Hammerdrone are no strangers to Ave Noctum and it is nice to hear finally a full length debut album from this melodic death metal band based in Canada. A lot of the music style is akin to the Amon Amarth feel, other parts are wizardry and technicality akin to some of the major players in the current scene, but mainly from Scandinavia and the former countries of Eastern Europe.
Hammerdrone don’t fall into the trap of other bands that just excite your pallet with copycat dull melo-death as seems to be popular again, no, they mix some harsh black metal vocals with plenty of variation and the resulting songs sound off very loudly and proudly display’s Hammerdrone’s development of their song arrangements. A track like ‘Kelpie’ isn’t just a catchy name. The Kelpie is a water demon from Scotland in the form of a black horse with seaweed as its mane and tail but was a sucker for a river crossing weary traveller whom then plunged to their demise, look it up, it’s genuine! Now I know this may not sound relevant, but I believe it is. This is interesting lyrical content, it tells a story it’s not all blood, gore, degradation of women and other stuff some artists talk about. Musically of course ‘Kelpie’ matches the epic proportions of the lyrics and throughout the album there is a fair amount of consistency, every detail is precisely recorded and executed.
‘Stormchaser’ is quite a spectacular closing tune, it follows melodic black metal and a doomy death aura and of course, a battering drum technique that’s the backbone and the beat of time that kicks these tunes into touch. The storm sounds that germinates towards the end of this track leave you feeling slightly nervous, as if you are about to be harmed by a natural phenomenon, that’s cool craftsmanship. ‘Jevons Paradox’ is more straight ahead melodic death, with a thunderous pre chorus, an eerie chord progression and a uncanny Behemoth similarity, so you can imagine how this will come across with the volume raised high.
Hammerdrone may not sound that different to most readers here, maybe they are not, however the music, arrangements and lyrical subjects are something of mystery, something of substance and intelligence, all in all a fine debut and a nice way to display a bands development since their last featured release.
(7.5/10 Paul Maddison)
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