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I've recently come into possession of four Root albums, and as I do with any other artist whose extended discography I suddenly receive, I listen and dissect the albums in the order in which they were released. I've listened to the other three Root albums I own, and while there are a lot of superb pieces of music to be found, none of the truly outstanding tracks can be found on Zjevení. This album contains Root's music at their most primitive and least explorative, and thusly will only truly appeal to diehard fans of Black Metal. As one who doesn't listen to Black Metal as much as other genres of metal, I can tell you that if you're not a fan of the genre and are looking for something revolutionary in this album, you are almost guaranteed not to find it. I had heard of Root and the extremely high influence they hold in the Black Metal scene, so I was excited to hear their roots (no pun intended) when I popped in this, their debut album, and needless to say I was a bit underwhelmed.

That's not to say there is absolutely nothing good about the album, because that's not the case. The drums are superb for such an early release, and while vocalist Big Boss doesn't reach the vocal range he does in later albums, the satanic verses he spews out are extremely creepy effective, especially along with the atmosphere set by the instruments. Songs like "Cesta Zkázy" and "Démon" are great and haunting and will stick with you after the first listen, but mostly all other tracks are passable, unless you want to really delve deep and look for genius that may or may not be there for the sake of believing that this album is really as legendary as it is cracked up to be.

All in all, it is a good start for Root, but it is in no way their best effort.

Additional Information

- 2009 re-issue on I Hate Records reviewed here.