Mastery - Lethal Legacy
2005 Spinerazor Records

Track Listing:
1.  Behold
2.  Power Race
3.  Numeration
4.  No Tomorrow
5.  Lethal Legacy
6.  Nevermore

Line-Up:
Guitars:  Markus Armellini, Jeff Dormer
Bass:  Anthony Ristovski
Drums:  Kevan Roy

Shev's Rating:  A
Overall Album Rating:  A

Shev's Review:
When it comes to varying styles of vocals, there simply isn't a more flexible genre of metal than thrash.  Vocal talents range from Tom Araya to Katon DePena to Paul Baloff to John Connelly and well beyond.  It's almost as if thrash is the one genre of metal not defined by vocals, but more reliant on their musical integrity.  So it should comes as no surprise that Mastery, based out of Toronto, Canada, simply avoids the vocalist duties altogether...and with a band like this, I don't see many people complaining about it.

Mastery's first release, Lethal Legacy, is a heart-pounding, no-frills speed metal/thrash act that simply lets their music speak for itself and avoids letting the lyrics interfere with what they can accomplish as a totally instrumental four-piece.  The dual guitarists crank out some seriously heavy riffs, surprisingly devastating compared to a lot of modern day thrash...especially for a band so new to the scene.  The solo's go way beyond the trend of blasting through some sloppy textbook shredfoolery, and take the lead without going overboard.

The drumming is extraordinarily complex, especially when it comes to the double bass.  Not only does Kevan Roy nicely create a solid foundation, but absolutely crushes with the utmost efficiency.  The only section of Mastery that leaves a little to be desired is Anthony on bass.  Granted, he's certainly a great bass player that doesn't seem to have a problem working with the already tight guitars, but his sound is totally buried.  Just a little layer of subsound as this thrash act is primarily about the high end guitars and drumming.

So all in all, Lethal Legacy has been quite the interesting introduction to Mastery.  Upon my first listen, I had no idea that this was an instrumental thrash band, and in all honesty, I'm glad they are.  Unless you're one of those people that like the vocals/lyrics above the actual music, there is no way you're going to go wrong with checking these guys out.  Mastery has all the potential in the world to become the biggest speed/thrash act without a vocalist.  Simply awesome.
Shev's Rating:  A

Discography (last updated 12.8.05):
Lethal Legacy - 2005