BLOODY HAMMERS
The Horrific Case Of Bloody Hammers
Napalm Records
4/5
The first EP from the North Carolinian doom metal/hard rockers with a gothic twist, features six cuts that maybe should have waited a little until a few more could be tacked on and made into another album. I had to listen to this record twice in a row as it’s quite short and may not sink in the first time, but fans of the band should find it to their liking. The first cut, “Gates Of Hell” is quite strong, feeling like a groove metal track with a catchy chorus. It’s pretty basic Hammers, so if this one surprised you, then you’ll have to go back into their catalogue a little. The drumming in “Blood” makes it stand out quite well, as it couples with a far more memorable (and quite radio friendly) chorus than the previous. “The Beyond” focuses more on ominous keyboard melodies and light drum rhythms as it builds up a rather sparkling mid-section. It almost sounds a bit romantic, which is a good fit for the band. Though short, it’s unfortunate that a piece of this magnitude was left off for an EP and didn’t get a chance to properly feature on a full-length album. “Vultures Circle Overland” reminds me a little bit of mid-era Paradise Lost in it’s downtuned, yet drum-heavy nature. There are several portions of this album that seem to showcase the power of what I believe to be programmed drums – and if they are, then they’re putting a lot of skinsmen to shame. It feels like Anders Manga is trying to show bands that they don’t really need a drummer anymore, just the right program and the right amount of know-how to use it. If you want me to be brutally honest, there’s absoluetly nothing about any of the drum fills on this album that even sounds computerized. Whatever he’s using, I’d definitely like to get a copy of it.
Moving on, we have “The Bloodsucker Leads The Dance” which once again, seems to opt for an airy approach – it doesn’t come off quite as thunderous as a few of the cuts and doesn’t even feature a smidgen of heavy guitar. I feel this is great, because it shows that Bloody Hammers are maturing to the point where they don’t need to continue repaving the roads as some kind of “heavy goth band.” This very issue is the same reason that I had problems with Ghost’s Meliora, because while the songs were heavier, there wasn’t really any substance. A song doesn’t have to be loud to be good, which is what the brilliant mixture of piano and keyboard seems to display here. The album ends with a killer cut called “All The Colors Of The Dark” which shows the band at their finest in years. I don’t know what happened during the composition process for The Horrific Case Of Bloody Hammers, but it feels like Manga finally managed to pull off something on par with the band’s early material and I couldn’t be more pleased. Even with the absence of lengthy songs, it still manages to win me over with more than a few appealing cuts. This is definitely a step in the right direction and let’s literally hope that this wasn’t an EP of B-Sides from the band’s previous release, Lovely Sort Of Death. If so, then I honestly have to say that they’ve scrapped some of the best songs in their entire career. Though it works perfectly fine as an EP, it would be even better if it had a few more cuts and was made into a full-length recording. A couple of these tracks are definitely going on my personal playlist. (The Grim Lord)