The first time I heard #hellhammer was around 1987. A friend had given me a cassette with this album on one side and Onslaught "power from hell" on the flip (a great album in its own right). I LOVED this Hellhammer album right from the first listen. I've read accounts of how despised this band was upon it's release. I'm always a little surprised. Yeah, it's primitive and borders on cheesy in it's desire to be evil as hell. I think the thing that sells it though is the sincerity of artistic focus. The album exists solely as an honest statement, it is not derivitive and I believe that resonates with those of us who love this shit. I was talking about "true metal" with one of my co-workers yesterday and I believe that there is no truer metal than this. It is heavy metal distilled down to it's concentrated essence. Leather, spikes, long hair, double bass drums and smear distorted riffs. There's no pandering to non-metal. The music is singular in it's appeal. That purity is what I freaking love about this album. As an album I actually prefer the follow up Celtic Frost's "morbid tales" but as a statement of extreme heavy metalness I believe this album is unprecedented.
No comments:
Post a Comment