ALBUM REVIEW: The Names Of Power – One Master
New England’s ONE MASTER are one of many great black metal acts to come out of the US post-millennium, and although they may not be one of the most well-known, the quartet have certainly carved out a significant legacy for themselves with their music. Crafting a style that draws heavily from second wave black metal whilst feeling distinct, their sound is uncompromisingly raw, acerbic and bellicose – claustrophobic and murky, visceral and beguiling in equal measure. The band’s latest, fifth album, The Names Of Power, provides a coarser and leaner approach to their established sound, shifting towards a more atmospheric but nonetheless rabid approach that makes this stand apart from even the band’s own back catalogue.
The First Names kicks things off in harsh fashion, with grating guitar work, frenetic drums and caustic vocals all creating a sinister and domineering sound. Tinged with sharp melodies, it crafts an imposing and angular sound that strikes a fine balance between catchy hooks and chaotic intensity, often favouring the more bellicose elements over the punchy ones, but still proving to be a powerful opening statement that sets a dark tone early on. The Forbidden Names, with its lighter tone and minimalistic approach, provides a leaner but nonetheless raw take on classic black metal with a decidedly authoritative hard rock edge underpinning it, notably in the drums and some of the meatier guitar parts. It makes for a significantly less claustrophobic sound, barring a few bursts of bellicose aggression, which allows the vocals to take centre stage.
The Secret Names, with its sprawling, cavernous sound, is an absolute monolith that blends together the tight, spartan bleakness of the preceding track with a rumbling rhythmic undercurrent, which lends a denser aspect to the rest of the music which mostly consists of coarse black metal with muscular guitars and acerbic vocals. It reduces the pace to a relatively slow, doom-laden crawl where the last two tracks were speed-driven and energetic, creating a hypnotic, ethereal effect that makes this incredibly engrossing.
The Solitary Names reverts to a cacophonous, discordance blur of jarring guitars, rabid drumming and hellish vocals, returning to the searing, punishing style that informed the first two tracks, but exploring it in greater depth, with only a few weighty black ‘n’ roll moments detracting from the unerringly visceral approach, ultimately proving to be one of the most blistering and bestial offerings on the album. The Celestial Names, with its galloping tempo and expansive guitars, strikes a fine balance between the dirty blackened core of this record’s sound and the epic touches of a song like The Secret Names, developing a vibrant and soaring sound that is more dramatic and polished than the four tracks that came before it, and making for an atmospheric and accessible iteration of the band’s sound.
The Final Names, the final, lengthy addition to this album, opts for a grandiose, layered sound that slowly builds from its haunting opening moments to a viciously intense sound that retains the cleaner, immersive guitar line as its backbone whilst injecting a harsher side into the fray. It’s a great piece of music that ties together both the heavier and lighter elements of ONE MASTER‘s music, ebbing and flowing between the two with ease, and resulting in a song of extremes that veers from one magnificent hook to the next, constantly transforming to make this near 15-minute juggernaut one of the most adventurous efforts on the record, and a fittingly all-encompassing conclusion.
Although there’s very little to differentiate The Names Of Power from the majority of rawer black metal records in terms of its production and mix, the various musical elements that make up ONE MASTER‘s sound are what make this such an impressive album. There’s a broad range of styles spread liberally throughout this record, from unhinged chaotic flourishes through to sombre, hypnotic moments, which allow each of these six tracks to be a lot more impactful and engrossing than other albums in a similar style would be. Directly compared with its most recent predecessor, Lycanthropic Burrowing, it’s clear that this album often reduces the pace drastically, and allows the subtle ambience and melodic hooks that underpin the majority of this music to come to the fore more prominently. This makes for an album that stands apart from much of what the band has produced before, without sacrificing any of the venom and vitriol that makes ONE MASTER such an underrated act within USBM.
Rating: 8/10
The Names Of Power is out now via Eternal Death.
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