Description
For nearly 15 years, Sex Messiah has been a mainstay of the Japanese underground, routinely performing live and releasing some of the most intriguing black/death metal the country has exported in recent years. A constellation of musicians have performed in Sex Messiah, but Moenos, whose extraordinary guitar, synth, and experimental/noise atmospherics define the band’s sound, remains its axis. On Sex Messiah’s 2018 debut album, “Eastern Cult of Sodomy,” Moenos—flanked by a full band consisting of a bassist, drummer, and vocalist—concocted an amalgam of black, death, and thrash metal, spiked with elements of Japanese punk and hardcore. She dissolved that lineup soon thereafter, at the same time recruiting drummer Abaddrums SEXXX Grinder, who had recently relocated to Japan from Bolivia. Sex Messiah remains a stripped-down guitar/drums duo on their latest recording, “Metal del Chivo,” which consists of four new studio tracks and a five-song live recording from 2020. The personnel change brought with it notable stylistic and compositional mutations. Whereas Moenos previously delegated vocal duties to others, she now delivers her own bestial rasps. And the lyrics, written by SEXXX Grinder, are in his native Spanish. Musically, the Sex Messiah sound has come into focus. Instead of drawing together influences from different genres, the new material is undiluted, a barrage of crude, demonically impassioned black/death metal, unhinged and cacophonous in the early Cogumelo style. Sadistic and compositionally sharp, “Metal del Chivo” carries a more visceral impact than any of the band’s earlier work. Originally self-released on CD last year for Moenos’s own label, Sex Desire Records, NWN! now presents the vinyl edition of “Metal del Chivo,” which will no doubt satisfy the band’s long-time fans while simultaneously summoning new adherents to the cult of Sex Messiah.