REVIEW: WARHAMMER - NO BEAST SO FIERCE

Worshipping at the altar of the festering carcass of Hellhammer, Germany's WARHAMMER are crushing skulls with their release NO BEAST SO FIERCE, which was actually released back in 2009, though I only managed to get hold of it last week at a gig from a friend.

Possessing a savagely heavy guitar tone, chained to the pounding drums and crushing bass, Warhammer have created here an impenetrable wall of sound, something which works well for both the doomy and thrashy aspects found within this album. The low-end, midrange saturated sound of the guitar complements the riffing excruciatingly well, conjuring up a ritual of noise that could wake the ancient ones from their eternal slumber. 

Vocalist Volker gives a solid performance on vocals, powerfully shredding his throat (or Iron Lungs?) and paying homage to the iconic voice of Tom G Warrior in a very honourable fashion, with these raw screams perfectly suited to the ancient feel of the musical assault beneath them.

The diversity within this record should keep fans of doom and proto thrash alike entertained, as the band swiftly moves from fast aggression to crushing doom with ease. Particularly impressive are the tracks "Total Maniac", "Warriors of the Cross" and "Flames of Armageddon", which are memorable and hard hitting, and fans of Celtic Frost and Hellhammer should certainly lap up this total worship. 

For some however, this may be where the problem lies, because if you have come looking for a totally "original" band with over 9000 time signature changes and pursuing the kind of style that you see as being the future, you will find yourself wanting. This band seeks purely to reanimate the corpses of the deceased heroes of yesterday and does it in a fresh and inspiring fashion, and in my opinion a good riff and indeed a good band sound is timeless, whether it is from 1982 or 2011. 

NO BEAST SO FIERCE is a very strong release and it is particularly recommended for fans of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost, but fans of doom and early extreme metal (think Venom, Bathory and very early Slayer) in general should find considerable enjoyment in this record.

4/5

/L