Review by Felix on March 27, 2020.

Maniac Butcher? Honestly, I did not know that this band exists until my Serbian metal friend told me something about these worshippers of corpse paint and musical bestiality. I must confess, to my shame, that this band is active since 1993, but I never stumbled over one of their releases. Bad music? Insufficient distribution? Both? Anyway, the Serbian guy that I know has a good music taste and therefore I became curious to discover the art of the dudes from the Czech Republic. My first impression was that some parts of the music border on chaos and the nasty, slightly choleric voice also shows some chaotic tendencies. It sounds as if the guy suffers from schizophrenia. This is no easy listening Black Metal. It challenges the listener who has to clench his (or, in very rare cases: her) teeth in order to uncover the spiritual core of Masakr. Yet two things are for sure. There is a spiritual essence - and the album title does not promise too much.

The violent yet comparably straight 'Rozhodnutí nezvratné všecken mír rozhodně rozvracející' gave me the first orientation. Driven by a fantastic riff which seems to originate from a formerly unknown archive of Possessed, the song surprises with a short thrash metal salute. Yet it does not take long until ultra-intensive sections gain the upper hand. Murderous guitars, barbaric nagging and high-speed drums send the audience to hell and back. Do not get me wrong, I do not intend to glorify any kind of military attacks when saying that this music can be described as Blitzkrieg black metal. Nevertheless, this martial term must be used in this context. In addition, the churning sound ensures that the compositional tricks do not come off badly. All musicians contribute to the infernal, hostile overall impression and the production pays tribute to their passionate performance. Too bad that some of the other tracks are less infectious. The fourth track, for example, is anything else but lackluster. Nevertheless, the well appreciated element of incomprehensible insanity is missing, probably due to the fact that the band has slowed down the pace.

What I really like is that Maniac Butcher confuse the listener with their self-made chaos from time to time, but they have - contrary to my first impression - everything under control. They do not lose the structure and they are always able to forge targeted lines that rise out of the omnipresent acoustic pandemonium. Finally, they offer more slow-paced or mid-tempo parts than I thought after having seen the artwork – nevertheless, each and every second they spit in the face of mainstream music and their dedication is remarkable. Intensity is an important indicator for black metal and Maniac Butcher achieve an amazing degree. They are not interested in soft interludes and therefore the strong flavor of the output remains undiluted. Admittedly, the other songs stand in the shadow of 'Rozhodnutí...', but this is not to say that they suffer from any kind of serious flaws. Despite its rather amateurish artwork, Masakr houses very professionally performed black metal with a noisy, hysterical touch which reminds me of pretty obscure bands such as Drephjard. Thus, I recommend this album to all those of you who hate the current configuration of Dimmu Borgir and comparable clowns who have nothing better do to than killing the reputation and scratching the ugly face of real black metal. Bands like Maniac Butcher will never be successful in commercial terms, but they take our black hearts by storm due to their stubborn and unswerving philosophy. That's why we like these formations, in Serbia, in Germany and hopefully everywhere else.

Rating: 7.7 out of 10