Saturday 7 July 2012

Deathhammer - Onward To The Pits


Hells Headbangers are the purveyors of some of the best underground extreme metal around at the moment, ranging from angry, true thrash metal to raging death metal. This review features Norwegian duo Deathhammer and their newest release.

Tracklist:-

1. Deathrashing Sacrifice
2. Voodoo Rites
3. Fullmoon Sorcery
4. Emperor of Sin
5. To The Evil
6. Final Black Mass
7. Army of Death
8. Seduced by The Flames
9. Lead Us Into Hell
10. Onward To The Pits

Deathrashing Sacrifice is pure, unadulterated old-school death-thrash. It's full of crashing cymbals, raging guitars and crazed growls. Deathhammer are a duo, but you'd never know. The music is chaotic and headbangingly good. There's even a killer solo and some high-pitched, classic thrash screams, in case you were in any doubt.

Voodoo Rites is faster and has more of an immediate impact. The riffs are very solid, although as they sit quite deep in the mix, they sound a bit quiet. The drums are furious and pin everything together well.

The riffs at the start of Full moon Sorcery, remind of the classic heavy metal sounds of bands like Venom and Mercyful Fate. The vocals have the same effect too, with those wailing screams that sporadically cry out, amongst the raspy screams. They sound like a chainsaw in full flow. It all ends in a whirlwind of crazed guitar solos and manic drumming.

Emperor of Sin is a more mid-paced effort to start with, before the intro flails at you with more breakneck thrash. The solo towards the end has a folk element to its sound and melody. The first half of this record screams passed ultra quickly and before you know it, you’re at fifth track To The Evil. This is one of the most evil sounding songs on offer, especially thanks to those vocals!

Final Black Mass has a rock n roll sense to it, with some pretty awesome riffs to kick things off. With the organic production, it also sounds really authentic and insanely evil! Army of Death has a militant thrash influence to it, with the riffs marching along at a hefty speed. Quite apt really, when you consider the title of the song.

More battle style riffs are evident at the start of Seduced by The Flames, which is the longest song on here, lasting just over six minutes. It's also one of the most old school sounding songs on the record. The majority of this song is instrumental, featuring some great guitar melodies amongst the hostile riffing.

Lead us Into Hell sounds as though it's about to when the intro kicks in. It's stays that way throughout the song. Those, semi-bark screams and cries, the thick wall of sound from the instruments and the song writing in general, make this one evil joy to behold.

So it's on to the title track Onward To The Pits, which is also your last chance to headbang furiously to Deathhammer barrage. This is an instrumental song, which closes the record in style. The music is heavy, fast yet includes good underlying melody that sets Deathhammer apart from other death-thrash bands. As it fades out, you are left wishing it went on all day!

Overall, Deathhammer play a very true form of trash, with originality and integrity. You know what to expect but it comes at you with immediacy and drags you down, to the dark depths of hell, where you remain long after it's over.

This whole record is available for streaming on Hell's Headbangers own Bandcamp page below:-



You can purchase the record from the Bandcamp page above too, either in digital form for the devilish price of $6.66 or on CD and luxury vinyl.

Visit http://www.hellsheadbangers.com/ for more news on Deathhammer and more. Hells Headbangers are also on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/hellsheadbangers.

No comments:

Post a Comment