CD Review: Arcade Messiah - III (Instrumental Metal, 2016)

Massive guitars - these words were left behind in my mind after listening to the newest effort of Arcade Messiah. John Bassett impressively shows how to present guitar wizardry in modern sounds to the audience these days.

The album cover for Arcade Messiah's "III", (c) by Arcade Messiah, used with kind permission

Summary
 
The longplayer simply entitled "III" is packed to the brim with beautiful and massive guitar sounds. If you adore such sounds the first three tracks, especially "Citadel" and "Revolver" will make you alone more than happy. You don't need to read further - go straight forward to Bandcamp and buy the record for a few bucks. You can't go wrong here.

For all others it should be mentioned that the album builds up the tonality to a absolute peak in the first three tracks. Afterwards the tension falls down a bit to give air for some more breathing to the atmosphere. Those two numbers that follow go with less massive sound and examine the fragileness of guitar sounds with softer music.

What else has changed since the last record? "III" is compared to the previous album a output that comes in a much thicker presentation. Everything has been outworked to sound heavy from the start. Most of all the drums speak out clearly to me. They are much more brutal and present than on "II". Even the bass shines more through on this album. In addition some vocals can be heard. They fit well and don't ruin the listening experience. 

It's the fun that winds down in your ears while listening to the album that makes it stand out from other releases. John Bassett plays a lot with themes and motives on this one and it's simply a calming and positive feeling those notes leave behind.

Purchase-Link and Album Player

Please appreciate those efforts with a purchase. These time no physical format can be offered since John Bassett moved his home while creating these tunes and decided to go a safe route finacially. But the digital plattform Bandcamp happily offers losless formats so you will have the same quality with the files than having a pressed CD.  Enjoy a preview in the player below.

Contact Data

The story of Arcade Messiah goes on! Make sure to follow the project through their homepage or use Facebook to do so.

Arcade Messiah previews new album III

Instrumental metal albums are a exciting sort of releases for me. Since they focus completly on the music they have to work differently to keep the interest of the listener. If you've ever experimented with sound snippets on your PC you surely know what I mean and how hard it is to fill just one minute with instrumental music that is something worth your time.

A new album of John Bassett's project Arcade Messiah is about to be unleashed this November. It's the third installment entiled "III" and we can finally catch some short snippets of the record in the player below. While listening to the music the video also reveals the artwork by Michael Kerbow. The pre-order phase starts November 10th 2016 on Bandcamp.

Make sure to follow the next steps of the project through Twitter or Facebook.

Arcade Messiah show Split Screen video of recording sessions

These days artists are going to start working on new records much faster than in older times. I can remember that you had to wait for new albums much longer back in the 80's/90's. The internet wasn't around like it is in present days so there was no way you could pick up a first glimpse into the record.

Sometimes print megazines made a visit at the recording studios of the bands if they were able to and could listen to a few snippets every here and there. You could read about their journey to those studios and what they thought about the new material in the next issue. Now these days bands often reach out early to the audience and let them have a look into the new record already in a preview stadium.

One of these previews that just came out is of the instrumental metal project Arcade Messiah. The latest record II came out by the end of November 2015, you can check out a detailed review of the album here at a blog post of mine. These days John Bassett has already begun working on album three.

This video shows how he experiments with "(...) a slightly fuzzier sound on the guitars, and a different chain of effects. " as he explains in the description underneath the video. The cool thing is that he presents the stuff step by step. Each segment has been added separately merged together in a  split screen video.

Don't miss out the further creation process of the new album and start following Arcade Messiah today through Facebook or take a look at the homepage from time to time.