UMUR
"Hammer Battalion" is the 9th full-length studio album by Swedish death metal act Unleashed. The album was released through Steamhammer Records in June 2008. It´s the successor to "Midvinterblot" from 2006.
"Hammer Battalion" is Unleashed through and through, and if you are familiar with the old school Swedish death metal sound of the last couple of releases (or the sound of the early releases by the band), you´ll find very little to surprise you here. As usual the tracks are simple vers/chorus structured death metal tracks which vary in speed from fast- to mid-paced and heavy. Unleashed seldom play blastbeats or go down to a slow doomy crawl. The riffs are powerful, the guitar solos are very well played and melodic, and the rhythm section are skilled and lay down a strong driving foundation, which push the music forward with great energy and conviction. Lead vocalist/bassist Johnny Hedlund has a powerful distinct sounding growl and a commanding delivery...
...again that´s nothing new in the world of Unleashed as they have almost always been a consistent act, both in terms of playing and songwriting (the mid- to late 90s featured a few albums which didn´t fit that description, but other than those missteps...quality all the way).
So as with most consistent quality artists with a signature sound and style (other examples of such artists could be Motörhead and Overkill), it´s the quality and memorability of the tracks on an album, that said album is typically evaluated by, as everything else are pretty much business as usual (the sound production on "Hammer Battalion" is as usual also of high quality). In that regard "Hammer Battalion" does not disappoint but it doesn´t surprise either. Which means that each track on the album is both powerful, well written, and effective death metal, but only few tracks stand out as something out of the ordinary for Unleashed (I personally find the title track to be a killer song, but there are other great tracks on the album too), and it´s hard not to label the music a little formulaic and one-dimensional.
That actually sounds a bit more negative than intended, and although the occasional unconventional songwriting idea/structure could have made the album a little more interesting overall, it´s still yet another quality death metal release in a long line of quality death metal releases by Unleashed. These guys just deliver time and time again. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.