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MASTERS OF DISGUISE
Back With A Vengeance

Limb Music (2013)
Rating: 8/10

California’s Savage Grace was once responsible for some of the best heavy metal album covers. Those of you who recall the devilish delights of 1983’s The Dominatress EP, or the saucy shenanigans of the 1985 Master Of Disguise album, will no doubt have been drawn in by those edgy sleeves as well as the potent metal displayed within the wax.

Savage Grace existed from 1981 until around 1992, but returned in 2010 with The Lost Grace EP. The last touring line-up of Savage Grace consisted of founding member Chris Logue on vocals, backed by German musicians Roger Dequis (guitar), Kalli Coldsmith (guitar; Jameson Raid), Mario Lang (bass) and Andreas “Neudi” Neuderth (drums; Jameson Raid / Manilla Road).

It’s that German personnel from the last Savage Grace line-up that form the nucleus of Masters Of Disguise, with ex-Viron vocalist Alexx Stahl given the task of steering the ship. As the press release states, Masters Of Disguise stand for “the virtues of US speed and power metal like back in the old days. With the aim of delivering nothing less than a worthy successor to Savage Grace’s Master Of Disguise album”.

So, the big question of course is can such a line-up bring back those glorious days of speedy 80s metal? Well, for the most part, yes. Back With A Vengeance suggests a band still very much of that 80s sound, a band compiled of blistering guitars, scorching vocals and all round clean, clinical musicianship.

The album introduces itself, rather controversially, with the promotional track / video ‘For Now And All Time (Knutson’s Return)’ which once again plays on the seedy forays of the maniac cop who graced the Master Of Disguise album. Musically, the band take us back to the halcyon days of Vicious Rumors, Jag Panzer and those power metal-infused speed metal merchants who supplied us headbangers with blazing riffs, snarling production and ear-shredding vocals.

Alexx Stahl really is the star of the show as he warbles his way through ten staggering tracks, such as the masterful ‘The Omen’, the bewitching mayhem of ‘Sons Of The Doomed’ and furious melody of ‘The Templar’s Gold’.

Certainly Masters Of Disguise have not resorted to resurrecting the corpse of Savage Grace, and if anything this searing hot opus is a tribute to the origins, with the band bringing 80s-styled metal into the modern era with added crunch and vitality.

It is of course debatable that Masters Of Disguise have any real connections to the original Savage Grace when one considers that the original line-up featured none of the guys present here, but I don’t personally feel that this line-up needs to worry about past connections to boost their reputation such is the solid nature of this power metal feast. There’s nary a bad track in sight and I cannot wait for another instalment, because this record really does froth at the mouth.

Neil Arnold

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