Artist: Shatter Messiah
   Title: Never To Play The Servant
   Label: Dockyard 1

After a stint in both Nevermore and Annihilator, guitarist Curran Murphy is ready to step into the limelight with his own project Shatter Messiah, but first he had to find the right voice to front his new band.  Just when all seemed lost in stepped Greg Wagner who fitted the bill perfectly.  Completing the line-up Murphy enlisted virtuoso skinsman Robert Falzano, who brought along long-time friend bass player Ron Boisvert to complete the band.

Being familiar with Murphy’s guitar style I knew this album wasn’t going to be a simple all out metal album, I knew it was going to be so much more than that ... and it is.

The album takes its initial structure from the aggressive full on guitar style of Murphy, but with the talented vocals of Wagner, who seems to be able to go from the gruff vocals to the seemingly majestic choral style with the greatest of ease, it was plain from the opener ‘Never Play’ that this isn’t your every day run of the mill metal album.

The album hits you right between the eyes from the off with no intro of any kind, it's straight into the full force of Wagner’s voice and Murphy’s guitars from the opening chords.  The intensity of the album continues at a breakneck speed with ‘Crucify Freedom’, a mass of full on drums and Murphy’s speediness of fingers on fret.

After the speed fest that was 'Crucify Freedom', the album slows down to a more moderate pace with the more darkened edged tracks ‘Fratility’ and ‘Hatred Devine’, with Wagner showing that gruff vocal style I commented on earlier.

The album then takes a more traditional metal approach with the powerful ‘Fear To Succeed’ and the thunderous ‘All Sainted Sinners’, which showcases Wagner at his very best vocally.

Then it's time for the metal onslaught that is ‘Inflicted’, a real barrage of drums and guitars, before things are taken to another level with the almost Power Metal soundings of ‘Drinking Joy’.

As the bass ridden track ‘Bad Blood’ is unveiled, another facet of the band is shown with this one, a real tour de force of a track with some of Wagner’s most intense vocals on the entire album being present on this one track.

The heavy bass undertones are once again present on the darkly disturbing ‘Blasphemy Feeder’, before things are slowed down with probably the deepest track on the album ‘Deny God’.  A track that starts of slowly before building once again on the guitars of Murphy.

The album picks up the pace once more with the probably the most intense track off the album, ‘Disillusion’, a track that feature heavily the guitars of Murphy and some outstanding streaming vocals of Wagner.

If I had to pick a favourite track then the next one ‘Bleed To Shadows’, would have to be high up on the pecking order, if for nothing else than the great drumming of Robert Falzano, most definitely a name to look out for in the drumming world.

The album comes to a close with another true metal track ‘New Kleen Killing Machine’, a simply massive track from what is sure to be very soon a massive metal band, so keep an eye and an ear out for Shatter Messiah and remember where you heard it first.

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