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Messa have remained a good band while kind of losing my interest, as their debut was an amazing slab of occult Doom, while their subsequent releases have drifted further away from a metal sound, tending more toward psychedelia and prog rock than what I wanted them to do. I thought their most recent album, Close, was a good album, but I didn't review it because it's not really metal, being more akin to occult doom rock like Ides of Gemini or Jess and the Ancient Ones.

All that is to say I was not sure what a live disc from this band would be like. This was recorded live at the Roadburn Festival in the Netherlands last year—and it's really live on stage, not live in a studio pretending to be on stage. You get some crowd sounds and some banter from frontwoman Sara Bianchin, but mostly the band just does what they do, which is get on stage and weave a spell. Some bands play, some bands rip, but this band really just enchants. All the weird trippy vibes and instrumental interludes from the album work so much better live. The sound is outstanding, and Sara sounds absolutely incredible—no studio recording has ever managed to capture her like this: powerful, textured, and with so much assured charisma. She carries the whole show on her own—or she could, if the rest of the band were not so good.

Even if you are iffy on Messa, this is an essential release, with the sound of a band doing what they do as well as anybody has ever done it. A really adventurous and assured band owning the stage the whole way, and the only real drawback is it's a bit short at under 40 minutes. A great live recording.