The Jilemnice Occultist

I am not in the mood to beat around the bush and therefore let me start with the statement that "Jilemnický okultista" is the ultimate and unique mother of all obscure metal albums, at least as long as we speak about dark and fairly extreme metal. It has everything that it needs to reach the highest tier of eccentricity: an extraordinary artwork which sparks the imagination, a band picture that features six inconsistently dressed musicians, lyrics in a language that nobody understands, liner notes that explain the album concept while introducing strange characters with even stranger names such as "Clement Bombastus von Satrapold", the record company does not know the exact name of its own publication (the Osmose CD calls the album erroneously "Filemnice Occultist") and last but not least, the music conveys a really occult and eerie atmosphere. Master's Hammer's masterpiece, so to say. Eleven tunes which have been cut from the same cloth invite the listener to a journey back in time (and it is surprising yet completely irrelevant that the closer is no part of the tale that the band tells). Welcome to Bohemia in the year 1913, a rural region where superstition, spiritism and conspiracy prevail.

The music offers a mostly mid-paced form of very individual black metal. It's not experimental in the strict sense, but the continuously appearing keyboards and the often used timpanis deliver important components for the overall impression. The same goes for the unhealthy vocal performance. The lead singer sounds like a sick raven and he coughs from time to time. However, his croaky cawing and his slight affinity for insanity lends the album a very special taste. But he is also able to manage more solemn parts and thus he reminds the listener of the fact that the album's sub title calls this work "a classical operetta in three acts". Well, in terms of harshness, I cannot see a link to an operetta, but the pretty pompous approach of the formation, which is most evidently shown in the tenth track, really reminds me vaguely of classical music. Nevertheless, Master's Hammer are following the rules of metal. Powerful guitars build the backbone of the single tracks and they form pretty scary harmonies right from the get-go. Already the intro, where the keyboards play an important role, seems to open the gates to another, previously unknown transcendental dimension.

Profound heaviness is omnipresent and it is combined with a fine instinct for slightly solemn, harsh or comparatively smooth melodies. For example, the restless hammering of the snare, the pounding double bass drum and ominous riffing create a merciless beginning of the third track (excuse me for using its English name) "I Don't Want, Sirs to Pester...", but the band mostly prefers a less thundering approach. After all, Master's Hammer handle both kinds of tunes, the relentless ones and the slightly less aggressive ones, in a competent way. The band shows a tight performance and those who know the debut "Ritual" will not be surprised about this fact. Indeed, these two albums have a close relationship while being free from adventurous experiments that lead nowhere. This means that the compositions of "Jilemnický okultista" do not suffer from an overkill of ideas. Instead, they have the right length, the right degree of power and a sufficient amount of breaks. From my point of view, it is almost impossible to identify highlights, because more or less all songs meet on an equal footing. The album offers a permanently flowing black stream of enigmatic melodies and cryptic words, not a constant change between outstanding and average tunes. Thus, dive into the atmosphere of this work and try to get home safe and sound after your trip to the spooky landscapes of Bohemia.