Hammer Release New Single/Video – ‘Trapped in a House With a Maniac’
Hammer are set to have their defining moment with sophomore album ‘Trapped’. Out on August 1st. Following the immense first single/video ‘Basilisk’, the Scottish metallers are back with ‘Trapped in a House With a Maniac’.
Says Adam Poustie (Guitar):
We are all massive nerds about horror and gaming; we had a single, ‘From Beyond’, that was about Stuart ‘Re-Animator’ Gordon’s film of the same name, ‘Trapped In A House With A Maniac’ is a total 80s horror trope. It’s about someone going into a house and there’s someone in there that wants to kill them, but the hunter soon becomes the hunted.
It’s that total schlocky kind of vibe and it’s a fun one. A lot of people have gravitated towards it when we play it live because it has a very anthemic chorus to it.
Trapped’ shows a band brimming with unbridled confidence in its songwriting and desire to redefine uncompromising heaviness. It’s an album that bulldozes its way through the speakers – relentless in its colossal riffs and technicality, battering-ram rhythms and clever musical nuances that go way beyond its obvious extremities.
Its seven tracks effortlessly entwine the ferocious complexities of Strapping Young Lad at their most chaotic, with the bludgeoning grind of Pig Destroyer, to create a sound that is distinctly … Hammer.
With themes inspired by the band’s collective interests in gaming and horror, straight out of the gate is the opening track ‘Mea Culpa’ – a blasphemous cacophony of blackened death metal exploring religious penitence and male guilt from the perspective of a priest. It’s quickly followed by the schlock-horror inspired ‘Trapped In A House With A Maniac’ the hunted becoming the hunter. – a tale of Elsewhere ‘Gorehound’ emits an Arthur Conan Doyle murder/ mystery story vibe; ‘The Hanged Man’ addresses the Norse story of Odin and the tarot card of the same name; ‘Basilisk’ explores the super AI thought experiments of Roko’s Basilisk; while the epic seven minute plus closer ‘Alive’ tells the story of a person crawling through a mass grave of bodies, laid over a gnarly, dirty riff-fest.
Tracklist:
1.MEA CULPA
2.TRAPPED IN A HOUSE WITH A MANIAC
3.THE HANGED MAN
4.GOREHOUND
5.BASILISK
6.GOLEM
7.ALIVE
HAMMER is:
James Andrews – vocals
Dave Farrell – guitars
Adam Poustie – guitars
Piotr Kasprowicz – bass
Keith Blaikie – drums
Credits:
All guitars and vocals were recorded and engineered at guitarist/ songwriter Adam Poustie’s home studio, while the drums were recorded at Edinburgh’s Nameless City Sound studio with King Witch’s Jamie Gilchrist. Mixed by Kris Kournavos from Scottish hardcore-math crew Kakihara, Grant Berry (Ithaca, Employed To Serve, Lottery Winners, Busted) completed the mastering process at Fader Mastering.
Album artwork commissioned and created by renowned French artist Remy Cooper of Headsplit Design (Cryptopsy, Arch Enemy, Pig Destroyer, Napalm Death – amongst many more).
Links
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