tl;dr: “Time Is Death” is NWOBHM on steroids.
Do you like the “Stranger Things” TV series?
Do you still watch your favorite movies on VHS?
Do you still play your video games on NES?
Do you always keep your spandex clean for the next gig?
If the answer to all of these questions is “yes”, then keep reading.
LUCIFER’S HAMMER is a quintet hailing from Chile and despite their name holding a reference to WARLORD‘s opus, they keep their gig NWOBHM-only.
The band recently released their second full-length album, “Time Is Death”, and I’d say it’s a true homage to the glorious UK metal scene of the 80s. You can tell for yourselves just by looking at the band members’ nicknames, their t-shirts and overall look. As expected, the cover illustration couldn’t deviate from all these and really strikes a reference to John Martin’s painting on ANGEL WITCH’s S/T album cover, mostly due to the dominant red colors and overall ominous feeling.
Produced by the band and released by Stormspell Records, “Time Is Death” consists of seven tracks and runs for about 40 mins, not leaving much room for fillers. If you are into bands like ANGEL WITCH, IRON MAIDEN and WITCHFYNDE, then you’re going to love these guys. With galloping drums and bass segments, harmonized melodies and blazing guitar solos, and vocals which feel like they’re taken out of a Martin Birch tracking session being their bread and butter, they practically play NWOBHM on steroids; loud and raw.
There’s an unwritten “rule” that dictates that every band that’s into NWOBHM, old or new, must have an instrumental song in their album, and LUCIFER’S HAMMER seem to live by this rule. “Garapuña” (which I still haven’t figured out what it means) is a nearly six-minute instrumental track that brings back lots of fond memories from the early days of IRON MAIDEN.
My picks from this one would be the opening track “Time is Death”, “Lady Dark” and “Traitors of the Night”. Shout-out for some of the coolest guitar solos I’ve listened to in a while.
Check them out and judge for yourselves. Up The Irons!
