Customer Reviews

Messiah Meets Progenitor

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Unfortunately, I think this album left a lot to be desired, especially in comparison to Messiah's debut, 21st Century Jesus. The Egyptian/Middle Eastern/Indian sound style adopted by the group on this album is overemployed, being present on almost every track at some point. The Roni Size remix of Meditator sounds cheap, with its played-out, generic, monotonous and repetitively skittish beats. The cover art is another shortcoming, as it detracts from the overall aesthetic Messiah experience. The visuals of the album do not compliment the music, unlike on 21st Century Jesus, whose minimalist design added to its overall style with its sleek, simple, and clean cover. Messiah's style on this album also differs from their last one with its use of a male vocalist throughout many of the tracks, including Apocalypse, She's Gonna Wind Up... Nightbombing, and Cosmic. Maybe another vocalist could have pulled this off to a positive effect; however, this singer (who's name I didn't find any mention of in the credits) is quite average sounding with a voice lacking in uniqueness. I think the songs could have done without lyrical vocalization, and I prefer the style of Messiah's previous album in which the tracks were instrumental without singing. On top of that, the vocal stylings seemed unimaginative and lacked creativity. Implosion, Let Tyrants Tremble, and Liberators... are the best tracks on the album. Sway, which I found to be a welcome return to the style of Peace and Tranquility from their first album, goes well for the first half, but then succumbs to the gaudy middle eastern sounds that the group seems to have become so fond of. Liberators... is the prettiest and most ambient of the tracks. It starts out with the somewhat disturbing sound of a heartbeat and progresses into dreamlike instrumentals gradually followed by a determined guitar, coupled with faint haunting background vocals and effects until it collapses into cosmic synthesizers and percussion.

I didn't want to rate this album too badly, because Messiah gained my loyalty with their first album. However Messiah Presents Progenitor is a decline from the ingenious craftsmanship, visionary style, and energy of their previous album, on songs such as Temple of Dreams and Beyond Good and Evil, to name a couple. I look forward to another album from them and hope that they improve over this one. Aspects of certain songs that I'd like to hear more emphasis on in the future are the sweeping orchestral breaks and choir-like vocal background harmonies combined with the driven, industrial instrumentals that make Messiah's sound distinctive, and when done right, beautiful, intriguing, fierce, and powerful.

I have been enjoying Messiah's earlier album, "21st Century Jesus," for several years now -- each time techno/electronica splinters off into yet another sub-genre, I always come back to Messiah, and it is a relief (yes, it's old school techno, but it's so much stronger musically than much of the electronica coming out these days). I was ecstatic when I discovered that Messiah had a second album -- unfortunately that feeling was obliterated when I actually listened to it. Sub-standard in every way. Trying to like Progenitor was an exercise in futility. Don't judge Messiah by this album.

I bought 21st Century Jesus looking for a band or an album that was as good as Prodigy's Experience (or Music for the Jilted Generation), and what I got blew me away. Not only was it just as good, but it was a style completely different. The pulsing rhythms, polyphonic synths, it was great.

Needless to say, my anticipation and expectations when purchasing this album were pretty high. And it's not that it didn't live up to expectations. It's that this album was SO bad, that not only did I not think it even was Messiah (Messiah presents??? - was this somehow a different band???), but I returned it to the store where I had bought it from citing that "it didn't sound right."

And you know, if you are a Messiah fan, this album definitely does not sound right.

If you are looking for a repeat of Messiah's 21st Century Jesus, this is not it. I recently started listening to this album on launchcast, and decided to get it because in my opinion it's really good.

If you play this with more contemporary music (Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, etc), it doesn't sound dated (just my opinion, especially when you consider how old this is), but if you play 21st Century for anyone, they'll be wondering where you got the prehistoric techno. Dont get me wrong, their first album was as good as it gets for early 90's techno, but it wont ever be thought of as timeless.

The first track sounds like it should have been on their first album, and then the Roni Size Remix of Meditator is pretty lackluster. After that, the album developes into a series of more rock driven songs with several mellow, more instumental pieces thrown in. One other reviewer mentioned a dislike for the heavy asian influence on many tracks - I like those sounds so this made me like the album more. The original version of Meditator flat out rocks, and the rest is pretty solid.

Too bad the album art and title made people pass over this one, totally worth it for me. Four stars because of that useless Roni Size mix.