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Swiss
trio Hellhammer may not have been amongst the first metal bands
to dwell in occult matters, but they certainly were one of the
first to be openly blasphemous and hence were among the first
bands responsible for the launch of the black metal movement. As
evidenced by many of the songs featured in these recordings;
Hellhammer may have also had a big effect on the doom movement
as the pace featured here is in general much slower than the
usual faster black metal pace European bands would foster
immediately after. Also to their merit, Hellhammer were
certainly among the first handful of bands to understand that
for music to be good it did not have to be pretty. It could be
damn ugly indeed. And nowhere is that more in evidence than on
the hideous yet alluring sounds of Demon Entrails; a
digitally re-mastered version of Hellhammer’s vastly influential
three 1983 demos.
The first
disc comes to a morose start with the band’s third demo
recording Satanic Rites; as it would become typical in
the genre the recording opens with an intro, in this case thumps
and sparse cymbals along with a deep cavernous monstruous voice
introduce the first song “Messiah” where caustic simplistic
chords seemingly unfiltered but tuned to channel volts of
electricity move rapidly while band leader Tom Gabriel Fischer
(then known as Satanic Slaughter) gives away his lines with
perverse anger. “Messiah” is a Hellhammer classic, once covered
by Napalm Death, Sepultura and even by Fischer’s post-Celtic
Frost band Apollyon Sun, it marks the path that the rest of the
demo would follow. “Maniac”, “Euronymos”, “Triumph of Death”,
“Revelations of Doom”, “Reaper”; all contain the same basic drum
patterns of Denial Fiend (ne Bruce Day) and the trademark
voice of Fischer; somewhere between crude belligerence and
wrath. As it would be the case with many black metal works of
the 80’s Satanic Rites closes with an “Outro”, where
distorted drums and what sounds like bass provide a more upbeat
take of the “Intro”. Even the same deep cavernous monstruous
voice is present here.
It’s no
surprise that a band like Hellhammer was that influential. It
was new and dangerous ground they were walking and the sloppy
execution with which the band performs appeals to metalheads
like punk rock to lazy guitar students. The second disc includes
both demos Death Fiend and Triumph of Death, which
were recorded at the same time and were very often lumped
together and presented as simply Triumph of Death. These
two demos do not include the participation of Martin Eric Ain (Slayed
Necros) who in Satanic Rites is only billed as having
contributed backing vocals and who would be instrumental to the
evolution of the band and their subsequent break up and
reformation as Celtic Frost.
Triumph of Death features
the band’s trademark sound, but there is also something
different in some tracks; the vocals in some of the songs are
performed by bassist and vocalist Steve Warrior and his approach
is much more lethal, deranged, and distorted than Fischer’s,
which matches the amateurish but involving playing of these
Swissmen. Demon Entrails, like anything this band ever
recorded, is far from perfect in sound and execution. Despite
the re-masterization of the recordings, there are minor bumps in
the audio; these can be clearly heard in “Euronymos” and others,
but no one could put a band like Hellhammer at fault because of
that. In hindsight, Hellhammer’s music deserved this treatment,
the re-masterization has only helped bring out the sound more
instead of taking away from its rustic and lo fi charm.
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