Bitten into jagged chunks by the tormentor’s broken teeth and enveloped in their own red mist Hamar, Norway-based black-thrashing speed metal duo DEATHHAMMER reappear as bug-eyed and blood drenched warriors on the hunt for ancient evil-thrashing riffs on this sixth full-length album. ‘Crimson Dawn‘ once again tows the line, upholding the band’s mission of adrenaline worthy speed metal driven to unholy extremes. Though I’d shy away from calling this one comprehensive outright these folks continue to resemble themselves, appearing deservedly self-assured and on no less of a tear than they’ve ever been, making for an entertaining thrash record which is yet all about their attack upon the riff.

Deathhammer have been around since the early-to-mid 2000’s global upsurge in thrash but’ve never aimed for neothrash so much as the sinister underground. We can generally tout their discography as consistency but steadily developed over the course of two decades. The more formative years of the band leading up to their debut LP (‘Phantom Knights‘, 2010) dealt in their own cauldron of early Slayer riffs, evil German thrash a la ‘Infernal Overkill‘, and basically anything along those lines that was fast and delivered with Satanic force flowing from their skulls. You could call them black-thrash metal if you want, then and now, but with ‘Evil Power‘ (2015) it became most clear that speed metal was also a big part of their greater scope of interests/capabilities, after ten years they’d reached a kind of plateau of skill as a duo and that is where the argument for consistency begins holding up.

For my own taste the band’s opus thus far has been ‘Chained to Hell‘ (2018) where some of those ‘Show No Mercy’ stoked tendencies sparked back up, they’d pushed more leads into their stuff and their attack struck me as dead-focused in a Teutonic thrashed directive in believable ratio with their heavy/speed metal fed anthemic quality a la contemporaries Condor, Töxik Death and Cruel Force (among others) at the time. ‘Electric Warfare‘ (2022) was a ramping of those qualities into increasingly ambitious songs which were longer and toasted with both more typical speed metal stuff a la ‘Evil Power‘ and the shrieks of Salsten with tripled frequency. I think there is a solid argument to be made for either album being among the band’s best depending on your taste in thrash metal. Heading into ‘Crimson Dawn‘ I was generally hoping for more of the same with regard to their fifth LP as I’d enjoyed it but this time around Deathhammer‘ve opted out of those longer songs and stuck with ~4-5 minute pieces. No wild surprises or new angles upon it, just their latest set of riffs chased back down to Hell.

We get some GameCube-era dungeon synth and a drum fill worthy of late 80’s South American thrash as “Abyssic Thunder” opens with a flailed-out guitar solo and a crack into a ranting, shrieking and group-shouted tirade right in the witching metal hot-zone where Deathhammer‘ve always excelled. The drum sound, which should draw reference to either Brazilian legendry or ‘Pleasure to Kill‘ is a huge boon for my own taste as it recalls a turning point for extreme thrash metal in general and lends a certain feral character to the blitzkrieg and shrieked attack the band’ve brought here. From there “Satan’s Sword” is basically the type of song that contains the major calling cards of these offenders though maybe one of the more plain songs overall, I’d been slapped directly down to the skull-parts by “Stygian Lust” by comparison as it seemed like a mid-paced speed metal slapper ’til the verses merge (early) Destruction-esque trampling with the Hellhammer‘d/Slaughter-esque riffs that gun out around ~2:30 minutes in that gives the song a sort of ‘Obsessed by Cruelty‘ feeling mania to its arrangement.

By the time we begin hitting the solid innards of ‘Crimson Dawn‘ each song generally stands out beyond the last as we hit “Nocturnal Windz of Fire” which brings something potentially inspired by early 90’s black metal per a few guitar techniques used and the crash of the drumming which contrasts directly with the title track (“Crimson Dawn”) couldn’t be more mid-80’s heavy metal upon approach and one of the best songs on the album. Of course it was the ‘Infernal Overkill‘ styled scrimmage on standout “Legacy of Pain” that sealed the deal: Much as I’d liked and wanted more of those ~6-7 minute pieces on the previous album this type of quicker, faster burning song are probably what Deathhammer are/will be best known for. With that in mind I’d say that extended closer “Into the Blackness of Hell” does more for me than most else on ‘Crimson Dawn‘. Around ~3:07 minutes in an unusually cross-armed melody sparks up and makes for a unique, nearly out of place moment that fans of the ‘epic’ speed metal mania of ‘Electric Warfare‘ will appreciate.

We get a pretty damned full-ranged representation of what Deathhammer are all about here on album number six. They’re the same mad-shrieking, torch wielding crew as they ever were but this record (and the previous one at any rate) shows no signs of struggle in achieving the the band’s simple on paper but difficult in practice vision, a timeless take on classic thrash/speed metal standards given to their own mayhemic defiance. Existing fandom will not be alienated by ‘Crimson Dawn‘ though I figure a few folks might be disappointed that they’ve cut away from double-length songs here for the most part. A high recommendation.

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