The tracking of the origins of black metal is a fascinating journey, following backwards the thread of time… Three influential acts in the early 80s, Venom, Bathory and Hellhammer, opened the door to the most open-minded genre in extreme music. The first two of them were long-lived (Venom still exist), but Hellhammer were just a brief glimpse of time. However, only two years were enough for them to change things irrevocably and form the necessary conditions for the creation of probably the biggest extreme bandthe world experienced… Indeed, Hellhammer were a rare case of inverse proportionality between significance and duration.
by Alex Nikolaidis
The formation of the band took place in May 1982 in Nürensdorf, Zürich, when guitarist/vocalist Thomas Gabriel Fischer (“Tom Warrior” and “Satanic Slaughter”) and bassist/vocalist Urs Sprenger (“Steve Warrior” and “Savage Damage”) decided, with the assistance of drummer Pete Stratton, to venture on a new musical endeavor after the ending of their previous band, Grave Hill. Hence, Hammerhead were formed, a name that was later changed to Hellhammer.
The young group, after Stratton’s quitting and Jörg Neubart’s recruitment (“Denial Fiend” and “Bruce Day”), attempted to find a proper space for rehearsals. Of course, that was quite difficult, considering the high costs and their restricted financial resources. Eventually, in June 1983 they managed to record their first demo tape, “Triumph of Death” (along with the unreleased “Death Fiend” demo), in their own rehearsal room, on portable equipment, under Rol Fuchs’ production.
Fischer’s hardcore punk influences of that era are evident (he was listening to Discharge back then…), although songwriting was rather naive. A raw, rough sound stripped off even the slightest production approach, violent, aggressive songs with a tremendous sense of tempo, anon-conformist, undisciplined spirit, and provoking vocals by two angry punks, who you think just jumped out of the English scene, signified Hellhammer’s entry to the underground. Emerging from obscurityand challenging recording conditions, “Triumph of Death” exerted a profound influence on black and death metal genres, surpassing even Hellhammer’s own expectations…But isn’t it doom that we hear in the self-titled song? Indeed, Hellhammer had a variety of genres in their fingers… However, the band weren’t satisfied with the result, but they sent tapes to various magazines and labelsanyway, and eventually they collaborated with Noise Records.
Later, Steve Warrior was substituted by the fifteen-year-oldbassist Martin Eric Ain (“Sleyed Necros”), a pivotal move that changedHellhammer’s direction, and would eventually lead to their end. In December 1983 the demo “Satanic Rites” was recorded, showing a more mature songwriting approach. This time, the “comprehensible” acoustic result enabled Hellhammer to reveal a heavier and dirtier, but still primitive sound. The band, aided by Ain’s filthy bass, “defiled” Venom’s sound and made it more sinister, inclined to Motörhead’s style (there’s no better example than “Crucifixion”). The turn to a Venom-ous, pre-black metal territory didn’t mean that the punk attitude was left aside; it was there, pervading up-tempo songs with a welcoming street attitude. This peculiar hybrid of punkish/thrashy black (let’s call it “black ‘n punk” for the fun of it…) became Hellhammer’s defining characteristic and made them well-known to the underground.
In March 1984, Hellhammer released the EP “Apocalyptic Raids” via Noise Records, their only commercial release, and three months later they split up to form Celtic Frost. This monumental EP, based on the principles of the previous demo (without the punk element though), reveals the origins of black metal in twenty minutes of sincerity, combining the“Venom-meets-Motörhead” straightforward, primordial, metal attack of “Massacra” and “Horus/Aggressor” with a more vocally paranoid version of “Triumph of Death”, where Tom Warrior’s desperate, torturing performance cause many doomsters to grin sardonicallyuntil today.
These releases, despite their technical issues, left their mark on the first wave of black metal, and genres such as death, grind, doom, speed, thrash. Countless bands were influenced, and many of them made Hellhammer covers; it’s no use trying to count them.Instead, let’s concentrate solely on one of the greatest (if not the greatest) Norwegian bands. How many times have you heard Hellhammer’s tunes and themes in Darkthrone’s music? How many times have you discerned their influence on the early (black), and later (doom/heavy) Darkthrone’s eras?
Today, Hellhammer’slegacy is widely appreciated, but during their brief career, their acceptance wasn’t so strong. In fact, a significant part of the music press and many fans confronted them with contempt and mocked their music, as Hellhammer were never technically skilled; instead, they always relied on their raw power and spontaneous way of playing. Weirdly enough, even the band members themselves used to undervalue their work. Indicatively, shortly after Celtic Frost’s formation, Tom Warrior expressed his fears that his previous involvement in Hellhammer might be an obstacle to his new band’s success. Actually, he characterized Hellhammer as a “curse”, commenting that “…Hellhammer’s leftovers kept being mighty rocks in our way…”and talking about “…lack of musical quality… that almost killed all our work and dreams”.
Of course, as years passed, Hellhammer were unanimously appreciated by almost everyone, and took the place they deserved in music history. Even Tom Warrior, now speaks fondly about his early band, and actually he performs Hellhammer’s material since 2019 with a tribute band he made, named Triumph of Death, thus bringing to light Hellhammer songs the way they deserve. In a recent interview, he expressed his nostalgia about the way bands were playing back then, contrary to the modern approach with all this technology used in the studios and venues:“I miss hearing albums with fire, with some kind of dirt, with imperfections, but with perfection and passion…”, and “…if you play a mistake, so f@@@ it…”.
Leaving aside their prominent role in black metal, that’s exactly the paradigm that Hellhammer teach us. It doesn’t matter if music has flaws; it should emerge from the heart, free from technological manipulations and effects that, apparently, may perfectionate even the slightest detail, but actually spoil its spontaneity. That’s the true essence of the underground: the flame that’s hidden in the heart and bursts out from the heart!
Hellhammer rose from the underground, played fast, slow and dirty, co-inventing the wheel, and stayed to the underground, where they belong…
