DAMNATION'S HAMMER
DAMNATION'S HAMMER "Into the Silent Nebula"
By Dr. Abner Mality
This is album #3 for England's DAMNATION'S HAMMER, but it's my first time hearing them. These guys like it really heavy but do not descend into the extremity of thrash or death metal. It's hard coming up with a proper term...there's a definite doom influence here, but the band uses speed and chug too much to be called all out doom. Their song structures are somewhat in the mode of METAL CHURCH, but darker and angrier. Call 'em heavy and leave it at that.
When this band is on, they can really crank. The best cuts are the opener "Sutter Cane",.a mid-paced to moderately fast bruiser, and the closer, "The Moon And The Waters of Death", which is pure British doom with a ton of crunch. What's in between those two tracks is rather variable in quality. One thing that's obvious right from the jump is that Tim Preston is hardly a great singer. Average at best is a pretty good description. The structuring of tracks like "Outpost 31" and "Call of the Void" seems off-kilter and not that catchy. "The Silent Nebula" (not to be confused with the title track, which is a separate cut) is a doomy instrumental with a bluesy touch while the actual title track s heavy enough but just doesn't stick in your head that much.
There's a lot to like about DAMNATION'S HAMMER if you're into straight up metal, but some tightening up in the songwriting department would do wonders for these guys.