CoC : Bloodhammer - Abbedissan Saatanalliset Houreet : Review

Bloodhammer - _Abbedissan Saatanalliset Houreet_
(Northern Heritage, 2003)
by: Matthias Noll (7 out of 10)

I'm not really sure what to make of the "nun fondling some naked man's erected penis" cover of this release but I think it's not substantially inferior to another bunch of corpse painted bad-asses re-enacting the artwork of _Under a Funeral Moon_ or _A Blaze in the Northern Sky_. Musically these Finns have created a ripping album in a style which is not too far away from bands you'd usually find on the Barbarian Wrath label. Bloodhammer are simple and old-school to the core while coming across as genuine; not like yet another bunch of poseurs trying to fight for a seat in the last wagon of the retro train. Imagine a bastard son of early Venom and German speed metal with a grim production and shrieking black metal vocals on top of it and you get the picture. Simplicity is the key to Bloodhammer's music and these guys surely understand that there's an audience which appreciates bands who simply let it rip the old-fashioned way without a care in the world for anything that happened after 1986. While in an overall sense the same could be said about the more thrashy and far less black metallic Flagellator album, Bloodhammer have the advantage of being able to unleash more aggression and simply rock harder, better and in a much more energetic fashion. There's certainly some room for improvements as far as the songwriting goes and the whole album could sound more powerful if the bass was more prominent in the mix, however, despite being unspectacular this is a highly enjoyable, raw slab of metal!

Contact: http://www.cfprod.com/nh/

(article published 10/8/2003)