{"id":104728,"date":"2025-03-28T00:00:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T00:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=104728"},"modified":"2025-04-11T14:25:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T13:25:32","slug":"album-review-savage-master-dark-and-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-savage-master-dark-and-dangerous\/","title":{"rendered":"SAVAGE MASTER – Dark & Dangerous (2025) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAVAGE MASTER
Dark & Dangerous<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nShadow Kingdom (2025)<\/span>
Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cNight flight bells are ringing, awaken in the Devil\u2019s domain, Midnight, hear the creatures singing, under the Master\u2019s Reign\u201d<\/em> \u2013 the perfect lyrics to kick off another album from Stacey Savage and her cloaked clan of metal barbarians.<\/p>\n

Ever reliable, Kentucky\u2019s Savage Master once again tiptoes through the cold corridors, flits between damp dungeons, echoes off crumbling castle walls and provides steady metal sorcery in abundance. This time round though the sound seems more accessible and, dare I say it, radio friendly. But don\u2019t panic fans, this is still Savage Master transporting you back to the bedrooms of the mid-to-late 80s where metal posters peered from the walls and rock sounds wafted from the late night radio show.<\/p>\n

Now, if you are not familiar with Savage Master, then it\u2019s time to don your cloak and venture forth into the night. Brave, yet weary travellers will encounter sublime lead work, zippy riffs, thunderous drums and bass and Stacey\u2019s snaps. The guitar sound drives this vehicle as if it were a tank mowing down horses of the drooling undead.<\/p>\n

The atmosphere created from opening song \u2018Warriors Call\u2019 pretty much sums up the Savage Master sound; rich in images of fantasy and fluidly phantasmal, it just rumbles with a nostalgic vigour. John Wayne Littlejohn\u2019s drums are timely chimes of galloping doom, working in tandem with the burly bass lines and fiery riffs. You\u2019ll find yourself somewhere between King Diamond, Cauldron, Virgin Steele and Warlock all encased within a musty waft of damp leather and smoke.<\/p>\n

The album is awash with steely gallops. Tracks like \u2018Black Rider\u2019 and \u2018Devil\u2019s Child\u2019 are often predictable but always entertaining in their bewitching stride. And then there are more mythical and measured compositions, namely the plod rock of \u2018Devil Rock\u2019 and \u2018I Never Wanna Fall In Love\u2019 which is cherry-picked straight from 1988.<\/p>\n

Stacey isn\u2019t the most powerful of vocalists but she remains mesmeric with her snaps, guiding us through the dimly lit passageways to the soundtrack of her enticing words. Ballad \u2018Cold Hearted Death\u2019 may surprise or disappoint some diehard fans, but I adore it as I find myself lighting 13 black candles and opening a window to let the silky window drapes blow in the wind as if Count Dracula has just flown the nest. It\u2019s dastardly gothic, devilish and Stacey exhibits a Joan Jett sort of voice as she lavishly sways to the plod of the drums and archetypal yet warm guitar chords.<\/p>\n

In the past, I\u2019ve always perceived Savage Master\u2019s music as a bit better than average, but with Dark & Dangerous<\/em> the band have truly tapped into the mists of the 80s and provided a batch of quality tracks I\u2019m totally hooked on. The shadowy \u2018Screams From The Cellar\u2019, the nifty Iron Maiden-esque \u2018Never Ending Fire\u2019 and the thrashy \u2018When The Twilight Meets The Dawn\u2019 all hit the sweet spot. Savage Master has finally drawn me into their web and I\u2019m thrilled.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAVAGE MASTERDark & Dangerous Shadow Kingdom (2025)Rating: 8\/10 \u201cNight flight bells are ringing, awaken in the Devil\u2019s domain, Midnight, hear the creatures singing, under the Master\u2019s Reign\u201d \u2013 the perfect lyrics to kick off another album from Stacey Savage and her cloaked clan of metal barbarians. Ever reliable, Kentucky\u2019s Savage Master once again tiptoes through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,3684],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-savage-master"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104728"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104732,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104728\/revisions\/104732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}