Monday 21 May 2012

Nuclearhammer - Obliteration Ritual

NUCLEARHAMMER - Obliteration Ritual (MORBID MOON - CD 2009)
Call me a poser if you will – and I couldn’t care less about it than for what Queen Elizabeth just had for her supper – but I’ve never really been a huge fan of bands like Blasphemy, Beherit or Von. Sure, I can listen to “Drawing Down the Moon” occasionally, but the truth is that such LPs as “Fallen Angel of Doom” or “Gods of War” do not appear in my playlist that often anymore. I guess, while I liked “Gods of War” at the time of its release, I just got tired with this album after few years and nowadays I really cannot find any reason to listen to it more than once in decade. I feel tired with the relentless noise and violence this band (I’m talking about Blasphemy now) brings forth and thus I’m also quite annoyed by most of the bands, which copy the Blasphemy and Beherit styles without any embarrassment. Unholy Archangel, Proclamation… You know them probably well. I guess there are just very few bands from this bestial black / death style, which I’m fond of (Bestial Raids, Black Witchery and Revenge for instance), the rest is just a pure dust to me and can vanish with their cloned (anti)music and boring image. And here is Nuclearhammer. A band from Canada, if you don’t know. And guess, what can they play to satisfy their sadistic hunger and to honour their Satan? Yeah, it is bestial war black / death. Again.
Even though Nuclearhammer has only just been formed back in 2005, they already have a bunch of recordings in their discography, including few rehearsal tapes (which probably are worse than you could imagine), splits and “Obliteration Ritual” is their first album. Well, Nuclearhammer has gathered eleven tracks on this outburst of hatred and when listening to it I just have one thing in my mind. And that thing is Blasphemy. The band, not the actual act of blasphemy... Nuclearhammer sounds so much like “Gods of War” that it is unbelievable and almost stupid, as this is just like a déjà vu feeling. The sound, the vocals, guitars, just everything here on “Obliteration Ritual” sounds the same to me. And if I already don’t listen to the original, why would I bore myself with a bare copy of the legendary band? Luckily, Nuclearhammer is not so bad, speaking of the quality of their music. First of all, I’m glad that they’ve tried to diverse their album as much as possible, within this raw, disgusting and primitive genre and so “Obliteration Ritual” is not just 50 minutes (and that’s how long this album is!) of pure noise played in very fast tempos, but there are many slow parts also, almost doomy ones, which I like most from the whole CD… and there are also many intros, few of which were taken from some old horror movies, so in the end this album turns out to be quite interesting listening (actually those intros play the same significant role in creating the mood as those on “Gods of War”). It is the atmosphere of “Obliteration Ritual”, which attracts me most. This music is really evil, obscure and sinister as hell, bringing a lot of negative emotions and even if this sort of metal is generally raw, filthy and primitive, then it doesn’t really work against Nuclearhammer, as they managed to put a decent effort here. Sure, I’m still far from hailing those Canadians for delivering the most bestial and cruel piece of metal ever and I can sincerely say that I like dozens of bands more, but for someone, who’s not really into this sort of musical violence, then I can admit “Obliteration Ritual” has its moments and I cannot imagine someone, who’s into this style not to like what Nuclearhammer has been doing for the past few years.
The album has been already released in 2009, so I got it pretty late; I don’t even know the label (Morbid Moon) so much, so I cannot say whether and where this CD is available. Blasphemy maniacs should get it anyway.
Final rate: 69/100

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