Hellhammer – Demon Entrails (Century Media Records)
Thursday, 14th March 2013
For anyone in search of a good read and some of the most honest and bare-bones insight on the 80’s metal underground, check out Tom G. Warrior’s Are You Morbid? – Into the Pandemonium of Celtic Frost. Said book is a regular read in the Gehlke Metal Compound and when taken into context of the subject at hand, it adds some much-needed color and foresight.
As 98% of you should know, Hellhammer was the precursor to Celtic Frost, the band borne out of Warrior’s young and frenzied mind with the intent of creating the most extreme and raw metal on the planet. In 1983, this was the most extreme shit on the block, with raging, primal guitars, and a punkish exuberance that wasn’t matched until thrash hit a few years later. Indeed, Demon Entrailsis one of the foundations of today’s extreme metal scene.
The songs themselves are audible considering they are in demo form, Hellhammer banging out fist-pounding numbers like “Messiah,” “Buried and Forgotten” and “Triumph of Death.”
Other choice cuts include “Maniac,” in its tempo-shifting glory, the ode to the Greek prince of death – “Eurynomous” and “Bloody Pussies,” a song that would never have made the Celtic Frost cut, poor title and all.
In his youth and inexperience, Warrior sounds determined to push Hellhammer to the edge (a fact he would later acknowledge as the reason for the band’s demise), but here, the band’s out-of-control rage is hard to be topped, especially when the pummeling “The Third of the Storms” hits.
A two-disc set consisting of the Satanic Rites and Death Fiend and Triumph of Death demos, Demon Entrails is a marvelous time capsule and glance back to the past into one of the metal’s most revered personalities. Production is quite primitive and the band occasionally falls out of synch with each other, but that’s how metal was – unrefined and without the guise of Pro-Tools in which to hide.
Many already hold the band’s only official release, 1984’s Apocalyptic Raidsdemo in high regard, so the demand and need for Demon Entrails is there. Do yourself a favor and check out the book and this album – it will soothe and bewilder the metal soul.
www.myspace.com/hellhammerband
(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)
