Review by Felix on March 10, 2020.

Another Warhammer album means nothing else but another total worship of Hellhammer. The guys with the Watchtower, Dream Theatre or Sieges Even merchandise can leave the room, they will not miss anything. An endless stream of viscous guitar leads shapes the album and the voice of Volker Frerichs sounds like that of his Swiss role model. Of course, the archaic vehemence and the initial impulse of Hellhammer cannot be reproduced in 2000, but Warhammer do their best in order to perpetuate the typical sound of the pioneers of the musical Apocalypse.

The guitarist has found the perfect way to play different riffs without different tones. Don't ask me how, but he varies the only note he plays in a very competent manner. Therefore, we can enjoy some nice lines that provide the necessary negativity, violence and repulsiveness. The Doom Messiah does not suffer from a conflict of objectives - its only aim is to create a destructive image. From my point of view, the album fulfils its purpose. Admittedly, the rumbling and dull sound is nothing for gourmets and drains some power from the guitars. But this is owed to the concept. Worship beats technology.

The band walks the thin line between being stupid imitators and honoring the legacy of the legend from Switzerland. Warhammer want to be taken seriously and there are not even the smallest signs of self-irony. To be honest, I like this dead serious mentality. Any form of humor has no place in the here created musical cosmos, because it is filled to the brim with morbid guitars, commanding vocals and drums that commute between very slow and up-tempo. If you take a handsaw with your right hand and you start to saw slowly through the bones of your left arm, you know the vibrations of this album, even if you have never lend an ear to it.

The greatest (and only) surprise of The Doom Messiah is the sacral keyboard that suddenly shows up in 'The Cruel Tendency'. It adds a slightly different mood for 30 seconds before it disappears again just as quickly. This intermezzo delivers almost an overdose of variation, but fortunately we are old enough to handle such shocking moments. Apart from this detail, Warhammer's rotten anthems stand shoulder to shoulder and form a monolithic block. That's great because the customer gets what the customer wants. Nobody can say that this album falls short of expectations, for better or for worse. Due to the lack of variation, there are neither overwhelming highlights nor throwaway tracks. Thus, things are quite easy. Fans of Hellhammer can buy this album on a blind basis.

Rating: 7.2 out of 10

Review by Felix on March 10, 2020.

Another Warhammer album means nothing else but another total worship of Hellhammer. The guys with the Watchtower, Dream Theatre or Sieges Even merchandise can leave the room, they will not miss anything. An endless stream of viscous guitar leads shapes the album and the voice of Volker Frerichs sounds like that of his Swiss role model. Of course, the archaic vehemence and the initial impulse of Hellhammer cannot be reproduced in 2000, but Warhammer do their best in order to perpetuate the typical sound of the pioneers of the musical Apocalypse.

The guitarist has found the perfect way to play different riffs without different tones. Don't ask me how, but he varies the only note he plays in a very competent manner. Therefore, we can enjoy some nice lines that provide the necessary negativity, violence and repulsiveness. The Doom Messiah does not suffer from a conflict of objectives - its only aim is to create a destructive image. From my point of view, the album fulfils its purpose. Admittedly, the rumbling and dull sound is nothing for gourmets and drains some power from the guitars. But this is owed to the concept. Worship beats technology.

The band walks the thin line between being stupid imitators and honoring the legacy of the legend from Switzerland. Warhammer want to be taken seriously and there are not even the smallest signs of self-irony. To be honest, I like this dead serious mentality. Any form of humor has no place in the here created musical cosmos, because it is filled to the brim with morbid guitars, commanding vocals and drums that commute between very slow and up-tempo. If you take a handsaw with your right hand and you start to saw slowly through the bones of your left arm, you know the vibrations of this album, even if you have never lend an ear to it.

The greatest (and only) surprise of The Doom Messiah is the sacral keyboard that suddenly shows up in 'The Cruel Tendency'. It adds a slightly different mood for 30 seconds before it disappears again just as quickly. This intermezzo delivers almost an overdose of variation, but fortunately we are old enough to handle such shocking moments. Apart from this detail, Warhammer's rotten anthems stand shoulder to shoulder and form a monolithic block. That's great because the customer gets what the customer wants. Nobody can say that this album falls short of expectations, for better or for worse. Due to the lack of variation, there are neither overwhelming highlights nor throwaway tracks. Thus, things are quite easy. Fans of Hellhammer can buy this album on a blind basis.

Rating: 7.2 out of 10

Review by Adam M on July 18, 2014.

This album is a very nice surprise. An album that blends heartwarming shoe-gaze music nicely with brutal death metal is somewhat of a rarity and Fallujah pulls this off extremely well.

Imagine having Meshuggah, Behemoth or Decapitated performing with a nice background of Alcest and you'll have a decent idea of what to expect, but the sum of the parts is actually more interesting than that. Some killer drum playing and tech-metal oriented riffs are complemented throughout by a wonderfully spacey background that is always compelling. Never does the music feel over-ambitious or too sparse. The Flesh Prevails' combination of the punishing and ethereal portions is always done tastefully to complement the music in the best possible manner. Riffing is similar perhaps to what the band Textures is capable of, but the overall mix with the gentle atmospherics makes things even more interesting overall.

Balance is something that is nicely achieved here and makes for a thrilling album at pretty much every moment. See the excellent The Night Reveals for an example of the excellent drumming combined with an array of intricacies into a certain album highlight. All of the songs have something different to offer, however. If there is a flaw here, the hard core-style vocals suit the music, but are certainly the least worthy aspect of the disc overall. Otherwise, the almost air-tight music is hard to criticize.

There is that little bit of extra thought and creativity that most heavy metal fans should be able to dig into. Fans of death metal and progressive metal in particular should look into this as soon as possible.

Rating: 9 out of 10