John Bassett is a very busy
man when it comes to his work with Kingbathmat and his debut solo album
released this year. And now he’s back with a new project called, Arcade
Messiah. The album has a darker, ominous, and sinister sounding from his
melodic atmosphere on Unearth. There
are elements of Post-Rock, Metal, and Doom-Prog at times to go into the
nightmarish world on what was once the happiest place turns into a terrifying
city of hell with no plans of escaping and Bassett himself has taken it to a
mind-blowing level.
On the opening track, Sun Exile, it has this wonderful touch
of Bassett’s tribute to Mogwai with a steadfast beat with the eruptive riff and
rhythm of the guitar and drums going at 600 miles per hour. Like a speeding
train going into that distance, it is like an intense marathon and you don’t
know when you are going to stop until the train comes to a relaxing mode for
the Bass to come in as it lets the person calm down a bit and then back into
the position for that sonic energy blast like a firing weapon rapidly to close
it off with a perfect way to start things off.
Your Best Line of Defence is Obscurity in which it almost sounds like a title that George
Orwell could have used when he was writing 1984,
it has a relaxing vibe that the instruments bring into before the rhythm guitar
and drums come in like an explosion waiting to happen at the right moment
between the riffs, atmosphere, and the unexpected snare drums going “Bam! Bam!”
like a stop-and-go moment between the two instruments. Now on Traumascope, its back into the darker
and deeper elements of rock between some minor-like melodies with a chugging
section of guitar and bass and its just amazing on the ominous intensity while Aftermath sees Arcade Messiah go into
the experimental electronic vibes with an homage to the French duo Air as if
they had work together and recorded the score for The Virgin Suicides.
Everybody Eating Everybody Else begins with a spacey ambient/atmospheric vibe with
Bassett’s homage to the Frippertronics before the delirium madness comes
banging in with the instruments knocking the doors down for the zombies to rein
terror into the town. The driven beats between the instruments along with a
leading riff really captures the dystopian vibes coming at you as if there is a
slight chance of hope to survive, but getting out is the next hardest and
difficult decision you have to decide if you are risking to make that choice.
The Most Popular Form of Escape has a touch of the doom metal and space rock sounds
of reminiscent of Purson, Black Sabbath, and Hawkwind as if the rocketship is
set the jump of light speed to go into another voyage for John Bassett to take
controls and set the controls for another planet into another infinite world as
the closing track, Roman Resolution
gives it a chance for a calmer yet rising semitone beat to enjoy the ride.
It is a lukewarm yet gentle
introduction for the first two minutes and fifty-seven seconds of the piece
before the machine is revved up for another adventure. And at times, I can
imagine Bassett himself writing a score for like this for the Halo franchise and then it goes back
into the moody pieces before it heads into the Crimson elements in there and a
dosage of the Metal sounds thrown in there for the last 3-minutes of the piece
meaning that he is leaving us on a cliffhanger to find out what happens next.
Arcade Messiah is a
mind-blowing experience from the beginning right into the middle and in the
very end, you have to give John Bassett a huge pat on the back for a job well
done on what he has done with the Metal project. I can’t wait to see and hear
what he does next with his solo work, Kingbathmat, and Arcade Messiah. It is a
terrifying, beautiful, and an amazing adventure into that utopian
world gone wrong and its almost the score and movie inside your head.
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