Jen Masterson

''"You know why carryin' animals on my damn back is hard? Because it is!" ''A Farce of Ryuga IV, episode 22 ("Revenge of the Nerds V: Jude vs. The Nerds")

About
Jennifer Masterson is the current bass player of the Canadian deathcore/death metal force Ryuga. She was born June 11, 1988 in Dublin, Ireland (Now the age of 23) as the youngest member of the band to date. Ryuga accepted her around November of 2005 after an auditioning video depicting several guitarists interested in joining the band. Jennifer is highly the most extreme guitar player the band has ever had, only due to practicing guitar way too much rather than handling business aspects. She currently resides in West Newbury, Massachusetts with former members Ryan Treviont and Nikki Wong, who left Ryuga June 2, 2010 to pursue newer music projects. Out of all releases, Jen appeared on Night Spider (2007) (while Jen's playing is heard, she was never credited at the time), Gatekeeper (Ryuga album) (in which Masterson was first credited on), Solifugid EP, and Kvarn (the first time album for Jen to switch to bass duties). Currently, Amongst the Serpent will be the second time Jen plays for bass guitar duties.

Deathcore aspect

 * Ben Lionetti (ex-Emmure)
 * Chris Storey (ex-All Shall Perish)
 * Lee Malia (Bring Me the Horizon)

Progressive/death metal aspect

 * Bobby Koelble (ex-Death)
 * Pat O'Brien (Cannibal Corpse)
 * Brent Riggs (ex-Job for a Cowboy)
 * Christian Andreu (Gojira)
 * Olavi Mikkonen (Amon Amarth)
 * Colin Marston (Behold... The Arctopus)
 * Jimi Hendrix
 * Les Claypool (Primus)

Style
Masterson's style was originally made up from complex riffs and heavy-quality breakdowns. She is the bass guitarist (originally lead) of Ryuga who does the main guitar solos and breakdowns, having reminisce from the likes of Winds of Plague and Behemoth. Jen is known in Ryuga's music videos and live performances to wear corpse paint on her face and tattered clothing. More recently after switching to bass, she usually plays in a very unorthodox way, with odd instrumentation and quick tempos often compared to Les Claypool, Chris "Arp" Arpmandude, and Dan Briggs.

Trivia

 * Jen was originally voiced by Laura Silverman during the first season of A Farce of Ryuga, and was later replaced by Rachel MacFarlane during the second season and onward in the TV series and during animated interviews.


 * Since Jennifer became a part of Ryuga in 2005, the band has gotten highly popular reception by the underground music industry because of her diverse style of playing, and are not planning to fire her... Nor does Jen want to leave the band for any reason.
 * It is unknown a lot about Jennifer's orientation. There are sources where she is homosexual (she seems to deeply like Nikki, as shown in season 3 episodes 22, 24, and 28), and there are hints that she is also straight (she once went on a date with Cannibal Corpse guitarist Rob Barrett, and french-kissed Jude in order to get Nikki's attention). But as confirmed recently on Ryuga's MySpace and their websites, Masterson is bisexual.

A Farce Of Ryuga (TV Series)
Jen replays her role in lead guitar of Ryuga in the series. Unlike in reality, Jen is often the one who "likes getting injured a lot", no matter how hurt she actually gets. In "Dark Side" (Farce of Ryuga III, episode 24), Jen attempts to ride a Chevy Chevelle 2010 by doing multiple front flips (it turns out that the vehicle explodes, causing Jen to fatally injure her right shoulder). Masterson is voiced in the series and in interviews by Rachel McFarlane (in the pilot episode, Jamie Marchi was the voiceover, and during the first season, Laura Silverman was) and owns four guitars, three of them endorsed from Washburn Guitars and a DBZ Dracometer. Jen is a fan of the bands Strapping Young Lad, Torsofuck, and Veil of Maya (which Veil of Maya is also Jude's favorite band). Jen is friends with mainly Jonesy, as the two once were seen playing Guitar Hero V (Farce of Ryuga III, episode 24). The two even make long dialogue sections (usually four minutes to the show's fan's likings) which center TV shows, celebrities, gaming, and or the positive and negative speakings of metal bands. Jen speaks fluent German and Mandarin Chinese as seen in "My Dear Dumb Self" (Farce of Ryuga II, episode 15). Her known interests are self-injuring, speaking backwards, killing animals for fun, and using most of the time hanging out with her bandmates. Similar to the other four members of Ryuga (excluding Jonesy Garcia), Jen does not smoke and drinks complex wine. Jen is usually seen in each episode of the Farce of Ryuga series carrying a dead animal (of some sort) on her back and one of her guitars in one hand.