{"id":29532,"date":"2013-05-10T08:28:50","date_gmt":"2013-05-10T13:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=29532"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:35:46","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:35:46","slug":"death-dealer-war-master-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/death-dealer-war-master-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Death Dealer | War Master<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Derric Miller<\/span>
\n– Managing Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"warmaster\"Just listen to the opening scream from Sean Peck (Cage) on Death Dealer\u2019s ode to themselves \u201cDeath Dealer\u201d from their new album War Master<\/em> and explain to someone how he isn\u2019t one of the biggest names in metal? He\u2019s the next generation Rob Halford. Put him on the same team as Rhino and Ross the Boss, and the prolific and talented guitarist\/songwriter Stu Marshall (Dungeon, Empires of Eden) along with the wanted man\/bassist Mike Davis (Lizzy Borden, Halford) \u2026 exactly what the hell can you expect except bigger-than-life METAL? It\u2019s even bigger than that, once you give it a listen. <\/p>\n

Listening to the opening song \u201cDeath Dealer\u201d is like drinking barbed wire covered in ghost chili extract, or it will feel like that if you try to nail those otherworldly notes Peck screams at you. Rhino\u2019s drumming is barbaric, the riffing and leads are orchestrated cacophony, and everything is breakneck\u2014in the first 20 seconds. Peck crescendos the lines in the chorus until he\u2019s once again \u2026 \u201cshowing off\u201d is too strong a word, but he\u2019s singing in a style very few vocalists on earth can even attempt. <\/p>\n

The title track \u201cWarmaster\u201d is one of the more majestic songs on the release, in parts. Death Dealer mixes Progressive\/Thrash\/Speed\/Power Metal in a way that is complicated and yet makes perfect sense once you hear it. This is one of those songs, with pomp at some passages and then sheer Thrash Metal riffing, like Slayer, in other sections. If you listen to this song too much, you\u2019ll never have less than a five o\u2019clock shadow on your face \u2014 you\u2019ll become too manly. (Yes, you too, ladies.)<\/p>\n

By the time you land on \u201cChildren of Flames\u201d you receive a welcome reprieve. Plus, ADD would set in if their only speed was \u201cfaster,\u201d so letting the music breathe in the airy start to \u201cChildren of Flames\u201d is necessary. Peck sings in a haunting style, lower, and in some places with a pitch-perfect falsetto before swelling to mammoth vocals on the chorus, only to slide back to a softer delivery. It\u2019s something akin to Metal Church\u2019s classic \u201cWatch the Children Prey,\u201d and not because they both have the word \u201cchildren\u201d in it. It\u2019s a compelling composition and one of the most memorable on the release.<\/p>\n

For pure fun, \u201cHammer Down\u201d is the one you\u2019ll go back to over and over. This is in a more Manowar style, at least during the chorus, memorably simple and forcing you to sing with the gents as soon as you hear the chorus. \u201cBring the hammer down! Bring the hammer down. Hammer down \u2026 bring the hammer down!\u201d That\u2019s it, and you can yell along instantly. <\/p>\n

It all comes full circle with \u201cWraiths on the Wind,\u201d and you\u2019ll hear Davis\u2019 bass expertise immediately, as he drives the song with his adept. As one of the \u201cslower\u201d (grain of salt taken) tracks, it races along at a Power Metal speed, and instead of the blazing leads you\u2019ll hear more thick, razor riffs, except for the solo which is molten lead. <\/p>\n

Other killer songs include \u201cCurse of the Heretic\u201d and \u201cLiberty or Death.\u201d There\u2019s simply not a subpar song on the album. <\/p>\n

Death Dealer owns all of the necessary components to succeed. They have name recognition, talent, songwriting ability and a collectively magnetic live stage presence. They do not consider themselves a one-off project but a band, or as Marshall puts it, \u201cThis is a long-term vision.\u201d Next time around the guys might want to create a couple more songs like \u201cChildren of Flames,\u201d but if their debut idea was to create audial aggression and annihilation, they succeeded twice. <\/p>\n

Genre: Classic, Power, Manly Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nSean Peck \u2013 Vocals
\nStu Marshall \u2013 Guitars
\nRoss the Boss \u2013 Guitars
\nRhino \u2013 Drums
\nMike Davis — Bass<\/p>\n

Track listing:
\n1 Death Dealer
\n2 Never to Kneel
\n3 Warmaster
\n4 Children of Flames
\n5 Curse of the Heretic
\n6 Hammer Down
\n7 The Devil\u2019s Mile
\n8 Liberty or death
\n9 Heads Spikes Walls
\n10 Wraiths on the Wind<\/p>\n

Label: Steel Cartel Records<\/p>\n

Online: www.deathdealer.co<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8.6\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Derric Miller – Managing Editor — Just listen to the opening scream from Sean Peck (Cage) on Death Dealer\u2019s ode to themselves \u201cDeath Dealer\u201d from their new album War Master and explain to someone […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":29533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[336,2191,2267,2346,334,827,990],"class_list":{"0":"post-29532","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd","9":"tag-classic","10":"tag-metal","11":"tag-power","12":"tag-review","13":"tag-rhino","14":"tag-ross-the-boss"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}