From Burning Salts Zine:
"Are you like me? Are you addicted to speed? It can be a real problem getting that fix especially that fix that satisfied the need for speed. Yeah I'm talking about that drug – that is if that drug is metal played fast, loud and obviously heavy. Master Fury from New Jersey by way of Wisconsin feed that need for speed. Contaminated Tones offers up the bands discography on one CD with all thanks and applause going to the label because I seriously doubt there's much of a chance at snagging an original of one of the two albums present here Hell party or Circles of Hate.
Really there are no complaints here other than why had I not heard of this band before. The tinny production does get matched by some of the bands grooves – if you play these songs loud enough the bass shines through and that tin-thin sound wears away into violence fury and masterful speed metal. Hell Party is a dirtier record and offers the dirty portion of this compilation album. The lead guitar a lot of the time on the Hell Party tracks likes to shred off sometimes seemingly out of place but it's all in the insanity to give the songs the fury and mayhem they already have but it just makes it that much more in your face.
The late 80s were not the greatest haven for thrash metal let alone most metal. Many thrashers of note were experimenting Metallica were creating ten minute long songs. Slayer was not at top form, Testament was adding some slower more contemplative thrash. Exodus arguably were doing Pleasures of the Flesh and Fabulous Disaster which are again arguably good records. Death Angel failed miserably after The Ultra Violence. So point being thrash was struggling after really only a brief period. Sadly bands like this that produced some good good shit went unknown because the record labels supporting thrash were already jumping ship.
The other portion of this compilation Circles of Hate has a pretty appropriate title. While jamming the album I kept thinking this would make for a bad ass circle pit live. The cuts are still fast but a bit more chunky and groove oriented kind of familiar like a bastardization of the prowess of Testament's New Order and the smash smash gallop of SOD. Now in the 2013's and recent years we have the ole retrothrash where bands that sound pretty much exactly like Master Fury are making records that just sound more produced. Forget that if you want to be retro, don't studio produce the hell out of your thrash records.
I'll give warning though, spinning all 16 cuts of this record is taxing on your head it can induce some dizziness or just the need to thrash and mosh so make sure your listening area is secured appropriately. I can't gripe too much and say oh man – those were the days considering I wasn't even a teen in the late 80s but I go back to the gripes I was making bands like this just never had much of a chance sadly. But thankfully we have fine folks to resurrect the releases and have cool cover art make the music easier to access. I've found a lot of good records through this ethic – a good example would be the somewhat recent reissue of that pre-Master band called Death Strike and a hunk of their material – that was some grade A speed, just like this. Thrash, hail kill. - B.W."
No comments:
Post a Comment