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Root: Zjevení

11/04/12 || gk

Czech Republic’s Root started life in the late 80s, around the same time as the 2nd wave of black metal was taking shape and while being influenced by Bathory and Celtic Frost, forged a path that would be uniquely their own.

Led by the charismatic and eccentric Big Boss and with the hugely talented Petr “Blackie” Hošek on guitars, Root had already put out a few demos through the late 80s. 1990 saw the band release “Zjeveni” and start their long and much ignored career in metal. The music on this debut is varied and sometimes a bit strange. The album opens with a recitation by Big Boss from the Satanic Bible in Czech and first proper song, “Zjeveni” could have been a lost Celtic Frost song with its jagged opening riff that mutates effortlessly into a faster thrash riff with Big Boss shouting out the lyrics and Blackie’s reverb laden guitar solos cutting through the dirt. “Upaleni” has various shifts in tempo and Boss hints at his baritone.

Looking at my tape copy of “Zjeveni,” it also feels like the band decided to put the slightly more straight forward songs on Side A and left the really crazy shit for side B. “666” is an aggressive but strange song with Boss shouting out what sounds like 666 over and over before going off into a scatter shot delivery style while the music is some raging Teutonic thrash. “7 černých Jezdců” starts with a gentle acoustic guitar and some spoken word vocals before the song goes off into a main riff and drum pattern that sounds more like Ministry than anything else with Boss continuing to shout himself hoarse. “Demon” is a bit more conventional but half way through the song, the band slows down into a dissonant crawl with Boss sounding tortured as he employs his baritone in a way that is quite unsettling. “Cesta Zkasky,” the final song on the album hints at the bands later divergence to grand and epic metal but shifts quickly into a raging beast.

The band pretty much borrows whatever influences they think work with the song and what we get is an album that is impossible to categorize neatly into any one box. German thrash, Bathory and Celtic Frost worship and even some doomy slow riffs all sit together comfortably with Boss’s vocal performance always being front and centre. Guitarists Blackie and Mr. D.A.N. also had this tendency where the riffs would sound just a little bit dissonant and it helps the songs achieve a strange, almost ritualistic atmosphere.

With “Zjeveni,” the band simply took a bunch of disparate influences and put all of them together while writing these songs. There’s something completely fearless about the band’s performance and they came up with what was a pretty special and unique debut. I don’t think there was anything else like this at the time and over the years and through their many stylistic changes, Root has remained quite solitary.

If you’re a fan of the band at all then you’ve probably heard this, own it and I’m just preaching to the choir. If you’ve never heard of the band before but like “extreme metal” then check out “Zjeveni.” Root was extreme metal long before it became a convenient blanket term to use on anything with harsh vocals and distorted riffs.

7,5

Information
Released: 1990
Label: Zeras
Website: Root MySpace
Band
Big Boss: vocals
Petr “Blackie” Hošek: guitars
Mr. D.A.N.: guitars
Black Drum: drums

Tracklist
01. Intro
02. Zjevení
03. Aralyon
04. Výslech
05. Upálení
06. Píseň pro Satana
07. 666
08. 7 černých Jezdců
09. Démon
10. Znamení
11. Cesta Zkázy

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