On The Seventh Day God Created... Master

Vinyl LP pressing. 1992 release. Beneath the surface simplicity lies a creative spirit that at once recalls the primal birth of death metal (which Master was both present for and very much a driving force behind) and points the way to what the genre might have become. Very apparent are the genre's hardcore roots, Master here eschewing the Slayer-derived technical architecture that came to dominate most "modern" death metal in favor of structures that would not have been out of place on Discharge's landmark "Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing" release (there are even a few appearances of the infamous D-beat). Within the unrelenting storm of brutal repetition, the music's core meaning is encoded, a sheer primal rage dripping from thunderous cycles of power chords and the open throated roar (again the hardcore influence) of vocalist and chief songwriter Paul Speckman. To this, Master adds moments of ponderous reflection where songs collapse into a sort of high decibel dirge, an innate sense of how to tease melody from the infernal depths of dissonance, and the aforementioned Masvidal solos (and it cannot be overemphasized just how much these leads rip). What emerges is something that belies it's own apparent crudity, becoming not so much a statement of blind anger or stymied alienation, but a masterful declaration of violent intent.