Root are one of those bands that I have really wanted to check out in more detail. Their somewhat unexpected inclusion on the No Mercy Fest tour of 2007 certainly made me want to hear some of their albums. They put on a mystical display that was as much a Satanic sermon as it was a mere concert and singer Jirí "Big Boss" Valter intricately made up with face paint and reading from a pulpit was very much playing the part of an emissary of the dark lord. Reading the biog and looking into things more fully within the context of the albums that have turned up, things now make a lot more sense. Big Boss actually founded the Czech branch of The Church Of Satan and translated many of the movement’s books such as The Satanic Bible into his language, thereby really teaching his country how to worship Satan. If that was not enough, we have the albums by Root particularly enforcing the message.
Hell Symphony the group’s 1991 release certainly lives up to its premise being an album where the majority of song titles represent other names that can be associated with Satan. Musically this is far from a baptism in fire but more of a sinister treatise to hell itself. ‘Beelzebub’ does not really explode but enigmatically weaves its way in with cackles and sinister arcane raptures before the song boosts into a gnarly but fluidly played instrumental furrow. The production here is excellent and the musicianship is tight and even grandiose at times. The guitar passages occasionally are left to glisten acoustically and boy are they lush, they say the devil has the best tunes and here is the proof. Moving onto ‘Belial’ the vocals hone in and are gravid, rasping and guttural at odds with the majesty of the music perhaps and sounding angry like the Devil in pain after bursting a particularly nasty boil on his bum!
The drumming should also be mentioned as it also is really impressive, at times even tribal as it batters out a tattoo on the black thrash laden Venomous ‘Asmodeus’ or being pretty much the complete focus of attention on ‘Satan.’ Proving they can play fast we have the furious ‘The Oath’ which lyrically does as expected and would give Impaled Nazarene a run for their money on both speed and pure evilness. A few live tracks are included on this reissue.
The Book came out after a couple of other full length albums in 1999, backed up here with some unreleased demo versions it weighs in at a whopping 76 minutes. The Book in question is obviously no fairy tale but perhaps something along the lines of The Necronomicon. The title track on opening its pages unleashes mystery and danger and as this album unravels you never know where it is going to take you next. Musically it is expertly played and again sounds fantastic; the progressive tones of ‘The Mystical Words Of The Wise’ contains unexpected clean singing which is a real surprise and full of theatrical flair. Things settle into a mid-paced groove and despite getting more accustomed to the music the vocals are oft odd, unhinged and deranged, offering hoary chants, big brash roars, evil cackles and on ‘Corabeu Part One’ almost a spot of cabaret Vaudeville!
With a spot of what sounds like violin jigging the dance of ‘Lykorian’ one has to wonder what Anton Szandor LaVey would have thought of this if he had lived to hear it? ‘Remember Me’ strikes as being the closest on both albums to an actual structured verse, chorus, verse song and it really does stand out and is the number in the discs most likely to be (err) remembered.
From thereon though anything structured goes out the window, we have passages of whale song for the ‘Darkoutro’ and bizarre piano pieces before the aforementioned demo versions strangely finish things off.
Listening to these now a couple of things kind of strike me; they are totally original albums (I cannot think of a single comparable band) and they do not sound dated in any way. These are both albums that are no doubt considered as classics and these are welcome reissues from I Hate, it would be a real shame if they had vanished into obscurity.
http://rootan.net
http://www.myspace.com/rootcze
http://www.ihate.se
