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MASTER’S BLOOD
Master’s Blood (2021)

For 14-minutes I’ve drowned in the gloriously gore-clogged waters of Swedish act Master’s Blood. This bass heavy death metal episode is one of those gems that just drags you in with its simplistic, yet stuffy designs and fills your arteries with squalid filth. This is some nasty stuff indeed.

Now, I don’t know a lot about Master’s Blood but the music does the talking; four squelching, vomit-inducing heaps of doomy death metal wrapped up in a great little cover.

The vocals are buried, intentionally, in the mix to let the melodious melancholy reign supreme as opener ‘Those Of Decay’ burps forth much muck, filth and gas, and rumbles with mid-paced morbidity – the sound being far removed from the usual Swedish chainsaw grooviness we’ve become accustomed to over the years. Instead, we get shovelfuls of mud dripping, occasional strains and streaks of bloodied melody, but for the most part this one gnashes in watery mankiness.

‘Where No Doves Fly’ lumbers in horrible, squalid fashion; the dirt-clogged percussion ambles with heaving sombreness while the guitars just grate and gloomily grind. It’s wonderfully accessible, even when the pace is picked up, but what I really adore is the fetid production so that the band can just revel in its own murky existence. Indeed, one feels as if this fetid creature could happily wallow without a voice, because the vocals certainly take a backseat as they become suffocated by the quicksand chugging.

‘With Terror In Their Eyes’ comes crashing wildly out of the swamp with some crazy guitar work and hammering pistons. Damn, this track is screaming out for an industrial mix! But the joys of Master’s Blood, even through the swampy textures, is a band able to create a slightly unorthodox strategy in spite of the seemingly crude design, and ‘With Terror In Their Eyes’ is a prime example of such devices.

The riffs are certainly the syrupy glue which hold this dishevelled grimness together, but one feels as if Master’s Blood could be capable of anything, and a full-length platter cannot come soon enough for me. Until then though, savour the strains of closer ‘Nordic Visions’, an atmospheric horror soundtrack of sorts that leaves us gagging for more ghoulish delights.

I’m reaching for the play button again and again and demand that you summon up the willpower to wade into the mud-caked, bloody pit of horror this Swedish manifestation has concocted.

For those interested, the Master’s Blood demo is available here.

Neil Arnold

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