What can possibly be said about one of the great institutions of death metal that hasn’t been said before? There are few bands that you can rely on to never waver from their chosen path while consistently churning out killer albums that just never disappoint.
Asphyx are like the death metal version of AC/DC or Motorhead. You know what you’re getting every single time and you know it sounds the same as everything before it but do you give a shit? Fucking hell no!
No surprises, no ‘artsy’ experimentation (Morbid Angel I’m looking at you) and no fucking around. This is absolute old school death metal brutality done the way it should be done and the way it was always meant to be.
I mean just take a gander at the album title. Death Hammer.
Death Fucking Hammer.
With a title like that you just KNOW you’re going to get pounded like a fat hooker at a prison for lifers.
If you’re a fan of Asphyx you already know what this sounds like. After all you wouldn’t expect anything else. Blasting death metal and ultra massive doom grooves and straight out of the swamps with waves of decrepit riffs cascading under the feral vocals of Martin Van Drunen that will make your testicles shrivel in delight.
The title track is quite possibly one of the best tracks Asphyx have ever written and is sure to become an anthem at every one of their live shows. Beer in hand, leather jacket on your back and fist in the air screaming ‘DEATH HAMMER’. I’ll have some of that please, thank you very fucking much.
Just like everything they’ve released, this album will bludgeon you without mercy. The choking atmospheres of ‘Der Landser‘ , ‘We Doom You to Death‘ and ‘As the Magma Mammoth Rises‘ and short and swift facebreakers like ‘Reign of the Brute‘ and ‘Vespa Cabro’ will more than satiate your urge to desecrate and violate a bunch of graves at night. This is music that will rot your insides and will make you enjoy it.
If you enjoyed their last excellent release ‘Death….The Brutal Way’, then picking up a copy of Death Hammer should be an absolute no brainer. This is already a contender for album of the year but an album like this would probably shag the rest of the contenders and leave them floundering in a pit of blood and sewage.
Damn right it’s that good.