HELLHAMMER — Death Fiend (review)

HELLHAMMER — Death Fiend album cover Demo · 1983 · Black Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
1.5/5 ·
UMUR
"Death Fiend" is the first demo by Swiss speed metal/thrash metal/black metal act Hellhammer. The demo was originally released in June 1983 on cassette tape limited to 20 copies. It was not meant for distribution and was only given to close friends and family with the instruction not to copy the tape. Needless to say that an original cassette tape copy of "Death Fiend" would be a collector´s wet dream. The material from the demo has since been made available on the 2008 "Demon Entrails" compilation (Century Media Records).

Hellhammer formed in 1982 (shortly as Hammerhead before changing their name to Hellhammer), released three demos, the "Apocalyptic Raids (1984)" EP and were featured on the 4-way split album "Death Metal (1984)" (with Helloween, Dark Avenger, and Running Wild), before disbanding on the 31st of May 1984, the next day morphing into Celtic Frost. They are often cited as a major influence on the infant speed, thrash, death, and black metal scenes.

"Death Fiend" features 9 tracks and a total playing time of 32:03 which is rather unusual for a demo, which usually features 3-4 tracks. In the case of the recording sessions for "Death Fiend" (Recorded live at Grave Hill Bunker, June 10th and 11th, 1983), Hellhammer actually recorded no less than 17 tracks during the two-day recording sessions in June 1983. 9 of the tracks appear on "Death Fiend" and the remaining tracks plus 5 tracks from "Death Fiend", would be released on the July 1983 "Triumph of Death" demo.

Stylistically the material on the demo is a raw, primitive, and punk influenced music style, which sounds like the unholy union of Motörhead, Venom, and and a lot of snotty "Fuck You" type British punk artists. The bass is loud in the mix, the drums one-dimensional and primitive, the guitars distorted and raw, but ultimately placed very low in the mix, and the vocals raw and shouting. Honestly I´d be surprised if anyone pointed at this demo and called it an influence. I guess it´s relatively raw for a 1983 demo, but the quality of the songwriting, the sound production, and the performances are of such a low quality that it´s hard to appreciate. The punk influence also makes it a less metal oriented release than one could have wished for. Influential? hmmm...maybe, but it´s not particularly listenable and in terms of extreme metal credibility I´ve heard hardcore albums released earlier than this, which are decidedly more extreme. A 1.5 star (35%) rating and I´m stretching.
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