DESULTOR — Masters of Hate (review)

DESULTOR — Masters of Hate album cover Album · 2012 · Thrash Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3.5/5 ·
J-Man
With Masters of Hate, Swedish extreme metal duo Desultor has made a rather bold entrance into the scene. Unlike many of their fellow countrymen, Desultor does not rely much on old-school aesthetics or melodic overtones to get their point across, and instead the band takes a very modern approach to technical death/thrash and brings it into completely new territory. Masters of Hate is a very intense and demanding album, with its ferocious onslaughts of blast-beats and technical monstrosities hardly leaving the listener with any room to breathe, but the subtle incorporation of melody is what makes this different than many of their technical death/thrash contemporaries. Although Masters of Hate isn't always the most memorable album in my opinion, it's a refreshing change of pace from most of the extreme metal on the scene today.

Even though I will say that Desultor is a refreshing change of pace, that's not to say at all that they're radically different from many other technical death/thrash acts out there from a musical perspective - the riffs are brutal as anything, the compositions are complex, and the drumming is punishing and frantically technical. Where Masters of Hate really deviates from the tried-and-true technical thrash metal approach is in their vocal approach which, in addition to a few growled portions, is mainly cleanly sung and shouted vocals. The vocals sound straight out of the 'thrashy' power metal rulebook, and I actually like this vocal approach quite a bit. The production and playing styles may all point towards a modern-sounding album, but the vocals give a very old-school edge to Desultor's sound. I wish more bands would take this vocal approach rather than relying on indecipherable gutteral growls - it definitely does justice to Desultor's music.

Masters of Hate also contains quite a few really solid compositions ("The Luxury of Pain" and the title track both come to mind), but I would say that this is probably the album's weakest link. While this is an extremely intense listen, Desultor's songwriting doesn't leave enough of a lasting effect to keep me constantly coming back for more. This is a rather minor flaw, though, and it is a skill that hopefully Desultor will develop even more on future efforts. As far as Masters of Hate is concerned, this is an original observation from a group of impeccable musicians, and any fan of technical thrash metal is very much advised to check out what these Swedes have to offer.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

… And the Universe Keeps Silent Death Metal
MAERE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Le bannissement Atmospheric Black Metal
CANTIQUE LÉPREUX
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tarantula Heart Sludge Metal
MELVINS
Buy this album from MMA partners
God Damned You To Hell Traditional Doom Metal
FRIENDS OF HELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Absence Melodic Death Metal
THE ABSENCE
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Fallen Ashes - Wage War (Official Lyric Video)
FALLEN ASHES
Bosh66· 9 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Unreality (Single) 2024
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 9 days ago
EXISTENTIAL DEAD - Cold Hands
EXISTENTIAL DEAD
Bosh66· 9 days ago
IRON MONKEY - Misanthropizer (Official Music Video)
IRON MONKEY
Bosh66· 11 days ago
??? (Losing ART) - "????" (Official Music Video) [HD]
漂浮者樂團
Bosh66· 12 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed