EP REVIEW: Morbid Black Trinity – Master’s Call
Wolverhampton’s MASTER’S CALL, although relatively new to the UK extreme metal scene as an outfit, are deeply entrenched in the scene. Featuring members from bands such as TRIVAX, FUNERAL THRONE, NECROTIZED and DECEPTOR, this blackened death metal quintet has enough collective musical and song writing talent to produce some excellent music. Over the last couple of years, the band has been honing and crafting their sound, ensuring that their music will sound amazing right off the bat with their first release. Their debut EP, Morbid Black Trinity, doesn’t disappoint, and proves to be a great introduction to a band that could go on to be one of the UK’s premier blackened death metal bands.
From Once Beneath The Cursed is a bleak, atmosphere drenched track with some brilliant intensity and aggression. There’s some excellent, cacophonous drumming that drives this song, with a powerful, robust bass line which act as a great base on which to build some great guitar work and equally impressive vocals. With thick, sludgy rhythms, visceral, dense gutturals and dizzying, chaotic guitar hooks, this sets the bar incredibly high almost as soon as the first notes burst out of the speakers. At points, it is unflinchingly oppressive and dark, and yet manages to pepper plenty of great melodic flourishes in amongst the general viciousness and vitriol of the overall sound of this song.
The Spirit Cranes ups the ante when it comes to dark and bleak ambience, which underpins this track throughout. This is a far more aggressive and acerbic offering than Morbid Black Trinity‘s opener, with dense, jarring guitar hooks, a tar thick bass line and some tight, intricate drumming, all acting as an excellent back drop to some of the best vocal performances on the whole EP. Vicious and acidic, Shayan‘s fierce gutturals and hellish roars jump out at the listener, and give this song plenty of sonic depth and ferocity. With the guitars shifting from robust, rhythmic sections to far more discordant, intense riffs, there’s lots of great elements to this song, and help to make it the stand out track on this record.
The third and final song, My Eyes Are The Night, is a much lengthier track, with a more mid-paced, epic and powerful feel to it than the two songs that preceded it. With steady, but nonetheless authoritative drum patterns driving the song forward, the songs most impressive aspects are it’s razor sharp, melody tinged guitars and the caustic, piss and venom drenched delivery of the vocals. The music in general is comparatively reserved, when compared with the speed and rage that characterised the first two songs, but there’s plenty of grandiose atmosphere on offer, which sets the song apart from the rest and gives this particular song a much more bombastic feel, sounding utterly vast and glorious at parts. As the music gradually begins to fade, giving way to the aforementioned grim ambience, the listener is left eager to hear more, leaving this record to crawl away into silence on one of it’s best moments.
Morbid Black Trinity is a fantastic debut EP from MASTER’S CALL which boasts some brilliant musicianship and excellent production. Every aspect of the music, from the great musicianship to the stellar vocals, is amazing from start to finish, and there’s not a lot that can be said in criticism of this record. There’s a lot of musical variety in each of these three songs, which helps each track stand out in its own right, with plenty of dark, foreboding atmosphere thrown into the mix for good measure. It’s a short, sharp shock of acerbic and visceral blackened death metal which is sure to grab the interest of anyone who loves that form of music. If whatever MASTER’S CALL put out next is on par with this, it’ll definitely be an amazing album.
Rating: 9/10
Morbid Black Trinity is due for release January 25th via self-release.
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