Album Review: Hammer Fight - "Hammer Fight"

There’s nothing spectacular about Hammer Fight’s new CD “Hammer Fight.” But, there’s nothing wrong with it, either. Their album blows through town in a hurry, able to be listened to twice in the time it takes to listen to most albums once.

“Hammer Fight” is an honest, well-meant distraction, a harkening back to the heady, beer-swilling, just plain fun days of thrash. Opener “Down the Line,” as with most of the album’s cuts, has that signature bouncy thrash feel, endemic to party metal of all stripes. Hammer Fight enhances this feeling by injecting a little bit of the off-the-cuff feeling of GWAR into their music, making the songs loose and light while still delivering the expected payload.

The album throws nothing but fastballs except for “Tears of Unfathomable Sadness,” which doesn’t exactly slow down, but chooses instead to employ a more insistent, menacing beat. Each song moves along without delay, the three-minutes-or-less romps giving more of the same until the album’s conclusion.

“Hammer Fight” wraps up with a cover of AC/DC’s “If You Want Blood,” which in my humble opinion is the finest AC/DC song ever written (in a forest of giants, no less.) The cover isn’t incredibly original, featuring only the addition of the occasional double kick roll, but is a labor of love that speaks volumes about what Hammer Fight is striving for.

Hammer Fight’s record isn’t groundbreaking, and it’s awfully short, but it’s available pretty cheap and is a decent enough effort. If you’ve run through this year’s Testament, Exumer and Kreator releases to the point of nausea and need a little speed metal fix, you could do much worse, and it’ll tide you over as the summer release season winds down.