UMUR
Hammer of Gods is the debut full-length studio album by American blackened death metal act Angelcorpse. The album was released in August 1996 by Osmose productions. The original album consists of 9 tracks while the 1999 re-released Jim Morris remastered version includes 2 bonus tracks recorded during the Wolflust sessions in April 1997. The bonus tracks are cover versions of Burning in Hell by Possessed and Pleasure to Kill by Kreator.
The music on the album is brutal, fast-paced and fiercely aggressive blasphemous themed death metal. The first couple of albums by Morbid Angel are the most obvious references. Due in large part to the absolutely caustic vocal delivery by Pete Helmkamp, Angelcorpse are more out and out aggressive than Morbid Angel though. He is one of those rabid and sneering blasphemous vocalists that are sure to strike fear in the Bible Belt. His attitude and delivery is hateful to the max. Needless to say that I´m a great fan of his vocal style. All tracks are high quality death metal and the only flaw I can think of is that they sound a bit too much the same. As with most good death metal albums the hooks begin to appear after a couple of listens though.
The musicianship on the album is excellent. There are some really tight playing going on here. Of course that´s no surprise if you know some of the other acts that drummer John Longstreth has been involved with. Acts like Origin, Dim Mak, Gorguts and Skinless. He keeps things together but the rest of the band are also very well playing. Guitarists Bill Taylor and Gene Palubicki deliver fast-paced riffing and atonal screaming soloing.
The sound quality is raw and powerful on the 1999 remaster ( not too clean) but I seem to remember that the original version sounded a bit murkier.
Hammer of Gods is an excellent Morbid Angel influenced death metal album and fans of that band are adviced to check out Hammer of Gods. It may not be the most original release but it´s intense and delivers the goods all the way through its 38:08 minute long playing time. Now that´s what I call quality death metal. A 4 star rating is fully deserved.