Messiah Christus Hypercubus

Switzerland has always been a fertile breeding ground for extreme metal. Messiah formed in 1984 and released two groundbreaking albums on Chainsaw Murder Records, "Hymn To Abramelin" in 1986 and "Extreme Cold Weather" a year later. In the early 1990s, Messiah signed with Karl Walterbach's Noise Records label and released three more full-length albums: "Choir Of Horrors" (1991), "Rotten Perish" (1992) and "Underground" (1994), before going their separate ways went.

In 2018, Messiah decided to rejoin the original line-up of their Noise Records albums with Andy Kaina on vocals, Steve Karrer on drums, Patrick Hersche on bass and band founder R.B. Brögi on guitar to reform. Elaborate re-issues of "Hymn To Abramelin" and "Extreme Cold Weather" were released on High Roller Records before a new studio album entitled "Fracmont" was released in 2020. "Christus Hypercubus", Messiah's magnus opus, will finally follow in 2024.

On November 4, 2022, fate befell former Messiah singer Andy Kaina, who died of a heart attack at the age of just 53. It was a big shock for everyone involved. Andy's last live performance with Messiah took place on November 20, 2021 at the Altes Capitol in Langenthal, Switzerland. Towards the end of the year, Andy left Messiah because, in his own words, he had "lost motivation to be in the band and wanted to focus on other things in life". However, Messiah and Andy Kaina remained friends.

Messiah had already decided to continue the band after Andy's departure announcement. Marcus Seebach from Chur became the new Messiah singer at the end of 2021. A short time later, work began on a new studio album. "V.O. Pulver [renowned Swiss record producer and currently second guitarist in Messiah] and I laid the foundations for new songs in January 2022," explains guitarist and founding member Brögi. "Within three weeks, V.O. and I had written the entire new album. During this time I also developed the entire concept and the lyrics (except for one lyric that came from Marcus Seebach). It was really a very creative time."

"We did it the way we always do it," laughs Brögi, "we simply wrote and recorded the songs for "Christus Hypercubus" without thinking much about it, completely spontaneously. This time, however, the circumstances were a little more complicated because We weren't all together in the rehearsal room to arrange the material. Fate struck as Steve Karrer was unable to play drums for six months due to a skiing accident. Overall, the new material is harder and faster than "Fracmont". There is also one new touch that comes from Marcus' singing, because he is able to make these high screams. I think "Christus Hypercubus" represents our new situation very well - there is a new wind blowing, but we have nothing of the tried and tested Messiah -Trademarks from before lost."

Here and there songs like the slower "Speedsucker Romance" or "Christus Hypercubus" also have "progressive" traits, which makes the album sound interesting and fresh. "That's probably because we ignore all the rules for arranging beats," smiles Brögi. "We just put different ideas together, mostly led by the guitars. That's probably why we'll never write a rock hit. Before it was pure chaos, today it's more structured and professional."