Ear-Splitting Grit: Master - An Epiphany Of Hate

Master are prolific and consistent. Originally based out of Chicago, vocalist and bassist Paul Speckmann relocated Master to the Czech Republic where they channeled their aggressive anti-establishment driven sound towards the USA from the Balkan state. Master's first and second albums - Master (1990) and And On The Seventh Day God Created...Master (1991) - are underground gems: intense death-thrash with the odd quirk and melodic touch. Part Motorhead, part Autopsy. An Epiphany Of Hate is the 13th full-length release in Master's consistent speed machine and it's an example of a band who know their instruments and the weight and power of their music like the back of their gnarled, old-school hands.

An Epiphany of Hate is frantic throughout. Ear-splitting and intense, it's got a reasonably clean and full sound but it's never sterile; the hazy chaos and natural anger still filters through. There is a melodic touch and a thrash-like playfulness throughout: songs pick up pace and groove with a gravel-like consistency as dual-guitars soar and squeal and riffs progress and the drums weigh in like frenetic jackhammers. 

There is certainly remains a violent death-metal edge to the music, however. Speckmann's vocals are particularly malicious, grunting like a  rabies infested dog-zombie from one song to the next. In 'Friction Soon Becomes Reality' he spits and froths with an incessant dread that can't be stopped. The vocals in 'An Epiphany Of Hate' morph into something out of a Cronenberg movie: pig-like snorts and inhaled rumblings merge with a hardcore-punk forthrightness. Speckmann is a great vocalist; there still remains a legible human quality to them and, similarly to Autopsy and Obituary, a real sense of emotional vulnerability that a lot of contemporary death-metal, on the whole, seems to lack. 

There are a lot of memorable moments on this album: 'Face Your Fear' quite literally breaks down towards the end with guitar strings warping and wobbling as the song is tasered to a stop; 'It's Clearly Eden' breaks in to Morbid Saint and Demolition Hammer fury with catchy lyrics and a solid groove and the album closer 'Red Alert' journeys from a traditional mid-paced sound to a frantic thrash extravagance as dirty solo leading on to dirtier solo in a grittier Megadeth-esque fashion.

An Epiphany of Hate is 44-minutes of extremely well-crafted death-metal. The album is littered with memorable moments. Speckmann has an knack for songwriting and an ear for melody that many more 'traditional' death metal bands seem to lack. It has the intensity of death-metal, the aggressive political stance of hardcore-punk and the playfulness of speed/NWOBHM. A very enjoyable album.

Album of 2015: Sarpanitum - Blessed Be My Brothers...

"Sniff the fingers, my son. Inhale their odorous toffee. That's right my son, give it a kiss now. When you fight for me, never forget the sweet smell of..." - Pope Fingers

Sarpanitum's 'Blessed Be My Brother's' mixes Babylonian mythological barbarity and desolate apocalyptic heaviness with an ear for seraphic godly melody and subtle harmonious heraldry - this is an album that could only have come out of the UK! With less pomposity: This is a 41-minute monster of an album. It is a colossus, monolithic and meaty album that delivers a brutal sledgehammered serving of death metal with an organic side order of Hellenic influenced touches of melodious sound. 'Blessed Be My Brother's...' manages to balance a pummeling technicality - reminiscent of bands such as Nile, Mithras, Immolation - with subtle ambient layerings and playful, imaginative leads - reminiscent of recent black metal releases by Obsequiae and Nechochwen. I thoroughly enjoy the band's willingness to work in sweet sounding melodies against the ferocity of the drums and rhythm guitar.

Vocal delivery is mixed, ranging from a deep guttural tremblings to a mid-ranged snarls; the drum sound is outstanding and varied, never relying on pure speed and violence, instead really working with the atmosphere created by the majestic guitar lines and choral ambience that haunts from beneath.The production is perfect for the album: it doesn't have that glossy sterility of modern tech-death but it also doesn't  fall too far down  into that muffled, crackly, dissonant old-school death metal rabbit hole that some can't escape from. Occasionally the bass lingers quietly in the background, but other than that the sound is clear and diverse while maintaining a natural energy.

At times I can hear the blackened-death sound of recent Behemoth, but Sarpanitum do it better: Behemoth come across as forcing atmosphere, forcing mystique and awe, and - for me- this comes across as occasionally clinical and unnatural; conversely, Sarpanitum balances the atmosphere and the metal with a tender thoughtfulness: songs transition with an organic subtlety, ambient passages are neither melodramatic nor overbearing; melodies, tonal changes and transitions between riff patterns are on point and dynamic. The album is broken up with two aptly placed ambient passages that work to intensify and transition the atmospheres of the album while giving the listener a brief chance to reflect, and recover, from the skull-crushing intensity. Riffs also have that quality we all hope to find at the heart of an album: headbangability. It is Sarpanitum's ability to merge an atmospheric touch with monstrous death metal dynamism that makes this such a powerful album and for that reason I hold it above my head through the cities of the ancient world as a gift received from the Oracle: my album of 2015.

Bandcamp: http://sarpanitum.bandcamp.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarpanitum
Merch: http://sarpanitum.bigcartel.com/