SAVAGE MASTER – Dark & Dangerous

There are things that never go out of fashion, things that can be repeated over and over and it will not be boring to true metalheads. What is that? The sound of a traditional, old school, 80s-reminiscent heavy metal band, of course. One like Savage Master.

A Bit Of History

Originally the band was founded in 2013 by Adam Neal and Stacey Savage in Kentucky, USA, and from the start they dove into classic HM material. What set them apart was the vocals of Stacy who would use the full range of her sometimes raspy voice which put her somewhere between Dawn Crosby of Detente and Fear Of God-fame, garnished with over-the-top notes of Nicole Lee of Znöwhite or a bit Betsy Bitch of Bitch, the latter not only musically, but also image-wise and lyrically.

Musically, it was even more traditional than that so comparisons with Judas Priest or Ozzy Osbourne in general were and are still appropriate. Song titles like “Warrior’s Call”, “Black Rider” and “Devil’s Child” are simply the metallic coating on the heavy cake that is Dark & Dangerous, their fifth album to date. That is also laudable, five albums and two EPs are the creative result of only a little over ten years. Where other bands fine-tune their, well, tunes, work on the details until the metal soul goes out the window sometimes, Savage Master switches on the recorder and starts rocking.

Sound And Development

That does not mean the album was not well produced or sounded bad, au contraire. The sound is exactly what one expects from an album that breathes the spirit of the golden times when metal was young, when everything was new, and when headbangers were looked upon with raised brows, far away from the mainstream that our beloved genre has reached in the meantime. The drums are no-frills straight, the snare carries a dry, strong punch, the guitars sound crunchy, but also raw, and above the metallic heavyness the characteristic voice of Stacy, albeit this time it seems with more reverberation than before, soars and sets the band apart from others. Without it, it would probably be just another traditional metal band from the US. She makes the difference, but on Dark & Dangerous Stacy works more varied than on any of the former albums. That is true of the two guitarists, too, the material on the new album is more versatile and touches even hair metal with “The Edge Of Evil” and dips into shallow waters of melodic metal in “I Don’t Want To Fall In Love”.

The new songs are in average shorter than before. Not a lot, but a decisive bit that makes them not overstay their welcome, and it is always nice when a song, instead of just another repition of the chorus, ends and makes the listener want to press “repeat”. Only three songs are longer than four minutes and all of them gather at the end of the album, before that the band delivers their hymns short and to the point, melodic and heavy, with still enough memorable chorusses that the listener starts singing along in the middle of each song.

Conclusion

Overall, the new Savage Master longplayer is a very enjoyable album. If one wanted to critisize the band, only two things would come to mind. Firstly, lyrically, this is certainly not high poetry and even the original sin of prominently rhyming “fire” and “desire” in a chorus is present. I don’t know about you, but I could not find fault in metal lyrics forty years ago and it feels to wrong to wrinkle one’s nose now. Secondly, and this is probably the only reason one may refrain from putting this album on straight away, is: There is absolutely nothing new on Dark & Dangerous. But then again, what is these days?

Album Tracklist

1. Three Red Candles
2. Warriors Call
3. Black Rider
4. The Edge Of Evil
5. Devil’s Child
6. Screams From The Cellar
7. Never Ending Fire
8. Devil Rock
9. I Never Wanna Fall In Love
10. When the Twilight Meets The Dawn
11. Cold Hearted Death

Band Lineup

Julien Fried – Guitars, Vocals
Larry Myers – Guitars
Adam Neal – Bass, Keys, Percussion, Vocals
Stacey Savage – Vocals
John Wayne Littlejohn – Drums, Percussion, Vocals