This was an interesting one. Hellhammer existed from 1982-1984 and their only official release was this, Apocalyptic Raids (There were some demo’s too which got released later) was released in 1984. Hellhammer had already disbanded when this got released, as the singer and bass player decided to form the influential Celtic Frost. I guess you could say Hellhammer was an embryonic version of Celtic Frost.
I can’t remember when I first heard Hellhammer Apocalyptic Raids but I’ll be honest and say I wasn’t really Impressed by it. Newer bands Like Dark Throne had already taken Black Metal to a newer extreme in terms of both sound and ability and some of the early bands just didn’t compare. Now as an aging metelHED I can look back on this and appreciate what it really was. Sure, it was a bit rudimentary in its execution, but it was the next extension for metal after VENOM took metal to its extremity at the time. I guess you have to put yourself in the place of the 80s metalheads at the time. If you liked your music extreme, and you’d already bought the first couple of Venom records where do you go? Well to get the same dirty guitar tones you had to go back to the extremes of punk like Amebix or Dishcharge.
Now I listen to it again the songs are rather catchy. Some of the riffs on this I dare say were recycled into Celtic Frost songs, but hey, that’s cool. Tom G Warriors vocal and riffing style are all too present on this and it really shows how some of the more extreme punk sounds influenced bands like this (A subject I’ll go into further in time). I have to say I can also see the influence they had on other bands (like Dark Throne and Sadisitik Exekution and even Obituary) so in this case I’ll have to give it to them and say this is actually a pretty cool little slab of history. There’s some chunky but quite basic riffs and the in-between demented warbling from Tom Warrior really add to the atmosphere. The drums sound a bit shitty, but one can only imagine the budget for this would have been non-existent, so in that respect they probably got as good a sound as they were ever going to get given the conditions. Overall I have to say that while this probably won’t ever be an all time fave for me, I have a new admiration for what Tom Warrior created with Hellhammer. 🙂
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For more great heavy metal reviews and other stuff be sure to keep checking back on Metalhed.com on a regular basis!