Messa – The Spin (Review)

Messa are an Italian doom band and this is their fourth album.

Messa are one of the more notable bands to appear in recent times. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching them progress from 2016’s Belfry, to 2018’s Feast for Water, to 2022’s Close, all the time enriching and refining their doomy sound ever further. In fact, the latter two albums appeared on my end of year lists for their respective years. All of which is to say; expectations are high for The Spin.

With a duration of 43 minutes, The Spin is Messa’s shortest album yet.

Messa’s doom is an expressive and multifaceted one. Within it, across The Spin, you’ll find elements of jazz, prog, Gothic rock, post-punk, and black metal, all woven into the doomy musical core, ready to manifest at key moments throughout the record. In effect, The Spin carries on the journey that Messa’s previous records began, only, as with all the others, with a direction and personality of its own. Case in point; the 80s/post-punk/Gothic rock influences. The Spin incorporates this into Messa’s existing style, enriching the songs and providing a charismatic edge that Messa use well.

The Spin isn’t as heavy as Close, and places the singer’s fantastic vocals evermore to the forefront. Couple this with the newer influences mentioned above, and The Spin is a more immediate record overall. This doesn’t mean it lacks in depth or longevity though. The songs are well-written, and despite the new emphasis some parts of the material have, manage to retain that special Messa magic that made the band so remarkable. This has not been lessened, just channelled into different ways.

Some of the songs are generally of a greater tempo, and as a whole the album shares a feeling of something that while related to past Messa work, is also separate and its own entity. This has been true of all of the band’s records to one extent or another, but on The Spin it’s heightened further. This is a new iteration of Messa. It follows what came before, but also drifts further away from it. Having said all that, I don’t want to overemphasise this, as this is still Messa, recognisably so in most respects. Fear not, for there is still more than enough tasty doom here to get your teeth into.

In fact, at this point I should explicitly note that the post-punk/Gothic rock elements aren’t the only ones that make this record what it is. Messa are a better band than that, and don’t rely on one influence to win the day. Different songs make use of different parts of the band’s sound in different ratios. While some tracks definitely lean into the music’s newer direction harder than others, they aren’t the be all and end all of The Spin. For example, special note must go to the classic progressive rock aspect that the album adopts in places, as well as the jazz-inspired sections .

Messa have dug deep into the past – both their own and collectively from the 80s – and produced a record that’s rawer, (for lack of a better word), and more vulnerable. Messa have a broad sound, with a wide set of influences, and a character of their own that’s finely developed.

Messa’s latest record is another mood-focused masterclass in emotive heavy music. They remain one of the most interesting, enjoyable, and notable bands out there, and they just continue to get better and better.

Essential listening.