Formed just over a decade ago, by Bastard Priest and Majesty Ov Hell of the negligibly-more-clean ANTYRA, and augmented by the guitars of Jack Frost, Leipzig’s BITCHHAMMER bring the black and the thrash in equal force on their debut.
Had Offenders Of The Faith come out on Hells Headbangers, not an eye would have been batted as far as style goes, but released as it is on the more traditional heavy/speed metal-leaning Iron Shield Records, the trio wastes no time in kicking down the door with ‘Funeral Sorcery’, establishing BITCHHAMMER as the unruly, drunken cousin at the party. ‘Satanic Violence’ is a billiard ball in a sock, laying fuckerz out in mayhemic glee, the drumwork of Majesty Ov Hell surprisingly in time and technically precise, when many others (I’m looking at you, Nikki Rage) would just flail about under the assumption that clutter = old school, and therefore ist kvlt. Full of love and more romantic affection than a DEAFHEAVEN album, ‘Satanica’ rumbles and churns, swaying, anvil-heavy groove motored forth by six-string strafing and Howitzer-level rhythmik destruktion, while ‘Into The Filth’ rides the whirlwind of early VULCANO, slamming into Paramount Evil-era IMPIETY with a ferocity reserved for only the rabid. The apokalyptik raidz continue relentlessly with ‘Pentagram Vibes’, down to the nod to the man who put the “Unh!” in metal himself, Tom G. Warrior.
Not so much ending as careening headfirst into a brick wall, BITCHHAMMER crushes to its inevitable demise with ‘Blasphemaniac’, simultaneously stomping its boot into the last 30-odd minutes of your life and establishing Offenders Of The Faith as a solid debut, head and denim-vested shoulders above most in the genre this year thus far. Metal! Fukk! Death!
Review By: Lord Randall
BITCHHAMMER
Offenders Of The Faith
Iron Shield Records
4 / 6