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MASTER'S HAMMER

Countryside Bohemians

Story online since:  23.02.2010 / 11:45:44
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One of the least expected and most surprising reunions of the past year, in this age of more or less interesting reunions, was the sudden resurrection of the old Czech Symphonic Black Metal Lords MASTER'S HAMMER. From 1987 to 1992, they not only crafted some of the most unique and evil-sounding early Black Metal, but dared stepping outside all expectations and conformisms with the symphonic masterpiece "The Jilemnice Occultist" (1992) - the first (and only?) Black Metal Operetta, and according to the chronicles the second Avantgarde Metal album ever. After the almost completely un-metallic electro-symphonic experiments on "Slagry" (1995), mainman Franta Storm and organist Vlasta Voral disappeared under the radar... Fast forward to 2009: the band is resurrected, and "Mantras" is released, combining elements from all their previous works (read our review here). Such a spectacular event in the Avantgarde Metal Unhistory could not remain unmentioned, and thus aVoid established a connection with lord-typographer Franta Storm. Hear what he has to say on everything from religion to party and back again with some racial slurs!



[Note: due to text formatting issues, many Czech circumflexes and apostrophes have been removed; we at AGM.com extend our apologies to anyone familiar with any Slavonic language who might take offence.]
 
Good day, Franta! It is now 17 years since your seminal "The Jilemnice Occultist" album was released – a forgotten milestone in experimental and symphonic extreme metal – and fourteen years since the subsequent "Slagry", which almost completely left metal behind going into an even more experimental and symphonic region. Now, at the very end of this decade, MASTER'S HAMMER suddenly return with a brand new metal album. Why did you choose to return now? Was the time right to continue where you left off over a decade ago, or do you just want to finish what you didn't finish back then? How long has this reunion (if it is a reunion) been cooking, so to speak?
  
Hi. Since we don't exist as regular band, we enjoy the freedom to do just what we want, any time. Nobody told us to do a new record, just a sudden attack of inspiration hit us.
Besides that, all of us have own work for living. Last year (2008) I quit my teaching at the Academy in Prague, so it gave me also more time to think of my own art. I wanted to do something very different, something totally apart from graphic design. Others had similar feeling, especially Vlasta, who goes regularly with us to India, asked me this spring (2009) "when shall we make some black metal again?" I answered (also drunken): "now".
 
Ah, so you've kept in touch throughout the years?
 
Yes, we cooperate with Monster and Vlasta on computers, Necrocock joins us for parties occasionally.


Is this a new start for the band, or just a one-off book-closing chapter? Will there be more releases from MH?
  
If everything goes fine, at its proper speed, the next album shall come out about 2023. Our ideas become periodically popular after 15 years or so, at times of their release they were never so impressive. There is no reason for making albums more often, if you concentrate on substantive ideas only.

You have chosen to record and release everything completely on your own, without having a label – the same with the re-releases of your demos, which are only available as downloads. Why have you chosen this method of working – to be in control of everything yourself, or lack of interest from labels?
 
We don't need them any more, today's state of technology gives us total freedom in recording, production, promo and sales. What can do labels for us?
Btw. If you keep asking me about labels, I could mention some very nice, clever and cultured gentlemen, whose the only interest is to help bands like us... But I prefer not being asked about them. To finish this topic with a happy end - yes, the bootleg cause provoked us also to do something new, I confess. 
 
What do you think about the current trends in digital formats – you offer your material for sale as downloads for example. Blogs spreading music freely – what is most important, that music is spread, heard and appreciated, or that proper releases are bought and sold as they were intended by artists and labels, with money coming in where it's due?


No problem with that, in font-making, it's similar - pirates barely misuse them for profit, we're not Microsoft and our listeners are not greedy Chinese. Our faithful fans look only after genuine physical products such as vinyls, and they were always ready to pay for it. Download Mantras in mp3 from anywhere, go ahead, play it loud before buying, have a test drive. That's fine.
 
The new album, "Mantras", retains your old, very distinct metal sound, fusing it (in my impression at least) with the experimentalism of "Slagry". Is the new material completely new, or are there left-overs from songs you didn't use in the 90's? How was this new album composed, as compared to earlier albums? What inspirations do you have at the moment – there are a lot of electronic and Oriental/Indian elements, where do they come from? What are the lyrics about?
 
Thanks. Yes, India is another strong inspiration, by the way, we played with an idea of Hindo-Satanism for a while. Most of the material is no older than half a year, or so, some songs were played only once without any rehearsing, recorded immediately - and forgotten. Almost everything on Mantras was composed by September / October 2009, with the exception of "Bodhi" text, which I've written in February '08 sitting under the Bodhi tree in Bihar, that's the oldest text on that, and of course "Jama Pekel", which is known as remake.
Lyrics are about booze, countryside pubs, landscape, cafileria, spirituality, putrefaction, death and above all - fun. Humour has always been a part of our music. I realize I have to ask some good English translator so you could read my texts in full.
 
That method of working, was that how MH worked "back in the days", or were you more of a traditionally rehearsing band?

The method varies depending on the nature of each record, our aim was to coin each album its specific sound and feel, and everything is subordinated to it, including rehearse frequency. This time we didn't rehearse so much, we spread the demo CD among boys and they studied their parts as homework.

"Fun" is a word rarely seen in Black Metal contexts, too rarely if you ask me. Which actually is very Satanic, come to think of it, screwing people's expectations & conformisms et c. How does MH have fun? I just suppose booze has a part, that is quite common for most kinds of fun... What does a MH party look like?

Perhaps I have to note that booze comes always after the work. A glass or a joint never helps you in studio, although we use it as indirect inspiration singing about it.
In terms of Black Metal, you can perhaps assign sarcasm and irony as Satanic properties, but we don't insist. Instead of having such big ideas, we prefer to sing real stories which happened to us, rather than telling tales.


After-work party in the studio; Silenthell, Vlasta and Monster.

You mentioned Hindo-Satanism, sounds interesting. Explain if you want to! The Bodhi tree you mention, it's the one where Buddha reached Nirvana, right? What is your personal relationship to India & Indian culture? And I just have to ask about the lyrics for "Ganesha Mantra (goatrance pro Zoju)" - what on Earth is that about?
 
Just another joke, Zoja is Vlasta's dog always yelling every time when listening to that song.
The actual Bodhi tree is not the original, but at least fourth or fifth newly planted after the real one, the temple and Buddha statue are all of concrete, in a very poor rendering, hence I disliked Buddhism. To me, quality of any religion is related closely to architecture - in a badly shaped temple you never get any enlightment.

The new line-up, is it the same as before? Any new blood in the MH family?
 
Martin Vrana - the painter is new. A very important member - charges us with creative power. Otherwise the line-up is the same, but without Mirek, the drummer, he lives somewhere outside.
 
Why did MH disappear in the first place in the 90's? What have you all been doing since, music-wise and else? I noticed that you work as a typographer (www.stormtype.com) – how did you end up in that business? I saw a documentary recently about typography – it's one of those universes that are present everywhere there is text, but you don't even know it's there. Very fascinating.

Typography and graphic design is my primary occupation, but there are periods in my life when I must switch for music at least for a couple of years. And vice versa. When I can't stand idiotic mediocre Heavy Metal fans, I focus back on typography. Once my half-assed clients start to eat my time with stupid questions, I always grab my guitar to make some noise again. The correct url is stormtype.com, but I don't want to make an ad here... or maybe yes, check it.
 
So the song "Typograf (autobiografická)" is an autobiographical text about your life as a typographer?

Yes, it explains the pain of practising "black art" - a term often related to printmaking and typography.

Have you guys been doing any other music during the years since MH's disappearance? I've found something called AIRBRUSH, some weird kind of electronica, on my hard-drive that I think I've downloaded from your website – was that your stuff? It sounds like your voice!

Yes, Airbrusher is a part of "Pornograficanka" project, which comprises various frustrated graphic designers from Prague. Musically it's entirely my work. In the same framework, I've made also another occasional songs like Laudatiö, but it's nothing worth to mention...


If we go back a bit into history... MH began, according to Internet resources at least, as early as 1983, which makes you one of the earliest Black Metal bands there are. What was it like to be in an extreme metal band back then, in Czechoslovakia? Was there any local scene that you were part of, or were you alone? On a wider scale, did you have any affinity to other bands behind the Iron Curtain, like ROOT (also from Czechoslovakia), TORMENTOR (Hungarians) and the like? Did you partake in all the classical metal activities – tape-trading around the globe, printing 'zines etc? What were your inspirations back then – Venom? Celtic Frost / Hellhammer?
 
Your sources are wrong, we formed in 1987. I know Root's Big Boss and Blackosh in person, but don't forget to mention other remarkable then local underground stars like Debustrol, Kryptor, Insania, Sv. Vincent... We used to run tape-trading, fanclub, demo-mailorder, but nothing big. I never lived so much in depth of metal scene.
 
Well then, the Internet is once again proven untrustworthy as a source of information! I hope someone reads this & fixes that mistake (it's on metal-archives.com). The names you mention, from the old underground scene, are you still in touch with any of them? Were any of those bands as free-thinking & experimental as MH?

Today, we have an email contact with just couple of them, exchanging sentimental images from gigs when we were young and thin.
There were many free thinking musicians, sharing the similar efforts to oppose ordinary patterns in metal as we. In fact we kept in touch only with such outstanding bands. Insania, for instance, is nowadays regarded entirely as alternative band. They have a great new album (2009).

Continuing on the historical route – how did the political state of the 80's impose on MH? I've heard for example that you weren't allowed to use any name you wanted, but got an absurdly random name assigned to your band, like CITRON, TAXI, VIDEO. Was that part of the reason why you didn't release your first album until 1991, after the Revolution? While we're on the Velvet Revolution – how did that major event change the life for an underground band like MASTER'S HAMMER? How do you relate to that time today, on a personal level?
 

I don't know about such band name assigning, but it sounds funny, actually, it would be great to be the one who invents them for other bands. The true is even worse: every band used to make their own choice, but with regard to then authorities, it should not resemble anything "western".
If my memory serves, we spent the "revolutionary" days in late 1989 at studio recording The Mass demo. We were too much egoistic and self-centric, or just simply hadn't enough time to perceive all that political shit. I love political talks like any record-labels related topics, pure shit...
 
Jumping to today, have you kept in touch with the world of metal since MH disappeared as an actor in the scene? If you have, what do you think of modern metal in general, extreme/Black metal in particular?
 
I don't know. I prefer different kinds of music, but I like UMBRTKA, the band from Plzen;. A great band which definitely deserves your attention.
 
From the beginning, Black Metal was about Satanism and occultism, as it is today. Looking at MH, that inspiration seems rather obvious – "Ritual", "The Jilemnice Occultist", the pentagram and crosses in the logo, et c. Were/are you practising Satanists and/or occultists, or was it just for aesthetic/shock values (as with bands like Venom)?
 
What is practising Satanist? Can you show me one? We're using Satanism just like other things of daily use - pen, paper, computer, glass, toilet, etc.
On "The Mass" demo back in 1989 we had one song saying "God is Now Our Servant and Satan as well!" and consequently many so-called Satanists (in fact they were posers) started to send us threatening letters. They couldn't imagine, that they also can say loudly: I am the most important entity in this universe, hence I shall not pray to any other strange and artificial being such as God or Satan, invented by other people. Any form of devotion in this world is good only for other peoples' wallets, not for mine. Only I am real. Nothing else doesn't even exist. One outstanding Czech philosopher Ladislav Klíma articulated this as "egosolism" - the utmost state of self-centred mind, saying "I am just My Glow"! and "Everything is just My Glow". Nice, isn't it? To me, something that completely exceeds trendy "Satanism". We are very self-centred, more than exorbitantly. Nowadays, I like Lord Ganesha, for example, I collect it, preferably made of plastic, if colour led-backlit - better!


Well, I don't know whether they should be taken seriously, but as always in Black Metal, they take themselves too seriously – I'm thinking about the "Orthodox" Satanists/Chaos-Gnostics in Watain, Ofermod, Deathspell Omega – the Norma Evangeli Diabolis label. Maybe some of them are serious in their faith, but (as always in BM) it has become another trend to build your posed evilness on.
So you're more on the LaVey side then? Anyway, it's obvious that you in MH have thoroughly walked your own path with little to no care about what others think.
By the way, I like that term, "egosolism", never heard it before.

Anybody who takes himself too seriously, is nothing but ridiculous. It's not just Satanic feature, but common human weakness.
LaVey inspired my diploma work at Prague's Academy, I've made illustrations to his Bible, but literally - it's a pile of trendy bullshit, typical American esoteric business.
Egosolism is a good thing, search for Ladislav Klíma, I'm sure there are some translations around.

Have you by the way ever been into more occult practises, magic rituals & stuff?

No, not at all. For me, all that junk is just cultural phenomenon, see surrealists, for instance, they studied sensibiles' drawings for years.

You were at your peak, if I may say so, in the early years of the 90's, and at the same time people started burning churches in the name of anti-Christianity (be they pagan or Satanists), I guess it started in Norway and spread throughout Europe to some extent. How did you react to that? Were you in touch with the Norwegian fellows, Euronymus etc? Was there anything similar in your region going on?

All this was just a monkey business, I'm so sorry.

What was Black Metal for you (the whole of MH) when you started playing it in the mid/late 80's? A musical outlet for Satanism, or just another harsher kind of Heavy Metal?
Does BM require a certain feeling/mentality? Has your idea of what BM means changed from back then to now when you've resumed your own activities?
 
Black Metal is for me a great challenge although I'm not into it. I like to use its methods among others. A painter doesn't need to eat colours from his palette. We never dressed just black.

While dealing with the occult – what is "The Jilemnice Occultist" album about? It's a narrative, almost like an opera – could you recap the story for those who don't read Czech?
 
I'm very sorry that I can't sing English. The story is about one poor occultist Atrament arriving to the city of Jilemnice to rescue beautiful Kalamária from the thrall of an evil fake-duke, and to prevent the Jilemnice treasury for the real one, blah, blah, it's more complicated. I should order a good translation sometimes, I know.
 


I found this home-made translation of both Jilemnice and Ritual – what do you think about them? http://morbidknocking.blogspot.com/2009/08/masters-hammer-english-language.html (of course, the blog is now defunct).

Cool, but page not found... Anyway, can I encourage a good translator this way? I promise I'll try to remix it over as karaoke.
 
Also, the music of that album had an unprecedented amount of symphonic elements (it would be years before any metal band became that symphonic) - where did you find inspiration for such a singular album? Was it a natural development from Ritual (which had at least some timpani and keyboards), or did you actively try to be experimental (like Celtic Frost on Into the Pandemonium)? What were the reactions from your fans and the underground in general on this outstanding album? It still sounds, after a whole 17 years, very "out there", and acquired taste to say the least.
 
The reactions were good, but we were somewhat tired and/or reluctant to fullfil all expectations of our audience, all about metal started to bore us after 1992. In musical terms, we ran out of so called metal-symphonic ideas, we were looking for a break. To outrage the legend we already were, in utmost rude manner. Šlágry was on the way perhaps since then. I'm not sure we were any innovative, but what I can unveil seriously is, that I don't know any note or musical scale.

 
On experimentalism – together with aforementioned Celtic Frost album, and maybe some Voivod albums, the "Jilemnice Occultist" album is considered by many to be one of the first albums in the "Avantgarde Metal" genre (which is why we're doing this interview in the first place...). How do you relate to that? Does the term "avant-garde" apply to MH, what you are doing now with Mantras, what you were doing with "Jilemnice Occultist" and "Slagry", do you think? I think it does, in your almost complete disregard for anything except your own intuitive inspiration (I suppose).
 
I understand, but I wouldn't call it any intentional experimentalism or avant-garde. Our primary concern was rather to do things different ways, although in early years we were likely too much Bathory - clones. What makes us extraordinary, is certainly a sloppy way we do everything. Hear the brutal sound of our first demos which resulted from the poorest gear you can imagine, similar sound now become standard to many today's orthodox black metal bands, because it was interesting, raw and straight. I realize that bands should somehow go back to these simple recording techniques and forget sophisticated software. Nowadays every beginning black metal group has an excellent sound mixed with the use of advanced compressors and effects, but it's the same sound you can hear everywhere.

I think that is what makes early Extreme Metal interesting for many, myself included – in the 80's, there weren't any studios who understood what the hell was going on with these kids coming in screaming & grinding, especially in Eastern Europe (so I've understood from an interview with Big Boss). So every recording is unique, and most often completely over the top (Bathory for example recorded his first couple of albums in his dad's garage!). So do you think MH has made the transition into the digital age smoothly? Did the sound on Mantras come out the way you wanted?

Exactly, you met the point. For Mantras, I've builded my own studio. Although the sound is probably far from being perfect, it's unique for us, and recognizable for listeners. Some sound engineers, eve today, waste too much time with improving sound, whereas we want to keep it brutal. They are trying hard to polish parts which should remain rough. Instead of explaining our needs to a pro (and pay for it), we try to dabble by ourselves. We love the computer sound alchemy.

But talking about sophisticated software – I saw on your website that you at least have a lot of sophisticated hardware & devices! Some of them even looked as if you've built them yourselves. Who's in charge of all of those?

Vlasta builded the first drum triggers for Valenta in 1990 for The Fall demo, it's funny construction of plywood and aluminium, but still working! Now we use semi-pro equipment, of course.
But by the way, in my ear, all computerized amp simulators sounds sort of cheap, nowadays I have my old Marshall JCM 900 for my new drop-tuned Gibson LP, driven over MXR Fullbore... Synths come always after, just to balance the hell with soft harmonies.
 
The pastoral theme is another thing that runs clearly through MH history – the new album is subtitled "Venkovská operetta" ("Countryside operetta"), the settings and mood of Jilemnice Occultist, and the plain fact that you've always sung in your native language (which you were probably first to do in extreme metal). What is your relation to being Czech, and to the regions you come from? Are MH particularly Czech in personality and behaviour, if there is any certain Czech way of being?


Wandering in the mountains: Jilemnice Occultist line-up, ca.1992

That's very simple: I've moved from Prague into the wild southern part of my country, built a studio and launched an eternal party with my friends. Some of them are musicians, so we do noise sometimes. We're not nationalists, the operetta is partly about Indian countryside and culture. South India is good because you don't need any heating. Every year I spare lots of wood by living there in winter, lying on a sunny beach whereas my schoolmates flounder in dirty snow on dark streets, haha.

I've come to realise that the Czech Republic is one of the world's foremost producers of beer – be it Staropramen, Starobrno, Krusovice (unsure about spelling), Breznak – do you have any personal favourites that you can recommend, outside of the mainstream I just mentioned? Asking about fav beers may be the most clichéd question in metal journalism, but since MH is a partying band I think it's a legitimate inquiry.

Of course, I think this is a good question - Pilsner Urquell is doubtlessly the most spread here, but we like also small breweries making non-pasteurized, non-filtered lagers, such as Bernard or Forschungsbrauerei in München-Perlach.


Havers of fun, haters of boredom: Mantras line-up 2009. L-R: Tomás "Monster" Vendl (bass), Vlasta Voral (keys, toys & beer), Honza "Silenthell" Pribyl (timpani), Tomás "Necrocock" Kohout (guitars & sick harmonies), Franta Storm (most everything)

I read – once again on metal-archives.com, so please don't blame me if it's wrong, hehe – that "there exists a bootleg 7" of material from the unreleased Zashla Krev album (originally supposed to follow The Jilemnice Occultist)", is this true? Again the bootleg issue pops its ugly head up. Is there such an unreleased album, & if so will it ever be released?

No secret, the bootleg NWN cause partly provoked us to Mantras. But Zaschla Krev is one of rehearsal leaks which were never intended for release, please regard it as completely unrelated to MH.

On the topic of old material re-released – the demo remasters are now available for online purchase ar www.bombaj.com. Now that you've released the new album on physical formats for the die-hards, have you considered doing the same with the demo collections & that stuff? Most often when I read what people write about MH online, it's in praise of the old stuff, so I don't think it would be any problem to sell it.

Demos are freshly available for free here, its vinyl/CD version is on top of to do list for 2010, we negotiate with then players such as Milan Fibiger. It shall be released gradually.



I saw somewhere that there's been recorded a tribute to MH, featuring a diverse set of Czech bands (from brutal death metal/grindcore to experimental/progressive/jazz black metal) – have you heard this? Are you legends in the Czech metal community?

All tributes are just fine, we are glad to inspire other bands, but no legends, please.

A final question for now: have you received any feedback on the new album yet? Do people enjoy it? I've seen it on at least two persons' best of the year-list. MH is one of those cult bands people mention very often – any negative reactions from people who can't stand music to evolve after 1992? And does positive reaction spur you to do more music?

Feedbacks mean a lot for us, we take seriously all of them, even the disgusting ones. Although we generally do our music just for personal pleasure, we're not deaf or blind, and patiently read any interesting reviews, but we never fulfil listeners' demands.

So Franta, thanks a lot for the interview. It has been quite enlightening. Any last words for the AGM.com readers and the MASTER'S HAMMER enthusiasts?

I'd like to say all AGM readers and MH listeners - please read also other things (such as books) and listen to something else apart from MH, don't stick with just metal.









Master's Hammer Official site (where you can, among other things, listen to all the old demo recordings)
Stormtype - where you can buy "Mantras" and fonts made Franta.

 aVoid

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