Master's Hammer's new album - Mantras

[The Erlking]

"October 11, 2009:
As you surely know, we have no new releases after 1995, some links below may not work due to dispersed activities of former band members.

The bad news is that we've recently encountered several illegal and bootlegged releases of our old records, such as this, this and that. Our concern is not only the copyright issue, but above all deceiving of our faithful fans by those demanding money for unauthorised records and merchandises. First, we'd never use such awful colour combination and tasteless decoration; second, the song titles, lyrics and other printed informations contain factual mistakes; third, the sound quality is worse than original.

The good news is that Master's Hammer is now in studio working on a new album after 14 years.

We'll be back soon.

Franta, Vlasta, Necrocock, Monster and Silenthell.

http://www.mastershammer.com/"

I hope they can still pull out the same kind of quality their early black metal masterpieces are known of.

[nabel]

"October 11, 2009:
As you surely know, we have no new releases after 1995, some links below may not work due to dispersed activities of former band members.

The bad news is that we've recently encountered several illegal and bootlegged releases of our old records, such as this, this and that. Our concern is not only the copyright issue, but above all deceiving of our faithful fans by those demanding money for unauthorised records and merchandises. First, we'd never use such awful colour combination and tasteless decoration; second, the song titles, lyrics and other printed informations contain factual mistakes; third, the sound quality is worse than original.

The good news is that Master's Hammer is now in studio working on a new album after 14 years.

We'll be back soon.

Franta, Vlasta, Necrocock, Monster and Silenthell.

http://www.mastershammer.com/"

I hope they can still pull out the same level of quality their early black metal masterpieces are known of.

Do they then consider that NWN! 4LP set as a bootleg? That "awful colour combination" could mean that? Or that golden Osmose 2CD.
Anyway, if they start to play gigs I wonder how much german festival organisers will pay to have them on their lineup?

[The Erlking]

Do they then consider that NWN! 4LP set as a bootleg? That "awful colour combination" could mean that?

Yeah I wonder that too.. Wouldn't exactly call it a cheap fan-ripoff release myself.

[The_Elite]

If you click on the link to their site, there are links to the photos of the NWN release.

My guess is that they hate Osmose and are just pissed they licensed the albums out for a repress.

[humus]

Franta never seemed the easiest guy to work/deal with.
New album? If they want, they'll release the best album of the last decade. But it'll all depend on what their idea of a good album is nowadays.
I'm hoping for liveshows. One word and I'll be planning a trip to Czech republic again.

[Dodens Grav]

Annick, who did the layout for the LP, used fonts created by Franta Storm himself, so if he doesn't like the fonts, that's his problem.

Anyway, Osmose has the rights to these releases and co-released this with NWN. The band was contacted multiple times to be involved with the project. I guess now they're interested in the project after seeing its success.

[Mattila]

Typefaces do not equal layout/design, you know. Franta being the design wiz that he is, his standards are a bit higher than most people’s.

Everybody should know about Master’s Hammer’s difficult relationship with Osmose, so if NWN only dealt with Osmose and not with Franta & Co. directly, it’s no wonder the band feels cheated... again. Btw, who owns the rights to the debut album? As far as I know, part of the feud between MH and Osmose stemmed from Osmose re-releasing “Ritual” back in the day.

I for one am excited about the proposition of a brand new Master’s Hammer album! For me, they’re not an obscure band from the past, I loved the stuff back then and have continued to adore it through the years--nothing can possibly diminish the magick of those recordings. I know I’ll find it in myself to respect the new material… somehow. Actually liking it might be a different kettle of fish altogether.

[Dodens Grav]

I never said that the fonts equaled the entire layout. I was merely pointing out that the fonts used were created by Franta. That at least shows that attention to detail was paid. They should have cooperated with NWN and Osmose on the reissue in the first place instead of handling it like this after the fact. They WERE contacted to the best of my knowledge. And the claim that the sound quality is poor is completely retarded. The albums have probably never sounded better since each album was divided over two LPs instead being squeezed on to one. This is an internal issue that should have been handled between the band and the labels like it was intended to be in the beginning.

I also highly doubt that a new album will come even remotely near the first two albums, unless it's coming from songs that were already written in the early 90s. But if Beherit can do it, there's still a hope.

[DMR]

I wonder if they're going to re-record songs from their lost third album or write new material. Maybe both? Either way, I'll give it a chance.

[Satannick]

I was quite shocked when I read that... seriously, I thought Franta was going to love the design as we put so much effort into it.

Fonts: All fonts used were made by Storm himself
Graphics: Everything was taken from older Master's Hammer releases (including the mustached pentagram) except for the tapestry pattern (which gives it a royalty/eccentric style).
Colors: Purple is not only a color that evokes mystery, but a very powerful one. It was a color worn by kings in medieval Europe. I got the idea of purple when I visited the Prague castle (and saw all the clothing wore by ancient kings) and it stayed with me since... Combining it with gold sounded like a logical choice: mystery, power and luxury! It represents well the eccentric and horrific side of Master's Hammer. (I'm quoting myself here from the NWN forum)...

It's too bad Storm never replied to his e-mails, it would have been great to be in contact with him and make it exactly like he visionned it to be. In any case, this is Yosuke + my vision of the band. And I'm a die-hard fanatic.

In any case, I can't wait to hear the new material. I got news that Necrocock was already hitting the studio yesterday...

[The Erlking]

More news..

"October 14, 2009:
In answer to many rumours about the official release of our old demos, we are preparing their FREE download edition. All original mastertapes have been already meticulously cleaned in computer in the utmost intact shape, no additional filters and effect were applied. You'll encounter some noise on it, but including never heard rehearsals, and - quite strange sound of the very first gig of M. H. from 1989. Hi-res PDF's and Jpegs will be added. Don't buy bootlegs anymore.
Franta."

http://www.mastershammer.com/

[MEXDefenderOfSteel]

I was quite shocked when I read that... seriously, I thought Franta was going to love the design as we put so much effort into it.

Fonts: All fonts used were made by Storm himself
Graphics: Everything was taken from older Master's Hammer releases (including the mustached pentagram) except for the tapestry pattern (which gives it a royalty/eccentric style).
Colors: Purple is not only a color that evokes mystery, but a very powerful one. It was a color worn by kings in medieval Europe. I got the idea of purple when I visited the Prague castle (and saw all the clothing wore by ancient kings) and it stayed with me since... Combining it with gold sounded like a logical choice: mystery, power and luxury! It represents well the eccentric and horrific side of Master's Hammer. (I'm quoting myself here from the NWN forum)...

It's too bad Storm never replied to his e-mails, it would have been great to be in contact with him and make it exactly like he visionned it to be. In any case, this is Yosuke + my vision of the band. And I'm a die-hard fanatic.

In any case, I can't wait to hear the new material. I got news that Necrocock was already hitting the studio yesterday...

dudette! i loved it! the combination of colors fitted well for me..but wait so Franta´s words were about this release??

n daaaamn, i hate downloading but since this is coming from the band´s website im down to hear it!

[The Knell]

The 4 LP set was excellent except the czech character errors but that was more a minor thing imo.
I'm fine with this reunion as long as it still holds the quality (Id be cool with another Slagry as well)

[Rob]

Somewhow this reminded me VON and the fact that they also got pissed off because of the NWN release, they eventually ended also releasing mp3 at their site too.

Personally I love the Master's Hammer release of NWN and I love looking at it, it's pretty cool, I also enjoyed the purple colour there. It's by far the best multi vinyl set in my collection.

The 4 LP set was excellent except the czech character errors but that was more a minor thing imo.

What errors are you talking about Knell, I haven't noticed them, naturally because I can't speak the language.

I'm fine with this reunion as long as it still holds the quality (Id be cool with another Slagry as well)

I'd be fine if the new stuff was in the vein of the last track of Slagry. To speak the truth I possess the album more for archieve purposes.

Lets see what comes here.

[The Knell]

Somewhow this reminded me VON and the fact that they also got pissed off because of the NWN release, they eventually ended also releasing mp3 at their site too.

This was only one old member who participated shortly in that band but didnt had anything to do with Satanic Blood or Blood Angel etc. AFAIK. The actualy members who did the material and hold the copyright were okay with the vinyl reissue.

The 4 LP set was excellent except the czech character errors but that was more a minor thing imo.

What errors are you talking about Knell, I haven't noticed them, naturally because I can't speak the language.[/quote]

I'm speaking about the letters with Caron and similar (Ř,Ě,Š,Ů,...) which were replaced with ø and similar wrong characters. That is a common issue with some programs. I dont know exactly what it is but it's always with the "exotic" stuff around the letters.