Early death metal band Master plan to release a new album on September and have a new label to host it on, having signed a deal with German extreme music label FDA Rekotz for what will be the band’s 12th full-length release.
“We are proud to be working with Rico and FDA and look forward to a solid future together. Watch for the next masterpiece to be unleashed on September 27th, 2013,” said Paul Speckmann, founding member and core of this band with oft-shifting personnel.
Combining the rhythms of punk music with the riffs of heavy metal, Master contributed an early style of death metal to the genre as it was forming and continued to be influential throughout the development of the genre. Many musicians point to Death Strike’s Fuckin’ Death or Master’s unreleased 1985 album as part of the origin of this genre, which became incarnate after Discharge’s 1982 album paved the way for technique and the following year Slayer, Bathory and Hellhammer released albums applying those ideas to metal.
This summer, Master embarks on a True Underground Warriors Tour with Entrapment and others. More details will be posted on the Master website at master-speckmetal.net/live.html.
Tags: death metal, death strike, master
Is all Master’s discography worth owning, or just the early albums? Autopsy was mentioned last year on this site and there was mild praise for their latest EP and full lenght album. I am wondering if any of you guys would recommend Dismember’s second album Indecent & Obcene from 1993?
Only the early material by Master was worth it. Their last good output was Cut Through the Filth on the Nuclear Blast compilation Death is Just the Beginning volume 2. Since then they went in a Motorhead meets crossover direction while maintaining their vocal style. I would recommend Indecent and Obscene over Pieces, but the first album outclasses it of course. Still, Indecent and Obscene is a solid album, but it becomes obvious while listening that the first 3 and last 3 tracks are the best while the middle 3 feel more like Swedish flavored riff salad instead of fully realized ideas. The album has increased “rocking” tendencies at times which is why I think the album is shunned in the review archive, but it isn’t done to the levels of Entombed Clandestine or Therion Beyond Sanctorum.
I’m unimpressed with Master’s recent output, so I’m not holding my breath for the upcoming release.
I didn’t really enjoy The New Elite all that much, but The Human Machine was quite good. It showed them incorporating a little bit more Floridian death metal and speed/thrash into their cocktail of folk/hardcore/death metal that they’ve been developing since Faith Is in Season (which I would consider their last “classic” album).
Master is definitely something of a weird band for standard death metallers, especially after Collection of Souls. Sort of like an alternate history version of death metal, where the style developed directly from heavy metal (specifically Thin Lizzy and Black Sabbath) and hardcore without a lot of the bridge bands (like Possessed, Death, early Morbid Angel, etc.). The cool thing about Master is that they develop this alternate history on each of their albums from the Speckmann Project album up through FIiS, rather than just reiterating what they’ve done on previous efforts.
I’ve not heard too much good stuff about the albums between Faith and Slaves to Society, but I will confess that I haven’t really listened to them myself, so I will withhold judgment. Slaves and Human Machine are both excellent albums with fairly unique updated takes on the idiosyncratic Master style. I’m willing to allow that The New Elite is good as well, and it just hasn’t clicked with me, but it seems like Master has hit something of a snag with this latest one, similar to the one that Graveland hits every half decade: good stuff, but a bit too same-y compared to their earlier material. Anyway, I’ll definitely give the new Master a listen when it comes out.