There’s a moment on this album when I realised that US band Bloody Hammers share more than just a name with Roky Erickson; they also have that unnerving ability to sound as though they are speaking only to you and dripping their weirdness directly into your brain. Trust me, this is a Good Thing, people….
Now I was impressed with their eponymous debut, particularly with the odder elements they brought to their 70s fuzz ‘n’ doom sound, so the riff on opener ‘What’s Haunting You?’ was a bit run of the mill I thought. Impatient me. Soon as the keyboard laced chorus comes in it’s as though the colours bleed in and we’re off on a really cool trip. Never trying to be the heaviest band in the world nevertheless Bloody Hammers live the fuzzed stoner doom sound and there is always just enough weight to anchor the song without crushing the often delicately eerie keyboards. Take the last section of the quietly creepy ‘The Transit Begins’ when the guitars crank up a touch but push the keyboards higher rather than drown them. This is a fantastic little song that would not have been written by anyone else and is handled with a perfectly judged weight. Coupled with the equally sinister and slow, and maddeningly addictive ‘The Source’ which adds a stunning chorus in a gothic, Type O Negative-from-the-Seventies sound and you have a beautiful couplet.
‘Colour Me Blood Red’ then wades in with a bouncing fuzzball riff just to remind you what these guitar things are for. It is a stark song somehow, a little light on the bass, but still fun enough. ‘Night Of The Long Knives’ then sidles up to you, whispering it’s darkness under a lovely hammer horror keyboard riff before arching out into a stoner catchy refrain and more of those gorgeous organ sounds from Devillia’s no doubt blood -tipped fingers.
Vocalist and bass player Anders Manga has a fine, varied style to his gruff voice: Quiet and rich on tracks like ‘The Source ‘ but equally at home stretched out into a classic 70s doom wail with real expression on slow monsters like ‘Flesh Of The Lotus’. With their sound being so open and easy to pick out each instrument, it requires an impressive character in the vocals to bridge them all and bind them and he does that with ease.
Not everything works here. ‘Path Of Sorrows’ despite a nice rumble in the lower gears, and again a fair chorus, never quite hits the stride that the band usually conjures. A bit average but it’s hardly a disaster so no real foul.
They close the album with a gentle little love song. No it is, really. It’s a semi-acoustic track, ‘Science Fiction’ by name, and maybe it’s a sign of the times that I find such a simple song so weird. It’s kind of like Smokey go psyche (yep, I am old enough to remember Smokey unfortunately), a pop rock ballad to crack the charts at Christmas with bittersweet emotion and delicate hooks and a truly sideways look at life. The more I listen to this lovely, lively and eccentric album the more pick and strum of ‘Science Fiction’ is the perfect curtain. A gentle touch of genius.
With Spiritual Relics, Bloody Hammers have built on their fine debut and have worn away a snug, warm corner of the seventies sound all their own. If you think you have all the seventies doom/hard rock that you need this year, think again. Catchy, idiosyncratic, and warm you kinda need this too. There is nothing else quite like it.
(8/10 Gizmo)
27/09/2013 at 9:13 am
Definitely looking forward to the arrival of my pre-order.