Feb 082022
 

 

I still have burn marks, slash scars, and giddy memories from Hammr‘s first album Unholy Destruction. That was four years ago, long enough to heal the wounds but not long enough to quell the feelings of dizziness and thrill-filled mayhem that come back in thinking about that blast of proto-black metal, hardcore punk, and evil speed metal. And so I got a surge of adrenaline from just thinking about the advent of a new Hammr album, and an even bigger surge in listening to it — which you’ll get a chance to do right now.

Eternal Possession is the name of the new one, and it’s a valid title, foreshadowing both the experience of being overtaken and overwhelmed by it as a listener and the conviction that the person who made it was himself under the throes of diabolical possession, with a take-no-prisoners, give-no-fucks, spirit that shows no signs of surrender, now or ever. Continue reading »

Jan 312018
 

 

A big brainless chunk of the internet seems to be losing its mind over Elon Musk’s new $500 flamethrower. Save your money. If you want to scorch yourself or blister someone else, just pick up Hammr’s debut album. It costs much less, it’s even more hellish, and unlike that flamethrower novelty, it won’t wear out its appeal after the first week (or the first visit to the ER).

The completely spot-on name of the album is Unholy Destruction, and it will be released by Hells Headbangers in a variety of formats on February 23rd. A couple of incinerating tracks have already appeared (one of which caused me to froth at the mouth over here), and we’ve got a third red-hot offering from the record for you today. This track, also brandishing a spot-on title, is “Sadistic Poison“. Continue reading »

Sep 032017
 

 

After being prevented by my day job from listening to much new music during the last half of last week, I binged on new song streams yesterday. The furnace of metal continues to pour out molten steel at a breathtaking rate. I found enough new sounds solely from the black realms to warrant a 4-part SHADES OF BLACK column, but I’ll probably throttle myself and limit it to two parts, with Part 1 coming later today. But in the meantime I couldn’t resist putting together this collection, which at a minimum will wake you up better than a flash-bang grenade and at a maximum may blow your minds to smithereens.

The first three selections are advance tracks from forthcoming albums. The last one is a complete full-length release. Different styles of metal, but all of them both highly infectious and explosively good. Let the slaughtering begin….

HAMMR

There’s enough electrifying energy in “Satanic Raid” to power a large metropolis and enough speed to lap the pack at a NASCAR race, not to mention more than enough feral barbarism to put smiles on the faces of those of you who live to slash and burn (at least through your music). There’s also some kind of immediately addictive poison coursing through the veins of this beast, which is transmitted directly into the listener’s bloodstream. Continue reading »