Master's Call are a force of heavy metal blackened by death from The Black Country, UK - the birthplace of heavy metal itself. Their debut EP, entitled Morbid Black Trinity, was released in 2019 and was universally well received from the press and metal community worldwide. With invites to perform at many metal festivals, the band is proving itself as a visceral dark force in the live scene, despite only a single EP release thus far.
Today, Master's Call announce the signing with Fireflash Records. "We are honoured and proud to be partnering with Fireflash Records for the next chapter in our journey! We love the passion Markus has shown towards our music and our story- with his extensive industry experience and our unrelenting drive, this journey together will truly be one of unholy fire! Our debut album has been such a long time coming, but it’s finally ready to be unleashed upon the world with all the heavy blackened energy pounding from our souls! Expect fire, blood and damnation", comments co-founding member Dave Powell.
"I love the mid-90s Black Metal and Master's Call have the true spirit in their blood, combined with the traditional 80s metal spirit of the British forefathers like Judas Priest, Black Sabath and Iron Maiden. I love the catchyness of their tracks, combined with brutality and a dark atmosphere that makes you wanna scream out loud. I believe this upcoming debut album of Master's Call will reach many black hearts and make them burst", adds Markus Wosgien of Fireflash Records.
After marching forth through the pandemic and various line-up changes within the band, the long-awaited debut album A Journey For The Damned finally reached the end of its long journey to completion. Their next chapter is about to begin and is set to burn their mark on the world!
“It’s been a hell of a long journey with many obstacles to overcome, but for us it’s so good to have finally made it to the end with the summation of it all captured and sealed in time”, says guitarist Dave Powell.
During the album recordings, the band lost three vocalists in total, ending up having guitar player John Wilcox becoming the final singer.
“So three vocalists down was feeling like a curse. We had most of the album written and even had the vocals for a couple of songs recorded with a vocalist we no longer had. In the end John volunteered to switch from guitars to vocals, which was a very drastic change for us dynamically as me and him up to that point were the two guitarists both live and in the songwriting”, comments Dave and adds: “In the end whilst we finished up recording the album we had a new guitarist, Bear, join us to cover live shows at first, but has since become a fully-fledged band member.”
Master's Call convince with a black mixture of everything that is extreme, but with melodies and straight-forward, recognizable songs, that basically can be described as black hymns.
“We are an extreme metal band that remembers its roots and incorporates them into our “heavy metal blackened by death” message. Whilst all of us in the band may individually branch off on our own voyages into obscure underground extreme metal discoveries we still share that unified mindset”, explains Dave and looks even further back: “When we first started as a 2-man project John was more the black metal guy and I was more the death metal listener. We still always shared a mutual love and respect for all extreme metal genres and that continued with the rest of the members that joined the band: Watain, Morbid Angel, Immortal, Emperor, Necrophobic, Dimmu Borgir, Slayer, Cradle Of Filth to name a few favorites - and of course the classic metal bands, especially those that came from our home such as Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. They started it all and that inspires us to keep that Black Country flag flying!”
When it comes to the lyrics on A Journey For The Damned, they all lead into a similar direction.
“They mainly deal with the dark and turbulent path through life: the atrocities, struggles and the victories that will be encountered along the way, as well as the spirituality and beliefs that influence us as we journey toward the inevitability of death”, comments John.
For the final mix and mastering, the band went down to Germany, working with Kristian "Kohle" Bonifer at his Kohlekeller Studios, mostly known for his work with Powerwolf, but also extreme bands like Aborted, Sinister and Agathodaimon.
“The thing that stood out was that he wasn’t a one-trick pony mixing the same sound for all bands. Every band had their own sound whilst still sounding appropriate for the metal subgenre they are in”, reflects Dave and adds: “It was great to work with him, as expected! He was able to cater to our vision whilst still doing things in his way. And it was a great learning experience for us too, he gave us pointers that will no doubt benefit the way in which we approach certain elements on future recordings.”
Master's Call is:
John Wilcox – Vocals
Dave Powell – Guitar
Bear – Guitar
Lewis Chrimes – Bass
James Williams – Drums
