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One of the first bands in Death Metal is back. It is still a shame how little people know of this legendary band, because they are really a pioneering band of the genre (together with Possessed and Death). Master will go down in death metal annals, along with Monstrosity and Deceased as perhaps the band that was most undeservedly under-appreciated by the hordes subscribing to said form of music. Every offering of Master is great, but this one really takes us back to the first time we heard “On the Seventh Day, God Created... Master”.

The extremely heavy riffs are what I noticed right away. Alex Nejezchleba is as good as Paul Masvidal, and he surely can write same damn heavy riffs. The solo on “The Final Skull” is just spectacular.

Paul Speckmann’s vocals are amazing as usual. Speckmann’s influence on the death metal of the late 80’s was quite possibly as profound as any allegiance that has been sworn to Possessed, Slayer and early Death. Abomination, Death Strike, Funeral Bitch and consequently, Master have played no small part in forging Death Metal, then in its tumultuous adolescence, into the malignant force that it became in the early 90’s. The vocals are still pretty deep and guttural, but not as much as on their earlier albums, however they are only slightly different and they keep the Master trademark sound intact. The drumming on this album is phenomenal.

But what really turned us on to this album is the atmosphere that it puts off. The production is done so well. It’s like listening to an album that came out in 1989 and that is what one wants from a good Master album! As we said before, fans of the first couple Master albums should really check this out, since it is a kind of return the the basics albums. Any fan of old school Death Metal will love this album.

MASTER / SLAVES OF SOCIETY