HELLHAMMER — Triumph of Death (review)

HELLHAMMER — Triumph of Death album cover Demo · 1983 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
1.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Triumph of Death" is the second demo by Swiss speed metal/thrash metal/black metal act Hellhammer.. The demo was independently released in July 1983 through Prowling Death Records (the band´s own label) and was limited to 200 cassette tape copies. Hellhammer´s first demo titled "Death Fiend" was released in June 1983, and 5 of the songs from that demo are also featured on "Triumph of Death". The material on "Triumph of Death" was recorded live at Grave Hill Bunker, June 10th and 11th, 1983. 17 tracks were recorded. 13 appear on "Triumph of Death" while 9 appear on "Death Fiend". As mentioned above 5 tracks appear on both demos. The material from both demos has since been made available on the 2008 "Demon Entrails" compilation (Century Media Records).

Hellhammer formed in 1982 (shortly as Hammerhead before changing their name to Hellhammer), released three demos, the "Apocalyptic Raids (1984)" EP and were featured on the 4-way split album "Death Metal (1984)" (with Helloween, Dark Avenger, and Running Wild), before disbanding on the 31st of May 1984, the next day morphing into Celtic Frost. They are often cited as a major influence on the infant speed, thrash, death, and black metal scenes.

Stylistically the material on the demo is a raw, primitive, and punk influenced music style, which sounds like the unholy union of Motörhead, Venom, and and a lot of snotty "Fuck You" type British punk artists. The bass is loud in the mix, the drums one-dimensional and primitive, the guitars distorted and raw, but ultimately placed very low in the mix, and the vocals raw and shouting. Compared to "Death Fiend" this is not surprisingly more of the same, which is only natural since all material was recorded during the same sessions. That also means that the same lo-fi quality is applied, the amaturish musicianship, and the primitive songwriting, which is sometimes more punk than metal. Everything Hellhammer released is today considered legendary/seminal extreme metal recordings, but honestly it´s a bit hard to understand when listening to the material on "Triumph of Death". The quality of all features is just so low that a 1.5 star (35%) rating is warranted.
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