Evoking the higher-speed precision work of On the Seventh Day…, the latest offering from Master merges early hardcore, 1960s heavy rock, and the early years of death metal into a driving force of dissent and alienation.

Not much has changed in this formula since 1983, where you can hear Black Sabbath war it out with the Exploited and Motorhead as well as early Slayer in a churning powerful sound, but Master has tightened up songwriting and focuses more on a narrow zone of technique in which they can deliver a powerful payload.

It feels like it is from an earlier era, since it is more verse-chorus and vocal-driven than death metal, but it borrows riff texturing and percussion from the late form of death metal without introducing modern nonsense, becoming like the vocals: no frills, no compromises, no nonsense.

Tags: master, proto-underground metal