Release Date: 2004 Record Label: Self-Released Track list: |
Gallhammer - Gloomy Lights
While my reviews might suggest the contrary, for the most part, I have little interest in much contemporary music. Black metal has degenerated into a costumed farce, speed metal's foremost progenitors (being Grave Digger and Running Wild) have declined considerably with age, power metal is synonymous with tongue-in-cheek parody, death metal is plagued by interminably redundant goregrind and overcomplicated pseudo-fusion jazz nonsense. Yet, for all my disillusionment and cynicism, one thing I never tire of is Hellhammer worship. Necro Schizma, Apokalyptic Raidz, Obskure Torture, Warhammer, Demonthor….I am an absolute FIEND for perverse, truly primal death metal in the Tom Fischer tradition and I don't believe my hunger will be quelled anytime in the foreseeable future. Enter Gallhammer, a Japanese female trio (!!!!!) paying homage to 'Triumph Of Death'…gimmick or not, you can bet your last accursed nickel that I wet myself when I first discovered this outfit. Who would've thought that the nation of Hello Kitty and square watermelons could be the breeding ground for such depraved hellspawn? Perusing the booklet, one is greeted with the cute, yet gruesome visages of these fetching young women, each of whom attempt to obscure their adorable faces with morbid Warrior/Ain facepaint. FUCKING COOL! Musically, it'd be safe to say that Gallhammer have quite possibly surpassed even the finest Hellhammer facsimile today. Much of this has to do with the fact that Gallhammer aren't wholesale replicas in the sense of Apokayptic Raidz and Warhammer, nor do they focus exclusively on one aspect of the Hellhammer sound like Necro Schizma and Obskure Torture (ie extrapolating the most despondent, plodding sections in the Hellhammer playbook), there is a fair bit of droning, melancholic, oppressively minimalistic black metal in this record (think early Burzum crossed with the riff-driven Frost worship of 'Panzerfaust') as well as an off-kilter quasi-punk sensibility that recalls Carnivore and Amebix. Certainly, the bulk of the inspiration here is derived from Hellhammer, but unlike many of their peers, Gallhammer manage to obscure their blatant sonic debt to Fischer and company with other accoutrements. The guitar tone here is more aligned with latter day Darkthrone than anything, while the drums sound cavernous and abyssal, the low end not half as sludgy as Hellhammer. The results are thoroughly intoxicating, crossbreeding the doleful, lugubrious cheerlessness of Burzum, the frightening urgency and unnerving infectiousness of Darkthrone with the slithering, demonic morbidity of Hellhammer, achieving a flawless synthesis of black and death metal's very finest, purest facets. There is nary a duff track in sight here- opener “Endless Nauseous Days” features but a sparse guitar line and sporadic kick drum stroke, Vivian Slaughter regurgitating putrescent vomit all over the barren vacuum of sullen, meditative sound. The track gains momentum and swells into a somber, almost Abyssic Hate-ish section, replete with mournful, minimalistic chord progression that is repeated ad nauseam. “Crucifixion” follows in positively inspirational fashion, opening with a fit of feedback and ominous bass before shifting into a 'Panzerfaust'-ian passage accented by the thoroughly disconcerting dual vocal assault of Mika Penetrator and Vivian Slaughter, one of whom employs a higher, Nocturno Culto type screech, the other brandishing a deeper, more guttural, almost John Tardy type bellow. Pretty heady stuff, really. “Tomurai: My Our Father Die” is decidedly more droney, a plodding number which juxtaposes vintage Hellhammer simplicity with hypnotic Vikernes psychedelia, while “Beyond The Hate Red” is almost Scythe/early Opeth/Katatonia-ish with its driving rhythm, lumbering low end and nimble melodic line. “Lost Myself” features the paciest section within the record, boasting a surging crustiness that recalls Amebix at their very nastiest, only to introduce an elegantly dissonant moment 02:20 through the track. This is fucking genius, and it is obvious to this reviewer that anything Gallhammer do, they do well. Granted, many are going to complain about the production, which for the most part isn't quite as lumbering or gloriously dirty as many bands peddling this style, but to me, the production WORKS- there needs to be a degree of separation and clarity here to truly allow the ornate nuances and subtleties of Gallhammer's compositions to shine through. Remember, this isn't an exercise in mere Hellhammer emulation, this is the truly original sound of three young women setting a precedent for all Gabriel Fischer worshipping mavens. I can't recommend this enough- it's genuine, it's absorbing, it succeeds on an aesthetic, visceral and emotional level, and it's bloody well-written. This record succeeds in all the places that hype magnets like Shining and Forgotten Tomb fail, a true masterpiece in depressive blackness. A must buy.
September 7th, 2005 |
