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I've been holding off on this CD for a while, because while on one hand I rather like it, on the other it represents an almost total malfunction of the Black Metal ethos. I'll try and explain.

One Master are all about A Blaze In The Northern Sky-era Darkthrone. I'd call them a ripoff, but they're too good. It's all here: the evils riffs, the raw guitar tone, the croaking vocals. All the elements of old-school Scandinavian BM are here in abundance. The first three songs are especially good workouts, and while the last three get a little monotonous in places, they are still pretty strong.

Thematically, One Master are a complete failure. Their lyrics are good, but…do I really have to come out and say that Dragonlance is not kvlt? That yes, we all loved it when we were 12, and we all thought Raistlin was cool, but that dorking about it now is just lame on top of lame? I thought all this would go without saying, but here I am having to say it. Dragonlance was just a marketing push to grab money, on an artistic plane with Care Bears or He-Man, nothing more. You may say that The Lord Of The Rings-based lyrics are no better, but that is not so. LotR represents a man's life's work in mythology and folklore and philology, labored over for many years and in solitude, with no expectation of any success. Dragonlance was the marketing department calling and saying 'give us some more shit with dragons in it, the kids eat it up!' All of One Master's lyrics are about Dragonlance, and as such abdicate any chance of being taken seriously as artists.

So this is some enjoyable old-school Black Metal, but their lyrical focus screams "POSER" from every fiber. If you can stand that, look them up, but there are so many better bands that I really cannot recommend you wasting your time. One Master have the chops to be a great band, but until they're ready to be serious and stop insulting my intelligence, that ain't gonna happen.