INTERVIEW: Master’s Call

Birmingham’s MASTER‘S CALL have exploded onto the UK metal scene. Having honed their craft for the last few years in the live environment, the blackened death metal quintet released their stunning debut EP last month – Morbid Black Trinity (read our review here). Still reeling from the release of Morbid Black Trinity, we caught up with MASTER’S CALL to discuss their debut offering, what the future holds for the band, and vocalist Shayan‘s Iranian heritage. 

Hey guys, thanks for taking the time to talk today. How’s everyone in the MASTER’S CALL camp doing just now?

MASTER’S CALL: We are doing good thanks – plenty of working behind the scenes keeping us busy as we prepare for our next moves.

Morbid Black Trinity has been out for a couple of weeks now, and has been universally well received by the press. How has the response from the general metal community been to your debut EP?

MASTER’S CALL: Any band knows it is a challenge to get that first release out when nobody has heard of you yet, but we’ve had a great response from extreme metal fans around the world discovering us now. We recognise that in some ways having only three tracks may feel like a teaser for something bigger, and perhaps in some ways it is…

Lyrically, what concepts did you want to explore with Morbid Black Trinity?

MASTER’S CALL: It’s a touch upon the manifestation of the darkness and ugliness that exists within the dark corners of the world. An overwhelming sense of oppression can be found within the lyrics of this particular release. Essentially it’s something of a reflection of how all of us are sick of taking shit from the world and we want to bring a forceful storm against it in our music.

Are there set plans in place for touring in support of the EP?

MASTER’S CALL: Absolutely! We have quite a few one-off shows booked including a couple of London dates, one with KETZER from Germany, who are playing the UK for the first time in six years, and the other one being a headline date later on in the year, so people can expect to see us in their local area this year, at least in the UK. We are also working on a couple of potential tour packages, but we cannot reveal much yet. Keep an eye out on the MASTER’S CALL social platforms for announcements!

Although it might be a bit premature to be thinking of the next release, do you have a rough timeline for a follow up EP or your debut full-length?

MASTER’S CALL: We have already started the writing process for a full-length album and we’d ideally like to have it released in roughly a year.

Shayan, you are originally from Iran. What motivated your move to the UK in 2011?

Shayan: That’s correct. I was born and raised in Tehran, Iran and I moved to Birmingham, England on my own not long before my 17th birthday. As most are probably aware by now, rock and metal music are greatly frowned upon, both by society in general and the authorities. The laws tend to be quite strict over there and due to the religious and Islamic nature of the politics, listening to this type of music and exercising the rock ‘n’ roll culture can easily be faced with some form of backlash. I’m a metalhead and I have been since a young age, and the tensions were growing between myself and the rest of the world. By the time I was a teenager things started getting out of control, I had all kinds of unwanted attention and propaganda against me, thanks to my wonderful high school, and it was becoming impossible to live life at one point. The original version of my older band TRIVAX there was facing a lot of ridicule and we were being torn apart from within, due to financial and personal issues among the members and also the position that we were in because of the constant threats by the neighbours.

Thankfully, I come from a cultured and decent family and they recognised that being into metal and performing it is all that I was ever gonna do, so I was extremely lucky to have been able to have moved in to the UK where I have been able to exercise my right to play and perform like everybody else here. Looking back at it now, it’s very likely that I would have ended my life if I ended up stuck there rotting away in that prison of mind.

The severity of being a metal band in the Middle East is often commented on when a Middle Eastern band makes the news. Can you give us an idea of just how dangerous it is to play heavy music in that part of the world?

Shayan: Thing is, things have improved in some way now that we are in the year 2019, but it’s probably just as soul crushing and disheartening for everyone over there who is an aspiring metal musician. Gigs are pretty much non-existent. If you wish to play a gig you need a permission letter from the Culture Office and even if you are rich and know people on the inside, it can still be a real ballache to get and they can still cancel the permit at any point. I’m pretty sure that actually happened again just a few months ago and it’s put a stop to all other potential upcoming events. Now, if you perform without permission you will be arrested if caught and the price can be quite high for that, even nowadays. It can vary from being imprisoned to paying a 20,000 IRR (Iranian rial) bail judging the recent cases.

I will say that it used to be a bit worse – the police used to just break into underground rehearsal places and arrest all the kids and smash their instruments. You have to be careful as well, as if you have any Satanic or political themes in your lyrics then they could potentially even execute you, but hardly anyone has the courage to publicly do that anymore which is to a degree understandable.

Despite the incredible danger of being in a metal band in the Middle East, the scene there has some brilliant bands. Do you have any contact with the Middle Eastern metal scene – either in your native Iran or elsewhere? Are there any bands you feel deserve a larger spotlight from heavy metal’s news outlets?

Shayan: Oh yeah, for sure. First off I have to give credit to the band LAVIZAN JANGAL, which is the project of one of my closest friends who still resides there. I still help him out with a few things like mixing or the occasional recording to make his vision come true, but I can honestly say that this stuff is some of the most extreme and radical black metal to ever come out of that region, if not ever!

I also recommend checking out KMARYKAN, DEATHTUNE, PADRA and this other band called FROM THE VASTLAND, who’s frontman, Sina, is also from the same city as myself. He has moved to Norway and reformed his band with a Norwegian line-up, similar to what I did with my other band TRIVAX when I first moved to the UK, and they are doing quite well. DEATHRUNE are also due credit as they performed an underground show last with no legal permit and managed to live to tell the tale. I respect bands who willingly take that risk, knowing what could happen to them.

How does your Iranian heritage impact your writing contributions to MASTER’S CALL?

Shayan: Most of my writing contributions with MASTER’S CALL are yet to make it to recording, however on Morbid Black Trinity I wrote the ending lyrics to My Eyes Are The Night, which starts with “Open my eyes, Azrael”-that alone is an influence of my heritage, as Azrael (or pronounced Ezraeel in Farsi) is the Angel of Death and everyone back home is terrified of him. I also wrote basically the first half of the lyrics for the opening track, and I think that you can connect the dots with what I explained earlier about my situation back home and the sickness all of us in the band have towards the world and its oppression.

Blackened death metal bands often draw easy comparisons to BEHEMOTH and DISSECTION. While this comparison is justified, what other blackened death metal bands – or bands from other genres/sub-genres – influenced MASTER’S CALL’s sound?

MASTER’S CALL: All of those are correct in our case. We would have to say that NECROPHOBIC are also quite a big influence, and they don’t usually get credited for that despite how long they’ve been around. We are all also very big on NWOBHM, but when it comes to our own music the influences filter through our black souls which is what gives it that extreme edge. We don’t sit down and listen to black metal and just try to replicate the same thing.

Black metal has enjoyed a huge evolution since the iconic second wave. Where do you feel the genre will go in the future?

MASTER’S CALL: That’s an interesting question. Well, we will always adore and love the real core bands of black metal such as BATHORY or CELTIC FROST or VENOM but we still have great appreciation for what came later, especially with the innovations left behind by a band like DEATHSPELL OMEGA and the Icelandic wave which came out a little bit later. We don’t really know what the future is, but as we’ve seen with other genres there is a good chance it will return back its roots. The cycle may repeat but the core traditions of black metal will always stay alive.

As a genre, black metal has always had a heavier emphasis on the cathartic and artistic nature of metal than other sub-genres, broadly speaking. How important is that element of the genre to you for MASTER’S CALL?

MASTER’S CALL: Very important! We probably wouldn’t be doing it had it not been for that element – performing in this genre comes from deep in our hearts. True fans of black metal will understand this. We are not going to settle for portraying anything less than what we believe in our music and live performances.

Are there any bands in the black/death metal underground you are particularly impressed by at the moment?

MASTER’S CALL: There are so many! In fact there are a lot of really excellent newer or new-ish bands that we have been impressed by; DEGIAL, MALOKARPATAN, INCONCESSUS LUX LUCIS, DENOUNCEMENT PYRE, MISÞYRMING, ERED, ZHRINE, SAQRA’S CULT, BARSHASKETH and ALTERAGE.

Thank you once again for your time today guys. Finally, do you have any parting messages for Distorted Sound Magazine’s readers?

MASTER’S CALL: Thank you for the well-informed interview and for having us in the magazine. You can check out our recent EP, Morbid Black Trinity, via our Bandcamp page and you can keep up to date with us via our Facebook page.

Morbid Black Trinity is out now via self-release. 

Like MASTER’S CALL on Facebook.