Rating: 9.6 Release Date: 2004 Record Label: From Beyond Productions Track list: Band Website: Master |
Master - Unreleased 1985 Album
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| Lineup Tracks 1-7: Paul Speckmann- Bass/Vocals Chris Mittelbrun- Guitars Bill Schmidt- Drums |
Lineup Tracks 8-10: Paul Speckmann- Bass/Vocals Jim Martinelli- Guitars Aaron Pickeas- Drums |
Lineup Track 11: Paul Speckmann- Bass/Vocals Jeff Kobie- Guitars Bryan Brady- Guitars Steve Bailey- Drums |
If you're a Master fan (which you very would should be if you are, to any imaginable degree, into death metal), you probably already own this HIGHLY overdue reissue of Master's finest hour. As Master's first two records are, unquestionably, among the most ungodly slabs in extreme metal history, it logically follows that this is a certifiable inclusion in my UNCONDITIONAL PURCHASES FOR THE DISCERNING DEATH METAL WHELP shortlist.
The agenda here, of course, is grave-desecrating, coffin-vandalizing, corpsefucking DEATH METAL stripped to its barest, rawest, noisiest form, or, as some would call it, “first wave death metal”, firmly entrenched in the same aesthetic ethos as the likes of Speckmann's other notorious project, Death Strike, as well as first EP Sodom, Hellhammer, Obscurity, Mantas, Messiah, Slaughter, Warhammer (UK), Aggression and first album Onslaught. Ripped-throat vocals, noisy, chaotic arrangements, a bass tone that has gain from here to kingdom come, pounding d-beat drumming, it's all here in spades, replete with vile, hateful lyrics that spit gobs of phlegm at authority and, hell, mankind at large. More than any record to date (the Master self-titled being the sole record that comes anywhere close), this epitomizes the sort of death metal that Speckmann so authoritatively stamped as his own- OUTRAGEOUSLY raw, totally violent, steamrolling chaos with dissonant, atonal solos and an absolutely reckless Discharge-like crust quality that coats everything in putrid black filth. Needless to say, this has much bigger balls than the death metal you're listening to.
While the entire album is a highlight in itself, let's take a look at all the ways that this album owns your favourite death metal band. “Master” is a feral, snotty, MONSTROUS affair that positively reeks of blood, sweat and piss, a Venom-on-barbiturates crust-sludge fist to the face. “Unknown Soldier” features a call and response hook that syncs with the riff/bass drum: “POWERFUL BRUTALITY, CAUSED BY PAIN AND DECEIT!”. Yeah, motherfucker! “Mangled Dehumanization” is primal grindcrust at its most veracious, urgent and ANGRY, a glorious minute and fifty four seconds of unbridled, nihilistic audio holocaust, Paul Speckmann barking out primal lyrics of gore and sacrifice with unnerving abandon.
Of course, following “Mangled Dehumanization”, we are faced with the inevitable- THE greatest 2 minutes (yes, 02:00, marvellously compact and concise) in Paul Speckmann's entire storied recording career. FUCKING FUNERAL BITCH! While I remain divided about just which version of “Funeral Bitch” is my favourite (Death Strike has a great version too, after all, it is Funeral Bitch [the band]'s eponymous anthem, and there's a 02:06 version on the 'Master' LP), I have long since banished any doubt about it being my favourite Speckmann composition. The track is a single-minded, stampeding, well-oiled HOMICIDAL MACHINE with a very clearly defined intent- to rape your mother and eat your children. Speckmann's Cal-with-anger-management-problems aggression here is fucking INFECTIOUS, and I defy you to keep from breaking everything in your room while this track lays your speakers to waste.
Everything that follows “Funeral Bitch” seems trivial and unnecessary compared to such a momentous monument of malevolence, but that doesn't render “Terrorizer”, a carnivorous, festering instrumental ornamented with nightmarish, skirmishing guitars(!!!), “Pledge Of Allegiance”, another terse, brief burst of bestiality that treads similar ground as “Funeral Bitch” (albeit with a less destructive chord progression…something tells me norsecore bands have ripped stuff like this off, thrown double bass drums into the fray and called it “black metal”…fuck that!) and “Re-Entry And Destruction” duds….for make no bones about it, this is a fucking flawless album.
The bonus tracks that have been appended to this masterpiece seem somewhat disjointed compared to the album that precedes them, being lost demo sessions culled from 1991 and 1993. The songs here are more structured, restrained and dare I say it, “musical” than the '85 stuff. What this means, of course, is that the chaotic frenzy of “Mangled Dehumanization” has been tamed a bit in lieu of more elongated arrangements, a cleaner production, strangely melodic solos and more involved, progressive songwriting. This doesn't really go down well with me following the '85 record, but do keep in mind that this stuff was recorded shortly after the self-titled masterwork (being essentially the same songs as the ones featured on the s/t, so if you adore that album, as I do, you will be inclined to dig the fuck out of tracks 8-10, for it is still FAR more genuine and raw than virtually anything that is exhumed from the underground nowadays. It's interesting to note the evolution between the '1985 Album' and the 'S/T', really. Of course, I have a little beef with Paul Masvidal not being on this, because the solos he would subsequently record on the 'Master' LP were pretty great. All that being said, though, Jim Martinelli is more than capable at producing a nifty melodic counterpoint to the pummelling chords here. I dig the beginning of “Submerged In Sin”, too, as it almost nods towards Speckmann's prior work with War Cry. Very cool! The last track, “Cut Through The Filth” (1993, after 'On The Seventh Day…God Created Master'), is pretty bizarre, featuring what sounds like a flute accompanying the thrashy, awkwardly folky riff. Of course, all is forgiven when one gets a taste of Speckmann's UNEARTHLY bass tone on the track…what the fuck?!??!
So yeah. Buy or die, because if you love death metal, a good amount of that love should be proportioned and siphoned into the first three Master records. This is the first of those three, so you can do the math. Paul Speckmann, you are a deity among men, and I humble myself at your bearded, grisly visage.
