Masters of Hate

In 2011, Satan’s Host would unleash the monolithic By the Hands of the Devil, which combined the black/death metal that they were playing at that point with power metal – mainly through virtue of having Harry motherfucking Conklin on vocals! This was definitely a refreshing piece of metal, making a seemingly simple change that resulted in a large shift composition-wise. It looked like something that would get power metal out of the slump that it had been in since 2005… and yet, hardly anybody else really took after it. Really, the only other time I only heard this sound would be Desultor’s Masters of Hate – coming out only a year after By the Hands of the Devil – and even then, they did it in quite a different way from how Satan’s Host did it. Satan’s Host are big, imposing, ceremonious and subtly complex; Desultor, on the other hand, are more cerebral and in-your-face with their rapid-fire riffs and hyperblast percussion. Subtlety? Fuck that – give me 31 flavors of warp-speed, vaguely technical riffs and drumming that’s like Flo Mounier’s back on the first two Cryptopsy albums!

Which is funny when you consider the kind of vocals they got for this album. Rather than Harry Conklin’s testosterone-laden tones, Markus Joha prefers a more nasally approach. It definitely seems unfitting for what is basically tech death with heavy smatterings of thrash. Even if they add a layer of melodicism on top of the relatively more amelodic music, it’s like this big contrast of proggy thrash vocals (albeit not nearly as over the top in terms of having an overbearing presence… mostly) on top of thrashy death metal. But it works in this weirdly dystopic way, like the wailing of a desperate soul combating the overwhelming force of tremolos and Nevermore-on-meth death/thrash riffs. As a result, you end up with two simultaneous rhythms – the laser-precision riffing and blasting in one ear, and the desperately wailing vocals in the other. Whether it’s “Black Monday” which truly opens the album up with utter insanity or “Another World” having it sound like he’s drifting away amidst the chaos, Markus’ vocal inflections both contrast the music and accentuate the overall mood splendidly.

Taking out the ambient intro, outro and interlude – the latter certainly feeling like a break from it all – it’s barely under a half-hour of all guns blazing, balls out fuckin’ mayhem! It does make the album a rather entertaining listen, as its overall intensity is maintained throughout the album. Markus’ machine gun riffing hardly lets up, only playing a mid-paced riff here and there to build up to a more explosive one. Same sort of thing for the percussion – Michael’s not letting you off too easily with only moderately invigorating drumming because you know there’s another set of blast beats on the way. Songs like “Denied” and “The Luxury of Pain” especially like to push and pull between these two sets of rhythms, and it helps to keep things fresh throughout. But let’s be real, “Division Insane” is the highlight of the album precisely because it showcases all these elements with such aplomb. The main riff is like the Shredder on bathsalts, the opening blasts wouldn’t be that far out of place on a grind album, and the vocals vacillate between frustrated shouts and anguished wailing – I guess you could say it is the division insane telling us we’ll never be desultors.

Considering how much they put into developing the sound even here, Desultor were not here to mess around. Like, it wouldn’t be enough to just have death metal instrumentals underneath somewhat nasally vocals; this duo certainly knew how to make this really make an impression. There’s dynamic songwriting throughout that takes what would be some rather simple compositions and make them fucking explode, and that’s basically Masters of Hate in summary – an explosive bit of tech power/thrash/death metal that’s arguably more unique in 2023 than it was in 2012. Quite the hidden gem we got here, ladies and gentlemen!

Swedish duo Desultor deal in such a balanced contrast of extremes that you have to wonder why a lot more bands haven't tried it, and Masters of Hate is the sort of debut which should rocket them into the radars of many modern enthusiasts. Formed in 2007 and drawn from members of lesser known acts like Auberon and Machinery, they write in a hybrid of aggressive death and thrash metal, but use a clean and charismatic style of vocals that would take you instantly unawares had you not had prior warning. Markus Joha, who is also the guitarist, has a timbre somewhere between Bruce Hall (late of Agent Steel), Urban Breed of Tad Morose and a few shreds of Warrel Dane's haunting psychosis, sans the screaming.

In fact, Nevermore is not a bad comparison towards Desultor overall, or those late 90s/early 'oughts Agent Steel records, only the first is more choppy and technical in its riffing and song structures and the latter clearly cast in a speed/power mold. Desultor are more about blowing you over with these brazen, textured floods of chords and tremolo picked guitars over tight and muscular drumming that very often accelerates into a pure blast beat. It's this extremity that will be sure to win over the younger crowds, since Masters of Hate almost never lets up with regards to its sheer force. There are segments of more progressive, melodic and slower guitars embedded in a number of the tracks (like "Black Monday" and "The Luxury of Pain"), usually surrounding the fulfilling lead sequences, but for most of the 34 minutes they are content with tearing us a new one, and they do so with a mechanical precision that is frightening.

About the only thing here that doesn't really stand out much is the bass, which is contributed by a guest musician; but not because you can't hear it barreling along in the mix, it's just impossible to consciously register it next to the vocals, drumming and corpulent guitar tone. The band is not afraid to incorporate more aggressive snarls and sneers where it suits the music, from a rasp to a more gruff tone, but these points never feel quite so distinctive as Joha's memorable, unique chorus patterns in tracks like "Division Insane" or the crazy "Caged". As I hinted, the leads here are quite well written, never unique or innovative but sure to sate fans of Jeff Loomis, Dave Mustaine or other comparable axe luminaries. Yet it's the rhythm guitar that really exacts the most emotional damage, from the insane matrix of tremolo hammering to the brighter spikes of clinical thrash that pepper "Denies", which is perhaps my favorite single track here.

All told, Masters of Hate is one of those albums capable of playing to a broad audience. Those into faster, modern power or thrash metal which sounds as if it escaped the 80s, the more aggressive melodeath acts out of Scandinavia (Darkane, etc), hell even people into the rather generic 'extreme' mutations you hear in the gimmick band Dethklok will appreciated the music (if not the vocals). But don't mistake Desultor for some shallow, emerging trend. They know just how to rein in their skills and keep control of their compositions. None of these explode past the 5 minute limit, and most are held to a respectable 3-4 minutes of ass kicking with few if any arbitrary indulgences. I found that it lost a layer or two of shine after a half dozen listens or so, the lyrics I've seen were rather bland, and I wouldn't brand a number of tracks unforgettable. However, it's talented, fun and fresh, and I have no doubt we'll be hearing a lot more from them once this starts to circulate.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com