Master (US) I would hope by now does not need an introduction. Musicians may have come and gone, but the stabilising factor has always been Paul Speckmann, a long time advocate of the death metal scene and jolly nice chap if you ever get the chance to meet him.
‘The Human Machine’ is pretty much business as usual, old school death metal. One thing I have noted on this album, whereas the vocals are still unmistakably death metal, they are quite precise they simply make this a much more enjoyable release in terms of clarity. Musically you won’t find much differing from Master of old, bar the speed stakes, this one has quite a good pace to the album and to be honest, this is a world above some previous studio offerings, but things have developed favourably from their last studio offering with the same line up, in fact a stable line up since 2004’s ‘The Spirit of the West’ album.
These songs are very infectious and quite special for me. There is just a comfort of a cold pint on a hot summer’s day, or the pure adrenaline rush or
deafness achieved when hearing the first strum of a guitar at the front of a PA system, you know what you are going to get with Master, and that is in fact a good place to be. Lyrically you are kind of asked to “pledge your allegiance”, an earlier Master reference, but in 2010, Mr Speckmann continues to point out that you are “just machines” in ‘It’s What Your Country Can Do For You’. The band self-produced this album in the Czech Republic and you get that band involvement from the sounds that are produced. I mentioned the vocals earlier, but in fact the full range of each instrument is in top represented form here. Zdenek’s drumming is a death metal blueprint, no signal boosting or triggers, or so it appears, a bit of thrash, a bit of death and a blast beat thrown in for good measure here and there. Whilst the thrasher side of the guitar comes out in some aspects of ‘Twisted Truth’, what a choice tune this is. One criticism I would have to give this album is that I would have liked to have seen the Master logo a little bit clearer or more prominent on the album cover, but you cannot have everything can you. The music is basically going to blow your nuts off, if you like it old school of course.
‘The Human Machine’ is gritty, dirty and brandishes no apologies for its appearance. The old guard is in charge and there is no way your leaving this place without a sore neck, or possibly worse.
http://www.master-speckmetal.com/
http://www.myspace.com/masterspeckmann
http://www.pulverised.net/
