Deathhammer from Norway is the spawn of two individuals called Sergeant Salsten and Sadomancer. From music, vocals to album cover, this opus, fifth full length in band´s history is total old school warfare as the title says. For those who don´t know, Deathhammer play old school mixture of energetic thrash and black metal with some eighties UK hardcore punk thrown in here and there. Think Bathory, think old Destruction and Sodom, Evil Dead, this one is a keeper. This record is full on high energy attack with songs like Return to Sodom/Soldiers of Darkness, Rapid Violence and Crushing the Pearly Gates, making your fist pump in the air, metal heart smile with joy and scream at the top of your lungs along with the lyrics and stomp on your neighbour´s head with speakers to the maximum. This is an excellent album and I recommend all of the opuses of this Norway´s old schoolers.
Danes SLAEGT are back with their new, full length opus number four. These guys have been around more than a decade and this new one represents the current state of the band playing a rather progressive version of black death metal with some thrash metal guitar solos here and there that sound fantastic. Blast beats are smartly thrown in, the whole songwriting capabilities of Slaegt are impressive, because although guitar work may sound a bit chaotic and dissonant upon first listening, as you delve deeper into the songs of this opus, you realize the greatness you are witnessing. I love stop and go aggression of Kiss from a Knife, but one can not mistake old school metal influences in my personal favorite Hunt Again. I also love above all the title song being so epic that I listened to it over and over again. Vocals tell another story, from death metal growls to some black metal screaming, those vary depending on song atmosphere and need. This album has a perfect might to enter your mind and make you hungry bloodthirsty beasts, but also to satisfy your emotions and calm your blackened old metal heart. Good one indeed.
I never thought much of Nirvana, although I recognize and acknowledge what they did for rock music. But, Dave Grohl was always an interesting character, because he came from hardcore punk scene to grunge which I despised much when I was a kid growing up, still despise it. Luckily, grunge died, but Dave has gone on to bring other wonderful bands and create music, namely Probot and most of all, Foo Fighters. Although Foo Fighters were not my choice and cup of tea, when I read books about music, I create kind of soundtrack listening to music that I read about. Thus, I learned to appreciate and love Foo and all their melodies and songs that are really written nice. This book is a biography about life and musicianship of Grohl since his early hardcore punk beginnings with Scream in Washington DC, to Nirvana, coping with death of Cobain, then going on and becoming one of the most revered and famous rock musicians in the world. This book is not top of the mountain, there are some parts that are somehow lame written and kinda too shallow, but it was in all fun to read. What I love is, that this book ends when Dave stiil will have so much to say and play. Hats off to the man, not so much to this book which could have been better.
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