Hamerex - The Last Ride EP (CD Review)

01.Calm Before The Storm/Natures Wrath
02.Ride On Ruin
03.Reign Of Fire
04.Apophis


Steve Blower (Guitar/Vocals)
Andy Firth (Guitar)
Simon Brooks (Bass)
Darren Kelsall (Drums)

The latest offering from the Wakefield band formed in august 2004 who have so far notched up 4 demos, 2 ep's and two albums; 'Rites Of Passage' which got a 9 out of 10 from me in september 2011 (though not actually released till feb 2012) and IX in August 2013 which got a 10 out of 10.
Now with a new bassist Simon Brooks and mainman Steve Blower handling the vocals after the departure of singer Chris Moules they are back with a brand new ep, cant wait to hit play!

Starting with an 8 minute melodic thrash/power metal epic ;'Calm Before The Storm/Natures Wrath', first thing to really notice here is the amazing vocal range of Steve Blower, real power part Bruce Dickinson, part Niklas Isfeldt.
From the melodic opening of gentle guitar it moves into a clever mix of Thrash and Power metal, switching pace and timings to perfection, add to this some great backing vocals and the love of a Maidenesque riff and a blasting solo, and this is just track 1 !

'Ride On Ruin' is much shorter, this one is pretty straight forward, driven as it is by some excellent pedal work, it's one of those heads down no noncence rockers.

Up next another 7 minutes of metal with 'Reign Of Fire', ahh but wait this one gets dangerously close to a ballad, one helluva passionate vocal full of power, hits the high notes and then oh yes ballad nightmare overted and the band kick in with some punchy riffs.
Overall a much slower paced song, love the dark guitar riff that breaks up the song to allow the vocal to fill the speakers.

'Apophis' little guitar intro then into another mid paced thrash piece, really nasty sounding riff powers through, more superb vocals reign out, then that killer riff returns, slow and pounding, just waiting for a screaming solo and i am not let down, it comes and it is good.
Just to nail the point home the songs ends on some full on hi-speed thrash.

Strikes me that this band just want to keep pushing forward and each time they do they produce something worth listening to time and again.

Rating 10/10
For fans of: Iron Maiden, Helloween, Metallica

Hamerex - IX (CD Review)

01.IX Circles
02.The Life Of Death
03.Inferno
04.Edge Of Madness
05.The Extremist
06.Mortuary
07.The Stranger
08.Descent Of Angels
09.The Night Of Samhain
10.Still The Wall Remains

Chris Moules (Vocals)
Steve Blower (Guitar/Vocals/Keyboards)
Andy Firth (Bass/Keyboards)
Darren Kelsall (Drums)

The Wakefield band formed in august 2004 have so far notched up 4 demos, 2 ep's and one album 'Rites Of Passage' which got a 9 out of 10 from me in september 2011 (though not actually released till feb 2012).

The new album is the bands most experimental release to date as well as their most diverse. "We are extremely proud of what we have acheived with the new album." comments guitarist Steve Blower. "There was a great feeling going in to the studio. We'd learnt a lot from 'Rites Of Passage' and we believe we've improved on every aspect of recording and had room to experiment a lot more."
Much thought and work has gone into the cd's packaging as well and will be released as a special 6 panel digipak featuring a large amount of artwork painted by James Mullet throughout the packaging.

The album opens with the instrumental 'IX Circles' with some nice keyboard and synth mixed in, this then leads straight into 'The Life Of Death' taking its inspiration from Clive Barkers short story from vol 6 of books of blood, telling the story of strange things in a church crypt.
This one has a great NWOBHM feel, sounding like one of those classic albums from 1980, a strong vocal performance as well as some maidenesque guitar work outs.

'Inferno' has a real "proto-doom' feel with a 'heaven & hell' styled bass line, sweeping doom laden chords and another superb vocal and a shout it out loud backing vocal.

Picking up the pace with some mid paced thrash, 'Edge Of Madness', about half way through the speed picks up for that "Mosh Pit" frenzy moment and ending with a riff heavy solo.

Echoes of early thrashers Virus throughout 'The Extremist' an almost crust-punk vocal gives this an interesting edge.

Now the next track 'Mortuary' has a really familiar riff in it's intro, kind of like Armoured Saints 'Can U Deliver', whatever lonely brain cell of memory it has nudged, the song is really catchy with a great chorus, the same with 'The Stranger' great, catchy, excellent guitar work and another half remembered riff from the past!

Full on Thrash assault with 'Descent Of Angels', punchy as hell with an agressive snarl from the vocalist.

And now an 11 minute epic...... 'The Night Of Samhain', starts with acoustic guitar, wind f/x and bells, when the band kicks in the sound returns to that early doom but with some great keyboards giving a darkened ambience.
The vocalist seemingly pushed to his limits pulls off a near perfect performance, though one thing its pronounced "souwain" not "Sam Hain".
Thrown in solid drumming, bass and guitar riffs in perfect harmony and this one lives up to the term "Epic".

Finally some nice orchestration on 'Still The Wall Remains', a semi-acoustic ballad, the backing vocals just seem slightly out of sync in places but all in all a great way to end a very diverse and well put together album.

This is a huge leap forward from their previous album, musically more advanced, definately more experimental, improved vocals and better production, this one is a must have for your collection.

Rating 10/10

For Fans Of : Amulet, Witchfinder General, Elimination, Viking Skull

FACEBOOK : https://www.facebook.com/hamerex

Some flyers for June

April Gig Flyers

BEST OF 2011

So its that time to pick the best of 2011, not so easy this year as it was'nt the greatest year for outstanding releases, and we did have to suffer the biggest piece of shit ever commited to disc: Metallica & Lou Reed (art apparently, yeh with a capital "F").

But there are some diamonds in the rust and here they are....

ALBUMS

01.Donkerkarnuffel - Zombie Clown Apocalypse
02.Axis Of Perdition - Tenements (Of The Anointed Flesh)
03.Vallenfyre - A Fragile King
04.Turisas - Stand Up And Fight
05.Anaal Nathrakh - Passion
06.Hamerex - Rites Of Passage
07.Arch Enemy - Khaos Legions
08.Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Blood Lust
09.Venom - Fallen Angels

SINGLES/EP's


01.Amulet - Cut The Crap EP
02.Nemhain - Murder Mile EP
03.Mortad - Pandemic Paranoia EP
04.Phyrexia - Children Of The Dawn

VIDEOS'S

01.Rammstein - Mein Land



02.Devin Townsend Project - Juular

Some Other Gig's

Hamerex - Rites Of Passage (Cd Review)

01.Aftershocks Of Death

02.The Headless Horseman

03.Stalker

04.Hypnotise

05.The Lycan

06.Rites Of Passage

07.Army Of Darkness

08.To The End

09.The Gates Of Hades

10.Waste Away

Steve Blower (Guitar/Backing Vocals)

Chris Moules (Vocals)

Andy Firth (Bass)

Darren Kelsall (Drums)

Joe Wilson (Guitar/Backing Vocals)

Hamerex are a Yorkshire based Heavy Metal band formed in August 2004.An energetic and entertaining live band put together by Steve drawing on the early 80's scene but taking in a wider variety of influences.
Soon to follow was Chris Moules who applied for the role of vocalist with the band and
proving the best choice in the selection. After numerous changes from the original line-
up, Andy Firth joined the band on bass and added a darker edge to the music.

Soon after came veteran drummer Darren Kelsall and brought with him the pace and timing needed for a solid metal band.

In April 2009 the bands first E.P. 'Into War'was released. As this was nearing completion
Joe Wilson stepped into the recording studio on guitar completing the current line up.Soon after they signed to Swerve Records and the following May put out their second E.P.
'The Lycan', which gained them many positive reviews.

Last August they began work on their first album “Rites Of Passage” at Planet Platforms
where the drums and Steve’s guitars were recorded and from February 2011 the rest was
completed at Dee Dee Music including mixing and mastering which was done by guitarist Joe
Wilson and bassist Andy Firth.

The album is released on Monday 26th September 2011 on iTunes and on CD through the
band’s store. The album features 10 tracks that have been written at various times
through the bands 7 year history. The album artwork was sculptured and illustrated by
James Mullett who also did the previous two E.P. covers for the band.

'Aftershocks Of Death' has a great intro very reminiscent of Diamond Head's 'Am I Evil', some solid drumming kicks this opening track along at a nice pace and some pretty awesome riffing going on there too.

Wonderous old school thrash rhythms punctuate 'The Headless Horseman', i have also got used to the Roddy Stone style vocals in fact this could be a Viking Skull song!!!!

'Stalker' kicks off with some nice bass work before launching into a doom paced rocker with the riffs coming at you at such a rate you cant sit still for a second.

'Hypnotise' pounds like a battering ram (Judas Priest pun intended), classic british heavy metal nuff said!

Now 'The Lycan' is a fucking great song, but the vocal is a little strained at times, sounds like the singer is trying to sing too high and it does kill it a bit.

An epic 8 minutes of superb music starting with some great acoustic guitar then heading off into pounding riffage and gutteral vocals.At times 'Rites Of Passage' threatens to move well and truly into doom territory but it keeps a thrash edge, making for a good well balanced mix.

'Army Of Darkness' is a dark brooding song, but again i think the vocal is slightly off, though i think thats because they have put on some kind of vocal fx.

I have to say as soon as i hit play on 'To The End' i got Hatebreeds 'I Will Be Heard' in my head, this is quite a hardcore/metalcore song, good but seems slightly out of place with the rest of the tracks.

'The Gates Of Hades' has some more great riffing in it, and all in all gets the album back on track.

Finally we have 'Waste Away' yet another great song, mid paced well mixed (The drum pedal work comes through a treat!) awesome guitarwork, but again i feel some work needed on the vocals.

All in all this is one helluva album and proof that the best metal still comes from this side of the Atlantic, my only drawback is some of the vocals.

Rating : 9/10

For fans Of : Viking Skull, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Evile

STU