Sex Messiah - Sexus-Mortem, Ouroborus LP

Clear/Purple Marble limited to 100
Lime Green/Purple Marble limited to 45
White limited to 32
Yellow/Black Marble limited to 13

• 180 gram heavy vinyl
• Gatefold jacket with flood purple printing inside pocket
• 12" insert 

(Description by J. Campbell) With 16 years of history behind the name, Sex Messiah have long established themselves as stalwarts of the Japanese extreme metal underground. But in terms of sound and lineup, the Sex Messiah of today bears increasingly little resemblance to the one that emerged in 2008. Founded by Osaka-based guitarist Moenos, the band operated as a four-piece for its first decade of existence, albeit with unstable membership. Through the years, Moenos’s vision came into focus, and to realize it she had to assume greater control over the band, which meant stripping it to its essentials. Since the 2021 release of the “Secret Initiations” demo, Sex Messiah has consisted of just Moenos on guitar, bass, vocals, and electronics, and Bolivian expatriate Abaddrums “Sexxx” Grinder on drums. Though unconventional, the arrangement has proven to be a potent one, especially as they have recently played shows across Asia, Europe, and North America, which has only strengthened the remarkable chemistry between them. With this new album, “Sexus Mortem, Ouroboros,” released on Moenos’s Sex Desire label, Sex Messiah have fully found their identity. This is the first full-length album Sex Messiah have released with this lineup, and it is incontestably the band’s best work to date. Their most obvious influences come from the South American black/death scene from the 1980s and 90s, particularly the Brazilian bands. And while Sex Messiah’s approach is undeniably studied and authentic—their longstanding relationships with bands like Impurity and Holocausto/Tormentador are a testament to the band’s stylistic integrity—it is also nuanced and characterized by less overt points of reference. Through the years, Moenos has refined her compositional approach, conjuring an atmosphere of depravity and violence with her harsh riffs and vocals. As with other recent releases, the lyrics were written in Spanish by Sexx Grinder, further reinforcing the band’s South American sensibilities. However, these songs retain a Japanese nature that serves to distinguish Sex Messiah from their predecessors. Though inspired by the manic chaos of the Cogumelo artists, Moenos’s obsessive focus on composition allows for greater dimension and control, and for the influx of new ideas. As with previous Sex Messiah recordings, “Sexus Mortem, Ouroboros” contains intros and outros that reflect Moenos’s deep appreciation for noise and industrial music, and there are nods to Japanese psychedelia buried within the visceral bestiality of the tracks. The artwork for “Sexus Mortem, Ouroboros,” created by an artist named 072—Moenos’s bandmate in her other band, Immortal Death—perfectly captures with imagery the current of crude blasphemic carnality that defines the music.