Maniac Butcher: Epitaph - The Final Onslaught of Maniac Butcher (2000)

If I had to pick one band to show what a stereotypical black metal band was all about, Maniac Butcher would be on the short list of groups to consider.  It can be seen in the band's visual aesthetic.  Just look at this patently ridiculous album cover, and all of their album covers are variations on this same theme.  It can be heard in their music: minimalist riffs repeating over and over on top of pounding, blast-beat driven drums and harsh, raspy vocals.  There are no keyboards, no clean vocals, no complex melodies.  It is just pure, hateful black metal.  And I love it.

This album was intended to be Maniac Butcher's final album, and the band did go on a lengthy hiatus before reuniting and releasing an album in 2010.  They disbanded for good when one of the two primary members died in 2015.  The Czech band formed in the early 1990's with some of the local masters of first wave black metal (Root, Master's Hammer) as primary influences, and taking that influence in as extreme and direct a direction as they could.  Along the way, they refused to compromise their position, refused to expand their musical influences, and absolutely refused to sell out, remaining an uber-kvlt black metal band through and through.

Maniac Butcher's albums are all basically the same, the band never changes the formula in any real ways.  The riffs are fast and intense, the kind of riffs that made up the black metal coming out of Norway in the early 1990's (think Immortal's early work).  The band has a gift for these kinds of riffs and there are some damn good ones here.  The vocals are croaked and raspy, like Barbarud Hrom is tearing his throat apart to deliver them.  The last song stands out because it is much slower and quite long.  But that is the only departure for the band.

A quick note about my own history listening to Maniac Butcher.  I first discovered the band several years ago with their album Černá krev.  But I did not really get them at the time, mostly because the production value of it was so shitty.  The band's albums are all being remastered now and the sound is much improved.  And now, I am going to pick up as many of the albums as I can.  I already have another two coming.  And that should be all you need to know.  Highly recommended.