The Aussie metalers are back with a beast of an album
Meshiaak's debut album Alliance of Thieves was praised for its musical precision, dark metal grooves and old school leanings. The follow up Mask of All Misery thankfully keeps all those ingredients. It's a frenetic and deliciously dark listen where the drums convulse, the riffs feel like a battle cry and the vocals are simply rabid. From pollution, depression, conspiracy theories, war, desolation and general toxicity the album's tone is so depressing at times it could have made Freddy Krueger turning up at your door a welcome relief; yet even in its severe moments the album maintains a strong sense of melody and is totally accessible.
With a mixture of compelling choruses and thrashing rhythms, Bury The Bodies and City of Ghosts leave you ravaged within the first four tracks. Doves, offers a momentary respite from the growls and thunderous percussion, but the deleterious overtones continue with Godless a brutal 7+ minute bloodbath between a narcissistic and an empath that is simply apocalyptic.
Meshiaak have created an album that captures the zeitgeist of our troubled time, so don't expect any firm resolution or light at the end of the tunnel. But even with the chaos and darkness it's still remarkably satisfying. If the end is neigh, you could do a lost worse that going out listening to this beast of an album.