As subtle as a house brick between the eyes and at times just as painful, Fuck Hammer is a quartet from Northern Ireland who twist their brand of death metal into a grind, crust, and sludge veined corruption. It takes no prisoners nor wants to make friends, but just consumes and blasts every atom, with venom and festering intensity.
Hammered To Fuck is the first EP from Fuckhammer and was originally self released as a limited quantity CDR. The release found a great response and reviews within the local scene and caught the attention of the young Northern Ireland death metal label, Grindscene Records who has now given it a professional re-release. Musically it is a pit of noise with flavours from the likes of Crowbar, Eyehategod, Iron Monkey, and Carcass. The production is not the best it could have been but offers a rawness which adds to the violating tempest which assaults from every angle whilst the sound, as well as the vocals, brings an abrasive consumption with no respite.
The opening Born Of The Ass immediately goes to work on the senses with a delicious greedy groove which winds and grinds its way deeper and deeper. As the bile spewing serpentine vocals come in the riffs flare up before returning to that persistent destructive groove. The song in many ways is repetitive but it works great and to be honest when the track does venture slightly away from its sonic shaft one wants that irresistible groove back to rub the wounds it caused even more. The track, like the whole release, does not have any designs to restyle or invent its core sounds but just unleashes the intent to wring every essence from them for the best results.
The following Drone mixes things up with flurries of tempos, beats, and crunching riffs. The twists and turns all brought with the fullest intensity make for two minutes which do not reflect the title at all but still offer a thick sludge oppression to admire. The guitars and drums crush and dispose of any obstacles within the senses with undeniable strength and craft so for even in its brief assault the song is a thunderous enjoyable confrontation.
The remaining Hillbillies and Abortion Addict vary things again, the first with a stoner swagger to its death spawn vocals and conspiracy of insatiable grooves and thrash tinted riffage, whilst the second is a grindcore/death metal avalanche of towering riffs and abusive rhythms. Their hunger is different in intensity too with Hillbillies chewing on the senses with a southern greed and incestuous appetite whilst its successor gnaws and consumes with a rabid vehemence, the release again creating a varied violation to be endured and ultimately enjoyed.
Fuck Hammer is a band still in its informative years musically one feels and as such Hammered To Fuck is not drenched in any really distinct originality, its sounds heard elsewhere though dished up in a different and energized way. Vocally too some diversity would have been a good additive. The delivery and spiteful aggression works well for the most part but do diminish and distract from the effect of some aspects of sound like the tighter grooved parts without a complimentary variation.
For all that though the EP is an enjoyable release giving plenty of promise for the band and an anticipation of what will emerge when they are given access to a proper studio and production set up.
RingMaster 30/08/2012
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