Asphyx - Deathhammer

Published March 03 2012

*=Staff's pick	Into The Timewastes Deathhammer* Minefield* Of Days When Blades Turned Blunt Der Landser Reign Of The Brute The Flood* We Doom You To Death* Vespa Crabro As The Magma Mammoth Rises

Genre	Death Metal	Martin van Drunen	Vocals
Tracks	10	Paul Baayens	Guitar
Running time	47 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Century Media	Alwin Zuur	Bass
Release	27 February 2012	Bob Bagchus	Drums
Country	Holland	-	Keyboard
Producer	Harry Wijering/Dan Swanö
Similar artists	Bolt Thrower, Autopsy, Obituary

Deathhammer is the eighth full-length album from Dutch death-metal veterans Asphyx. Following up the 2008 release Death… The Brutal Way, I had pretty high expectations and let me just put it like this: I wasn't disappointed. Not one bit.

Someone once told me that in an ideal death-metal record the guitar should sound like a chainsaw cutting flesh off of bones and the first thing that strikes you when you listen to Deathhammer is exactly that. Furthermore, Martin van Drunen's voice basically sounds like the human version of that chainsaw - after the first two seconds of the album, I'm hooked.

On one hand, there are songs like Into The Timewastes, Deathhammer, Reign Of The Brute and Vespa Cabro - schoolbook examples of fast-paced death-metal songs that kick your ass before you have time to think about what's happening. On the other hand, there are the doom-metal influenced, slower, almost sluggish songs like Minefield, We Doom You To Death and As The Magma Mammoth Rises which bring that extra dimension to the record.

Basically, what you need to know is that this album is absolutely phenomenal, with the title track being one of the best death-metal songs I've heard in a long, long time. If you have any interest whatsoever in brutal music, check this out. It's only March but this might very well end up being the best album of the entire year. This is true death metal, you bastards.

See also review of: Incoming Death , Death... The Brutal Way

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
9	8	9	9,5	9

Summary
9 chalices of 10 - Bjorn