The Corroseum forum (new design under construction)

2021-12-02 Update:

A while back I recieved this early 2-track demo of this amazing band from rumblefist, and figured I must share this little gem here:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/0k0cwlxa ... 9.rar/file

The transition from ZANITY is very clear here - 2 amazing, original Metal songs that unfortunately never made it to the MM Cd...


... original post ...

I recently got these recordings on CDR from Stark and they've been playing on repeat for days now. MASTER MASSIVE was the continuation of ZANITY, in turn the brainchild of Janne Strandh, also the main man behind the old cult-triptych ACT/VERDICT/ACT. MM tops all those bands imo. I guess they fall within the Epic Power Metal-realm, but this is much too special to merely be confined to that hit'n'miss-genre. I'll hold back on the superlatives a bit and let you be the judge:

New link:
http://www.mediafire.com/?k1wu6di6nspq2rw


the songs and their origin:

1. the face of a god (from "The Pendulum" unreleased CD '9?)
2. showdown (from "The Pendulum" unreleased CD '9?)
3. oh lord (from TBV studio sessions 88-89)
4. in chase of power (from demo 93-95)
5. the media palace (from "The Pendulum" unreleased CD '9?)
6. the eye of silence (from TBV studio session 93)
7. man is meant... (from "The Pendulum" demo 9?)
8. hymn to yellowhawk (from "The Pendulum" unreleased CD '9?)


Edit: I should point out that this is not a Best Of-comp but rather a crossection of various songs that would represent the style of the band.
...and the "Power Metal" bit above might be a bit misleading - there's not an ounce of Speed in MM's music.

I'm at the 4rth track right now and they sound like a US prog/power to my ears. I'm not in the mood for that kind of stuff now. Will give it another try soon though...

Thanks for sharing.

Sounds interesting, I'll check it out, they're still active too: www.myspace.com/mastermassive

Black Axe wrote:Sounds interesting, I'll check it out, they're still active too: www.myspace.com/mastermassive

Wow, I totally missed this... The clips didn't sound too bad for being a contemporary band, but it's definitely not on the same league as the old stuff, or even similar in style.

Thanks DaN. I have not listened to these yet but I listen to that Zanity demo quite often. It's a killer!

Great stuff indeed! Reminds me more of US Power and Prog Metal than anything I've heard from Sweden before. Not that it's very progressive but I get Fates Warning vibes from couple of songs. Standout tracks on first listen for me are Oh Lord, The Media Palace, Hymn To Yellowhawk but the whole thing is top quality. Amazing and kinda sad that The Pendulum was never released

wow this is strange for a swedish band.i like it.it definitely needs repeated listenings to sink in

Härre gud!!! This was great shit!! Great musicanship with good songs. Especially the vocalist is amazing. He is a bit like John Arch with his vocal harmonies. Recommended!

insteresting upload with a wide variety of styles, a few tracks were excellent, the others a little 'eh', haha.

Janne Strandh is truly the great unsung hero of Swedish metal. Just think of the amount of quality songs the man has written and recorded through the years, from Act to Verdict through Zanity and all the way up to Master Massive. And NONE OF IT EVER GOT RELEASED.

Just give this the first full listen and this really is awesome. They made a great progression from Zanity. The vocals are outstanding here.

I finally decided to unzip this,I dunno what was I waiting for,we're talking about a mini-masterpiece here! Those vocals... oh my GOD! They reminded me everything from John Arch to Tony Moore and with that Swedish flavor also added to the mix... Thanks for sharing,man!

thanks for these! how much is still to come from those vaults of Janne Strandh's?! ALL this stuff is incredibly great, from RUBYCON to ACT/AKT to VERDICT, ZANITY to MASTER MASSIVE.. I'd be dying to know the stories behind all these bands/ namechanges - hope Stark's 2nd book features them as I'm planning to get this soon anyways.. (ot: nobody knows a source where to still get the 1st one for a reasonable rate I guess?)

Underground kult stuff has its attraction but for some it is really not to be understood why on earth this has never seen the light of day.. can somebody please finally release a box set of this material?!

sagrotan wrote:thanks for these! how much is still to come from those vaults of Janne Strandh's?! ALL this stuff is incredibly great, from RUBYCON to ACT/AKT to VERDICT, ZANITY to MASTER MASSIVE.. I'd be dying to know the stories behind all these bands!

RUBYCON is an entirely different band that Janne Strandh was never in.

The outlines of the rest of the story is pretty simple. It started with ACT, that recorded one demo. Then they got a new singer and changed the name to VERDICT, that recorded one demo. It didn't work out to well with the new singer in the long run, so they went back to the old one. The name was changed back too, but they changed the spelling to AKT. Akt recorded one demo and then disbanded. Janne Strandh formed ZANITY, an entirely new band, that recorded one demo. MASTER MASSIVE was formed after that. I am not quite sure if any other members besides Strandh was in both Zanity and MM.

Apart from that, Strandh also played on a two song 1989 demo by PETERSON. It was a solo project from the singer they had in Verdict, Roger Peterson. I would assume those songs were written by Peterson, but they are very similar in style to Strandh's other work.

thanks for sorting that out! just came across the name TWILIGHT (DK!) where Strandh was also playing in.. whose 1992 demo apparently has been rereleased on CD. anyone heard them?