16. April 2025
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Media Review

Messa – Close

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Messa - Close

Messa - Close
4.2

Rating

 4.2/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Very intense compositions
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  • Long, but entertaining songs

Doom metal from Italy: Messa means nothing but (religious) mass. On 11th March 2022, they will release a new album, Close, which is the third major release of he band. I already had listen to their songs. Here is my track by track review.

 

Messa – About The Artists

Messa has been founded in Citadella near Padua in Italy in 2014. Sara B. is the leading vocalist, who initiated the band together with bassist and guitarist Marco Zanin. They added drummer Mistyr and guitarist Alberto Alberto Piccolo to the lineup. While the band is typically classified as a doom metal act, they also identify themselves as a dark jazz project. In 2016, the band released their debut album Belfry, which globally received very positive reviews and boosted the reputation of the band. Two years later, Messa added their second album Feast for Water.

 

Messa – Close – Track by Track

The ten track album lasts 65 minutes.

1. Suspended

The first track on the album is Suspended. The song does not neglect guitar chords, but overall, it feels comparably moderate in regards of the riff density. Very present vocal performance by Sara B., who is leading the track, for sure. A good starter, which has a rather average duration for this album – 7:16 minutes.

2. Dark Horse

While Suspended gave a slow, rather majestic step into the music of Close, Dark Horse tries to be quicker and more powerful. Nonetheless, the Italians nicely work with sudden changes in the mood of the song nicely. I love the melodic lines of Dark Horse – the main theme could also easily be a dark country track.

3. Orphalese

The good thing about songs exceeding a duration of seven minutes: you can invest into their atmosphere. The Orphalese, for example, centers the focus on a sax-alike sound for the very first minute. The song has a bit of an Oriental touch to me. The song rather catches with spheric sounds. Again, I do understand the “dark jazz” thing much more here than naming it doom metal. Great sound.

4. Rubedo

The fourth song comes with rocking episodes, but again, the quiet moments, which spotlight Sara B.’s voice, are the more magical listens. However, we have a great metal-alike solo here in the middle of the track – which pops up just when the song tends to feel a bit of boring. Great timing!

5. Hollow

Guitar melodic lines and some atmospheric sounds for 80 seconds – Hollow is a nice interlude and warm-up to the sound of Pilgrim thereafter.

6. Pilgrim

9:26 minutes – the single release Pilgrim has likely not been played in mainstream radio too often. The song has a nice leverage of very atmospheric parts, but is also not short of sounds for the metal-head in you. Nice track!

7. 0=2

After the second-largest track Pilgrim, Messa add the longest song of their album right thereafter. Their musical elaboration about the mathematically incorrect statement is 10:30 minutes. The song takes a very long introduction. The vocals are starting after some two and a half minutes. The band is walking through very different styles here. I enjoy the long listen, which just does not feel to become boring at all.

8. If You Want Her To Be Taken

Apart from the interlude tracks, If You Want Her To Be Taken is the “shortie” of the album. The song has some very rocking elements towards its end, but overall, I would see it as as a lengthy (but good) folk power ballad.

9. Leffotrak

Leffotrack is the second interlude track on the album. In contrast to Hollow, this one comes with quite full force of metal power. 45 second with rocking noises.

10. Serving Him

The album farewells with Serving Him, a song, which has some really nice instrumental parts, but also some slightly distorted parts. However, the album closes with rather harmonic sounds.

 

Messa – Close – Spotify

Here is Close on Spotify:

 

Messa – Close – My View

Close is a very fascinating album. I partially did not really find the right words to describe it. Messa come with their very own style – and I really enjoy the listen. If you like it or not is finally a matter of taste – but they are characteristic and skillful without a doubt.

 

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