''Fascinator'' is the eighth studio album by Czech

black metal Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emp ...

band

Master's Hammer Master's Hammer are a black metal band from the Czech Republic. The band has remained active with several lineup changes between 1987 and 1995, with a reunion from 2009 to the present. It is considered one of the most representative groups of i ...

. It was released on 10 February 2018 through their own label, Jihosound Records, and is available in

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

, CD and

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...

formats. It is their first release since '' Vracejte konve na místo.'' to count with the participation of guitarist Petr "Blackie" Hošek (a former member of another important Czech black metal band,

Root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the su ...

) as an official member, their first one since ''

Mantras A mantra (Pali: ''manta'') or mantram (मन्त्रम्) is a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or phonemes, or group of words in Sanskrit, Pali and other languages believed by practitioners to have religious, ma ...

'' with former

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

player Honza "Silenthell" Přibyl, and the first one overall with new bassist Petr "Rámus" Mecák. Two tracks of the album, "Ve věži ticha" and "Estetika ďábla", were uploaded to vocalist Franta Štorm's official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel as teasers on 11 September and 22 November 2017, respectively. Štorm claims on the album's liner notes that most of its writing process were inspired by trips he took to

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

(a common destination for him), and

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

(Master's Hammer performed at a festival in

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

in 2017). "Linkola" is a tribute to the Finnish philosopher

Pentti Linkola Kaarlo Pentti Linkola (7 December 1932 – 5 April 2020) was a prominent Finnish deep ecologist, ornithologist, polemicist, naturalist, writer, and fisherman. He wrote widely about his ideas and in Finland was a prominent thinker.George C. ...

. Track 11's title is in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

Critical reception

The album was positively reviewed upon its release. ''MetalReviews.com'', giving it a grade of 85/100, praised its "eerie atmosphere", calling it a "weird and theatrical" album and comparing it favorably to the sonority of Japanese band

Sigh Paralanguage, also known as vocalics, is a component of meta-communication that may modify meaning, give nuanced meaning, or convey emotion, by using techniques such as prosody, pitch, volume, intonation, etc. It is sometimes defined as relatin ...

. ''Metal Invader'' rated it with a 4.5 out of 6, comparing Master's Hammer to American band

Psychotic Waltz Psychotic Waltz is a progressive metal band formed in El Cajon, California in 1988. Biography The first incarnation of the band was under the name Aslan, after a character in the novel '' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'' by C. S. Lewis. W ...

and saying the album was a huge improvement over the "rather mediocre" '' Formulæ''. ''Decibel Magazine'' noticed its "more atmospheric sound", praising its "great riffs and a punishing rhythm section".

Track listing

* Tracks 12 and 13 were not included on the vinyl issue of the album.

Personnel

* František "Franta" Štorm – vocals, electric guitar, keyboards, production, cover art * Petr "Blackie" Hošek – froggish solos, rhythm guitar * Jan "Honza" Kapák – drums, guitar harmonies * Honza "Silenthell" Přibyl – timpani * Petr "Rámus" Mecák – bass guitar * Tomáš "Necrocock" Kohout – sickly vocals, harmonies * Tom Rentor – shout (track 4) * Ondřej Pospíšil – mastering

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fascinator (Album) 2018 albums Master's Hammer albums