{"id":20870,"date":"2014-05-30T00:00:58","date_gmt":"2014-05-30T00:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=20870"},"modified":"2014-07-29T12:07:22","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T12:07:22","slug":"album-review-bloody-hammers-under-satans-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-bloody-hammers-under-satans-sun\/","title":{"rendered":"BLOODY HAMMERS – Under Satan\u2019s Sun (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

BLOODY HAMMERS
Under Satan\u2019s Sun<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nNapalm (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I was rather nonplussed by the last conjuration of occult rockers Bloody Hammers. It seems that with all these bands who are clearly obsessed with 1960s and 1970s horror, there is a real cause for concern for the cynics. This style of doomy metal is cluttering up the bandwagon, and appears to be more about image rather than actual sound quality.<\/p>\n

Bloody Hammers caused quite a stir with their debut<\/a> offering but the novelty is wearing thin, and with what seems barely a breather between albums, the North Carolina cranks are back at it with their third effort.<\/p>\n

So, once again they move under the cloak of darkness to create more sounds of the underground, but in spite of the catchy nature of it all, it\u2019s a rather tepid, fuzzy goth rock experience that struggles to find its feet. I\u2019m sure that those of you who adore the likes of Ghost B.C. may find Bloody Hammers as intriguing as the Swedes, but I can\u2019t for the life of me get excited by this plodding slab of snooze rock. <\/p>\n

The opener is \u2018The Town That Dreaded Sundown\u2019 which, as usual, exhibits the warning moans of vocalist Anders Manga who is quick to tell us that \u201cThere\u2019s a killer among us all, A phantom that has come to see you fall\u201d<\/em>, but I\u2019m not really convinced by the tinkling of the ivories or the laboured pop-edged plod which seems also to be the major downfall of Ghost B.C. who, without the costumes, would surely be considered less than ghoulish. \u2018The Town That Dreaded Sundown\u2019 is based on the 1976 movie of the same name which dramatized the case of the so-called \u201cphantom killer\u201d, who was said to have attacked at least eight people in Texarkana in 1946. Sadly, the music is far less weighty and atmospheric than the film, because Bloody Hammers have become predictable oh so quickly.<\/p>\n

\u2018Spearfinger\u2019 offers a touch more malice, but once the riff melts into the ghoulish rhythmic plod, Manga just becomes embedded in the role that he has occupied since the band\u2019s inception, but his style is one that never varies, in spite of Devallia\u2019s orgy of organ.<\/p>\n

The theme continues; \u2018Death Does Us Part\u2019 promises so much \u2013 just like every other Bloody Hammers track \u2013 but it soon becomes less about the creep and more about the clomp. The drumming is simple and certainly complements the Bloody Hammers style of oaken nod, but it also borders on the boring, with \u2018Welcome To The Horror Show\u2019 and the title track straining at the bit to become something they clearly aren\u2019t capable of being.<\/p>\n

The distorted fuzziness and that pulsating organ have become somewhat rather archetypal of contemporary occult rock, but there\u2019s just no oomph to this rather sleepy lump of dark-tinged rock. When Anders yawns \u201cNo threat of an oncoming wrath\u201d<\/em> on the title track, I can sense the disappointment because the third opus from this bunch remains just like the rest \u2013 safe as houses and about as eerie as an episode of Scooby Doo<\/em>, but at least the cartoon came up with some interesting characters.<\/p>\n

As this obsession with B-movie schlock continues, I\u2019m growing tired of its allure, and find more charm and harm in the shadow of the thunderstorm rather than the sizzling hue of Satan\u2019s sun.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BLOODY HAMMERSUnder Satan\u2019s Sun Napalm (2014)Rating: 6\/10 I was rather nonplussed by the last conjuration of occult rockers Bloody Hammers. It seems that with all these bands who are clearly obsessed with 1960s and 1970s horror, there is a real cause for concern for the cynics. This style of doomy metal is cluttering up the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[540],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloody-hammers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20870"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20874,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20870\/revisions\/20874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}