MASTERS OF LUXURY (Robot Love Songs) MCD
'Welcome To Opulence' is the title from the debut of Ohio's MASTERS OF LUXURY, but for me it's now the first time that I listen to this band. This is their second effort, which has been released thru All Hail Records in 2008, and I needed some time to grasp all four included songs in their entirety. While the excellent opener 'Fourteen'reminds me of the heavy bands from Maryland/DC with its forceful hookline and some strong 70's heavy rock tendencies, the following song 'Eleven' sounds as if it would've been recorded by a different band. The melodious vocals were exchanged towards massive bellow and the complete song structure is all of a sudden unexpectedly aggressive and more progressive. Try to imagine a jam session between later Voivod and Mastodon, but even this description is inaccurate. When I think, that the breaks and riffs are neatly arranged, MASTERS OF LUXURY make a lot of nervous outburts and give a shit about my connotations. 'Twelve' returns to the softer structures of the opener until vocalist TJ Firestone starts to roar, but fortunately it doesn't last too long. Meanwhile the band is completely submerged in the land of heavy progressive metal, but they come off very effective. 'Five' is the last song and connects almost all elements of the previous tracks with the exception of the awful brutal vocal assaults. My conclusion is that MASTERS OF LUXURY unleash a firework of heavy progressive metal, and if there weren't the unsuitably brute assaults of the singer, I would love this band much more. They're definitely impressive musicians. For all that, 'Robot Love Songs' is a strong release, but who the fuck had the idea for that odd cover artwork...?
(KK)