Albeit one of the oldest death metal bands Master have been more or less overlooked among the other early death metal bands, such as Death, Possessed, and Massacre. Nevertheless Paul Speckmann has kept the band going for ever since and as such it is probably the oldest band that is still active. Meanwhile Speckmann moved from Chicago to the Czech Republic and found a guitarist and drummer there and set off for another European tour. It kicked off at Romein in Leeuwarden, my former home town.

The opening band was the Belgian Innerfire, which is mostly mid-paced melodic death metal, with a prominent keyboard section. At this early time, very few people – around 10 – were in the hall and hence they gathered little response aside a few fanatics. Mostly the band couldn’t interest me very much even though what they played wasn’t bad. It wasn’t my thing, too generic and keyboards have never been my thing.

Then there was the Dutch brutal death metal band Putrefied with from Consolation drummer Toep. This band however is very little like Consolation. They play most of their riffs at the low end of the spectrum without melody, monotonous low grunts and little variation, hacked together by the excellent drum work of Toep that keeps things varied. Most of the set consisted of songs off the Gore-ific album. Pretty decent stuff, but the band could do with some more enthusiasm. The singer though tried to keep things alive with his humorous announcements.

When Devious started playing at least the hall was filling up a bit. Apparently this was the final show of the singer Coen. Thrash / death metal is what they played, that was interesting but could hold my attention that much, but most of the audience seemed to dig this pretty well. For me there was something missing.

Then there was Toxocara. They had just released their second album and were doing a couple of CD release gigs – this was one of them. After an intro, the band burst into a new song. This band, like Putrefied, plays brutal death metal, but with a very different idea how it should be done. Fast, with lots of variation, great lead guitar work and an enthusiastic stage appearance. I think this must be one of the best death metal bands in the Netherlands right now. Their 45 minute set consisted of all songs of the second album, and three of their excellent debut. An excellent gig, by an excellent band; they deserve to get some more international attention.

Then there was Master, whose first two classic albums have just been re-issued, and also released a new album a while ago. So this short tour was, I guess, to promote both. The band kicked off with a classic tune, but it was also apparent that the sound was pretty terrible, despite that the previous bands had all had a pretty decent sound. The guitarist had forgotten to plug in his guitar, but that was fixed quickly, but the sound remained too bassy and muddy. Speckmann and peers worked their way through a set of new material, as well as some classics, like Funeral Bitch, Judgement of Will, and Submerged in Sin. However they didn’t sound as good as on the albums, partly I guess because of the sound, but also partly because he at the time had a much better band (especially on the On the Seventh Day God Created Master album). Most of the newer songs weren’t too interesting. I’m surprised still that Paul keeps this band alive and keeps on going. As most of his stuff after the second album is pretty much redundant. At least Speckmann is an all out metalhead who sticks to his guns and that at least deserves some credits.