Messiah Biography
One of those hopelessly un-commercial heavy metal outfits whose ultimate influence far exceeds their actual career-span success, Switzerland's Messiah enjoyed only temporary success -- particularly in Europe's Eastern Block -- before settling into their eventual cult status.
Formed in 1984 by vocalist/bassist R.K. "Tschosi" Wilhelm Kuhne), guitarist R.B. "Brogi" Remo Broggi and drummer R.H. "Jazzi" Heer, Messiah can be compared to similar early European thrash outfits like Hellhammer and Kreator, in that they inadvertently helped advance the development of death and black metal while simply trying to mosh away. In Messiah's case, that effort bore beautifully rotten fruit via 1986's cult classic Hymn to Abaramelyn album, which buried deceptively advanced technique under less-than-stellar recording technology and meshed the aforementioned thrash influences with death vocals and black metal's satanic lyrics (not to mention Brogi's corpse paint). A similarly wrought second effort entitled Extreme Cold Weather followed the very next year, but failed to advance their career prospects or, depending on who you ask, improve upon their debut. Yet Messiah carried on performing and recording regardless, undergoing occasional membership changes (most notably long-tenured drummer Steve Karrer and vocalists Andy Kaina and Christofer Johnsson, later of Carbonized and Therion) and lasting deep into the 90's with efforts like 1991's Psychomorphia E.P. and Choir of Horrors L.P., 1992's Rotten Perish L.P., and 1994's The Ballad of Jesus E.P. and Underground L.P. Messiah vanished for good at this point, but those early albums continue to be reissued with some regularity by different independent labels worldwide, and are regularly cited by future bands and fans for their small but no less important place in metal history. ~ Ed Rivadavia, All Music Guide
Popular Biographies:
Every little thing Biography: The Japanese pop group Every Little Thing scored in their native land during 1997 with several smash singles, including "Feel My Heart," "Future World" and "Dear My Friend." The album Everlasting was...
Hella Biography: Indie rockers Hella consist of guitarist Spencer Seim and drummer Zach Hill. The two first got together in the spring of 2001, developing a following around the Sacramento area that won them a record...
Switches Biography: Playing tough, witty, and hook-laden rock that exists in a time warp where glam rock and Britpop are the talk of the British Isles at the same time, Switches are the brainchild of lead singer and...
Iasos Biography: One of the original new-age musicians, this California synthesist creates expansive, uplifting music that floats and shimmers. Iasos has always been sincere in his desire to induce higher states of...
Iliketrains Biography: Post-rock band iLiKETRAiNS (the name is bad enough by itself, but the band's chosen typographical willfulness -- all one word, all caps except for the three letter I's, which are lowercase --...
Dead kennedys Biography: The Dead Kennedys merged revolutionary politics with hardcore punk music and, in the process, became one of the defining hardcore bands. Often, they were more notable for their politics than their...
Ondar Biography: The legendary Tuvan throat-singer Kongar-ol Ondar emerged in 1985 as the founder of the Tuva Ensemble, quickly establishing himself as one of the world's foremost practitioners of the sygyt...
Dordan Biography: The Celtic group Dordan consists of a trio of women from County Galway, including tin-whistle player Mary Bergin, harpist Kathleen Loughnane and fiddler Dearbhail Standun. Dordan, whose name means...