Music Nation is a Music Video Competition for Independent Artists

Many things belong in a band biography. An endless drone of background details that chronicle a band’s formation is not one of them. Moving on. The Messiah Complex is a melodic metal band based out of Kansas City, Missouri. Rikk Wolf commands vocal duties, Chris Frost & Ryan Hundley play guitar, Mitch Peters is on bass, with Trynt Kelly (previously of Prosthetic Records artist CREMATORIUM) on the drums. The band claims influences as varied as Between the Buried & Me, The Black Dahlia Murder, and Soilwork, to Dizzy Gillespie, Victor Wooten, and even Meshuggah. Likewise, The Messiah Complex’s brand of music weaves itself in and out of the tapestry of the metal sub-genres. The sound is heavy, merciless, beautiful, eclectic, even sometimes jazzy, and always growing more technical. Evolution. Lyrical content is deep, lamenting, tragic, and even sometimes metaphorically violent, but never without shedding a beckon of reluctant hope at the end of the torturous tunnel. Winter – 2004: Band inception. Birth. The band was quick to record a two song demo. That spring, the group brought the recording in mass quantity to SMNnews.com’s Dwell in Darkness II metalfest in Dayton, OH, their first performance of national note, and only their third performance to date at the time. Playing alongside bands such as Into Eternity, Bobaflex, and Dog Fashion Disco, the band held their own. Returning to Kansas City, the band immediately began work on self-producing “Black September”, their debut album. Recorded in Wolf’s studio, and then mixed & mastered at nationally respected studio, Chapman Recording, the band released “Black September” in September 2006. Album sales were immediate and in high quantity. In the time between Dwell in Darkness, and their album release, the group managed to play all over the Midwest, carving out their fan base, even playing arenas as impressive as Kansas City’s own Bartle Hall. Almost simultaneously, a compilation CD produced by Kansas City’s metal webzine, Heavy Frequency, was released, and proudly featured The Messiah Complex as the opening band on the compilation with their exclusive & latest track, “When CPR Becomes Necrophilia”. Heavy Frequency also awarded Peters with a “Best Bassist” award for the year of 2005, as well as nominating the band for “Best New Band” in the Kansas City scene. Results were based purely off fan votes. The following year, the band would receive a total of 8 nominations, managing to be mentioned in almost every category. Results are due in February, 2007. The band is already approaching the fourth quarter mark of the writing process for their follow up album, never at a loss for new and inventive material. This band refuses to go unnoticed.