Description
This is the story of an album that refuses to die, no matter what. This is the story of MASTER‘s doomed-from-the-start first attempt at recording a full-length… See, when the band (then already led by Paul Speckmann on bass and vocals and completed Chris Mittleburn on guitar and Bill Schmidt on drums) had signed with legendary US company COMBAT RECORDS on December 31st, 1984, the plan was to get into the studio asap in order to lay on tape whatever material the band had in store back then, including „Mangled Dehumanization“ and „Re-Entry and Destruction“ recorded with DEATHSTRIKE few months prior. Having recently lost his father, Speckmann vowed to invest all the money he got from the inheritance and the band locked themselves up in Seagrape studio. Alas, soon disagreements rose with COMBAT and in the middle of the session, their recording contract was cancelled, leaving them no choice but to abort the whole project after seven tracks had been recorded.
Although the result was never officially released until much later, rough mixes soon circulated through the tape-trading circuit, making a huge impression on many future big names of the genre, like Mick Harris from NAPALM DEATH, Bill Steer of CARCASS fame, Nicke Andersson from NIHILIST/ENTOMBED and so on. Even if most of those tracks were re-recorded five years later for MASTER‘s proper debut album, many fans still hold those original and raw versions as the ultimate MASTER recording.
Regardless of the fact that these songs have been issued officially twice on CD – ten years ago by DISPLEASED RECORDS as ‚Unreleased Album‘ and earlier this year by VIC RECORDS, this time around they are being released under the new moniker ‚Unknown Soldier‘ with an exclusive cover done by Mark Riddick. This is the first timethese tracks are being made available on vinyl. Even if it includes the same four bonus tracks as the CD version, to make it even more special, it‘s been once again given a new title (‚Funeral Bitch‘) and a new, more fitting and blasphemous artwork, rounded up with the usual high quality standards DOOMENTIA is known for. So, as Speckmann said it himself in the song that gave the band its name: „We are your Masters/So set your soul free!“
