Final Warning / Going Insane
Artist: Messiah
Final Warning
9 tracks/41:22
Going Insane
8 tracks /39.24
Label: Retroactive Records 

Messiah's Final Warning was one of the earliest Christian hard rock/ metal releases. Only Resurrection Band came close. It would be 3 or 4 years before bands like Stryper, Jerusalem, Leviticus and Saint would come on the scene, but for those of us who stumbled on this apocryphal album, we found a band to stand up to Sabbath with a message of hope.

Centered strongly in the hard rock of the 70's, Final Warning is loaded with keyboard washes and heavy, layered down-tuned guitar riffs underpinned by thunderous double kick drums, sustained lead breaks, crushing bass runs, sirens, and chimes with all the subtlety of an herd of elephants. 

Thankfully Retroactive Records has now reissued it on CD for the very first time. Although it is remastered, the mid 80's production values still hide some of the clarity of the guitars and keyboards. However, the sound is part of the charm of this ground breaking release showing exactly what it was like at the origins of independent Christian hardrock and metal.

Classic heavy metal numbers such as "Mistaken Identity," "Final Warning" and the epic "Lucifer" are intermixes with more melodic tracks like "Who's To Blame," "Outta Control" and "Heavenly Metal" making for a nice balance.

In additon to Final Warning, Retroactive gives us this Detroit, Michigan band's follow up EP, Going Insane. Like its predecessor, Going Insane received no distribution or promotion, and sank from sight very quickly and has been extremely hard to find since that time. And did I mention the three exclusive bonus cuts on the EP? Taken from the original master tapes and never released in any form, "Lucifer," "You'd Better Say a Prayer," and a demo of "Final Warning"are all from a late 70's incarnatiion of the band. 

Both are nicely packaged with lyrics and, with Going Insane, an informative essay and band bio from Martin Brandt of That's Metal/Heavy Magazines from Germany.

Bob Felberg