Album Review: Bloody Hammers – Lovely Sort of Death

Bloody Hammers – Lovely Sort of Death
Release Date: August 5, 2016
Record Label:  Napalm Records

Bloody Hammers.  Right off the bat, I have to be honest and say that I was totally judging a book by its cover.  The name has actually put me off since I first heard them and even after listening to their previous album, Under Satan’s Sun, I just wasn’t connected to it all.  I’m not sure what is so different this time around but Lovely Sort of Death really captivated me and drew me in.  I tend to spend a lot of time listening to a lot of heavy metal music and sometimes it can get to be a bit much.  The constant riffing, the pounding drums, the soaring vocals.  Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE it but sometimes I find myself needing to escape from that for a moment and Lovely Sort Of Death was without a doubt the perfect retreat for me.

The opening track, “Bloodletting on the Kiss” grabbed me right away and had me settling into this ambient, mellow yet still heavy kind of mystical vibe.  The best way I can describe this song is that right away I thought to myself, “This is like Type O Negative if they didn’t suck.”  “The Reaper Comes” is another number that had me completely mesmerized and even had me stopping what I was doing to just sit still for a bit and take it all in.  While the album definitely has it’s mellow moments, I loved that “Infinite Gaze to the Sun” totally kicked things up a few notches but still maintained that kind of heavy mellowness.  It showed me that Blood Hammers is definitely not a one trick pony and totally capable of mixing it up and changing up the dynamics.

Lovely Sort of Death is without a doubt one of the most pleasant surprises I have had in a long while.  Just so you know, this is a full on Goth metal album.  For a guy who usually hates this kind of music, Blood Hammers really appealed to me and even has me thinking about the genre a bit differently.  Lovely Sort of Death is, as I said before, a perfect aural escape from the noise of the outside world.  It’s one of those albums that takes you somewhere and like any great album, it also commands your full attention in order to truly make its impact.

For more on Bloody Hammers, check out https://www.facebook.com/BloodyHammers

Pick up the new album here:

Discover more from Southeast of Heaven

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading