Dark and wonderfully morbid, the true masters of horror.
'Masters Of Horror' is a divine combination of the acts creating a storm within the rock, emo, metal and punk world, sending waves of creativity and sensitive music onto the scene. Produced as a means of accompanying a series of TV programmes by the same name, 'Masters Of Horror' serves to showcase the acts that matter within the industry and their most prestigious tracks designed to reflect music that has stood up to famous horror soundtracks of the past. Within this album a wealth of artistic talent and an extensive field of different aspects of the alternative scene are sure to be found and look set to reflect the greatness of the films from the moment your eyes glance over the track listing.
Kicking off the first disc is Mudvayne with 'Small Silhouette', tearing open the silence with knife sharp riffs pounding with dark tranquillity. The vocals grate and purr over an aggressive backdrop of guitars and brutal bass underneath, opening up this treat of a compilation with a dark shadowy style. Mudvayne however holds up the tamer side of the album and make their appearance alongside similar sounding 'It dies Today', 'Funeral For a Friend' and 'Bloodsimple' to provide rhythmic yet melodic takes on heavy metal, balancing out the heavier acts on the disc and providing a bit of flavour to the mix. 'Funeral For A Friend' contribute their gem of a track 'Lazarus (In The Wilderness)' to the mix, a track of real epic and wild appeal. Like a heart full of wanderlust at the wheel of a Ferrari the guitars race down improvised scales soaring over rhythmic chords and passionate bass. The vocals ooze tragic devotion to the sound rising forth, emphasising a song telling of broken dreams and a soul trying to hold on to the last ashes of vision. The sheer beauty of this song is its emotion and structure, harmonics work together with grating riffs and stunning chorus solos to produce a simply artistic piece of emo/metal. 'Enjoy The Silence' follows along the same vein but packs a slightly heavier metal approach to the assault, using a more rhythmic instrumental pattern letting grating and desolate vocals take the lead. The song is in itself very moving and desperate, packed with emotion and force as it pushes on with its forceful message of dying love. The verses are beautifully discordant, vocals slipping in and out of the minor key while guitars keep to their own chords, at times the vocals hit notes that are completely out of tune with the instruments but strangely enough it works.
Representing the heavier side of the first disc on the album are Mastodon with their live version of 'Megalodon' and Shadowsfall with 'This Is My Own', adding something a little more rash and hardcore to the mix. 'Megalodon' starts off with a sinister vibe of sound effects before slowly dipping into an indulgent mysterious display of guitar soloing and riffs in the introduction. Roaring abrasive vocals soon speed up the assault with dark and aggressive approach. The guitar work is however, what is stunning about this track, showing off many different techniques and skills to a very high and impressive standard often all in one single verse.
Shadowsfall's contribution is aggressive and racy straight from the first beat, the guitar parts are never short of something to say and almost seem to argue with each other in call and response form as the vocalist soars overhead in hardcore fashion. Never stopping for a moment 'This Is My Own' pulses with energy, making sure that this compilation retains its heavy edge and rawing up the balance. However the highlight of this disc has to be the delicate but very dark 'End Of The Road' by Murder By Death. It has an almost melancholic country sound to it in the first verses but as soon as the heavy strings and guitars pick up it turns into an epic and emotive metal ballad with a soaring piano solo that screams Muse influences. It simply frames and defines the music and adds a touch of delicacy and frailty to the assertive music of the rest of the album.
Disc 2 sees a more upbeat approach, with appearances from Alkaline Trio, From Autumn To Ashes, Matchbox Romance, In Flames and a very unique collaboration between progressive rock/jazz musicians Buckethead and Serj Tankian from System Of A Down. Diverse and spontaneous, full of complex rhythms and harmonics the music is heaven for stoners. Like an acid-trip induced sky the music is filled with colours and moods of all descriptions and genres topped off with a sprinkling of utter insanity and inventiveness. It is a true gem of a track creating perfect contrast and diversity on an album full of exquisite work.
'Masters Of Horror' really achieves what it sets out to do in the first place, it creates the perfect soundtrack of morbidly romanticised metal to create a perfect horror movie backdrop using only the best of the best in the industry.