BLACK STEEL: Hellhammer

Released: 2005

Black Steel was one of the few bands on the Perth scene playing melodic metal and was that city's answer to the likes of Dungeon and Black Majesty. Their second album Hellhammer showed them to be heading in a significantly heavier and thrashier direction than was apparent on 2001’s Destructor.

Black Steel had a proud tradition of throwing up the cheesiest album covers in Australian metal and they certainly didn’t disappoint here, with dragons and Orcs and a castle being pelted by a meteor shower. Inside is where it counts of course, and the opening riffing of ‘Annihilate’ is pure aggression, leaving you with the feeling that this is going to be a bit of all right. This is until Matt Williams opens his mouth. I’m sure he’s a lovely bloke, but I’d always felt that he was the weakest link for this band, and his performance here really bares this out. As reasonably well suited as he was to the sound of previous Black Steel outings, his style doesn’t gel well with the band’s new found aggression and power. Of course, he isn’t helped much on the first track thanks to a very weak lyrical arrangement which makes this sound like a bad 80s thrash song, and I can’t explain the logic behind making it the opener when the single track ‘Relentless Force’ is so much better, though perhaps more in keeping with Destructor’s musical direction than what they’re doing here.

Hellhammer does feature some superior playing. Jamie Page is an outstanding guitarist and Damien Petrilli a drummer of equal standing. What the album does seem to lack though is really quality, memorable songs. The title track and the Judas Priest-like ‘Grind to Metal’, plus the previously mentioned ‘Relentless Force’ certainly stand out, possibly because Williams sounds at his best on them, but overall the whole album lacks the catchiness and appeal of the East Coast’s power metal brigade, or of their WA buddies like Voyager. As an album, it’s not terrible, but as the ultimate statement of Black Steel’s intentions and obvious abilities, Hellhammer fells a bit short of the mark.

1. Annihilate
2. That Was Then, This is Now
3. Hellhammer
4. Grind to Metal
5. Up Against the World
6. Going Down
7. Relentless Force
8. Live for the Fight
9. Slaughterhouse
10. The Holy Devil
11. Death or Glory

Rating: 65%