Šlágry
Šlágry (in English Schlager music) is the third album by Master's Hammer. The album was a goodbye to fans, although the music on the album is extremely different from their previous material, featuring a primarily electronic and raw avant-garde sound, with very few black metal elements of their early career. The opening track, "Šavlový tanec", is a cover of the famous "Sabre Dance" suite by Aram Khachaturian.
"Ach, synku, synku" and "Půjdem spolu do Betléma" are covers of Czech folksongs.
"Carl Czerny, Op. 849" is an excerpt of Carl Czerny's Op. 849 played backwards.
"Vzpomínám na zlaté časy" takes its lyrics from a poem by Otto Katz.
"Nabucco" is an excerpt of Giuseppe Verdi's eponymous opera.
Track listing
Musical style
On Šlágry, the band "virtually abandoned the operatic black metal of previous releases in favor of modernist electronic music" and "shares publishing credits with Carl Czerny, Otto Katz, and Giuseppe Verdi, mixing bits of metal, folk, and musique concrète into a style based on the classical avant-garde", and the band announced "that Slágry II and a forthcoming CD-ROM will rely more on professional opera singers and orchestra players", although this following album was never released. Ian Christe wrote that "Master’s Hammer […] have become witty musique moderne composers with Slagry, trading in distortion for traditional orchestral instrumentation while keeping oddball arrangements that make metal appealing". According to him, ”the mixed-up metal influences were part of an exit strategy".
Podcasts:
