CT-based ONE MASTER plays a visceral, slightly atmospheric style of keyboard-less black metal. This one's all about ear-splitting guitar tone, blast beats and speed picked harmonizing that brings back the glory days of DAWN and "Transylvanian Hunger" era DARKTHRONE. What these guys have done to add their own spin to the style, though, is in the tuning-it's down to C instead of the standard… uh… standard tuning. Think "Bestial Devastation" by SEPULTURA. Also, for a six song mini-LP, there's a pretty good amount of song variety. Tracks like "Chill of the Grave" go for a bit more of a straight-forward rock style similar to what SATYRICON has been doing recently, and "Unholy Grimness" brings forth the thrash quite nicely. Add in vocalist Valder's worthy imitation of Abbath from IMMORTAL and plenty of D&D inspiration (along with quotations from various DragonLance novels for each song) and we have something that certainly works, even if it isn't exactly groundbreaking.

The main problem with "Forsaking a Dead World", though, is the percussion. There's just not enough of it in the mix, leaving the whole album sounding a bit hollow and sluggish. I would have also liked to have heard a snare with more of a sharp pop instead of the thudding one they use-it would help out the heavy blasting tracks like "The Dark Tower" or "The Test" immensely. These are only minor surface problems, though, and anyone who's even heard of the aforementioned bands certainly could do far worse than these guys.

- Cardona

OFFICIAL SITE: www.one-master.net

MP3 SOUND SCRAP: The Dark Tower

RELATED ITEMS: ONE MASTER- "One Master", 2004