The long-awaited comeback album of America's TYRANT!
Hailing from Pasadena, California, TYRANT formed in 1978 and put out their first demo in '82. However, it was with their pair of albums for Metal Blade - 1985's Legions of the Dead and 1987's Too Late to Pray - where they'd etch their name into cult heavy metal legendry. Proud and powerful, theirs was steel tempered in the purest and proudest tradition: neither NWOBHM nor speed metal nor doom nor hair metal by any strict definitions, but uniquely dipping that blade into all at any given moment, and given an almost medieval atmosphere considering the ever-changing stylistic landscape during those years, which would be deemed "old-fashioned" as the 1980s came to a close. It took nearly a decade for TYRANT's next album to arrive, 1996's King of Kings, and indeed were the band even more out of place in that landscape; despite staunchly sticking to their guns, this would be their otherwise-final album.
At last, it arrives with Hereafter. With founding member Greg May on bass along with longtime guitarist Rocky Rockwell and powerhouse drummer Ronnie Wallace, who's been with the band since 2010, TYRANT now feature a significant new addition on vocals: the one and only Rob Lowe, he of Solitude Aeternus and ex-Candlemass fame. His addition proves especially significant given TYRANT's doomier direction on Hereafter. While no doubt sounding like the same band who delivered those two classics on Metal Blade so long ago, the TYRANT of Hereafter conjures forth a classy, ominously melodic style of doom METAL - or at least traditional heavy metal steeped in doom, much like Black Sabbath in the early '80s with Dio and then Ian Gillan on the mic - with each of these 11 mini-epics headbanging forward with power, poise, and a stately sort of grace. Aiding that granite-thick surge is the production of one Bill Metoyer, the legendary producer who's recorded all of TYRANT's albums to date. Evading any sort of "retro" moves, Metoyer keeps the sound on Hereafter rich, robust, and above all timeless, just like TYRANT's ever-unyielding style of metal. Truly, this is the homecoming the legions have been waiting for!
HELLS271 VIOLENT HAMMER "Riders Of The Wasteland" CD 9.99
Hailing from the ever-fertile Finnish black/death underground, VIOLENT HAMMER formed in 2006. Two demos followed in short succession, in 2006 and 2007, before the band would go on hiatus. VIOLENT HAMMER would at last return in early 2014 with a new lineup and a new demo, More Victims - Demo 2014.
However rough 'n' rowdy those earlier demos may have been, the reinvigorated VIOLENT HAMMER return with a full-length that handily trounces those not-inconsiderable predecessors. Aptly titled Riders of the Wasteland, VIOLENT HAMMER's debut album encompasses their simple yet scintillating aesthetic - the full span of death metal and black metal from the '80s through early '90s, early thrash, and most significantly early grindcore and UK/Swedish hardcore and crust from the '80s - and blasts it into oblivion with the aplomb of a nuclear fallout. Unremittingly hammering and remorselessly primitive, each of the nine barbaric slabs of song across the album's satisfyingly swift 26 minutes gets in, gets out, and fucking DESTROYS. As such, Riders of the Wasteland is deceptively catchy, much like so much '80s grindcore was, and retains a twisted sense of fun within its gnarled 'n' gnarling sonics. And although VIOLENT HAMMER here invoke many names - from early Blood, Profanatica, Bestial Summoning, and Naked Whipper to likewise early Doom (UK), Extreme Noise Terror, Mob 47, and even earliest/crustiest Bolt Thrower and Napalm Death - the manner in which they slice and dice all these influences bespeaks an identity wholly unique in today's underground landscape.
