Artist: Masterlast
   Title: Mastery of Self
   Label: Escapi Music

Hailing from New York City Masterlast is the brainchild of two women from very different backgrounds.  Firstly Israeli born vocalist Lizza Hayson and secondly Swiss born guitarist Val Glauser.

These two women having lived in a very turbulent run down part of New York they set on a plan to break away and conquer the music world with their own brand of hard edged metal.  They are joined by drummer John Macaluso and bass player Will Valentine and this together with the programming of Cedric “C-Drike” Aegerter, completes the formula for the bands venture, a venture to bring their own unique sound to the masses.

The band uses the two girls experiences of life in ghettos and C-Drike’s industrial and tribal influences, mixed with the traditional metal sound to give them a powerful eclectic mix.

The album open up with ‘I Ache’ and from the off the tribal influences are there, but these are soon pushed to one side as the aggressive vocals of Hayson break through the calm.  Mixed with some equally aggressive rhythms from the rest of the band this song sets the stage for the rest of the album.

The bands "spoiling for a fight attitude" is continued on with the next track ‘Wake Up Today’.  This time with a little more tribal slant on the song, together with a little Spanish guitar thrown in for good measure, this is a track that has hints of Breed 77 about it.

‘On The Line’ is a track that starts of at a more gentle pace, again with the presence of the Spanish guitar once more felt, but as before the gentle calm is broken as the relentless power of Hayson’s vocals come a calling once more, and that thunderous rhythm section breaks in showing no mercy.

The next track brings C-Drike into the mix as a more electro sound is brought in and combined with those outstanding venomous enraged vocals of Hayson, make this a monster track.  Where as ‘Whore Myself’ starts off with some tribal chanting, it's up to Hayson to once again break down the barriers with her own gruff chants.  This is another track that has to be listened too to be fully appreciated and understood because of its complexity.

The album continues to break new ground with its mix of industrial and traditional metal as the likes of ‘Run Far From Me’ with its dark moody feel, think Morbid Angel but more intense and you’ll only be half way there.  Then there’s ‘Monkeys’, which brings everything into the mix, hardcore, electro, tribal and good old fashioned metal, another monster of a track.

But the number one track of the album in my eyes has to go to ‘Highmax’, a track that Marilyn Manson would have given his right ear to write.  It's dark, intense and rhythmic all at the same time and Glauser just spews out some great riffs on this one.

Then it's back to a more traditional metal feel with the hard hitting ‘Don’t’ and the rampaging ‘Challenge You’, before the album closer ‘Shout Your Way Out’.  A track that has Hayson sounding like an enraged Hazel O’Connor and is the nearest thing to a pop sound that I suspect Masterlast will probably ever get.  To round off what is a completely new style of metal album and a one that will either get critical acclaim, or be hated by the media, this is an album that the kids will just love, and when all comes to all, that's all that matters really.

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