Gallhammer - III Innocence Review
by Mark Hensch
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Japan's Gallhammer stinks with the foul stench of vintage crust while spitting bile most often found in early, hateful black metal. The power trio---which is comprised of three gloom-obsessed women---is one of the most dispirited extreme metal acts currently making waves. Raw, filthy, and pestilent, 2007 effort III Innocence omits nauseous waves of bleak dystopia while still maintaining a subtle feminine beauty.
III Innocence is an album which best practices the above description in its entirety rather than on any one particular song. Over the course of its 50 minutes, Innocence shambles with the shocked, dirt-caked shuffle of a nuclear blast survivor. The album as a whole is desolate and sparse, inspiring images of apocalypse and nihilistic apathy. What makes it better than the standard hatred and misanthropy, however, is the rare glimpse of minimal beauty amidst the ruin. Stark yet poignant, this combination of decay and splendor within it is a rare breed, the likes of which grants Innocence a profoundness lacking in other similar acts.
Opening cut "At the Onset of the Age of Despair," for example, rumbles with hollow toned guitars and scuzzy simplicity---the end result a song gripping in its squalor yet powerful in its confidence and strength. "Speed of Blood," meanwhile, blazes past with a fuzzy, half-realized speed metal attack recalling early Hellhammer in spirit and recent Furze in black metal oddness. "Blind My Eyes" next attacks with a crusty riff so rocking one cannot help throwing the horns, even in spite of the little girl on helium chorus vocals.
As if these cuts were not unusual enough, Innocence's weirdness quotient doubles as the track listing progresses. "Delirium Daydream" may be dirty, heavy, and vitriolic all at once, but nestled within its hellish world is an underlying dreaminess, caught between shades of gray and pure white. "Song of Fall" weaves a whispering tapestry of stripped-bare chords before ripping into throats with a grimy razorblade of sound. "SLOG" stumbles with weariness through irradiated memories of Black Sabbath and Hellhammer, all before floating upwards in an angelic, crusty ascension. Beautiful yet bubonic, "SLOG" best describes what both this disc and this band are about.
Misanthropic yet melodic, empty yet full, Innocence quietly walks between the beauty of life and the defeat that is death. Gallhammer are a very promising young band which grasps atmospheres of despair, hatred, hope, and resignation with relative ease despite their age. With a bit more focus and drive, my guess is that Gallhammer will redefine the term "dirty girls" one spiteful, crusty anthem at a time. Check this out.
Gallhammer's III Innocence
1. At the Onset of the Age of Despair
2. Speed of Blood
3. Blind my Eyes
4. Delirium Daydream
5. Ripper in the Gloom
6. Killed by the Queen
7. Song of Fall
8. World to Be Ashes
9. SLOG
10. Long Scary Dream
CD Info and Links
Gallhammer - III Innocence Rating:8.5
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