essential to all Hellhammer/Frost junkies – 87%
Abominatrix, October 26th, 2003
Having read with considerable interest Thomas Gabriel Fischer’s book “Are You Morbid?”, describing the events surrounding Celtic Frost, its creation, concept, struggles with personal and business difficulties, run-ins with insane females and eventual demise, I wasn’t too surprised that Hellhammer was regarded in retrospect by its creator as a symptom of teenage boredom more than anything else, a result of three clueless Swiss guys who knew nothing about their instruments but wanted to play “more extreme than Venom”. On the surface, this slagging of Hellhammer might leave a bad taste in some peoples mouths. After all, this is the band who countless black metal acts flock to for inspiration, who’s formula, as much as Tom might like to see it buried and forgotten (excuse the reference), continues to be called upon to this day. Tom G. himself actually hints at a grudging fondness for the Hellhammer days (or perhaps I am merely imagining this?), for despite his harsh criticisms of the pre-frost era. He doesn’t hesitate to point out Celtic Frost’s continuing inclusion of “Messiah” in later sets, nor does he refrain from describing how the group attempted to rehearse “third of the storms” in 1987, and found that they were, for some reason, totally unable to recapture the original feeling of the song, much to their embarrassment. Of course, the latter anecdote is relegated to the Author’s Notes section at the very back of the book, but it is there, plainly enough. Sure, the music is almost mindless in a sense…perhaps in Tom Warrior’s eyes a mere stepping stone of a dubious nature to what Celtic Frost would become, but there is something about it that remains powerful and will not be forgotten, at least by some.
The consensus with Hellhammer seems to be that either people love them or laugh at and ridicule them. With that in mind, I’m going to attempt to dissect the music to a certain degree, since I am for some reason interested in the phenomenon of this band. Some might say it’s unremarkable, boring even to speculate on such things, let alone listen to the music…but feelings of such extreme reverence and derision must always have a basis, and an understanding of that basis is perhaps integral to truly understanding and enjoying what it is that Hellhammer did, intentionally or not.
Although modern bands certainly do harken back to Hellhammer, all but a few, those that seek to directly mimic, such as the very obvious examples of Warhammer and Bloodhammer, have much broader subtexts to draw on and thus don’t really sound much like that early swiss band after all. I refer of course to bands like Darkthrone, who ocasionally compose riffs that have the almost nonsensical claustrophobic patterns that Hellhammer seemed to utilise. Darkthrone however have some more developed metal ideas from which to draw their particular elixir of sound, and thus, even when they are paying homage to Hellhammer, such as in the slower moments of “A blaze in the Northern Sky” and “Panzerfaust”, and even on the more recent “Ravishing Grimness”, there is a certain modern aesthetic that makes the music somewhat more digestable. Hellhammer seemed, if I can hazard to say this, to almost come out of nowhere, which is part of what makes them so great in my view. Sure, Tom Warrior listened to loads of Motorhead and Venom, and other british bands like Angel Witch at the time, and yes, those are probably the bands, if any, people would be quick to slap on Hellhammer as obvious influences. But I submit that they aren’t, really. If Hellhammer had been able to play as well as Motorhead or even Venom, they would not be the original phenomenon that they were, because as Tom would have pointed out, they would have tried to sound like them. The fact was though, that Venom looked like virtuosos when compared to Hellhammer, and that is a scary thought for a lot of people. The fact that three years later a band that was more or less the same individuals (two of them, anyway) had reached the point of musical advancement to create an album like “Into the Pandemonium” is quite a testament to Tom and Martin’s ambitions and insane drive to improve. Even Celtic Frost in 1987 were by no means stellar musicians. But they had a vision, a desire to create something new and unique that had never been done before and would raise so many eyebrows, create such a firestorm in the extreme music community that it would really never be the same again. Hellhammer was perhaps more of a quiet revolution, at least in the figurative sense, but it was an equally important one.
This is not, of course, the most legitimate Hellhammer release. it is in truth a CD reproduction, a bootleg I really would have to say, of Hellhammer’s second (or third?) demo. I believe this is correct, despite information given that indicates that tracks here are from the “Triumph of Death” demo or even recorded live. I have heard that demo, and I can say with absolute certainty that nothing on “Satanic Rites” is remotely as horribly recorded as was that earliest output of the band, and the sound here is good enough to have been the result of minimal studio work. I believe that “Satanic Rites” was the recording that got them a semi-deal with Noise records to record a four song EP. I wanted to give a really comprehensive description of Hellhammer’s sound here since it really is the first widely available recording of the band, and since many people probably don’t own this and should, since it’s just as good as “Apocalyptic Raids” in its own right. There are ten songs here, not counting intro and outro, which seem to be parts of other tracks played at reduced speeds…something which the band probably did in order to sound heavier, judging by a comment Warrior makes in his book about playing Venom singles at 33 rpm to increase their brutality (how cool is that?). Anyway, two of the songs from the original “Apocalyptic Raids” EP are here, as well as the two tracks featured on the Metal Massacre compilation, the label release debut of Hellhammer. All these are of course earlier versions here; the band does improve on the way these songs sound later, so for the most part these renditions of “Third of the Storms”, “Triumph of Death”, “Messiah” and “Revelations of Doom” are only of moderate interest. In particular, the version of “Triumph of Death” seems to be rather lackluster… probably partially do to the completely anguished vocals Tom pulls off on the “Apocalyptic Raids” take of this track. The previous incarnation of this song doesn’t have nearly the same amount of feeling or passion and tends to drag a little.
It’s really the other 6 songs that make this recording great. Forgotten gems that could have easily been on “Apocalyptic Raids”, but weren’t, for the obvious reason that Hellhammer didn’t have the funds or contract to record an album anyway. It’s not really for us to imagine what these songs might have sounded like on the EP… since they only exist in these versions, it doesn’t really matter and we can just enjoy them for what they are. Hellhammer’s music struggles with itself, cycling through repetitive, thrown together sounding riffs, the guitar almost desperately sawing back and forth between chords that simply don’t sound like they belong together at all. Often it sounds as if Tom isn’t sure quite what chord to play at all, and simply ends up thinly strumming half of it, or forcing an anguished bent note out of his instrument. The drums, in the majority of the songs, clip along at a fast pace, but the rest of the band crawls, so that even the most “rocking” sounding songs come out doomy and hobbling. The complete absurdity of some of these riffs would make most musically minded people cringe. This is perhaps even more evident on the EP in songs like “Massacra”, which looks inane on paper and yet manages to sound primal and awesome when played by this particular band. Tom seems to enjoy vocal duties as he always did in the future as well. There’s plenty of “Owww!”, and “oooh!”, and so on…the difference here is that there is a completely over the top echo on his voice, which gives the music a sort of distantt feel that isn’t present on “AR”. The guitar is much thinner on this particular recording than on the ep, but in a way that makes it clearer..and this is by no means a bad sound… It’s just a little lacking in fidelity, and considering the nature of the music, who really cares? There are a couple of glitches that pop up in the sound here and there, which obviously point to the fact that the CD was necessarily mastered from a cassette that is degraded in a couple of places, resulting in the breakup and distortion of sound common in old and often played audio tapes. It’s not a chronic problem though, and only surfaces in a couple of tracks, most notably for a second or two in “Messiah”.
As for the songs themselves….the original tracks… “Buried and Forgotten” is incredible and definitely the highlight of this recording for me. The song was later stripped of certain elements and given a few others, transforming into Celtic Frost’s “Necromantical Screams”. The Hellhammer song is a lot less precise and tight, obviously. it’s very slow, ponderous, full of those torturous bending notes Tom is so fond of, and some *very* menacing riffs. I think the Frost song should have used a few more of the ideas in this original. The vocals sound ghostly and evil as fuck too, and the fast part near the end is totally unexpected and well… odd… you have to hear it for yourself. “Crucifixion” is a short rocker and should have been on the EP for sure, and the title track is seven minutes of repetitive Hellhammer “pseudo-thrash” for want of a better description….almost hypnotic in it’s fast tempo but constrained and aching riffs.
Obviously, I like this a hell of a lot….although after much debate with myself I’ve realized I do prefer the sound on the EP for being more up front and “in your face” as it were… the 6 exclusive songs here are essential to anyone who knows or wants to know Hellhammer. If you are a newcomer to this particular brand of mayhem, do start with the EP, and if you are hungry for more, track down this bootleg and enjoy the further revelations. Of course, not everyone is going to share my enthusiasm for this…and I don’t expect too many will be flocking to Hellhammer, since they represented a near antithesis to most peoples ideas of good music..and this applies equally to today’s extreme metal public, even those who say they enjoy black metal bands that never hesitate to point out their adoration of Hellhammer.
rafazardly 