This Cumbrian band were part of the original NWOBHM scene from the late 70’s but only released one single 7 inch record and a couple of demos. Ten years ago ‘Hedonizm’ was released, but did not favour well at the time, although for me, ‘The Sin Eater’ is an album that grows with time and should not be translated to reference any of the earlier material released, even their retrospective compilation also issued a while back.
The album is quite dark and doomy in places, you hear the spooky Sabbath references but also some of the eerie movements akin to Alice Cooper too, a nice mix. This may only have six tracks, but it plays for nearly an hour. This may put off the mp3 track skippers, this is an album you need to listen to from start to finish in its entirety to get the complete picture and feeling from the music. ‘Angels Falls’ begins quite slowly, but the pace quickens and enlightens your mood from this point forward. ‘Behind Your Eyes’ is a ballad, although not strictly your conventional ballad, it really does work. The vocal range of Steven Woods is quite low key, but powerful in the required places. I sometime reference a tone to Midnight Messiah/Ex-Elixir singer Paul Taylor on some of the tails, it’s very fitting for the nature of the music. ‘Faithless’ stands out for me as the track that will get most fans into this band, there is a great section of guitar work and the arrangement kicks out two or three different emptions whilst maintain a rocking presence. The closer ‘Psilocybin’ is an trippy epic one, split into three parts (‘Walls Have Eyes’, ‘Point Of No Return’ and ‘The Mermaid’), although the long drawn out narrative is nice for the story of the subjects mental state, it kills the flow and ends the release a touch on the flat side unfortunately.
Overall, Hammerhead are not your orthodox NWOBHM band, they are dark, mystical and have in depth and lengthy arrangements. It is not an instant hit, but give this record time and you will be rewarded with a true sense of quality, mainly derived from the said arrangements can be a touch challenging due to their length.
(7/10 Paul Maddison)
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