{"id":15268,"date":"2013-10-07T00:00:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T00:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=15268"},"modified":"2013-11-19T17:31:56","modified_gmt":"2013-11-19T17:31:56","slug":"album-review-stellar-master-elite-ii-destructive-interference-generator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-stellar-master-elite-ii-destructive-interference-generator\/","title":{"rendered":"STELLAR MASTER ELITE – II: Destructive Interference Generator (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

STELLAR MASTER ELITE
II: Destructive Interference Generator<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nExciter (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\n
<\/td>\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
\n
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Welcome to Weirdsville! The uniquely named Stellar Master Elite \u2013 named after a track by Norwegian band Thorns \u2013 are a fearsome German duo who have a penchant for the old school, though can\u2019t help but inject an unhealthy dose of modern dynamics in order to create punishing cold soundscapes. <\/p>\n

There are many a band that can combine grey sounds of doom with remote black metal, odd industrial leaning, cosmic overtones and sinister black mid-tempo thrash that nods towards the likes of Voivod. Vocally it\u2019s nothing original; it\u2019s just a set of miserable, worthless rasps that kind of become arrogant narration over those bleak guitars and peculiar spaced-out synths.<\/p>\n

However, because of the variety Stellar Master Elite tend to play with, II: Destructive Interference Generator<\/em> makes for quite an intriguing listen. There is certainly a sense of the alien about this eight-track album which is the band\u2019s follow up to the 2011 I<\/em> platter. <\/p>\n

There are a lot of bands around at the moment experimenting with black metal, one of my favourites being Lantern, and at times this does have the same sort of rank, damp air, as if it was recorded in the darkest corner of space where no other life dwells. The doomier edge which the band applies seems to be the most effective atmosphere the band opt for; the eight-minute \u2018Beyond Light\u2019 mixes a variety of styles, but really succeeds when the pace drops to a crawl and the vocals take on a nasty, arrogant tone over a grim background of cold sky and smoking pyres. <\/p>\n

Stellar Master Elite certainly have an eye for odd melody too, especially with the groove-based buzz of \u2018Pattern Of Perception\u2019, but the vocals do tend to make such a track slightly more mediocre than I had originally hoped for.<\/p>\n

\u2018Prison Planet\u2019 adopts a bleak fa\u00e7ade with those orchestrations but as the band trudge on through the mire I quickly become uninterested, almost hoping and praying for something untoward to occur. Despite some jarring complexity on \u2018The Mobius Strip\u2019 and the 11-minute plod of the title track, Stellar Master Elite are simply another wasted doom metal band who\u2019ve thrown in a few curves but without really being successful.<\/p>\n

Sure, II: Destructive Interference Generator<\/em> is pretty grim at times, and again I revert back to the title track which oozes like black fog across the landscape, strangling all life from any vegetation, but if it\u2019s not mocking doom or blackened groove, then it\u2019s a mix of both but not as peculiar as I initially thought upon first listen. <\/p>\n

\u2018Empty Shells Of Being\u2019 is the standout track and adopts a back-beat that wouldn\u2019t seem out of place on an early 80s New Wave album, even with extra hand-clap type arrangements. It\u2019s a shame the rest of the record didn\u2019t follow suit because if Stellar Master Elite kept to this unusual, catchy yet still impure structure then I\u2019d be quite enthralled.<\/p>\n

I sincerely hope the guys take this criticism as productive, because \u2018Empty Shells Of Being\u2019 is an absolute cracker of an avant garde tune that seems out of place on an album that doesn\u2019t live up to expectation.<\/p>\n

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

STELLAR MASTER ELITEII: Destructive Interference Generator Exciter (2013)Rating: 6\/10 Welcome to Weirdsville! The uniquely named Stellar Master Elite \u2013 named after a track by Norwegian band Thorns \u2013 are a fearsome German duo who have a penchant for the old school, though can\u2019t help but inject an unhealthy dose of modern dynamics in order to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,815],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-stellar-master-elite"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15268","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=15268"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15271,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15268\/revisions\/15271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}