Master of Cruelty "Spit on the Holy Grail" CD

masterpiece of South American Blackened Death-Thrash!! Formed in 2009 in Asunción, Paraguay and since spreading their Unholy chants of Blasphemy. +With members of the mighty EKRON CULT. Limited to 1000 copies.
Front cover illustration by Daniel Self Desecrator.

I have to say that I was skeptical when I first saw this release on Blood Harvest's website. A black/death/thrash band with a goat on the cover and and a satanic title, ahem. In any case, something about it drew me to click on and listen to this, and I'm so glad that I did!
Honestly, I don't know if I've ever heard this style of hybrid genre ever pulled off this well before. Black/death/thrash is obviously a very inclusive hybrid genre and automatically implies there is going to be a ton of variety in the playing. Most bands would not be able to combine so many elements together and not create a crappy mess.
But this album has it. It has two really essential elements down: all of the riffs are good, and two, the band is tight enough/talented to master the transitions that make this style what it is. With so many subgenres included in its definition, the transitions have to be spot on, and in this case they very much are.
Some notes on the instruments. The guitar player writes deadly riffs, plays them well and is enhanced by his muscular, unscooped, audible tone. The drummer is the secret to those spotless transitions. He blasts with a lot of confidence, then keeps it interesting with many other well-executed kinds of beats. The singer's growls match the style of music perfectly, being some kind of middle ground between a full death growl and a black metal rasp. The bass, while very straightforward, is essential to the mix, gives the recording a warmth that is woefully absent from most anything black metal.
Some names that come to mind to me hearing this (being somehwhat of an outsider to this specific micro-genre) are Dark Angel, Necrophobic, Devastation (US, Chi), Malas (US, Chi) even Deicide.
The one problem I would bring up for this record (and I am interested to see whether this band improved since its debut) is that the songs follow a fairly predictable structure and are not altogether different enough from each other. It's still enjoyable because everything that is written is good, however the predictability is somewhat tiring on the ears.

Sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...