Band:	Gallhammer
Album:	The Dawn Of?
Style:	Crust Punk, Black metal
Release date:	2007
A review by:	Jeff

Disc I
01. Speed Of Blood
02. Crucifixion
03. May Our Father Die
04. Aloof And Proud Silence
05. Hallucination
06. Selfish Selfless
07. Insane Beautiful Sunnyday Slaughter
08. Beyond The Hate Red
09. Friction
10. At the Onset Of The Age Of Despair
11. Crucifixion [bonus]
12. May Our Father Die [bonus]

Disc II [DVD]
01. Okayama Pepper Land (29/07/05)
    1 - Endless Nauseous Days
    2 - Blind My Eyes
    3 - May Our Father Die
    4 - Song Of Fall
    5 - Hallucination
    6 - Crucifixion
02. Tokyo Shinju Wall (14/04/06)
    1 - Song Of Fall
    2 - Hallucination
    3 - Blind My Eyes
    4 - Crucifixion
03. Kawasaki Bottoms Up (02/05/06)
    1 - At the Onset Of The Age Of Despair
    2 - Speed of Blood
    3 - Lust Satan Death
    4 - Beyond The Hate Red
04. Osaka Namba Rockets (05/02/05)
    1 - Crucifixion
    2 - Blossom In The Raven Rive
    3 - Beyond The Hate Red
    4 - May Our Father Die
    5 - Lust Satan Death
05. Tokyo Koiva M7 (07/07/06)
    1 - Endless Nauseous Days
    2 - Beyond the Hate Red
06. Tokyo Watts (14/05/06)
    1 - Crucifixion
    2 - Speed of Blood
    3 - Hallucination

What do we have here? A compilation of a young Japanese band who wants to play Black / Crust Metal? Hum, I don't know why but I didn't have any good feelings when I received this album and unfortunately I wasn't so wrong. I'm a great fan of Peaceville records which is for me one of the best labels of the whole Metal scene but this time, I just don't understand how they find a way to sing this band?

Gallhammer is composed of three young Japanese girls who decided to play something "true", "krieg" (you can even add "necro" and "kvlt" if you want?) but above all something trendy in my opinion. That's simple, despite the fact that they play something really dark and "underground" with a really bad sound and some simple riffs (a bit like some old school Black Metal) there is nothing in this release. The musician are bad, the drummer probably learnt to play the Drums in a week and is just able to play the same basic rhythm during the whole length of the album, the singer sounds like a flayed alive pig and I will not even talk about the guitars and bass. No offense but I'm sorry, it just sounds extremely ridiculous for me, a bit like if it was a band formed by some trendy teenagers who wanted to play Black Metal. I have nothing against old school and minimalist Black Metal, we all know that we have fantastic stuff in this musical style but we already have a lot of good releases and if you want to do something similar, at least you must work a bit because here, I just have the feeling that they wrote their songs in 10 minutes, the lack of inspiration and originality is terrible here?

By luck, the "Doom/Crust" parts of the album (because yes we have also some slow songs) are better than the Black Metal ones but unfortunately it doesn't save the compilation. However, Peaceville chose to release this compilation with a good Bonus DVD which features six little live recording and yes the final product is really beautiful and well produced. All in all, it's a nice compilation but damn, except if you're a die-hard fan of the style and doesn't even mind of the quality of the songs, I really don't see how it's possible to listen to this band. I probably don't understand their music, but on the other hand, I already enjoyed a lot the releases of bands which play the same kind of music so we probably have a real problem here anyway.

That's enough for today, "The Dawn Of?" is a real deception and only sounds like a trendy clone of the old school Black Metal scene. Be happy if you like this band and their releases but sorry, no thank you, that's simple not for me. I just cannot recommend this release I'm sorry?