Occult rock: there’s a lot of it about. For some reason this once obscure subgenre now seems highly controversial; witness the love and bile that the recent success of Ghost has generated. Some people only need see the heavy use of purple and hear the mention of witches to hate a band, which, in the case of Bloody Hammers, would be a shame.
Sure, their fuzz-soaked self-titled debut won’t set the world alight, but there’s a certain something that helps: songs. The grooves are familiar friends, straight-ahead hard-rocking riffs and fat stoner fuzz guitars.
But what stands out is mainman Anders Manga’s vocals. They sit somewhere between the haunting croon of Chris Isaak and the velvet tones of Him’s Ville Valo. Sounds odd, but it works. Throw in some catchy hooks that hark back to Terra Firma and they’re well worth a look.
