''Jilemnický okultista'' (
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
title: ''The
Jilemnice
Jilemnice (; german: Starkenbach) is a town in Semily District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,400 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.
Administrative parts ...
Occultist'') is the second 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 ...
, self-released on December 1992 and distributed elsewhere by
Osmose Productions
Osmose Productions is a French independent record label created in 1991 by Hervé Herbaut, after he had spent three years running a small mail order company. They specialize mainly in death and black metal bands.
Many of the groups who began w ...
in the following year. Self-described by the band as "the world's first black metal
operetta" and largely inspired by
King Diamond
Kim Bendix Petersen (born 14 June 1956), better known by his stage name King Diamond, is a Danish rock musician. As a vocalist, he is known for his powerful and wide-ranging countertenor singing voice, in particular his far-reaching falsetto ...
's
rock opera
A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...
s (an early influence of Master's Hammer alongside another project fronted by their
eponymous vocalist,
Mercyful Fate
Mercyful Fate is a Danish heavy metal band from Copenhagen, formed in 1981 by vocalist King Diamond and guitarist Hank Shermann. Influenced by progressive rock and hard rock, and with lyrics dealing with Satan and the occult, Mercyful Fat ...
), it is their first of two
concept albums, the second being ''
Vagus Vetus
''Vagus Vetus'' is the sixth studio album by Czech black metal band Master's Hammer, released on 18 May 2014 through the band's own record label, Jihosound Records, founded the year prior. It is the group's second concept album so far, the first ...
'', released in 2014. On several early Osmose pressings "''Jilemnice''" is misspelt as "''Filemnice''", what would be corrected in later pressings. Despite the track listing being in English, all the lyrics are in Czech. The original release contained the Czech titles.
In this album, Vlastimil Voral joined Master's Hammer as a full-time member (he had already played on the band's previous album, ''
Ritual.'', but was credited as a guest musician only).
''Jilemnický okultista'' would be re-issued in 2017 by
Franta Štorm's label Jihosound Records under
digipak
Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage.
Jewel case
...
format with a slightly different cover art and two bonus tracks, taken from a preliminary
demo tape version of the album recorded in early February 1992 (see
below).
Plot
The album, which is meant to be read as an "
operetta in three acts", is set in
Bohemia, in the year of 1913, and tells the story of Atrament, a young wandering
occultist who just arrives in the village of
Jilemnice
Jilemnice (; german: Starkenbach) is a town in Semily District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,400 inhabitants. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monument zone.
Administrative parts ...
with the intent of furthering his studies on the occult arts there (since at the time the village was a major venue for occultists and
Spiritist mediums
Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...
). He settles at an
inn
Inns are generally establishments or buildings where travelers can seek lodging, and usually, food and drink. Inns are typically located in the country or along a highway; before the advent of motorized transportation they also provided accommo ...
ran by the rich
landlord
A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, t ...
Spiritus, and falls in love at first sight with his beautiful daughter, Kalamaria (who is secretly a
witch
Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...
), being requited. However, the village's ''
hejtman
( uk, гетьман, translit=het'man) is a political title from Central and Eastern Europe, historically assigned to military commanders.
Used by the Czechs in Bohemia since the 15th century. It was the title of the second-highest military ...
'' (captain), Satrapold, also loves Kalamaria. After injustly arresting Atrament, he kidnaps Kalamaria with the help of his
groom Blether and takes her to his castle. Satrapold plans to escape to
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
with her (betraying Blether in the process, who flees to the nearby town of
Železný Brod in disgrace, never to be seen or heard from again), but before he can do so she uses her mystical powers to discover that he is actually the villainous Poebeldorf under disguise, and that he also imprisoned the real Satrapold. Formerly Satrapold's ''
aide-de-camp'', Poebeldorf rebelled against his master and planned all along to take his place as the village's captain, steal all its riches and Kalamaria's fortune, and flee to start a new life in a different land, but Kalamaria thwarts his evil plans thanks to her powers; subsequently, both Atrament and Satrapold are freed from prison and Poebeldorf himself is arrested. The album then ends with a huge celebration taking place at Spiritus' inn.
The only track unrelated to the album's story is "Suchardův dům (V Nové Pace)". Suchardův dům, or "Sucharda's house" in English, was the residence of the noble
Sucharda family of woodcarvers and sculptors from
Nová Paka, originally built in 1896. Since 1908 the City Museum of Nová Paka functions in the house. Notable members of the Sucharda family include brothers
Stanislav and
Vojtěch Sucharda.
Covers
German
gothic metal band
The Vision Bleak
The Vision Bleak is a German gothic metal duo comprising Ulf Theodor Schwadorf (famous for his work with Empyrium and Noekk) and Allen B. Konstanz. The group's lyrics are noted for their horror themes and heavily allude to works of classic wr ...
made an English-language adaptation of "Já mizérií osudu jsem pronásledován..." (under the title "By the Misery of Fate He Was Haunted"), present in the
digipak
Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage.
Jewel case
...
re-release of their 2010 album ''
Set Sail to Mystery''.
Critical reception
Götz Kühnemund from German ''Rock Hard'' magazine compared ''Jilemnický okultista'' to
King Diamond
Kim Bendix Petersen (born 14 June 1956), better known by his stage name King Diamond, is a Danish rock musician. As a vocalist, he is known for his powerful and wide-ranging countertenor singing voice, in particular his far-reaching falsetto ...
, though Master's Hammer's style was described as "considerably more uncompromising". The vocals were described as "like a mixture of deep
King Diamond
Kim Bendix Petersen (born 14 June 1956), better known by his stage name King Diamond, is a Danish rock musician. As a vocalist, he is known for his powerful and wide-ranging countertenor singing voice, in particular his far-reaching falsetto ...
voices and
Quorthon
Thomas Börje Forsberg (17 February 1966 – 3 June 2004),Date stated in the death notice for Ace Börje Forsberg that his family put in the swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter on 23 June 2004, the death notice also included the lyrics to the Batho ...
's guttural grunts". Kühnemund lauded the band's unusual style and the album's "
expectedly good" production that "never lets faster chipping passages degenerate into awful chaos". He called ''Jilemnický okultista'' "one of the most extraordinary
death metal albums of the year". Gabe Kagan, writing for Invisible Blog, also spoke favorably of the album, calling it "the soundtrack to the literary works of
E. T. A. Hoffmann".
In 2017, the album was featured in ''
Loudwire'' list of the Top 30 Black Metal Albums of All Time, in 27th place.
Track listing
''Jilemnický okultista'' demo
The ''Jilemnický okultista''
demo tape, self-released in February 1992, contains a slightly different track listing, and was recorded on an
Apple Macintosh IIci, a novelty in the Czech Republic at the time.
Master's Hammer Archives
/ref> The demo counterparts of "Mezi kopci cesta je klikatá..." and "Já nechci mnoho trápiti..." previously appeared on the band's teaser EP ''Klavierstück'', which came out the year prior, under the English titles "Cards Do Not Lie" and "Satrapold" respectively.
Famous Czech guitarist Vítek "Vít" Malinovský was a guest musician on the tape, contributing with guitar solos for the instrumental tracks "Litografické kalendáře" and "Mediální kresby".
''Jilemnický okultista'' was eventually remastered in 2013 for the release of '' Demos.'', a compilation of all of Master's Hammer's demo tapes.
Personnel
* František "Franta" Štorm – vocals, guitars, photography, cover art, production
* Tomáš "Necrocock" Kohout – guitars
* Tomáš "Monster" Vendl – bass
* Miroslav "Mirek" Valenta – drums
* Honza "Silenthell" Přibyl – 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 ...
* Vlastimil "Vlasta" Voral – keyboards, production, engineering, mixing
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jilemnicky Okultista
1992 albums
Concept albums
Master's Hammer albums
Self-released albums
Osmose Productions albums
Rock operas