Thorr's Hammer "Dommedagsnatt" CD
[Southern Lord]
I'm sure this has been long awaited by many. A reissue of the debut Southern Lord release from 1998, from this band that existed between 1994 - 1995 and called it quits after a mere one recording session and two live shows. And, of course, the lineup featured the esteemed Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley, with, among others, a 17-year-old Norwegian female vocalist named Runhild Gammelsæter - capable of shifting effortlessly from droning, monotone singing to some of the most immense and destructive growls you'll ever fucking hear in your worthless life! The result is four tracks of plodding, sinister doom with a great mix of dynamics. Slow, driving rhythms with thick, textured walls of distortion; bashing percussion; sludgy bass; those amazing vocal growls; softer singing; a few clean breaks; some eerie discordance... you get it all. This material is all about sheer force, as is perfectly exemplified in the eight-minute masterpiece title track. The band definitely knows how to bounce instruments off one another, often letting the drums get a little busier than the guitar rhythms, and spicing things up in other such subtle manners. The recording suits me fine. The vocals sound absolutely perfect, the drums are huge, the mix is clear and allows the guitar and bass tones to work together while retaining their own space, etc. It's a little rough around the edges and in some ways has a rawness, but I think that was probably intentional, and it does makes sense and add a certain aesthetic to the work. The last, and longest track, "Mellom Galgene", which seems pretty good, was sadly recorded live, and thus is a little too dirty and muddy for me to truly appreciate it. Were it done up in the studio it probably would've been one of the finer moments, and at least the live recording is good enough to get an idea of what's going on... but it's still missing something. There's a CD-Rom video of the band's first live performance (recorded in 1995 at the New World in Ballard, Washington), but it's pretty weak in my opinion. It's lengthy (around 35 minutes), which is nice, but the sound quality is terrible, and it is boring. It's basically black and white footage of the band standing fairly still and playing a few songs, switching over to color at one point towards the end, and that's that. The layout is basically true to the original pressing, done in black and white with some metallic silver, and includes some live photos, the lyrics (in Norwegian), and brief liner notes. Simple enough. It's great to see this back in print, as I imagine this band will assuredly go down in history as one of the greats within doom circles. (7/10)
Running time - 32:26, Tracks: 4
[Notable tracks: Troll, Dommedagsnatt]
Southern Lord Recordings - http://www.southernlord.com

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