Master - Slaves to Society (2007)^{Release ID: 5804}

The indefatigable death-thrash of Master sounds as fiery as ever on their 2007 full length.  The balance they strike between death metal and thrash metal is a sure-footed stance they have established over many years of course, but it really shines through on 'Slaves to Society'.  The death metal has an almost arrogant and sneering poise to it whilst the energy and zestful thrash elements sit perfectly alongside.

We open with 'The Final Skull', straight away pummelling the listener with insane riffage and Speckmann's trademark gruff vocals in full flow.  This riffery is present throughout the record, especially on the title track and 'Anarchy Nearly Lost' which sounds like the brother of the opening track.  Lyrically we have the usual Speckmann typography, full of distaste for society and politics in the main yet delivered with enough casual sarcasm to bring an ironic grin to the face of the listener.  'The Room With Views' does this brilliantly with the opening lyrical salvo of, "I hate everyone and I hate everything".  Yep, classic Speckmann right here folks.

Props need to be given to the European contingent of the line up for this record with Pradlovsky doing an amazing job on the skins and Nejezchleba shredding and riffing like a motherfucker for eleven tracks.  The latter's barking riffs of particular note on the aforementioned 'The Room With Views'.

The version I have of the record is the 2008 reissue on Ibex Moon Records and so contains four demo tracks at the end of the record (that don't sound that much like demos in the grander scheme of things it has to be said) which serve to enhance the overall experience of this superb release.