Described as “Whisky drinkin’, Beer guzzlin’ bro’s”, Hammer Fight hail from Atlantic City, New Jersey, also known as the East Coast’s den of debauchery. Comprised of a copious amount of sleaze, dashes of classic metal, hard rock, punk and thrash are thrown in there and just from the description, you get the impression that there is definitely a Motörhead influence in their sound. Needless to say, this will raise the inevitable question and I’ll be the one to ask it now… Is this the start of bands trying to be the next Motorhead now on every release when it comes to sound and attitude? Let’s see if this is more profound than profane.
As a whole, this record is very similar with only a handful (if that) of tracks sounding slightly different. Album opener “Picking Up Change” rolls in with a massive drum roll for an intro and from there, it goes into an angry sounding, fast paced and slightly groove laden number. Raw and rough vocals, growled with confidence and a thick distorted sound lay the main foundation of the track, but the one real thing of note is how overpowering the drums are. The chorus is punchy with some gang vocal moments and there is a slight crossover feel to it but that soon gets kicked aside as the lead sections come in which just turns into a wild mass of frantic notes played in the same style as that of Kerry King – play fast, make noise, think you’re the greatest soloist ever.
The rest of the albums tracks are pretty much the same as the opener. Powerful low end, massive sounding drums, biting riffs and angry sounding vocals pretty much run through the release and the solo’s sometimes have some melodic work to them which is decent but for the majority of the time, it’s just wild paced fret wankery to give a real rough around the edges impression. There are some moments when the band does things cleanly which does help with the dynamics like on the track “Into The Dark” or the intro of “Cell Mates” but those moments of melody and atmosphere are sparse. Only one track really stands out on this release, and that is “Low And Broken” which is a real sleazy sounding bluesy number. Predominantly acoustic, it has some real raspy vocals laid down over a simplistic guitar hook and some big sounding chords and the total deviation from the usual style on the album is great. It shows another side to the band which you would not expect and one you would hope they would expand on and explore further as it really is something they excel at. Yes, the song does build up to a fantastic distorted variant of the main acoustic hook towards the end for a dramatic impact, but this sleazy stoner blues approach suits the band far better than the fast paced assault they predominantly deliver.
Overall, it’s not superb, it’s not terrible either, it just seems a little too reliant on the whole “Motörhead” approach of fast, loud and intense. That’s not a bad thing by any means, but it takes a certain something to make this type of approach work. Maybe it’s because of Lemmy and how instrumental he was in making that unholy and fantastic noise, or maybe the bands who pull it off just have that innate ability to make the simplistic approach shine bright. Whatever it is, this certainly sounds profane.
(5/10 Fraggle)
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