Master Master and 1985 Unreleased Album Re-issued As 2CD

Hammerheart Records opened pre-orders for the first Master album with several versions of the same songs, making this both a collector’s item and an impossible listen for the casual fan.

The series of Paul Speckmann projects from 1983-1998 produced essentially the same music but with different personnel; each time a new album was ready, Speckmann assembled a band and if that did not work out, put together another. Hence Master, Speckmann Project, Abomination, Deathstrike, and Funeral Bitch all released essentially the same songs.

This presents to us the problem of Master: new fans need tight compilations with no redundancy, where aging Generation X and previous fans want all of the variations available on disc. This 2CD, which combined triggered and natural tracks with unreleased, rehearsal, and demo material, will please the die-hard collectors but possibly no one else.

If a wish list could be assembled by us Speckmann fans out here, it would be this: first, put together a “best of” and then re-record the songs so they have the same sound. That would be a great 2CD. Next, release one version of each song in several albums reflected the chronological Speckmann journey.

In the meantime, we will enjoy this 2CD for an initial listen, probably after a few beers and an Optimo blunt, since slight intoxication helps us want to hear “Mangled Dehumanization” three times within the hour. These are great songs from a historically important and highly engaging band, but they deserve another presentation at some point.

CD 1
Original Un-Triggered mix

  1. Pledge of Allegiance
  2. Unknown Soldier
  3. Mangled Dehumanization
  4. Pay to Die
  5. Funeral Bitch
  6. Master
  7. Bass Solo
  8. Children Of The Grave
  9. Re-Entry and Destruction
  10. Terrorizer
  11. The Truth
  12. Rehearsal Demo

  13. Pay to Die
  14. Master
  15. Funeral Bitch
  16. Mangled Dehumanization
  17. Live for Free
  18. Terrorizer
  19. Rabid Anger

CD 2
Triggered mix

  1. Pledge of Allegiance
  2. Unknown Soldier
  3. Mangled Dehumanization
  4. Pay to Die
  5. Funeral Bitch
  6. Master
  7. Bass Solo
  8. Children Of The Grave
  9. Re-Entry and Destruction
  10. Terrorizer
  11. The Truth
  12. Unreleased Album

  13. Master
  14. Unknown Soldier
  15. Mangled Dehumanization
  16. Funeral Bitch
  17. Terrorizer
  18. Pledge of Allegiance
  19. Re-Entry and Destruction

The label released the following statement:

Back in 1985 Master’s creator Paul Speckmann had already compiled the classic songs for this debut album. Eager to get them on record, the band’s management was convinced what Combat Records was offering wasn’t enough, and so nothing happened. Unfortunately not until 1990 did most get the pleasure of hearing the tracks, when they were (re-)recorded for Nuclear Blast! Master really never has been recognized as the world class innovators they truly are, but many bands have mentioned them as a huge influence. The funny things is that most music in the death metal genre resembles Master’s classic work. We as fans, as well as the other bands owe a lot of respect to Paul and Master and what he helped to create.

It is hard to put its greatness into words; this album just has an unexplainable unique atmosphere, not present on most death metal albums released since. Paul Speckmann treats the listener with very distinct and harsh vocals. More harsh even than his vocals are his lyrics, very well written, from a sarcastic/cynical point of view. As for the riffs, man is the guitar tone heavy as hell and way ahead of its time.

Basically there are no real flaws, the only thing that had always upsets me, is that it doesn’t last longer. Best songs on here have to be, well all of them. And sure as hell no Death Metal collection is complete without these legendary songs! So we hope we are doing this legendary album justice, because as soon as we listened to it upon its release, it became a personal favorite. We know any fan of death/thrash, old school death, or just death metal will love this.

For old school bangers that really like: Kreator, Death, Terrorizer, Celtic Frost, Entombed

We might add: and Motorhead. If you combined Black Sabbath, Motorhead, and The Exploited you would arrive somewhere close to where Master, Deathstrike, Funeral Bitch, Abomination, and Speckmann Project ended up.

The label described the re-issue as follows:

In March 2020 Hammerheart Records will have back in stock the 2-CD version of the legendary Master – “Master” album, this time as a regular jewelcase 2-CD in a gloss varnished slipcase, obviously the main course is the legendary album on CD 1 and on CD 2, in the original untriggered mix and the triggered mix. As absolute great bonus materials there is the Rehearsal demo and and the so-called “Unreleased Album”. Remastered by Toneshed Studio. All in all the absolute complete package on this legendary and highly influential album.

For more information, see our reviews of Master, Deathstrike, Abomination, and Speckmann Project.

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13 thoughts on “Master Master and 1985 Unreleased Album Re-issued As 2CD”

  1. maelstrrom says:

    “For old school bangers that really like: Kreator, Death, Terrorizer, Celtic Frost, Entombed”

    Labels sure do like promoting inferior bands, don’t they?

    1. shut says:

      the fuck

    2. Robert says:

      Bullshit! All those bands mentioned are legendary!

    3. objektivity says:

      master is better than the first three but not the last two

      1. kool AIDS says:

        world downfall is better than anything by the other bands besides celtic frost. entombed is weak crust. not to be confused with weak sauce, but related.

      2. maelstrrom says:

        Master is better than all of them except for Celtic Frost, although they were better when they were Hellhammer. Entombed only had one good album before devolving into rock amd roll (and Carnage/Dismember is better).

        1. Entombed only had one good album before devolving into rock amd roll (and Carnage/Dismember is better).

          I like their first two, although the latter picks up on some rock ‘n roll too much. The problem is that the first album is often not very exciting, and the songwriting improved on the second. Sort of like Unleashed: the first album has all the ideas, the second album has the experience to make it happen. In an Aristotleian heaven, the two albums would merge, and still would not be as great as Carnage Dark Recollections and Therion Of Darkness.

      3. Kreator, Death, Terrorizer, Celtic Frost, Entombed

        Kreator has some great riffs, chaotic songs. Death has Scream Bloody Gore and then a bunch of dramatic albums. Terrorizer had World Downfall, then some random stuff, then a simpler but more consistent version of its sound, Hordes of Zombies. I feel like David Vincent may have had more involvement in songwriting than is reported, because something snapped them out of the random previous album into a great one. Celtic Frost had a couple great EPs but then fell apart because of the diverging paths of its influences. Master probably has three really excellent albums among all the other stuff, but like Motorhead, too often there are three good songs and then sonic Master wallpaper on your average Master album.

        1. maelstrrom says:

          I agree with this assessment of Master and Motorhead. Terrorizer- I don’t like most grindcore but they’re one of the best ones, not as good as Blood but better than Carcass and Bolt Thrower

          1. Same boat here. Carbonized and Pathologist round out my grind-listening, although the first Disharmonic Orchestra gets an honorable mention.

            1. Corpz Cokk says:

              Second Disharmonic Orchestra is the dopest though.

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjY7gZFMnk0

            2. maelstrrom says:

              In addition to the aforementioned I listen to the Repulsion album from time to time

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