournful orchestration and melodic melancholy. Its initial portentous breath is soon a tempest of sound and intensity cored by a groove which just seeped under the skin. The predominantly instrumental track provides a deluge of craft and suggestion within its polluted air, closing with the same captivation it rose from before the album’s title track launches its own turbulent contagion.
There is no escaping a Metallica tinge to the track as it expands yet we can only say it is one mere hue in the Meshiaak web of imagination shaping this thrash bred but diversely woven gem. Camilleri’s tones are as commanding and gripping as the sounds around him as the track reveals its drama and infectiousness, grooves and hooks breeding the magnetism which melodies and atmospheric intimacy exploits with matching prowess.
Bury The Bodies is next up, strolling in with a tempestuous if controlled breath which vocals echo within the melodic wiring of Wells. It is an absorbing encounter only more fascinating with its haunting strings, open emotion, and classic metal lining; eclipsing its impressive predecessor through every drama filled second though its pinnacle moment within the album is quickly matched by the equally thrilling City Of Ghosts and its hardcore bleeding rock ‘n’ roll. As with all tracks, it soon evolves in enterprise and flavour, its body a flood of styles and textures honed into one predacious and thickly rousing incitement.
There is something Bloodsimple like to the following Face Of Stone, certainly initially but it too evolves its own character and web of diversity while Tears That Burn The Son finds an industrial edge to its thrash/groove bred trespass of the passions. There is a climatic tone to the track which only accentuates its catchiness and seductive irritancy, volatility that fuels an anthemic dispute and urgency swiftly contrasted by Doves and its melodic drama though the fire in its heart is a perpetual eruption across its serenade, the sparks raised by both the stirring tones of Camilleri and the sonic calm of his companions in maybe the album’s most majestic and darkest moment.
Through the aggressive defiance of In The Final Hour and the predatory instincts of Adrena, the album only entrenched itself deeper under the skin even if neither quite matched the heights of those before them. Truthfully though both songs left a lingering impression and manipulation with the second a ferocious insurgence we keep finding ourselves drawn to.
Godless brings the album to a fractious close, its dirty toxic breath and tetchy exploits raw magnetism and a great splenetic end to the album though it makes room for some just as arousing emotively embroiled vocal dexterity and melodic temptation.
If Meshiaak impressed and thrilled fans the first time, their second album will have them drooling; it did us and continues to as it lingers in the speakers keeping the exploration of new discoveries on delay.
Mask Of All Misery is out now via Mascot Records / Mascot Label Group.
http://meshiaakband.com/ https://www.facebook.com/meshiaak
Pete RingMaster 26/11/2019
Copyright RingMasterReview: MyFreeCopyright
Defiance urging incitement and spirit erupts in the following Revolt!, the track as feral as it is skilfully composed in its intent and craft. Whipping up a storm, drummer Jason Bernard drives the rebellion of song and word with glee whilst the bass of Dominiek Hoet is a snarling predator in the mix of temptation and riot, they together inciting the epidemic of untamed contagion unleashed. Even so, its virulence is eclipsed by that of Desertsurfer and with almost immediate effect. From the first second the track is an unapologetic weave of addictive hooks and grooves wrapped in melodic and harmonic temptation yet as all songs is wired with muscle and attitude bordering on the confrontational.
Big writer’s block erupts with its own contagious spite and captivation next, rhythms again at the core of its bold and vigorous creative coercion where punk and hardcore essences entangle in noise and sonic voracity. A breath taking cauldron of untamed and tense captivation it is followed by the album’s title track which eagerly uncages an esurient flood of urgency and compulsive tempestuousness in sound and emotion. The track is superb, managing to eclipse its mighty predecessors even by the brief time it takes its cyclone to slip into a bewitching oasis of magnetic voice and synth. Even so a current of rhythmic badgering escapes the agility of Hess, niggling and inviting as Jucker’s throat provides a similarly rich coaxing.
Was there any specific idea behind the forming of the band and also in what you wanted it and your sound to offer?
It is not easy for any new band to make an impact regionally let alone nationally and further afield. How have you found it your neck of the woods?
Its title track follows and is soon showing the same strength of invention and contagious enterprise, its breath and flavouring arguably even more rapacious than within its predecessor as the song surges boisterously through ears. Again metal and rock textures align to be woven into a song thick in melodic prowess and unpredictable ideation whilst embracing more familiar hues to equally enjoyable success. A momentary calm only brings further and richer drama to the track, the same kind of emotively aflame quiet lining Cohen’s vocals ably backed by the harmonic tones of Almona.
Blow Joe is next up and straight away drums tease and tempt, their beats an infectious coaxing matched by the glorious lure of the bass. Swiftly the guitar casts melodic strokes across their irresistible dark bait before the track opens up a web of hooks and grooves, a hard rock infusion erupting upon the compelling landscape.