Master's Hammer

国籍:捷克
风格:Epic Black Metal, Experimental
 
自Venom、Bathory...以来，世界各地的Black Metal暗流从来也没有消失过。而80年代末，90年代初的东欧一直在国内鲜被提及。来自捷克的Master's Hammer和匈牙利的Tormentor可能是当年东欧地区最具代表性的两个吧？《Ritual》发表于1990年，来自Master's Hammer的一部中速邪恶的黑金属经典！ 《Ritual》中的歌曲结构很清晰，两把吉他一把旋律，一把节奏，旋律并非《Transilvanian Hunger》那种简单轮拨产生的单调式旋律，而是相对复杂的演奏，并时常出现一些很有特色的Solo！！作品中旋律和Solo给人印象很深，非常的Master's Hammer化（东欧色彩？），独特！!节奏吉他多数时候是典型的黑金属式的快速细碎的轮拨，为音乐主线做着铺垫和渲染，也时常出现一些很Headbanging的Metal Riffs，2、6、7、9等多数曲目都是代表。主唱吊嗓的Grim唱腔明显影响了无数后来的乐队。专集中鼓的表现很有特点，时而连续快速，时而慢速凝重，时而痉挛式的敲打。键盘的少量加入和交响化的编排使整体音乐既黑暗（旋律、Bass）、扭曲（鼓、唱）又有气势（复杂的编排），比如&Jama Pekel&。而&Geniove&等作品则要显得更压抑和病态些。 Master's Hammer的金属化或者说根源化非常明显，听听同名演奏曲的主导Riffs，这是80年代初Blitzkrieg、Metallica、Celtic Frost...都一直沿用的形式。而其他曲目也同样根源化明显。《Ritual》首先是金属专集，然后才是意境黑暗，内容亵渎的黑金属专集！！而且有些东西是需要反复听的，Master's Hammer和Samael等相对中慢速或者Beherit那样极度扭曲的都是如此，多遍下来，你会发现似乎已被诅咒似的深深喜欢上它们而无法自拔。
 
by Eduardo Rivadavia
 
One of the Czech Republic's first black metal bands, Master's Hammer was formed in Prague in 1983, and spent the first half of their career operating in obscurity behind the Iron Curtain, but working on demos that slowly spread their cult into the West, as they were circulated by resourceful heavy metal fans trading tapes across the globe. In fact, tape-trading and illegal imports were just as instrumental in providing the members of Master's Hammer with their mostly contrabanded source of inspiration, which evidently included the works of primal English BM godfathers Venom, theatrical Danes Mercyful Fate, and Swiss mavericks Hellhammer, among others. By the time what was then still Czechoslovakia broke free of Communism and the Soviet Union's control, in 1989, Master's Hammer had come into their own as a band, and, just two years later, their stunning debut album, Ritual, revealed a surprisingly contemporary and intense brand of black metal, featuring rampant savagery wed to well-crafted arrangements and keyboards, akin to rising Norwegian powers like Mayhem, Emperor, and Darkthrone. The group -- which at this time was comprised of vocalist/guitarist Franta Storm, keyboardist Vlasta Voral, guitarist Tomás &Necrocock& Kohout, bassist Tomás &Monster& Vendl, drummer Mirek Valenta, and percussionist Honza &Silenthell& Pøibyl -- also had a backlog of material, apparently, because they wasted little time before recording their sophomore full-length, The Jilemnice Occultist, which emerged through France's Osmose Productions, in 1992 (it is also rumored that said album was recorded prior to their debut). Unfortunately, Master's Hammer lost most of their membership a short time later, and after a few years of inactivity, Storm and Voral decided to record a farewell album entitled Slagry (1995), whose progressive experiments and numerous obscure cover songs had very little to do with metal, or the band's previous output, thereby signaling the end of Master's Hammer.