Savage Master – Dark & Dangerous
Release Date: 28th March 2025
Label: Shadow Kingdom Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal.
FFO: Judas Priest, Sanhedrin, Tower, Bewitcher, Sumerlands, Burning Witches, Sonja, Cobra Spell.
Review By: Mark Waight
Dark & Dangerous is the highly anticipated 5th studio album from NWOTHM band Savage Master. If you are a fan of traditional heavy metal then you have probably already got Savage Master nailed on to your playlist but just in case you haven’t, you should endeavour to rectify that right now and checkout Dark & Dangerous as soon as it drops!
Now in their twelfth year, Savage Master have already built up a huge and almost cult like following and not just because of their catalogue of excellent albums either. Their mesmerising stage performances and prolific touring schedules (including many iconic festival appearances) have also served to build up their reputation making them one of the very best and most loved bands in the genre today.
Savage Master is Stacey Savage (vocals), Julien Fried (guitar), Larry Myers (guitar), Adam Neal (bass) and John W Littlejohn (drums).
Instrumental intro “Three Red Candles” sets out the stall nicely by leading us straight into the “Warriors Call” where the sonic assault for your heart and your mind duly begins. This hard rocking track instantly hits that sweet spot and pulls you right to the very edge of your seat with intoxicating ease.
Hot on its coat tails “Black Rider” has more of a gritty almost punk like feel to it in parts yet still delivers big as a flat-out metal tune too. Fast, Furious and freaking fantastic! Classic anthem “The Edge of Evil” will absolutely rock your socks off with its catchy hooks, intense riffs and irresistible sing-along chorus!
The lightning fast “Devil’s Child” cranks it up a notch or two with a real fire in its belly screamer of a track where Stacey Savage is a completely unstoppable force! Slower and darker, the pulsating “Screams from The Cellar” thumps out a rib bustlingly hard series of heavy blows that will have you sprawling on the canvas like a punch-drunk prizefighter
“Never Ending Fire” is how I feel every time I hear a quality metal tune like this, its raw, its unapologetic, it really gets that blood pumping and those juices flowing! Does the “Devil Rock?” You bet he does, as no self-respecting Satan, or his spawn, would ever be caught following any other type of music in this world or the next! He loves Savage Master, and you will too!
Rolling in like some of the greatest hair metal tunes of the 80s, “I Never Want to Fall in Love” has pure heavy metal gold running right through it! It’s so familiar, yet it’s exciting, fresh and new too, making it the sweetest of rock candy treats for your ears. You’re going to lap it up and like a true metal junkie keep coming back time and again for more!
Lulled into a false sense of security by the gentlest of openings, “When the Twilight Meets the Dawn” quickly let’s rip with a hack-sawing riff that cuts deep to the bone and leaves your jaw firmly on the floor!
Final track “Cold Hearted Death” is a beautiful rock ballad that shows the bands much softer side and that maybe they are not completely Savage to their absolute core. It’s a super cool tune that pulls all the elements of a great rock tune together with a super tight band performance and a to-die for guitar solo that gives it that authentic metal stamp of conformity. What an album and what a finish!
If you love heavy metal in its purest and most traditional form, then Savage Master is the band for you, as they tick just about every box in the long list of required attributes and skills that this most revered of genres demands. Dark & Dangerous is undoubtedly Savage Master’s best album to date and will almost certainly take pride of place in your playlist over the coming months when you get around to checking it out, so don’t take too long about it, do it now! Very highly recommended!
(5 / 5)
