MASTER — Let's Start A War (review)

Album · 2002 · Death Metal

3/5 · 2024-11-26
UMUR

"Let's Start A War" is the fifth full-length studio album by US death metal act Master. The album was released through System Shock Records in March 2002. It´s the successor to "Faith Is In Season" from 1998. Master was put on hold by lead vocalist/bassist Paul Speckmann after the release of "Faith Is In Season" (1998). After joining Czech death metal act Krabathor in 1999, he moved to the Czech Republic, and assembled a new lineup for his next Master album. The lineup on "Let's Start A War" therefore consists of Speckmann on bass and vocals, Ronald Reagan on guitars and Harry Truman on drums. The two latter are of course not the real names of the musicians involved. The real names are Petr Kryštof (Speckmann´s bandmate from Krabathor) and Libor Lebánek (also of Krabathor). So it´s the same trio lineup who also recorded the two contemporary Krabathor albums "Unfortunately Dead" (2000) and "Dissuade Truth" (2003).

Moving to a new country and having strong ties to Krabathor haven´t resulted in any changes to the sound of Master though, and "Let's Start A War" sounds like the natural successor to "Faith Is In Season" (1998). Stylistically this is old school death metal with strong thrash metal leanings (sometimes this is actually more thrash than death metal), and quite a few punk styled drum parts. It´s very simplistic in nature and not exactly the most challenging music. Speckmann does a pretty good job here and his vocals are nicely aggressive, brutal, and intelligible. The material are neither varied. The cover of "Miss Misery" by Nazareth and the odd attempt at playing heavy blues rock on "Purchase A New Handgun" are the variation you´ll hear on this album. The material is not particularliy interesting or memorable either. It´s as if it´s almost too simplistic for it´s own good, and it´s hard not to loose interest quickly once you gain an understanding of the core elements of the band´s sound.

"Let's Start A War" features a decent sounding production job, but it could have been more powerful sounding, and the drums in particular feature a rather lifeless tone. Upon conclusion "Let's Start A War" isn´t an album which moves Master away from the streak of mediocre (some of them even bad) albums they were delivering at this point in their career, but it´s not the worst Master album from this era either, and it does feature enough redeeming qualities to warrant a 3 star (60%) rating.

2 days ago
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UMUR wrote:

4 hours ago

I have nothing against simplicity, but I generally think Master´s output is second tier old school death metal. Very seldom have they released anything which make my blood boil. Not even the debut album, which to my ears is their best, does much to change that.But as always to each his own.