Master - The Human Machine
June 16 2010 at 01:03:41 AM
No country for old men.
Most lifers like to talk about not mellowing out, but few succeed.
For influence and persistence, (following a trajectory most similar to German thrasher’s Sodom) Paul Speckmann’s Master has rightfully owned its moniker, returning now to once again lament the dismal tide.
“When you put on a Motorhead album,”
says Speckmann “you’re gonna hear the ‘Ace of Spades’.”
Take it to heart on
The Human Machine, a more conceptual assault on willing enslavement, executed with greater emphasis on the Death Metal side of vintage Master sound. Betraying outside influences (“Worship The Sun” is obvious nod to former label head John McEntee’s Incantation)and occasionally self-referential (compare “A Replica of Invention” with “Latitudinarian”), Master isn’t doing much more than holding their ground, unlikely to alter that approach until finding a more interesting lead guitarist. So be it. Mike Muir-grade tangents and an odd closer in “Impale to Kill” (After checking to see if it wasn’t really a cover, I thought it might somehow tie in with the rest of the album in portraying a killer as the last, ironic agent of true humanity. But nah probably just slasher fantasy) are excusable “glitches” in an otherwise solid release.
[Todd DePalma]
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