Did the Arizona heat melt Death Metal legends MASTER, or was it the drinks?

MASTER bassist and lead singer PAUL SPECKMANN and guitarist ALEX NEJEZCHLEBA performing at Last Exit Live in Phoenix, AZ on September 14, 2025. Photographed by Justin de la Cruz.

Chicago Death Metal veterans MASTER performed at Last Exit Live in Phoenix last week joined by Phoenix metal maniacs BED OF ROACHES, INHERENT DOOM, and ABHORRENT REBIRTH.

Before taking the stage, INHERRENT DOOM laid out an incense that triggered the memory of stepping into Cost Plus World Market or Bed Bath and Beyond in my brain. The black metal group’s bombastic sound clashed bizarrely with the following act–ABHORRENT REBIRTH.

The smell of the incense still lingered into the sound of “all-natural, non-GMO” Phoenix brutal death metal, as the lead singer personally described it. One of said “all-natural, non-GMO” songs was dedicated to shows like Love Island USA (or whatever reality TV program of your choice) named “Gray Matter Digestion.” A lighting color palette of  Cosmo and Wanda shone down on the band on the song “Submit To Violence”, the title track of their upcoming album. At the very end of the set, the lead vocalist stepped down from the stage to get the crowd going for a mosh pit, but to no avail.

Before MASTER went on, Lead vocalist PAUL SPECKMANN requested a large fan be kept on full-blast on his side of the stage. Understandable when you step into Arizona heat, but I personally believe he wanted it on to have his hair flow like a L’Oreal commercial, or like Bobby Liebling from Pentagram in that one image.

To make sure no one in the room was expecting any wimp shit, the song “What Kind Of God” pummelled through the room for the very beginning of the set. Every song break the band got, SPECKMANN would get more and more drunk, up to the point where he could not remember the title of the album he made last year (“Saints Dispelled”). Though born in America, SPECKMANN preferred his drinks of choice in his home in the Czech Republic. Throughout the set, at least two people would try to kick off a mosh pit, but no one else joined in. Had it not been for the fact that I was taking photos, and if I had another 16oz. of Red Bull in me, I would have gladly obliged.

Guess that makes me an unc.