Customer Reviews

Necrology

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Demolition Hammer were one of thrash's best kept secrets. While the big names of thrash were fading into mediocrity, this New York City group emerged in the late 80's and lasted until the mid 90's. Three albums from this group have been released, but they have been out of print for years. However, all hope is certainly not gone, as you can re-experience the career of the group on this 2 disc compilation consisting of all 3 albums.

First album is "Tortured Existence", released in 1990. This album is a menacing assault of extreme thrash, with guitar shredding that suffocates. The intensity lasts throughout the album and never lets up.

Second album is "Epidemic of Violence", their 1992 release. This is usually seen as their best work by many, which carries on the formula of "Tortured Existence" but still holds its own by delivering relentless thrash to your ears.

However, the third album, "Time Bomb" (released in 1994), signaled a huge change in sound, focusing more on the groove aesthetics of Helmet and Pantera. The band themselves were wanting to release it under a different name, but Century Media wanted them to keep the Demolition Hammer name and refused to issue it under another name. This will surely disappoint if you loved the previous two albums, but if you don't mind some groove, it's an okay listen.

While this compilation may be an ultimate re-release of the Demolition Hammer full-lengths, it has its flaws as well. Disc 1 ends around the middle of "Epidemic of Violence", and in order to keep listening to the album, Disc 2 needs to be popped in to complete listening to it. Another thing is that if you already have the previous three albums, I wouldn't buy this because there are only two bonus tracks, which are pre-production demos from the "Time Bomb" era. It would have been better if they at least included the 1988 "Skull Fracturing Nightmare" demo instead.

Otherwise, if you're new to this band, I recommend picking this up if you're looking for 3 full-lengths at the price of an average full-length.

This band, is just absolutely amazing. Brutal, fast, an unrelenting assault and barage of heaviness on the senses, this is THE one and only Demolition Hammer. Straight from the Bronx, NY, these guys were one of the heaviest, if THE heaviest thrash bands on the scene. In fact, straight from the band, they catorgorized themselves as 'Death/Thrash', and it is oh so good. Here, we have an awesome anthology put out by Century Media, it includes all 3 of their albums, completely remastered and includes 2 bonus demo tracks from the Time Bomb era. Like the other reviewer, I think it would have been better to have included the Skull Fracturing Nightmare demo, but because of Derek Sykes request, they couldn't include it on here(he felt it should be kept out for rarity purposes). But just having these 3 albums in their entirety is great enough for me! These albums are hard to find to begin with, but they are so worth your time and money. Their debut album, Tortured Existence is an absolute killer album, full of great songs, lyrics, guitar work, bass work, and of course the incredible Vinny Daze on the drums. The whole album is an unrelenting force of heaviness, all the tracks are standout cuts. Steve Reynolds brand of vocals is the perfect fit for the brand of music, not high octave screams or low cookie monster growls, but an in between of shear harsh, aggressive, ravage dogged vocals. And if you thought they could never top this album, in comes Epidemic of Violence from 1992. Good lord...this is probably the heaviest thrash album of all time. Right there with Darkness Descends, Slaughter In The Vatican, Reign In Blood, and Idolatry. What held those albums back with a few exceptions was the production, which held back the heaviness on of the album. Not on Epidemic though, this is a full-fledged atomic bomb of heaviness. There is just no other album like it, and like Tortured Existence, no filler, all killer. Too much a shame, by the time it was release the metal world was forced underground for the most part, only Pantera and some of the Death Metal bands were on full stride in the metal community. With the ever changing music scene in the '90s, Steve and Derek wanted to take a slighty different direction in the music, which led to Vinny and guitarist James Reilly to leave the band. Their next and final album, Time Bomb showed a drasitc change in the bands formula, no longer a heavy thrash/death sound, but more of a groove oriented death metal sound. This upset many of the hardcore fans, which was the majority in 1994, and eventually they called it quites soon after. Unfortunately, Vinny Daze died in 1996 of blowfish poisoning(even how he died was brutal!R.I.P.), so any sort of reunion will probably never happen. So this is it folks: The only way to experience one of the heaviest, brutal metal bands of all time is here. Don't let these guys fade away! Keep their incredible music alive, buy this set and show all your metal friends what true heaviness is!