The Batlord

Oh yeah, I was doing this at some point. Why not pick it up again for ol' time sake?




Alright, the list on Southern Lord's site is supposed to be chronological, but as you can see, this album came out before the first one I reviewed, which I'm assuming was the label's first release. A little digging and I find out that this album was released only on cassette by a Moribund Records in 1996, but received a full album release two years later in 1998 by Southern Lord. So, that explains that. On to the goodness...

Don't need to listen to this album. I am listening to it right now, but I've already listened to it enough over the years that I don't need to do it for a review. This is a fantastic album that any fan of doom, and death/doom in particular, should memorize.

When I think of death/doom, I always think of this band first; not diSEMBOWELMENT, not Asphyx, not Winter, none of them. I think of Thorr's Hammer first, and last. A lot of these bands are death metal bands with a doom influence, often playing tag-team with faster death metal bits and slower doom passages. Thorr's Hammer are a pure doom band, who never plays faster than a crawl (though thankfully they never devolve into monotonous droning), but with death metal aesthetics (death growls and such). They're a totally crushing doom metal band as well, on par with block-levelers like Electric Wizard. Those riffs, oh God those riffs! And that brain-liquefying distortion! With the proper sound system this album is a war crime. I've seriously never heard a band that even comes close to perfectly epitomizing the concept of death/doom the way that Thorr's Hammer does. They're a ****ing force of nature.

One of my favorite things about this band is the "singer". Not only is this one of the heaviest bands of all time, but their vocalist has one of, if not the most brutal, guttural voices I've ever heard. Sounds like two jagged boulders grinding against one another. And with the slow/mid-pace of the songs, they also never sing faster than a crawl, which adds an extra few tons of weight to the music. As much as I love death metal, death vocals lose a lot of their physical force when sung fast. The best part? The singer is an adorable, blonde, seventeen-year-old girl. If I hadn't seen a picture of her with my own eyes I never would have believed it. It just doesn't make any sense the pure hate coming out of this girl's mouth. The only reason you'd even know a girl is associated with the band is that she occasionally breaks into more traditional, though totally bleak and monotone singing. Very occasionally.

The biggest crime is that they only released the one demo and EP before breaking up, both of which have the same three songs in the same order. If you dig doom and you haven't listened to these guys (and gal), then you're seriously depriving yourself.

__________________