Hellhammer

Hellhammer was an influential early 1980s extreme metal band from Switzerland. They are regarded as a key influence on black metal, and frontman Thomas Gabriel Fischer stated they "would later be credited as being among the founders of death metal. Two former members went on to form Celtic Frost in 1984.

Biography

Inspired by the music of Black Sabbath, Venom, Raven and Motörhead, guitarist/vocalist Thomas Gabriel Fischer (a.k.a. "Tom Warrior"), bassist/vocalist Urs Sprenger (a.k.a. "Steve Warrior") and drummer Pete Stratton formed Hammerhead (later Hellhammer) in early 1982.

After being joined by drummer Jörg Neubart (a.k.a. "Bruce Day") in autumn 1982, the band attempted to find proper rehearsal spaces, which proved difficult due to either exceedingly high rents or unavailable studio hours. In spite of their rather marginal musical and technical quality, demo tapes called Triumph of Death and Satanic Rites became underground, word-of-mouth hits and the band was eventually picked up by German-based Noise Records (1984). Steve Warrior had been replaced by former Schizo bassist Martin Eric Ain, a change which marked the beginning of a serious and radical transformation in the band's music and lyrics. These changes were ultimately responsible for Fischer's and Ain's increasing perception of being limited within the confines of the purposely primitive Hellhammer vehicle. On May 31 1984 Hellhammer was disbanded, and on June 1 Celtic Frost was born.

At the dawn of the next decade Noise Records released a new version of Hellhammer's debut, retitled Apocalyptic Raids 1990 A.D. This re-issue was augmented by two tracks off the Death Metal compilation, which was "something we always wanted to, even back in '84", claimed Tom Warrior. This rerelease also came with a new cover design done by Martin Ain.

In November 2007, Tom Gabriel Fischer announced that the original master tapes of Hellhammer's demos (Death Fiend, Triumph of Death, and Satanic Rites) would be released as a 2CD/3LP package in February, 2008 (titled Demon Entrails) with new liner notes on the complete history of Hellhammer, unreleased photos and artwork, and all tracks remastered personally by Tom Gabriel Fischer, Martin Eric Ain and Steve Warrior. The album was released by Prowlin' Death/Century Media Records.

Additionally, Tom Fisher plans to release a book entitled "Only Death is Real - An Illustrated History of Hellhammer and early Celtic Frost" which will document the early days of the said bands.

Criticism

Although its former members felt proud of Hellhammer's legacy by the end of 1980s, that was not always so. In fact, Tom Warrior feared that his prior commitment to Hellhammer could hinder the future of Celtic Frost. A 1985 Kerrang! review summed up his worst fears: "The truly execrable Hellhammer may now have turned into Celtic Frost but still suck on the big one."

Other metal publications were also skeptical of Hellhamer's musical endeavor. Metal Forces, for one, absolutely loathed the group; that started a long-lasting feud between that zine and Warrior, which kept Celtic Frost from playing in England for a couple of years. Rock Power was not fond of Hellhammer either - they considered it "the most terrible, abhorrent, and atrocious thing ‘musicians’ were ever allowed to record". In fact, they were "receiving miserable reviews everywhere", Warrior concluded.

Regarding the controversial status of his former band, Thomas said:

Way back in 1984 and 85, when Martin Eric Ain and I recorded Celtic Frost's first two albums Morbid Tales and To Mega Therion, Hellhammer lasted on us almost like a curse. Even though Hellhammer was the very reason we had thought over our goals and conceived the Frost, HH's left-overs kept being mighty rocks in our way. Many voices saw Frost as the same band with just a name-change. The lack of musical quality in HH made it almost impossible for us to get an unbiased reaction for Frost. To make a long story short, it almost killed all our work and dreams.

Legacy

A four-track 12" EP, Apocalyptic Raids, was released in March 1984. At the time, it was regarded as one of the heaviest and most extreme records produced. By then, the band had already broken up, but the recording was one of the original black/death metal recordings, and spawned a legion of imitators, playing doom metal, thrash metal, black metal and death metal. Both Fischer and Ain later teamed up again when forming the seminal Celtic Frost in summer of 1984.

Countless Hellhammer cover versions by numerous underground bands exist. The better-known Hellhammer covers were done by bands Napalm Death and Sepultura, both of whom covered the Hellhammer song "Messiah". Fischer's post-Celtic Frost band, Apollyon Sun, also re-worked that song.

Discography

Demos

1983 – Death Fiend (unreleased)
1983 – Triumph of Death
1983 – Satanic Rites

Albums

1984 – Apocalyptic Raids
1990 – Apocalyptic Raids 1990 A.D. – reissued with the songs from the Death Metal compilation.
2008 – Demon Entrails – compilation containing the Death Fiend, Triumph of Death and Satanic Rites demo tapes.

Compilation appearances

1984 – Death Metal – split release with Helloween, Running Wild and Dark Avenger.
1984 – Metal Massacre V – Metal Blade compilation which also featured Voivod, Overkill, Metal Church and Fates Warning.

Notes

References

Fischer, Thomas Gabriel (2000). Are You Morbid? Into the Pandemonium of Celtic Frost. London: Sanctuary Publishing Limited.
Gregori, Damien (2003). Thrash Metal or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Terrorizer, 108: 10-14.
Hellhammer (1990). Apocalyptic Raids 1990 A.D. [CD]. New York, NY: Futurist/Noise International.