Fate is certainly a funny thing. For example, when you clicked (perhaps even by mistake) on this article, you probably had no idea that you were about to discover something you’d be listening to on repeat for the next few hours, at least. For former Svart Crown member and current Igorrr singer Jean-Baptiste Le Bail, fate has also been mischievous: after his black metal band split up, he embarked on Dirty Black Summer, a grunge-rock venture that was quickly abandoned but which revealed a certain desire to try his hand at something less extreme... He can now be found on guitar and vocals in Messalina, joined by his fellow drummer from Svart Crown and Igorrr, Remi Serafino, as well as Aymen Mahjoubi, also on guitar and vocals, and Alexis Fedunizin on bass. On their debut EP, Golden Wounds, we note the presence of guest artists who are already blowing our minds: the industrial/rap/grunge project Doodseskader, the dark pop trio with industrial undertones Kibbel, and finally DOOL – which we tend to pronounce DOOOOOOOOOOOOL... and for whom Dirty Black Summer actually opened in 2022. Fate, we told you.
The cards seem to have been drawn years ago for this this EP, and the result is the culmination of that exploration, those wanderings, mistakes and successes. You can sense it right from the opening title track – something’s going on. Heavy, hypnotic rhythms, melancholic vocals that seem to drift through an icy fog of failure and regret before drawing us into their own little corner of darkness... Messalina is already addictive; the music is poisonous, yet it’s hard to tear yourself away. The influences blend together: this heavy, dark rock is made up of a touch of doom, a touch of cold wave, a touch of post-rock, a bit of a Deftones vibe, and even some underlying black metal tensions that you can sense here and there. Playing the comparison game, one feels that there is something in this sticky despair that gives us hope that we have found a substitute for the (temporary?) disappearance of Hangman’s Chair (those drum beats, for example, resonate within us in a similar way).
Messalina delivers a string of electrifying hits, where a sense of resignation is elevated by catchy lyrics and an immediacy that stirs the emotions. No Color is an instant anthem, the sort of track that hits you hard and haunts you straight away, where you spend three minutes and forty-four seconds turning the volume up higher and higher, until Tim de Gieter’s words and cries cut right through you before a final chorus that builds to a Dantesque climax. Cold as Before, a monolith of grey autumnal melancholy, pierces straight to the heart to slow its beat, whilst Narrow Chase introduces seductive electro-pop mirages via Kibbel before another formidable finale thickened by the guitars... As you’ll have figured out by now, whilst Messalina may favour a sense of simplicity in the construction of their tracks—a visceral approach that grabs you by the gut—the band pays close attention to their effects and crafts beautiful crescendos.
In its final section, the EP takes on a mystical tone: A Cross explores ‘the limits of self-sacrifice for love’ with a sense of weightiness (we even detect a few more extreme influences here) and atmospheric depth, a mastery of contrasts and a skill that makes for a song so captivating it leaves us impressed. We mentioned a few lines earlier that Messalina skilfully builds their monument to suffering and unease, capable of hooking us from the outset but also leaving us with final notes that simply urge us to play their music on repeat. So concluding a debut EP by inviting Raven van Dorst from DOOL has much the same effect. Their presence feels logical, given how much the Dutch band’s influence had been felt up to that point, and the result—a blend of restrained emotions and liberating outbursts—lives up to expectations, with, once again, a handling of tension that propels the finale towards what one might almost take for a form of light, rich in nuances.
Six tracks, nearly half an hour: that’s quite generous for a debut EP. But we come away from it so enthralled that all we’re left with is a sense of longing, an irrepressible urge to play it again and again. Messalina may be a recent project, but it’s the result of a wealth of experience, and you can hear it: right from the start, the sound is polished and striking. Above all, these are songs that work – no frills, no gimmicks, no artifice, just a genuine talent for planting those vocal lines straight into your brain. Let’s hope we hear more from them soon!
