Twisted Metal

It doesn't take more than the band name and album title to confirm that the Blastmasters don't take themselves all that seriously, but you might surprised when you actually spin the disc that its a volley of full forward, brutal death metal much in the vein of Deicide, Hate Eternal, Diabolic, and Morbid Angel. I should mention Diabolic twice because, well, Blastmasters basically is Diabolic, centered around long time drummer Aantar Coates and several others who have appeared on Diabolic studio material (Jesse Jolly and R.J. Reinagle). Naturally, the similarities extend beyond the roster itself into the music, which feels comparable to the more brute and mindless Diabolic slugfests like Vengeance Ascending or the Chaos in Hell... EP.

As the band's moniker infers, Coates lets himself completely off the hook here. Almost every second of riffing is supported by either his athletic double bass or ceaseless blasting. Beyond the obvious feat of impressing the listener with their sheer force, though, I can't say that it's a boon to the composition (much like the Diabolic albums I mentioned). There is plenty going on with the guitars, from the frilly leads in "Shellfire and Tombstones" or "Altricial Metal-Genesis" to the climactic, destructive rhythm patterns wrought throughout, but so much of the album is devoted to straight, predictable bursts of speed that it too quickly becomes exhausting. Thousands of notes race past the ear, none of them clicking or sticking. In fact, it's so monotonous that the few deviations stand out that much more than they would otherwise, like the slower, ominous intro to "Implemented Digital Control" or the clever, schizoid spikes of melody in "Putrid Future".

In other words, this is pretty much the same issue that renders about half the Diabolic back catalog null and void of real interest. The Blastmasters are all talented enough guys, but when you compare something like this to a better Hate Eternal album or some of Morbid Angel's classics (Covenant, Domination, Gateways to Annihilation), you can just feel how lacking it is. How little the band are capable of conjuring up effective atmosphere, cataclysmic or apocryphal sequences to match the lyrics (which are surprisingly not bad at all), or individual riffs that demand an instant revisit. Twisted Metal is fast, angry and full of hot air, and ultimately the Blastmasters would dissolve after just the one album, several of them returning to Diabolic, since there was really no point in having two bands that sound so much alike, with the same constituents. It's not bad, but neither could I recommend this unless you're interested in more of the same, febrile extremity with little structural quality of note.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

Blastmasters are a death metal band from Tampa, Florida, a place once known for its thriving death metal scene. Despite the obvious Floridian influences, though, Blastmasters have a fairly unique sound, in spite of not being very original when it comes to the individual performances. What do they sound like? Well, take a healthy chunk of meaty non-stop blasting reminiscent of Vital Remains, throw in a mix of black-ish death metal riffs and the occasional well timed slower groove, a pretty much non-existent bass, wild guitar solos, repetitive Benton inspired vocal patterns... and you have Blastmasters. At times they sound like Deicide, Vital Remains, Monstrosity and other bands, including the Brazilian death metal masters Krisiun, but at the end of the day they're just Blastmasters – a band trying their hardest to live up to their name.

All the songs are pretty good, there's no filler here and the bonus demo tracks are a nice addition for those obsessed with tracking down demos of obscure bands. The production's pretty awful, the drum sound is way too loud and it gives the music a sloppy feeling, which sounds good at times but also sounds too fucking boring. This, along with the ultra thin guitar tone makes me wonder if the band was trying too hard to be old school. If you're the type that ignores faulty production and prefers to focus on the music (or * gasp * ENJOYS bad production.. like me, haha) you won't find anything wrong with it. Hell, the music actually sounds even better when converted to an extremely low mp3 bitrate, but that's just me!

Another small problem (?) with this album is that it gets too damn repetitive at times, some of the songs have like 3 or 4 different riffs, and I could have sworn that some of the riffs are also recycled (but is that a psychological effect brought about by the music? I wouldn't know...) but that's EXACTLY what I expected before listening to this album, and I wasn't really disappointed... hell, I was too busy headbanging and pretending to be in Satan's lair ordering the slaughter of 666 virgins to even think of trying to act disappointed.

Bottom line, if you're looking for a dose of hypercharged apocalyptic death metal that isn't of the 'brutal' variety and like your death metal to be riff-driven, buy this.

(originally written for archaic-magazine.com)

Blastmasters were unfortunately a one-album band, as they called it quits after the release of their one and only album; namely "Twisted metal". And I say ‘unfortunately’, since this is a high quality album. It carries such a humongous Floridian vibe, yet it sounds oh-so-European.

Take the high speed, ultra-blasting, straight forward brutality of Vader, drown it in US-reeking riffs, the groove and deep grunts/squeals á la Deicide, and somewhere around there you’ll find Blastmasters. This is some blasting shit, they do not kid when going under such a moniker. But it’s not just the mindless, numbing mangle you might stumble across in the genre, as it is carefully intertwined with enough groove, quality semi-melodic riffing and wicked vocals to ease your stress-level.

It’s technically perfected, not over-the-top but still interesting, it’s extremely tight and wellplayed by awesome musicians and one hell of a drummer, and the voice is as dark as the deepest abyss. The only thing missing is a little more depth in the production. There’s nothing really wrong with, I suppose, it just lacks warmth and feel to it. A little on the thin side, but not enough to really complain about. A really promising debut, promising a bright future for the band… If they hadn’t broken up. But then again I can’t say I’m surprised it’s quality music when it’s all current or previous Diabolic members. Too damn bad they didn’t continue producing such blasphemous blasting under the name of Blastmasters.

As a bonus you also get their self-titled demo, which carries the exact same quality death metal (not surprising when all three songs wound up re-recorded for the album), just with worse sound.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net