Interview - Master's Call: "There has certainly been a change in the way music is consumed"

For: Renato Sanson

musician interviewed: Dave Powell (guitar)

With the release of “A Journey For The Damned” Master’s Call finally returned to the game. What was that period like?

Actually releasing the album after so many frustrating years of delays and setbacks was like an almost euphoric sense of relief! Some of those songs have been with us since the beginning so it’s great to finally have them out.

What is the biggest difficulty in recording in the middle of a pandemic and with the sudden departure of the vocalist who was already recording the Debut?

Yes those were both extremely unfortunate circumstances and of course they both slowed us down in  different ways. With the pandemic we were obviously restricted anyway, but we did at least write one song remotely, ‘Into The Abyss Once More’, during that time. With recording studios being closed over the pandemic there was quite a backlog of clients once things started back up again so that caused more delay. We actually started recording vocals first (over home demo recordings), as that was more easily accessible while the bigger studios for recording drums and guitars had a much longer backlog. And unfortunately our vocalist had a health issue that had been wearing at his voice over time, but it finally became too chronic to continue…certainly for extreme metal vocals! So we had to roll back and find a new vocalist, which we struggled with and in the end we decided on switching our guitarist John onto lead vocals and getting a new guitarist instead. Finally got to the point of recording everything and getting it mixed, and we even got signed to Fireflash Records which was great- but their release schedule was pretty full for a while so we had to be patient once more (pretty much another year) before it finally saw the light of day!

It took 10 years to release “A Journey For The Damned”. What is the reason for this delay?

When we started it was just John and Dave writing songs, the rest of the band members didn’t join until 2016. It took a fair bit of writing to establish what we consider the sound and style that resonated with us. We released an EP first in back in 2019 whilst we continue writing the album, but then our original vocalist at the time shortly left the band and we looked for a new vocalist. We had a new guy pretty quick but that didn’t work out after only one show and then we were back to the drawing board. Then we found the next guy and he learnt our set just in time to play only a couple of shows before the pandemic hit the following year. Then everything else is as previously mentioned. 

Do you intend to go on tour to promote the album?

Yes in fact we already toured Europe at the beginning of 2024 and have more dates in the UK confirmed and coming.

Things changed a lot in that hiatus until the release of the album. What difference did you notice in relation to the music market?

Certainly there has been a shift in the way music is consumed with streaming services getting so dominant. Short form content (e.g TikTok) has also gotten way more into the forefront in recent years. The pandemic also lead to some livestreamed/filmed only concerts, and pushed bands and songwriters into learning how to work remotely.

Still on “A Journey For The Damned”, its lyrics bring a deeper reflection. Bringing that vision of something that pressures us internally and pushes us to the limit. I would like you to comment on this creative process.

At the very very beginning before anything was ever written we thought we were going to be a lot more extreme, like full on gnarly black or death metal, but then we wrote ‘The Spire Cranes’ from the first EP “Morbid Black Trinity”. At first we were like “this song has a catchy chorus in it, surely this is not allowed, not extreme enough?” but we were vibing off it and decided that those preconceived “rules” didn’t matter, so pretty much from then on we decided that’s our thing and from there we evolved the melodic and chorusy transitions whilst staying extreme and brutal at the core.

And lyrically that first EP touches upon the rising manifestation of the ugliness and oppression that exists in the dark corners of the world. “A Journey For The Damned” essentially continues in that direction by dealing with the evolving dark and turbulent path through life- the atrocities, struggles and the victories that will be encountered along the way, as well as the spirituality and beliefs that influence us as we journey toward the inevitability of death.

Once we decided early on to not limit ourselves to one specific subgenre and break any preconceived rules we had, we allowed ourselves to take inspiration from some perhaps unexpected places- and going into the future we expect we may find ourselves individually pushing the boundaries even wider. But in the end, it’s all brought together by a united vision, so it usually works out our individual influences and styles are complimentary to each other.

Finally, I thank you for the opportunity and would like to propose the following challenge: if someone didn't know Master's Call, which songs would they recommend?

‘The Spire Cranes’ from the first EP is always a popular one and the song that started it all. And ‘Blood On The Altar’ and ‘The Serpent’s Rise’ from the album.