Bandcamp Messa have spent a decade refusing to stand still, and The Spin is the sound of them refusing again. The Italian quartet built their reputation on a smoky, jazz-shaded doom they call “scarlet doom,” but their fourth record is a colder, harder thing than Close was, more direct in its songwriting and more willing to bare its teeth. The ouroboros on the cover, a serpent devouring its own tail, is the whole thesis: cycles of anguish and self-sabotage that feed on themselves, dressed in some of the band’s darkest music yet.
The reason it works, first and last, is Sara Bianchin. Hers is one of the genuinely great voices in modern doom, and The Spin frames it better than any Messa record so far, a clean, intonation-perfect instrument that can float over a delay-drenched clean guitar on “Immolation” and then hold its ground when the wall arrives. “The Dress” is the clearest showcase, a spacious, melancholy piece where the wide reverb on her voice and the snare conjures a genuinely mournful room, and the song builds without ever forcing the drama. When Bianchin sings, the record has a centre of gravity that a lot of atmospheric doom lacks.
Around her, the band lean into contrast. “Void Meridian” opens the album with a dense, riff-forward heaviness that signals the harder direction immediately, “Fire on the Roof” pairs pearly clean verses with a saturated wall of a chorus, and “Thicker Blood” swings between minimal atmosphere and near-crushing eruption. The songwriting is the strongest it has been, tighter and more memorable, and the vintage gear the band favour, an old CP80 piano, a Juno synth, gives the darker material an unexpected warmth. Lyrically it is a hard, personal record, shaped by Bianchin re-reading Cormac McCarthy on tour, and she does not oversell the pain. She just lets it sit there.
If there is a reservation it is in the mix. Several of the heaviest passages have been pushed hard into the master, and the loudest choruses flatten and pump slightly where they should open up, the drums audibly edited and triggered in a way that occasionally sits at odds with the organic warmth the band clearly want. “Thicker Blood” is the worst of it, the closing eruption stacking into a muddy low mid where a lighter touch would have let the weight land cleaner. It is a modern-production quibble on a record that is otherwise beautifully arranged, and it never sinks a song, but on music this dynamic it is a shame to hear the dynamics squeezed.
The Spin is Messa’s most ambitious and most gripping record, a band a decade in still finding new corners of their own sound, anchored by a vocalist who could carry far less interesting material than this. It is darker and more immediate than anything they have done, and it rewards the full sit. A slightly gentler master would have made it untouchable. As it stands it is still one of the best doom records of its year, and further proof that Messa are operating on a level very few of their peers can reach.
The Italian quartet’s darkest, most song-driven record, doom with prog and dark-rock shading, carried by Sara Bianchin’s clean, intonation-perfect voice, one of the best in modern doom. “Immolation” lets it float over delay-drenched clean guitar with healthy dynamics intact, and “The Dress” is the clearest showcase, wide reverb on voice and snare building a genuinely mournful room. “Void Meridian” opens hard and riff-forward, “Fire on the Roof” pairs pearly clean verses with a saturated chorus wall, and vintage gear gives the darker material warmth. The reservation is the master: the heaviest choruses are pushed hard, flattening and pumping slightly where they should open up, the drums audibly edited and triggered against the organic warmth the band want, and “Thicker Blood” stacks into a muddy low mid at its close. A modern-production quibble on a beautifully arranged record. Ambitious, gripping, and anchored by a vocalist operating on a level very few peers reach.
Standout tracks: The Dress, Immolation, Fire on the Roof
