Band:	Shatter Messiah
Album:	God Burns Like Flesh
Style:	US power metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	October 29, 2007
A review by:	Jeff

01. Idolater
02. God Burns Like Flesh
03. Pathway
04. Stripped Of Faith
05. Dirge Of The Christ
06. Buried In Black
07. This Is The Day
08. Tomorrow Immortal

Shatter Messiah is the official clone of Nevermore! Well not really but for sure this band is probably the one which is the most similar (musically speaking) to the cult American combo. "God Burns Like Flesh" is the second release of Shatter Messiah a band which is leaded by Curran Murphy (ex tour guitarist of Nevermore or Annihilator) and well if you like great Progressive Thrash I'm sure that you'll like a lot this release which confirms all the good hopes that I got with their first album "Never To Play The Servent".

If you like to listen to tortured progressive Thrash (a la Nevermore yes?) be sure that you'll like a lot the new Shatter Messiah. That's right, a bit like Savage Circus and Blind Guardian, Shatter Messiah is the band of an "ex" member of Nevermore and Curran Murphy chose to write the same kind of music than the combo of Jeff Loomis. As a matter of fact, Shatter Messiah is really similar to Nevermore with some really dark progressive and powerful Thrash songs and this time, even the voice of Greg Wagner sounds like the one of Warrel Dane. But I really think that Nevermore is the top-notch in term of compositions and when I listen to Shatter Messiah I cannot say that they suffer a lot of the comparison with Nevermore. Their songs are deep really melodic and catchy, it's good music, not really original because it just follows the Nevermore style but at least it's really good.

With a good musical attitude from the musicians, with a great production and artwork and with of course nine classy songs, "God Burns Like Flesh" is a good album which only suffers of a too big similarity with Nevermore. Nevermore is so unconventional that it's easy to see which bands try to produce the same kind of music and it's a bit sad for Shatter Messiah that they can't find a way to be a bit more original with some real personal music. Though I say it again it's a good album?

If you're waiting a lot for the new Nevermore why don't you try the new Shatter Messiah? Believe me, it can be a good way to wait and you'll be able to listen to great Metal really. Shatter Messiah is a good band which only needs to show that they can be a bit more original but all in all their two albums are good so if you're not disarranged by bands which sound similar to some other ones, then you can go for this one without any problems!