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Master s/t lp:
Master will never truly get the respect they deserve from the heavy metal community. I saw them last night in Boston in front of maybe 30 or 40 people. Paul Speckmann, their only constant member (since 1984!) seemed over the fact that Master will never be as popular as most of the bands they influenced, but you can’t help but thinking the guy deserved more. Speckmann constantly juggled his way through bands in the 80’s and along with Master, did great recordings with Deathstrike, Funeral Bitch, and Abomination. Sometimes he would reuse one band’s songs in the other, and they all have sonic similarities, but probably his most legendary recording is the Master unreleased 1985 lp. They obtained a contract with Combat in 1985, who released debuts for other formative American death metal bands like Possessed and Death, but somewhere along the line something went wrong. Master’s crushing debut lp never saw the light of day, and instead lingered in tape trading obscurity for years. It’s a shame because it’s one of the rawest most primitive death metal recordings ever made anywhere.

Around 1990 or so Speckmann secured a contract with Nuclear Blast Records (Germany) and released lps by both Abomination and Master that year. This became Master’s official debut lp. Most of the album was comprised of old cuts from their unreleased lp, plus a couple of new songs, a cover, and a song or two from a Deathstrike demo. While this doesn’t have the bludgeoning rawness of the 1985 version, Master’s s/t lp is still a great piece of crushing, primal metal. Like if Discharge dropped into C, and was fronted by Chuck Schulinder. Even with the 90’s sheen it still is a powerhouse. ”You are the master”.

Mind Eraser meets Speckmann