CD Reviews

Bloody Hammers | Bloody Hammers

Soul Seller Records/Sacrificial (2013)

By DANIEL BROCKMAN | January 29, 2013

2.5 Stars

Presented as some kind of satanic pigfuck ritual, this North Carolina quartet's debut is far less doomy than advertised. Which is a good thing: after all, there are 10,001 lame-ass shysters using a warlock's cloak to hide their inability to rock a song, whereas Bloody Hammers, on this platter, knock tune after tune out of the park with powerfully intoned vocals and oddly dance-y beats. Album highlight "Black Magic" forefronts the oh-my-god-it's-so-obvious connection between Sabbath's "Children of the Grave" and the ür-disco of Blondie's "Call Me," and that same Moroder-motor-beat pops up again and again, from the '90s-rock-radio-pumping "Witch of Endor" to the psych-shimmy of the day-in-court-with-Danzig "Souls on Fire." Like the 1969 debut of Anton LaVey acolytes Coven, who similarly used witchcraft's tropes to smuggle in hook-laden singsong-ery, Bloody Hammers catch your eyes with all the signed-in-blood candlelit hoo-hah, only to trick you into singing dark magic in the shower.

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