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Critic Reviews
90
In addition to its surprising aesthetics flair, Close contains some of Messa's most well-written songs to date. It's not just an interesting experiment, but the sound of a band fleshing out their place in doom metal's past, present and future.
4y
80
Close is conceptual enough to be interesting, but conventional enough to remain accessible.
4y
70
It ultimately falls just shy of brilliant, but it’s a captivating, enthralling experience nonetheless. This is a band you should always make a point to hear, and I suspect Close will grow on me like moss as the year unspools.
3y
60
Despite doom being one of the oldest subgenres of metal, Messa are breathing new life into it, unearthing dark corners that have yet to be explored, like it’s the most natural thing in the entire world.
4y
This is a sick Doom metal album on its heaviest parts. However fuck this album has so much build up and diversity to it. This is kind of incredible not gonna lie
Great modern doom album with powerful and emotional female vocals, bluesy solos and dark, gloomy atmosphere. The album's main weakness is its lack of substantial diversity, most songs sounds relatively the same but remain enjoyable.
Highlights: Serving Him.
Made me think of: A.A. Williams, Candlemass.
It's a sort of doom and late 90's alternative in a melancholic atmosphere. The vocals and guitar lines are sublime. It's wonderful to have such a good band to listen to.
Close was the first album I heard from Messa, back when the music video for Pilgrim dropped back in 2022 -
The album has aged really well. As usual with Messa, they're masters of atmosphere. Sara's voice is captivating as always, and the guitar work is imo the heaviest of their discography, especially on songs like Pilgrim, Serving Him and Suspended. It's a longer listen at 64 minutes, the longest of all their albums. There's some cool interlude tracks thrown in, which I ... read more
The Spin is one of my favorite new albums to come out this year, so I figured I'd begin to go through Messa's previous albums. After this one, I'm pretty comfy saying that I'm a Messa fan and I think they're one of the most interesting metal acts at the moment. Metal bands that try to mix in elements of other genres range from good to... Sleep Token, but Messa does it pretty seamlessly. I think they keep getting better and I'm excited for what they'll do next
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Track List
| 1 | Suspended 7:16 | 85 |
| 2 | Dark Horse 7:28 | 81 |
| 3 | Orphalese 7:07 | 87 |
| 4 | Rubedo 6:41 | 83 |
| 5 | Hollow 1:20 | 75 |
| 6 | Pilgrim 9:26 | 83 |
| 7 | 0=2 10:30 | 82 |
| 8 | If You Want Her to Be Taken 6:07 | 80 |
| 9 | Leffotrak 0:44 | 79 |
| 10 | Serving Him 8:02 | 86 |
Total Length: 1 hour, 4 minutes
