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BUTTERFLY MESSIAH: Priestess Release year: 2002 Format: CD Tracklist: I: Land Beneath the Waves Total Length: 41:31 min General Facts: Butterfly Messiah is a combined musical entity by members Robert, Shanon and Josh. The project has consisted since 1998 and works with different styles, yet definitely anchored in the EBM/Synthpop genre. As with all Fossil Dungeon releases, this album comes in a very classy packaging. Review: I feel restrained from commenting on the origins of this music since it is not really the genre where I feel most at home. My guess is that is yet another album sprung out from the EBM and synthpop genres of the 1980's, though I may be wrong. This music is not dark in any way, it is rather soft with very clear soundstructures and steady, danceable rhythms. The vocal duty is shared by both a male and a female vocalist. Robert's are sung in an almost spoken fashion will Shanon's are more ethereal. After having heard their MCD It's Time, my first impression of this release was that the production on Priestess is far weaker. My guess is that Butterfly Messiah will find it in their interest to remix some of the tracks from this album. I think they could benefit from it since the relatively crude production on this album doesn't really do all of the songs justice. Some of songstructures are really nice, for example the opening of The Wicked, Visitor and When Autumn to Winter Resigns. I like most of the tracks, yet I honestly think some of the tracks are a bit corny - for example the track Serpentine - even though I seldom use that word to describe music. Perhaps it is because this music has a very feminine touch to Butterfly Messiah's music. Personally, I really prefer It's Time before this album. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Five questions to Butterfly Messiah ECTONAUT: Please introduce your project to the Ortus Obscurum readers. For how long have you been doing this and for what reason? BUTTERFLY MESSIAH: Butterfly Messiah has been an entity since 1998. Robert, Shanon and Josh all have a passion for music. Generally, we have been very picky about music and not much has impressed us. We decided that since things were so bad, we might as well go out and make it better ourselves. ECTONAUT: Tell us something about the tracks on the reviewed release. Did you work with specific methods when you composed them? Is there a concept behind this release or anything else interesting that you think we should know about this release? BUTTERFLY MESSIAH: Priestess was written over the course of 1998-2001 with some tracks re-worked with Josh who joined the band a few months before its release. Many of the songs we had to choose from to form Priestess were smoky and "old school" sounding which was great because we were limited to equipment that made things sound that way. The concept of Priestess is very Introspective, both for us and for the listener as a human being. Priestess was also a way for Butterfly Messiah as a band to sort of let go of the past (and reflect on the truth in it) and continue to grow and evolve. It's Time was done with songs written with Josh, with the exception of Machines, which was a song we couldn't do correctly with the equipment we used to make Priestess. Since Josh joined the group, our studio has taken shape and allows us to do whatever we want. It's Time is reflective of our development as a group and the freedom we now have as artists as well as where we're headed in the future. ECTONAUT: How would you describe your music to completely new listeners? Do you feel that your project belongs to a certain genre? Are there any bands that you think you can relate to soundwise and conceptwise? BUTTERFLY MESSIAH: The music covers a lot of territory. We combine sounds of genuine medieval - particularly Shannon's signature vocal sound, Industrial dance/EBM, synthpop, and small hints of progressive electronic and bits of Goth aesthetics (without being completely mired in darkness or resorting to bad cliches). Concept-wise nobody is doing what we're doing. The spirit-machine has not been presented and explored the way we are exploring it. Sound-wise there were some folks doing the "moody music with male/female vocals" thing, but since we released It's Time, no band sounds remotely like us now. Whenever anyone makes a comparison, its usually a very "rough" one because we try to avoid distorted whispering and noisy guitars and anyone we've been compared with has had those elements except Dead Can Dance - but that would have to be "if Dead Can Dance made electronic music with synthpop elements" for that comparison to be accurate. Our primary message is that of growth and change and it's reflected symbolically in the name of the band. The lyrics of the songs are also very symbolic at times, often with multiple meanings. ECTONAUT: What is most important in music according to you? How do you define quality music and what are your musical influences? BUTTERFLY MESSIAH: If the music can touch your (the listener's) soul, its quality. If it makes you really stop and either be purely baffled or makes you think deeply, then its surely quality as well - but not so much as music that touches your soul. By this definition of quality, quality is the most important thing in music to us as artists and as fans of music. Musically, our influences are pretty wide and pretty subtle. We strive to make music that's ours and doesn't reflect anyone. Influences that are hard to miss would be "Violator"-era Depeche Mode, Loreena McKennitt, Front 242, Miranda Sex Garden, Anonymous 4, classical composers, perhaps some "Everything is Wrong"-era Moby and certainly plenty else besides. ECTONAUT: What plans do you have for the future? Are there any new releases planned? Anything else you would like to add? BUTTERFLY MESSIAH: Butterfly Messiah will be release a new full length this summer. We'll follow that up with another single/EP and a CD with remixes and songs that didn't make Priestess or the new album for whatever reason but must be heard. We're going to have to pick out of about 30 new songs for the new album, so there will be plenty to go around. Adding Josh to the mix really woke us up and made us whole as artists - he really made the sound unique and brought everything up a notch. Robert has blossomed as a songwriter and has been working on his singing daily since Priestess' release. He'll sing much less, but his vocals will be much more interesting and sound better in general. Shannon's confidence has improved, so her performance on the new release will be shocking. She was always a talented singer, but now she has no fear and tries anything she sets her heart to. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Click here to contact Butterfly Messiah - Click here to enter the Butterfly Messiah website |
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