Wednesday 20 July 2016

Bloody Hammers - Lovely Sort Of Death (Album Review)


Release date: August 05th 2016. Label: Napalm Recods. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Lovely Sort Of Death – Tracklisting

Bloodletting On the Kiss
Lights Come Alive
The Reaper Comes
Messalina
Infinite Gaze to the Sun
Stoke the Fire
Ether
Shadow Out of Time
Astral Traveler
Catastrophe

Band Members:

Anders Manga: Vocals, Guitar, Bass
Devallia: Keyboards/Organ
Drums: Dr. Jack Griffin

Review:

Masters of the Dark Occult, Bloody Hammers return with their new album, Lovely Sort Of Death. Their fourth album overall as the band show no signs of changing their outlook on life with their style of gloomy based Occult/Doom/Stoner/Psych Rock. This album has more of an electronic sound and that’s possibly down to Ander's recent solo work being a direct influence.

The album is perhaps Bloody Hammers most experimental and personal album to date as the lyrics are very bleak throughout. Opening track Bloodletting On The Kiss sees the band inject a more world-weary approach to their music. Electronica provides the main backbeat of this song with the Doom/Occult riffs being added at different moments. Anders vocals are more operatic/larger than life compared to previous albums.

It’s cool to see the band experiment with their sound once again. Some people maybe put off by the more Electronic direction of this album but I would say give this a chance as the band create stunning moments of eighties inspired Gothic/Doom/Occult Rock. Second track – Lights Come Alive – is a haunting love song that could have easily came from the classic eighties synth era but the band wisely include familiar moments of haunting Doom/Stoner Rock.

Third track – The Reaper Comes – is a slow-paced almost post-rock driven Doom/Occult Rock love song with the band weaving a magic sinister tale. Though the bleak sombre mood gives way to heavier gloomy riffs towards the end of the song.

Fourth track – Messalina – sees the band return to their familiar earlier doom based sounds. Haunting lyrics, vocals and riffs take you back to the early days of the band. Messalina ends as perhaps one of the best songs on the album.

Other great songs to check out are: Infinite Gaze To The Sun, Ether, Astral Traveler, Shadow Out Of Time and Catastrophe. These tracks show how creative Bloody Hammers can be with their music. They offer the most intense doom and gloom moments on the entire album. You can tell that John Carpenter is once again a direct influence especially with the twisted electronic synth based sounds. None so more on the song – Shadow Out Of Time.

Lovely Sort Of Death is not the easiest album to listen to as you have to be in a certain mood to fully appreciate it. Bloody Hammers have created a dark, twisted and delicious journey into the realm of Occult/Doom/Stoner Rock. Long time fans will go crazy over this album and it will be a welcome addition to their own Bloody Hammers record collection. Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Napalm Records for the promo. Lovely Sort Of Death will be available to buy via Napalm Records on CD/DD/Vinyl from August 05th 2016.

Links: