Band:	Deathhammer
Album:	Onward To The Pits
Style:	Thrash metal
Release date:	May 09, 2012
Guest review by:	toxx

01. Deathrashing Sacrifice
02. Voodoo Rites
03. Fullmoon Sorcery
04. Emperor Of Sin
05. To The Evil
06. Final Black Mass
07. Army Of Death
08. Seduced By The Flames
09. Lead Us Into Hell
10. Onward To The Pits

Another aspiring blackened thrash band from Norway: Deathhammer! Old school heavy, thrash, and speed metal bands have been popping up in Norway regularly over the past years. Suddenly it's 1984 again or something. (I like 1984, though.) These guys have been at it since 2005, and this is their second full-length album.

Onward To The Pits certainly lives up to its name! The pit where this album is forged must be a hot one! The opening track grabs a hold of you and rips you into small pieces from the first second. Ultra fast riffs and thundering blastbeats, followed by a massive screeching vocal style that switches between falsetto and hellish rasping screams in an instant. This is angry. This is real. This is some heartfelt blackened thrash!

The breakneck speed is there throughout the whole album - mosh pit material all the way! If you're into old school blackened thrash, this will definitely float your musical boat.

It seems to me that Deathhammer write and play music because they love it. They love the genre and that old school sound. There is nothing innovative behind this album. Nothing will surprise you in any way. You have heard similar sounding bands before. But in some way they manage to make it their own. There is something about these guys that gives them that little edge, that defining detail. Just raw and pure, sure to make your ears bleed. I have heard a lot of Norwegian releases within the genre the last 10 years, but I have to say that this one is up there amongst the finest.