Messiah´s Kiss - Prayer For The Dying
Messiah's Kiss debut offers straight-ahead classic Heavy Metal in the tradition of Judas Priest and Accept, added a considerable dose of Power Metal influences.

The heavy opening track Light In The Black is a cool creation featuring driving lead harmonies, fierce riffing and forceful double bass drumming. Very traditional in structure but well performed.

Dream Evil relies bit too much on a stationary rhythm guitar riff but the gloomy verse line leading up to the chorus sounds fantastic.
Mike Tirelli's raw and powerful voice fits this album well and his varied performance in this song is high class.
His tone in Blood, Sweat & Tears is very close to Rob Halford, a bit too close for my taste. Unfortunately the song is quite uninteresting and simple, the dull chorus being way overused, this song just irritates me.

Night Comes Down is my favourite piece on the disc; its dreaming atmospheric start invites you into a groovy and hard rocking composition with massive bass lines and a great bombastic chorus.
Tight rhythm guitar work, detailed drumming and a cool relaxing guitar solo all helps in making this a compact and intriguing track.

The very powerful Blood Of The Kings round things off with its 7-minute duration, having some welcomed dynamic elements but again also a chorus line that is easily forgotten.

I won't go any further into describing the remaining songs, generally they can be labelled standard Metal tunes that are neither bad nor especially good and there you have the albums biggest problem in a nutshell, a feeling of mediocrity; I clearly miss more memorable refrains, spectacular melodies and elements that make the songs stand out or enhance the otherwise rather simple path.
The lyrical universe follows classical Metal themes as well; gaining inner strength, heroism, feelings of longing and so on, above average but nothing really spectacular and quite ordinary from time to time.

The sound is transparent but a bit too trebled; the overall band performance is firm and competent but then again it won't go down in history as anything really special or creative.

In this very crowded Heavy Metal/Power Metal scene I don't think Messiah's Kiss offers much new or exciting, still a tight and OK disc.

Written by Tommy
Thursday, December 30, 2004
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Ratings

Tommy: 5/10

Members: 6/10 - Average of 1 ratings.



Member ratings

Profile pictureLittle Drummer Boy

Rating: 6/10
I just discovered this band and started with this release. I am one to not agree with the ... · Read more ·

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Review by Little Drummer Boy (Member) - Saturday, July 23, 2011
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Comments: 166
Ratings: 46
I just discovered this band and started with this release. I am one to not agree with the rating of average. I personally feel this debut has a greater up side. There is enough material here to take note there may be something here. The stand out tracks Light In The Black, Dream Evil and my favorite Night Comes Down. With tracks like Final Warning and Pride & Glory (decent chorus and bridge) shows some promise showcasing more of Mike Tirelli's vocal talents.

All in all I thought this CD was better than average. Perhaps it was the prominent Dio influence in Tirelli's vocals. One can not help take note.

At the end of the day No Prayer For The Dying is a album that is what is typically found in many debuts. A work in progress as a band finds their strengths and take it to the next level for their follow up. Those strengths with the 3 stand out tracks is what I hope more of with the follow up releases.

Rating: 6/10

Posted by Little Drummer Boy
Saturday, July 23, 2011










Review by Tommy
None

Released by
SPV - 2002

Tracklisting
1. The Rising
2. Light In The Black
3. Reign Of Fire
4. Dream Evil
5. Blood, Sweat & Tears
6. Thunderball
7. Prayer For The Dying
8. Night Comes Down
9. Mortal Sin
10. Final Warning
11. Pride & Glory
12. Blood Of The Kings


Style
Heavy Metal

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