Savage Master-With Whips And Chains

High Roller/ Skol Records
2016

Fans of female-fronted traditional/classic metal would do well to listen up as this is a important message. U.S. occult heavy metal band Savage Master return with album number two in "With Whips And Chains" and to put it in simple words that everyone can understand it is a real gem of a recording! As you can see here Savage Master is a band that I've covered before and while I thought their debut album was a real blast, "Mask of the Devil" has NOTHING on the the metallic masterpiece that is "With Whips And Chains"! Armed with a new drummer in Zach Harris, Louisville, Kentucky-based Savage Master set out to stomp any fears about a sophomore slump with the resulting album in question showing just how far lead vocalist Stacey "Savage" Peak and her companions have come between their rock-solid 2014 debut album and the forthcoming "With Whips And Chains"! Formed in October of 2012 by Stacy Savage and  guitarist Adam Neal (The Hookers), Savage Master set out in life in order to create a unique occult metal band and they achieved that and then some when it came to their highly-recommended debut album. Early on this five-piece band was influenced by the sounds and styles of such classic metal and N.W.O.B.H.M. groups as Coven, Bitch, Warlock, Venom, Exciter, Witchfinder General, Angel Witch, Diamond Head, Warlord, Judas Priest, Candlemass, Danzig, (early) Iron Maiden and Belgian's Acid. Here it is some four years later and we find this underrated outfit pushing their way past the raw and untamed sounds that were present on "Mask of the Devil" in order to deliver a new album that is far more polished and technical than the primitive* nature of their debut! That's not to say that I don't appreciate everything that Savage Master did on their first album. I loved "Mask of the Devil"! But whereas their debut album was grilled to perfection sirloin steak this new disc is grand A filet mignon! Not only has Stacy Savage improved as a vocalist (something which I would have never thought possible as she already had this incredibly strong voice!), but the band as a whole has really stepped up it's game! On their sophomore album we find Savage Master (which is incidentally rounded out by guitarist Larry Myers and bassist Brandon "BB Gunz" Brown) taking the best parts of their 2014 album (raw and dark metal, thrash, hard & heavy N.W.O.B.H.M., etc.) and then adding in slicker & sicker guitar solos, crushing bass lines and a new and improved drum sound in order that their new disc ends up being as wicked and evil as humanly demonically possibly! When it comes to sincere occult heavy metal and sinister heavy metal-infused thrash this 10-track album is as good as it gets folks.

*"Mask of the Devil" brilliantly combined seventies occult rock, eighties metal, traditional/classic heavy metal and the many different sounds and styles of N.W.O.B.H.M. movement with the raw and primitive nature of Venom and Exciter. Toss in the punk-inspired N.W.O.B.H.M. sound of Iron Maiden's first two albums and you will come close to what Savage Master achieved on their first album. But as great as it was, "Mask of the Devil" pails in comparison to the tighter and way more structured sound that is found on "With Whips And Chains". The key thing to take away from all of this is that such musical growth is not only to be expected, but it should be highly encouraged! Savage Master has grown and matured between album number one and album number two and fans of this occult heavy metal act will just love the ends results!

Savage Master-Mask Of The Devil

Skol Records
2014

Last week I was thrilled to introduce our readers to Kentucky N.W.O.T.H.M act Savage Master (link provided below). Now it is my extreme pleasure to report back to all of you that I have heard the band's full-length debut album in it's entirety and yes, it is EVERY bit as good as I had hoped it would be and then some! That speaks volumes about everyone involved in the creation of Savage Master's first official recording, but before we talk about the people who were tasked with magically transforming Savage Master's larger than life stage sound to studio tape let's fill in a few more facts about this female-fronted/occult-driven band. Co-founded by Adam Neal (guitars) and Stacey "Savage" Peak (lead vocals), with the band's theatrical live show inspired in part by Mario Bava's 1960 gothic horror classic "Black Sunday" (look it up kids as it's a real doozy!) and perhaps even The Mentors(!) and the rest of the band soon filled out by various musicians that Adam Neal knew and worked with in the past, Savage Master has remarkably enough only been existence for a little over a year! And yet in that small time frame this overtly satanic band has made the leap from unsigned underground favorites to securing a deal with Skol Records. And of course everyone should already know that Skol Records is responsible for several albums which I  have previously covered and have since made a part of my personal music collection such as Taist of Iron's "Ressurrection", Robespierre's "Die You Heathen, Die!" and Nitro's "Lethal Dose" so this particular signing makes a great deal of sense. That doesn't mean that the black arts were not used in one fashion or another to speed up this band's musical evolution LOL! It merely means that Savage Master shares more than a few of the same great qualities that made those previously mentioned three artists so good to begin with so this musical relationship looks like a match made in heaven...or hell if you will! Especially seeing as Savage Master's sound harkens back to the "good old days". Sonically-speaking it's bands like Exciter and Venom that initially come to mind when it comes to Savage Master. In no way is that a bad thing, but like the band members behind this project there is so much more to "Mask Of The Devil" once you take the time to really listen. As diverse as lead vocalist Stacy Peak is when it comes to her vocal inspirations*, Savage Master as a whole seems to be inspired by not just Exciter and Venom (musically and lyrically F.Y.I.!), but eighties metal (Brocas Helm, Dark Wizard, Gotham City, Lizzy Bordon, OZ, Warlord, Stormwitch and even Taist Of Iron(!), traditional heavy metal and doom (Accept, Malice, Halloween, Black Sabbath, etc.) and the N.W.O.B.H.M. scene (Blood Money, Avenger, Grim Reaper, Cloven Hoof, Pagan Altar, Witchfinder General, Witchfynde, Desolation Angels and Hell). Incidentally that is a hell of a lot of enchanting charms  for a release which ends up clocking in at under 30 minutes! But damn if it doesn't just fit all snug and tight! Which brings us all the way back around to the beginning and the crew responsible for laying all of this sinister metal to tape! Co-produced by Michael Kent O' Bryan and Savage Master members Stacey "Savage" Peak and Adam Neal, "Mask Of The Devil" was engineered and mixed by Michael Kent O' Bryan at Wax & Tape Studios before it was mastered by the Bart Gabriel at Skol Records Studio. Collectively this lot has given fans of occult metal and N.W.O.T.H.M. plenty to get excited about as "Mask Of The Devil" is as classic a debut album album as one can get! If there's a downside to be had it's the album's short-length. At not even 30 minutes a album like "Mask Of The Devil" disappears as quickly as it appears. If you walk out of the room for even a few minutes you are likely to miss a great deal of the action. There's that and then there is the lyrically content of "Mask Of The Devil". More often than not Savage Master hits things out of the ballpark thanks to some truly evil and downright spooky material. However there are times on Savage Master's debut when the possibility arises and one just has to ask the question that should NEVER be asked. And that is "You didn't happen to go to a songwriting workshop taught by Cronos did you?"! All lyrical-cheesiness aside, "Mask Of The Devil" is a fun, throwback metal kind of album with bewitching female vocals and a vibe which will remind more than a few people of the early punk-infused British metal scene (Iron Maiden's first two albums, Venom, Tank, etc.). It's also a great debut album for a band that is still young and growing and poised for bigger and better things in the years to come! You can find Savage Master online here: https://www.facebook.com/savagemaster666 and for more information on Skol Records be sure to check out the labels Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/skolrecords

*While waiting to receive a promo copy of "Mask Of The Devil" I took the time to do further resource on this spook-fest of a band. I can across an interview that Stacey did where she said that besides Rob Halford (vocally-speaking) it was bands such as Witchfinder General, Warlock, Candlemass, Danzig, Angel Witch, Diamond Head and Coven (to name a few!) that influenced her as an artist.




http://metalmark.blogspot.com/search?q=Kentucky+heavy+metal+band+Savage+Master+announce+upcoming+tour+dates! 

Skyconqueror - Under The Pentagram

Self-Release/Independent
2014

 
Dear readers of mine would it be alright if I asked you a question? Do you find yourself having those familiar cravings for old-school heavy metal? We're talking about the kind of old-school metal that draws as much from traditional heavy metal greats (Accept, Dio, Mercyful Fate, Motörhead, Black Sabbath and Helloween) as it does from the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement (Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Saxon, etc.). If you answered yes then have I got the band for you! Germany's Skyconqueror, which has been active since early 1997 and has three demos and two albums under their belts, are every bit an old-school metal band (an 80's sounding one in fact!) currently living in our day and age! Their sophomore album, "Under The Pentagram", was recorded over the course of 16 months and it finds Skyconqueror channeling the same dark magic of bands like Coven, Pentagram, Witchfinder General, Black Sabbath, Hellhammer, Venom, Pagan Alter and Merciful Fate while taking aim (musically) at Iron Maiden/Judas Priest-inspired eighties metal. It's true that (at times) lead vocalist Demondawn (aka Daniel Hiller of Antifreeze and formerly of  Knight Errant and Near Dark) and his cohorts in crime (guitarist Hellduke, bassist Mayhem and drummer Messiah Of Evil) get a little ahead of themselves for their own good and get carried away (a couple of cuts here sound remarkably similar and as if they were not fully thought out), but it's plain to see how much these four Münster-based metalheads LOVE what they are doing and are as much fans of all things metal as they are performers! And tipping the scales even further in their favor is the fact that the eleven songs present on their new CD offer up shadows of (early, occult-themed) Running Wild and second-tier acts like Warlord, Omen and Savage Grace (all three of which are personal favorites of the band members). All of which points toward a band that lives and dies for true heavy metal! And for those of us (and yes, I'm including myself in this category friends) that love to listen to and collect all things heavy & hard Skyconqueror's "Under The Pentagram" makes for a welcomed addition!