Deathhammer: Onward to the Pits

Darkthrone's Fenriz has pretty good taste in underground metal.  He runs his own blog with a band of the week highlighted.  Ghost and In Solitude are two bands that have risen to a fair amount of stardom based on Fenriz's hype on his blog, along with a number of others.  Deathhammer is another band that has appeared there.  In addition, the character on Darkthrone album covers once sported a Deathhammer patch.  I recently picked up the cassette issue of their 2012 album from Hell's Headbangers.

Deathhammer toiled in relative obscurity for years, releasing demo after demo before finally releasing their first full-length album in 2010.  That is when the word of mouth really began working for the band.  Hell's Headbangers paid attention and picked the band up, releasing their 2012 sophomore effort.  As it turns out, Deathhammer is definitely the kind of band built for that label.

Deathhammer is a particularly filthy breed of thrash metal band from Norway.  Sounding like the unholy offspring of Motorhead and early Sodom, their style is raw and nasty.  Deathhammer is a two-person band, much like Darkthrone, with Sergeant Salsten on bass, vocals, and guitars and Sadomancer on drums and backing vocals.  They make an unholy amount of noise for being just two members.

The songs are all fast-paced and retain the same frenetic energy throughout.  The result is an album that sounds as if it would not have been out of place in the early days of extreme thrash metal.  Sodom, Sarcofago, Bestial Devastation-era Sepultura, and Destruction are the obvious reference points.  No wonder Fenriz loved this band.