Master's Hammer: История чешского блэк-метала

Czech black metal band

Master's Hammer is a Czech black metal band formed in Prague in 1983. They were active, with several lineup changes, until 1995, and again from 2009 onward. As of , they have released eight studio albums, five demos, one EP, two split albums, one live album, and several compilations.

Master's Hammer was founded in 1983 and produced five demos, before releasing their debut album, Ritual., in 1991. The Polish extreme metal band Behemoth covered the song "Jáma pekel" on their 2008 EP, Ezkaton. A year later, Master's Hammer issued their sophomore record, Jilemnický okultista. Their third album, Šlágry, which came out in 1995, was a shift away from their previous work and incorporated a variety of styles outside the metal genre. At the time, the band announced that Šlágry II and a forthcoming CD ROM would rely more on professional opera singers and orchestra musicians, although neither materialized, and the band broke up the same year. Ukrainian black metal band Drudkh covered the track "Indiánská píseň hrůzy" on their 2010 EP, Slavonic Chronicles, and included it on their 2014 compilation album, Eastern Frontier in Flames. In 2009, Master's Hammer reformed and released Mantras, their first record in 14 years. In late 2012, a fifth album, called Vracejte konve na místo., was released. It was awarded Best Hard and Heavy Album at that year's Anděl Awards and Best Album at the Břitva Awards. In July 2013, Master's Hammer formed their own record label, called Jihosound Records, under which they released their sixth studio album in 2014, titled Vagus Vetus. On 30 May 2016, they published their seventh studio album, Formulæ, which again won the Best Hard and Heavy Album prize at the Anděl Awards. On 8 December 2016, the band announced on their Facebook page that they were scheduled to play at the Brutal Assault festival in August 2017, their first live performance in 25 years. In February 2018, Master's Hammer released their eighth studio album, Fascinator.

Kerrang! magazine described the band's style as "fusing thrash with classical themes", and Jilemnický okultista was called "an operetta in three acts". When asked about Ritual, Fenriz, the drummer of Norwegian black metal band Darkthrone, joked that the album "is actually the first Norwegian black metal album, even though they are from Czechoslovakia". On 1995's Šlágry, the band "virtually abandoned the operatic black metal of previous releases in favor of modernist electronic music" and "shares publishing credits with Carl Czerny, Otto Katz, and Giuseppe Verdi, mixing bits of metal, folk, and musique concrète into a style based on the classical avant garde". 14 years later, Master's Hammer returned to their previous black metal style on Mantras.