Zjevení

The three most known Czech black metal bands from the old times have to be Master's Hammer, Törr and Root. Out of these, Root were possibly the most Bathory-influenced out of the three, yet maintaining a unique style. Their debut, Zjevení, came out after a string of demos in late 1990, which places it in between Armageddon and Rituál.

What you see on the front cover is Big Boss, the band's vocalist and by far the oldest member. I'd say he steals most of the spotlight on this record, and he does it with incredible style yet without too much bravado. His vocals are incredibly dynamic and charismatic, alternating between several styles. For the most part he uses a raspy… I can't say growl, since he remains perfectly intelligible throughout the whole album, but it's a relatively low vocal that sounds perfect in combination with the overall black/thrash feel. Here and there, he does an evil laugh, and some tracks use vocal effects.

Chanting and spoken word sections are featured, too. The album itself begins with a spoken version of the Tenth Enochian Key, the first half of Upálení consists of a court sentence, etc. I really want to stress this out, as this is for sure the most spoken word I've ever heard on an album, and I think it would be pretty annoying if I couldn't understand what Big Boss was saying. He also wrote all of the lyrics, which mostly deal with occultism and the worshipping of Satan. If you don't take them 100% seriously, which I think they weren't meant to, they work great.

Instrumental-wise, I'd call this a blackened thrash record for the most part. Two guitars are in the forefront, with a very crisp and almost chilling sound. Each song (bar the intermezzos) is built upon a fun and memorable riff or two, with some pretty abrupt shitts and tempo changes. The band features several solos, too, which I didn't expect but they fit in surprisingly well. At times, the guitars are exchanged for sinister sounding acoustic ones, to great effect I might add.

I'm convinced that this album has phantom bass. Nobody is credited with playing a bass guitar on the album's cover, and from what I've found the band simply didn't use one at the time, but I swear I can hear it at times, even if it's rather hidden in the mix. It's more than compensated for by the drumming however, which is a real standout. Fresh, dynamic, precise and original, sometimes blasting, sometimes marching, whatever fits the current moment in a particular track. I really don't have anything to criticize here. Even on the longest and properly monstrous song, that being Cesta zkázy, things are kept interesting – a doomy intro, with the drums building up the tension until the speedup, and even having two short solos before ending on a tribal note.

In terms of the overall atmosphere, nothing comes off as an unnecessary gimmick, and the result is phenomenal. Big Boss' theatric vocals play a big part, but the overall sinister undertone and the occasional and well-suited effects and samples make it just perfect.

If first wave black metal is in any way up your alley, be sure to check out this hidden gem!

Except Master's Hammer, which had once been ironically called the first Norwegian black metal by Fenriz of Darkthrone, there were some other extreme bands in Czechia of the late 80s. Root was among them and it became a one of the most important bands, almost the same important as Master's Hammer itself. Root's debut full-length album "Zjevení" was released even a bit earlier, than "Ritual".

Logically the music of "Zjevení" is rooted in thrash metal, in a raw and evil form of it. It's often mid and low-paced, which is good, because some slower melodies sound epic, while they are pretty straightforward and aggressive. Of course, it's a bit different epicness in comparison to the one, which will be performed by Root later. "Zjevení" demonstrates the seeds of that epicness. Anyway, there are a lot of explosive episodes on the album. The music of the album sounds as harsh as it has been possible for the first wave black metal, it can be compared with Bathory. Probably Bathory was the biggest influence on Root back then.

Big Boss' vocals are a one of the most valuable things of the album. They sound like a proto-version of Attila's vocals on "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas". It's not a traditional screaming, but it's crude and it fits the music. Big Boss' vocal performance carries the great charisma. It's diverse, its tone is variable. It's truly artistic. From time to time Big Boss can perform declamations, laughter, clean vocals. And, of course, the lyrics in Czech language makes the vocals sound more interesting.

Big Boss is an interesting person in general. He creates the same great energetics on stage. By the release of "Zjevení" he was 38 years old, which was an exceptional phenomenon on the extreme metal scene of that period of time, as it's known, that some of the biggest bricks of extreme metal fundament were juvenile maximalism and temperament. Big Boss had the professionalism instead of those features. By the way, even his bandmates look noticeably younger on the photos of Root's early years. Maybe that's why he was called Big Boss?

"Zjevení" is filled with catchy riffs. A one excellent composition comes after another. And the album is especially good at its culmination. There's "Píseň Pro Satana", which possesses a one of the most recognizable riffs, it was covered not once, while the most famous cover belongs to Nargaroth. There's ferocious "666" and "7 Černých Jezdců", which has just wild melodies spectacularly coming after the acoustic introduction. There's "Démon", which hypnotizes with the sinister mantra "Démon útočí na křídlech hrůzy!".

"Zjevení" is a masterpiece. A one of the best examples of first wave black metal. It's aggressive and possesses the infernal energy, while it's quite ritualistic and dark. It's a unique album both in general and in terms of Root's discography, because already the following album would demonstrate different manner. That's why "Zjevení" is highly valuable.

I am not too wild about new Root material. It’s not my cup of tea at all, really. Their old stuff however (the demos, Zjeveni, Hell Symphony, and the Temple in the Underworld), I love. But I am in no way bashing new Root, because it obviously is extremely well put together and I can understand why someone into that form of metal would like it, but personally, when it comes to metal, I really only listen to the old stuff (and some newer bands who play older sounding forms of metal). And that is just what Zjeveni is – old school, archaic, haunting, off kilter black metal, done in a completely unique fashion, just like what most of those of Czech bands were doing at the time. This album is just amazing. The production, the songwriting, the riffs, the atmosphere, the vocals, etc. It is all just brilliant.

The production on here really does the music justice. It has a very cavernous and chilling aura to it, and gives all the instruments plenty of room to breath and work off one another perfectly. The vocals are upfront, where they should be, and are panned dead center. The guitars are double tracked, one in each channel, and give the album a powerful riff-driven sound, with the bass guitar and drums working as the engine. The drums have quite a heavy sound and were obviously well miked and mixed adequately. The bass drum could be a tad bassier, but it does its job.

Big Boss has always had a great voice, even on the demos. But on here, they have progressed incredibly into something that is just simply amazing. On here, he has moved on to a much deeper register, and although he isn’t quite growling, he is certainly doing something of that nature. It is more of a guttural rasp, and the fact that it is all in Czechoslovakian makes it even better, as it is one of the coolest languages out there. It seems a lot these great Czech black metal bands had interesting vocalists, such as the mighty Törr and incredible Master’s Hammer. The two guitars on here have great tones. They have an ancient and frigid sound, drenched in heavy reverb and steaming with harsh, blackened distortion. But what would a good guitar tone be without the riffs to back it up? Not much, but that is not the case here. The riffs are pretty well varied, and are actually quite strange in some sections, incorporating things such as dissonance and note clusters. The bass has a clean tone and pretty much just follows the root notes of the guitars, except when they go into a lead or bridge, in which case it usually sticks to the previous riff. The drums are executed very well, and Black Drum really knows his way around a drum kit. He varies the tempos up quite a bit, and knows how to use dynamics in a way that can create a really epic feeling, especially during songs like “Cesta Zkázy”, which starts out with clean vocals, a slow riff, and tom fills, eventually building into the high speed frenzies and tempo changes seen throughout the song.

This is an excellent album, and to all fans of unique, ancient, Czech black metal, I recommend you check it out, despite your possible distaste for the band’s new material.

To all those who were amazed by Big Boss's amazing operatic vocals and the magical sound of modern Root... This is not for the weak of will.
While their later albums, starting with The Temple In The Underground, had an epic style with a more delicate stylistic approach, and Hell Symphony was a great piece of technically prolificent black metal, Zjeveni is a gathering of tracks in the vein of the early demos of the band. Which, of course, come very close to the sound of bands like Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. Very, very close.
What makes this album superior to crappy Hellhammer worshippers and faggy black/thrash fans is the songwriting. The rhythms range from mid-paced, slowed down black metal to Celtics' speed metal and sometimes deathier double bass reminiscent of Sepultura's death tinged thrash style. Several songs, like Zjeveni and 7 Eernych Jezdcu, include mildly sinister acoustic passages, which take some of the charm of the song, but make the structure more solid in a ritualistic way. Don't expect 100 riffs per song, because you will die by disappointment. There are usually only two or three riffs to be found in each track. The leads also set an ugly, creepy mood, even if they are not the Malmsteen how-many-notes-can-you-play style. Their distortion is pretty strange for black metal standards, and to be honest, they remind me a lot of Butthole Surfers' deranged psychedelic brand. Big Boss adopted the standard black/death growl here, with occasional spoken parts and torn-from-the-grave eerie grunts. A honest and unpretentious style, I dare to say. Noticed the presence of electronic weird effects, like in Aralyon, with that nasty vocal effect, and Vyslech, with some scary chaotic disparated sounds.
Overall, a good acquirement for those who love old-school overlooked albums from overlooked bands.