Master's Hammer | Maldorör Disco | Darkness Shall Rise Productions

Release Date: 26 November 2025

Format: CD/Vinyl/Cassette

Genre: Avant-Garde/Experimental Metal

Country: Czech Republic

Formed in Prague during the late 1980s, Master’s Hammer is among the most unique entities in extreme metal. Emerging from the second wave of black metal but quickly straying from its traditional paths, the band built a reputation for theatrical, surreal, and eccentric compositions that blurred the line between the absurd and the profound. Led by Franta Štorm, they became known not only for their music but also for their striking visual art and cryptic humor. After their apparent farewell in 2018, few expected to hear from them again, yet here they are, resurrected with “Maldorör Disco,” their ninth full-length.

This new chapter in the band’s strange saga opens with a sound that drifts further away from black metal into a twilight of electronic experimentation and industrial pulse. The guitars remain, but they share their space with a wide range of synthetic textures, quirky samples, and strange rhythmic constructions. The atmosphere is mechanical and hypnotic, not cold but surreal, as if the band built a parallel world inside their studio. Franta’s riffs move slowly, supported by steady beats and shifting electronic waves that twist around his voice in unpredictable ways.

Vocally, the album plays with contrasts, growls, spoken lines, distorted chants, arranged in peculiar patterns that give each track its own odd personality. The title track, “Maldorör Disco,” is particularly striking, merging grotesque humor with mechanical precision. Elsewhere, songs like “Bicycle Day” and “Genesis P. Orridge” drift into territories where industrial rhythms and absurdist storytelling intertwine. It’s bizarre and playful but also strangely immersive, like watching a surreal cabaret unfold inside a malfunctioning machine.

Lyrically and visually, Master’s Hammer remains in a world of their own. The album art, once again created by Franta, is an essential companion to the music, bizarre, colorful, and deeply connected to the weirdness of the songs. The lyrics continue the band’s tradition of mixing dark satire with poetic nonsense, making “Maldorör Disco” as much an art piece as it is an album.

The production is raw but spacious, giving the electronics room, while keeping the guitars gritty and present. It’s not a heavy album in the traditional sense, but it has a strange intensity born from its rhythm and imagination. For longtime followers, it confirms that Master’s Hammer never settled into predictability. For new listeners, it’s a wild introduction to a band that exists in its own parallel musical universe. “Maldorör Disco” is an eccentric, vibrant return from one of metal’s most unconventional minds, a daring continuation of a legacy that refuses to fade quietly.

Score: 8.0

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