(casewrapped heavy gatefold jacket w/glued-in 7EP jacket)
In the middle of the now quite epic discography of MASTER, ‘On The Seventh Day, God Created… Master’ always stood out like some kind of bizarre sore thumb. Released in
1991 at the height of the death-metal popularity and recorded at the then mandatory Morrisound studios in Florida with of course Mr Scott Burns seated the producer’s chair, this
was meant to be the band ‘breakthrough’ album. But as usual with Paul Speckmann and co.s, fate intervened and this wasn’t meant to be, even though if in the end, it sold more
than 25,000 copies in its first year alone.
It nevertheless remains a favourite among fans, not only because it features the track “Heathen” but also because it is the band only recording with Paul Masdival from CYNIC
(who was barely twenty years old back then) on guitar, who was called upon at the 11th after former six-stringer Jim Martinelli was fired by their manager only to days after
arriving in Florida! It also sees John Tardy from OBITUARY guesting on two tracks plus former one time MORBID ANGEL bass player John Ortega doing leads on “Whose Left
To Decide” and is overall maybe the closest MASTER had ever been to become a full-on death-metal machine. But by the time Speckmann had hired two new members and got
set to record its follow-up ‘Collection Of Souls’, their sound had once again shifted to a much more in-your-face and punkish sound. But that’s another story…
Anyway, besides the usual classy DOOMENTIA treatment (gatefold cover, hardcover), the one thing that most likely get all diehard fans to salivate here are the three extra tracks,
pressed on a separate 7 inches glued to the inside jacket of this reissue. Known among tapetraders as the ‘1991 demo’, those songs were recorded in Chicago prior to the album,
to see how the new songs sounded when performed by the ‘Speckmann project’ line-up, with Aaron Nicklas on drums and Jim Martinelli on guitar. An addition that makes this
reissue even more mandatory and for once, not only for MASTER fans but for connaisseurs of early 90’s death-metal as well.