UMUR "An Epiphany of Hate" is the 13th full-length studio album by US/Czech Republic death metal act Master. The album was released through F.D.A. Rekotz in January 2016. It´s the successor to "The Witchhunt" from 2013.

Stylistically "An Epiphany of Hate" pretty much continues the same old school death metal style with occasional thrash metal leanings as the band also played on "The Witchhunt (2013)". In fact there´s been very little development of sound and style since Master´s eponymously titled 1990 debut full-length studio album. So this is a band who has stuck to their guns and even survived a relocation to a new country (frontman/bassist and band founder Paul Speckmann moved from the US to the Czech Republic in 1999).

The material on the 10 track, 44:23 minutes long album is pretty basic death metal with Paul Speckmann´s reasonably intelligible growling vocals in front. He sounds delightfully pissed on this album although the vocals do become a bit one-dimensional after a few tracks. The quality of the material is pretty high, but seldom out of the ordinary for the style. The band are well playing, and deliver their parts with the right amount of passion and conviction, and the album is well produced too, featuring a raw and powerful sound production.

So "An Epiphany of Hate" is in many ways a good quality old school death metal release, but upon conclusion it suffers from the same issue as many of the other Master albums do. The music is simply not varied enough and it often feels like it´s the same track playing throughout the album. A bit more variation (also in the vocal department) could have made the album an overall more interesting listen, but when that is said, it´s still an enjoyable listen for the style, and a 3.5 star (70%) rating isn´t all wrong.