Review by Dominik on January 23, 2025.

Much like a forest troll stirring only under a blood-red moon, Darkmoon Warrior has crawled back into the spotlight with Graveyard Planet, their fifth full-length album in nearly 30 years of existence. Five years since their last sonic belch, the lazy bunch of misanthropes reminds us they still exist, which is no small feat considering their staggering release pace of one album every half-decade.

That said, there's something admirable about their consistency. Not in productivity, mind you, but from their inception, the band has adhered strictly to their trademark sound—a middle finger raised to the world in the form of black metal, spiced occasionally with black thrash elements. To no one's surprise, Graveyard Planet sticks to the Darkmoon Warrior formula like duct tape on a leaking bucket, while offering a few welcome improvements over its predecessor, which was, frankly, more rumble than roar. In fact, this album feels like a return to the sharper, more focused chaos of Nuke 'Em All, which is cause for optimism. This trajectory almost gives one hope for the next album—if we live to see it in 2029.

Lyrical "grace" (or lack thereof): Darkmoon Warrior's lyrics take an interesting turn here. While the themes remain dark and confrontational, the satanic overtures are spiked with sarcastic, social critical "considerations". Tracks like "SM 70" (a directional fragmentation antipersonnel mine) reckon with the brutal fortifications of the German-German border during the Cold War, while "Age Of Decomposition" casts the planet as a self-dug graveyard, spiraling into inevitable decay, humanity´s DIY apocalypse. It is often less about Satan and accomplices, but rather a reflection of the bands attitude towards the world. This nihilistic perspective ("we don't give a fuck" in bold, capital letters) pervades the entire record, most explicitly on tracks like "Burn Down All".

While this scathing attitude is admittedly fitting for a genre like black metal, a touch of restraint might have added more weight to their message. But then again, Darkmoon Warrior isn't here to write sociopolitical essays or win over the unconverted.

The music: a two-pronged attack. For those who like some structure to their sonic assaults, Graveyard Planet can be roughly divided into two halves. The first leans more into black thrash influences, while the second delivers a more straightforward black metal barrage.

"Thy Satarnachists" opens the album with a compelling blend of black and thrash with just enough melody to lull you into a false sense of security, setting the tone for the first half of the record. "SM 70", positioned at the thrashier end of the spectrum, sounds like an angrier version of early Sodom (if that is even possible) or the German wrecking crew Panzer Squad with its fiery riffing and venomous delivery. On the other end lies "By The Sound Of Hell", a pure black metal assault that lives up to its name and stands as the album's strongest track.

The track "Magna Matris Mortem" confuses with Latin titles but delivers blistering, German-lyric-driven black metal brutality. As always, subtlety and empathy are nowhere to be found in this aural battlefield, a fact hammered home by the closing track "Sadomajestic Hatefukk"—a two-minute tirade that is as elegant as its title suggests and as subtle as a bunch of renegade soldiers dancing on the graves of some ISIS extremists.

The performances on Graveyard Planet are solid across the board, with each member delivering exactly what is expected: raw, unrelenting ferocity with no room for surprises or unnecessary embellishments. The band's message remains clear: they don't care about anyone or anything. And why should they? If everyone just looks out for themselves, then surely all will be well… right? Everyone is being taken care of.

What is my final take? Graveyard Planet is a solid return for Darkmoon Warrior. The album isn't here to reinvent the wheel. It's here to douse it in kerosene, set it ablaze, and roll it through your backyard. It doesn't reinvent their sound, nor does it try to. But in sticking to their formula without polishing its edges, the band delivers an album that is aggressive, unapologetic, and at times even thought-provoking (at least if you're into kitchen philosophy).

Rating: 7.9 out of 10 - because anything higher might imply the band actually cares about accolades, and we can't have that, can we?

Review by Michael on January 24, 2024.

After the tragic loss of their long-time vocalist Andy Kaina who died in 2022 the band didn't give up and managed to recover from this tragedy. Although Andy left a gap that is hard to fill for sure, the band found a great new vocalist Marcus Seebach who - let me emphasize this – does an amazing job on Christus Hypercubus.

So, here we are with the 7th full-length album in Messiah's career, however, it is a pity that the band is still that underrated and more underground than deserved. Of course they had some really mediocre albums like Underground in their discography but also some really cool stuff like my fave Rotten Perish or their latest output Fracmont which also had some lengths in the songwriting though. So, the Swiss have tightened up their songs and focused more on gloomy melodies and cool riffs. The approach is much thrashier than on Fracmont and the songs are much more comprehensible on this one. Apart from the strange title where in my mind I connect a flying Jesus in a Borg cubus, I have to admit that I feared for the new album when I listened to the title track the first time. 'Christus Hypercubus' is the bulkiest song on the album with a lot of technical, repetitive and sluggish riffs which doesn't make it the best one to introduce the album. There are many others though, much more interesting and varied ones on the album which could or should've been picked. 'Once Upon A Time…Nothing' is probably one of the fastest songs they've ever written and this one is a real brutal death-thrash metal bastard with super aggressive vocals. A lot of Slayer vibes appear here to kick ass and this is probably one of the best songs they've done since Rotten Perish. 'Soul Observatory' is pure thrash (only with some death metal vocals) and moves straight ahead. The riffing is simple but very effective and this is one of the catchiest tracks with some atmospheric twists and turns in the middle of it. There is an acoustic part where there was some thrash and all of a sudden it has gone again. Great effect!

'Venus Baroness I' and 'Venus Baroness II' are some really groovy closers of the album (though 'closers' may be the wrong term for two tracks with a running time of 11 minutes together), but Messiah managed to write some rousing melodies with great hooks. Again they mix up some heavy thrash and death elements to a galloping tempo and so these two tracks don't appear to last 11 minutes but like maybe some diverting 5 minutes or so. I guess this is what makes out a good album. Oh, and if you want to relax a little bit, they have written 'Speedsucker Romance' for moments like this which is a slow creeping song without too many exciting moments in it. But beware, after this song the 'Centipede Bite' is waiting for you to bite you in your balls! I would say that Messiah has written a very good album with Christus Hypercubus which probably is one of the best albums in their discography. Apart from two average songs they did a very convincing job on their songwriting and also the production is powerful and well-balanced. This wasn't always so – I just say Choir Of Horrors (where are the vocals???).

Rating: 8.7 out of 10 (Anti)Christian Borg cubes