Black Metal history written by the Czech messengers of darkness!
In 1988 two years prior to the iron curtain’s fall and at a time when playing Rock music could easily land you in jail for violating communist law, Jirí “Big Boss” Valter and Petr “Blackosh” Hošek decided to join forces to found ROOT. Adverse conditions and very low funds couldn`t prevent the eager bunch from marching forward, though. When Big Boss who wasn`t yet the band’s singer but played drums before switching to vocals for good on the fourth demo and ROOT’s guitarist Blackosh found the late Dr. Fe who did vocals on the first 3 demos and Dr. Zet on second guitar, ROOT were ready to strike.
During their initial pre-album stage ROOT managed to come up with 4 legendary demos before eventually releasing their debut album Zjeveni in 1990. Although influences from BATHORY and VENOM are apparent especially on the first 3 demos, ROOT – right from the start – managed to carve their own idiosyncratic niche. Thrashy riffs, a total lack of bass, stomping, primitive drums and Dr. Fe’s original Czech vocals are mingled with and interspersed by acoustic interludes, strange spoken word passages, incantations and samples from movies resulting in an eerie, off-kilter cocktail unheard of even today. It wasn’t until the fourth demo The Trial when Big Boss finally took over vocal duties that ROOT had finally found their unmistakable sound, though. In terms of songwriting and recording quality undoubtedly the best demo of the bunch, The Trial has everything ROOT would go on to develop further on their subsequent albums.
Exactly 10 years after ROOT’s tape box was released by Darkness Shall Rise we are extremely thrilled to offer you this luxurious compilation of the first 4 groundbreaking demos of one of Black Metal’s founding fathers on various formats.
For the first time ever all audio-files were restored and mastered from the original tapes by Patrick W. Engel.
Tracklist
Side A (Reap Of Hell 1988)
1. Intro (Beethoven Allegro)
2. Litanie k Satanovi
3. Sedm jezdcu
4. Písen pro Satana
5. Hrbitov
Side B (Messengers From Darkness 1989)
6. Intro (Príchod poslu)
7. Rootanuv príchod
8. Poslové z temnot
9. Útek a trest
10. 666
11. Stín a prokletí
12. Otvírání hrobu
13. Prázdný hrob
14. Zrození Rootanova syna
15. Outro
Side C (War Of Rats 1988)
16. 7 Synu Satana
17. …a Zeme se otevrela
18. Král Dogra
Side D (War Of Rats 1988)
19. Volání o pomoc
20. Dogrova ríše
Side E (The Trial 1989)
21. Procitnutí I (Intro)
22. Soud
23. Zjevení
24. Aralyon
Side F (The Trial 1989)
25. Výslech
26. Upálení
27. Cesta zkázy
28. Procitnutí II (Outro)
