MESSA · Close (Re-Release) | CLEAR/BLACK SMOKE 2LP

Clear/black smoke double vinyl in gatefold sleeve, insert included. Limited to 200 copies.

Background information about 'Close (Re-Release)'

There are records that simply sound good, and then there are records that rearrange the furniture in your head. Messa's "Close" belongs firmly to the second category. The Italian four-piece had already built a devoted following with "Feast For Water", but here they push their sound into something far grander, a slow-burning ritual where doom weight, jazz phrasing and Mediterranean melody all share the same room without ever stepping on each other's toes.

Singer Sara's voice is the beating heart of it all. She gets described as "Stevie Nicks fronting Black Sabbath," and honestly, that's not far off, though it barely captures how she moves from a whisper to a full-throated roar inside a single verse. The Fender Rhodes that opens "Suspended" melts into wide-screen riffing, "Pilgrim" and "Orphalese" thread oudh and eastern chord shapes through the fog, and "Rubedo" and "Dark Horse" build toward a glorious mess of saxophone, blast beats and harmony that shouldn't work and absolutely does. It's heavy, it's cinematic, and it never once feels like a genre exercise.

What makes it stick is the patience. Nothing here rushes, and nothing here drags. Ten tracks that treat atmosphere as a songwriting tool rather than decoration, with the kind of sequencing that rewards a full side-by-side listen. A genuine modern doom landmark, and one that keeps revealing new corners with every spin.

For fans of: Dead Can Dance, Swans, Om, Windhand, Chelsea Wolfe

Track listing

LP 1:
A1. Suspended
A2. Dark Horse
A3. Orphalese
B1. Rubedo
B2. Hollow
B3. Pilgrim
LP 2:
C1. 0=2
D1. If You Want Her To Be Taken
D2. Leffotrak
D3. Serving Him

Manufacturer: Oy Svart Musik Ab, Saippua Center, Ruissalontie 12C, laituri O, 20200 Turku, Finland, Contact: www.svartrecords.com