By Andrew Bansal
San Francisco, California stoner/psych/prog metal band Hammers Of Misfortune hadn’t released an album since their fifth LP ’17th Street’ came out in 2011, for a variety of reasons, both personal as well as musical, as members of the band worked on other projects and/or dealt with incidents and developments in their lives. Having been around since 2000, Hammers Of Misfortune are one of those bands that quickly gained respect and admiration in the heavy music underground, and every move of theirs became highly anticipated among their cult fan base. Through the past five years, as fans spun the Hammers Of Misfortune albums, they faintly hoped for a new one some day. The time has finally come, as the band is now ready to release their long-awaited sixth full-length ‘Dead Revolution’ on July 22nd 2016 via Metal Blade Records.
Stylistically, guitarist and principal songwriter John Cobbett has blended various influences into the music he’s written for this band, as previous Hammers Of Misfortune showcase a variety of flavors including NWOBHM, thrash, prog, power metal, doom and black metal. On ’17th Street’, it was more of back-to-basics approach and resulted in an album that certainly comes across as more hard rock/heavy metal than prog, per se, with relatively more straightforward and unified song structures. ‘Dead Revolution’ is an extension and progression of the same approach, and highlights the strength of the guitar riffs around which all other layers of the music are cohesively revolving. Besides, the lead vocals and the old-school keyboard parts play a prominent role in giving this a slightly doomier, more psychedelic aura as compared to the band’s past work.
The driving, up-tempo belter ‘The Velvet Inquisition’ is the all-important opening track in this 7-song, 45-minute effort, the combination of solid riffs, keyboards and Joe Hutton’s soaring clean vocals making this an undeniably catchy tune that commands the listener’s attention straightaway, and the well-crafted solos and instrumental passages decorating the song beautifully. The comparatively mid-tempo title track ‘Dead Revolution’ serves to further establish the album’s authority in its early phase, with stellar keyboard-guitar interplay. Things take a turn towards the aforementioned doom psych vibe on the next track ‘Sea Of Heroes’, and this one shines the spotlight on the lead as well as backing female vocals and the compelling nature of the tune despite its slow tempo is a great representation of the quality of the instrumental layers. While the lead instruments are very much in focus through the entirety of the album, the backbone i.e. the rhythm section must also be commended, as the duo of Paul Walker on bass and Death Angel drummer Will Carroll stamp their class all over these tunes. The expertise and experience in Carroll’s drumming is brought forth in particular on ‘The Precipice’ as he holds the entire band tight through fast-paced segments and tempo variations. This song also boasts of the catchiest vocals and riffs, and may turn out to be the best this album has to offer. But the chilled-out slow jams in ‘Here Comes The Sky’, the ultra-fast NWOBHM-inspired ‘Flying Alone’ and a gloriously metalized cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘Days Of ’49’ bring ‘Dead Revolution’ to a strong finish.
More than anything, what one infers from Hammers Of Misfortune’s newest effort is its organic and free-flowing vibe, making it a very easy listen for fans of heavy music across the board, ranging from classic rock to doom metal. It is most likely an outcome of Cobbett and his band mates composing and playing what comes naturally to them at this point in their lives, which may sound like an obvious thing but isn’t as easy to accomplish, specially for an already established band whose new release is always going to be pitted against their own past work. This is perhaps why it took five years for ‘Dead Revolution’ to materialize, and fans and first-time listeners alike would agree that it was for the better, because even the slightest degree of rush or force may have resulted in an inferior output.
‘Dead Revolution’ retains and enhances Hammers Of Misfortune’s reputation as one of San Francisco’s finest musical gems, and is the newest compelling example of why this band deserves a spot in every hard rock/heavy metal fan’s library.
Rating: 9.5/10
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Record Label: Metal Blade
Release Date: July 22nd 2016
Track Listing:
1. The Velvet Inquisition
2. Dead Revolution
3. Sea of Heroes
4. The Precipice (Waiting for the Crash…)
5. Here Comes the Sky
6. Flying Alone
7. Days of ’49
Hammers Of Misfortune links: facebook