DEATHHAMMER – Metal might!

To celebrate the release of thrashing maniacs Deathhamme’s third and greatest full-length opus ‘Evil Power’, ET sent scribe Peter ‘Hellbat’ Loftus to the very Pits of Hell to get the low down from Sadomancer…

For those who don’t know – who are Deathhammer and what is your mission?

We are a metal band from Norway and we play (mostly) fast thrashing blacking metal of death. We started in 2005 and have released 3 demos, couple of splits, one EP and three full-length albums , with the next one currently being mixed. Our mission is to deliver deadly evil metal for those who are into that. Those who aren’t we don’t care about.

Tell us about the new album ‘Evil Power’. You must be pretty happy with the way it turned out!

Yeah it turned out even better than I thought. More to the point and steady in sound and execution. Spun the vinyl one more time and it sounds great.

In terms of style it seems to take up exactly from where ‘Onward to the Pits’ left off. No major evolution in terms of sound – just more of the same blistering thrash attack…

Pretty much. But I think it is more intense and raging than ‘Onward’, not because of the length but just the way we play and the way it came out. ‘Onward’ was a bit darker maybe but haven’t listened to it for ages so I don’t really know, hehe.

Seems to me like stylistically you have taken the speed of bands like Razor and Whiplash and added a pinch of that insane rage that was found in Destruction and Kreator during their early days. Are these bands part of your set of influences? What other sources do you draw from?

Oh yes, we both worship the early stuff from those bands obviously. Yeah definitely. Now we have even started an unconscious "tradition" of having one totally Razor-inspired song per album haha. Sounds really stupid but if you listen to ‘Army of Death’, ‘Powertrip’ and the longest track on our upcoming album you will hear it I guess. Not ripping off riffs but just the feeling and the way Razor made their riffs. MAYBE… All hail RAZOR!!

How does the song-writing work within the band? Do you have a very specific idea of what you want to do or is there an organic element, where you just let things happen?

Definitely just letting things happen. Never sat down and thought about writing a riff in the vein of this and that or with a special kind of feeling or whatnot, riffs just come out.

There are (roughly speaking) two camps in the modern thrash scene – those who want to imitate the past and those who want to forge a new and modern path. Bands like Deathhammer and Nekromantheon are in the latter camp, putting out some of the most authentic and exciting new thrash available these days, but it seems to me that party thrash bands from outside Norway are getting more than their fair share of the press… do you agree?

It’s all about how good you do it, not how original or groundbreaking it is. Thrash metal is nothing new and is such a pure genre it shouldn’t be fucked with that much. When bands mix everything they can to try to make it special or original, it just doesn’t lead to good thrash albums. It’s all about the riffs and the attitude. Nekromantheon like us, are doing nothing new, but they got conviction and aggression which is worth 1000 times more than something original in this genre. Also we don’t limit ourselves to only "thrash-riffs" per se, we got a lot of 80’s black metal and heavy metal in our sound because we worship those sounds also. No limit for destruction! So called "party thrash" bands can fuck off and drown in a beer-keg with a turtles-logo on it (no offence to beer or turtles).

What has been your favourite gig recently (either as punters or artists)?

Just saw FLIGHT at Revolver in Oslo and they were ultragood! Also got to see the underrated 80s-band COVEN in Cleveland some weeks ago during our USA-minitour and that was just fantastic. Hails!

If you could tour with anyone in 2015, who would you choose? Do you prefer playing festivals or club gigs?

SABBAT of course. Or Aura noir, Nifelheim.. There you have the best livebands today. I prefer playing tight joints because it’s easier to get hurt there.

When we interviewed Sindre from Nekromanteon  we asked if there were any acts he’d recommend to our readers. Top of his list was Deathhammer. Who would you recommend?

Oh that’s very cute of Sindre. I would recommend DIVISION SPEED and OMINOUS RESURRECTION.

What next for Deathhammer?

Metal might!

 

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