ninehertz

Some may scoff at the idea of three Japanese women, playing brutally effective black metal-flavoured doom, as some marketing man's post-modern ironic bullshit joke. However those some would be idiots. Gallhammer are the real deal, Vivian Slaughter (nice), Mika Penetrator (yes) and Risa Reaper (grim) deliver ten utterly sincere and intelligent slabs of three-piece grim, sparse rock, infused with the depressing yet bleakly beautiful stylings of Hellhammer and also crust style punk, but less of the latter and more of the former. Also Darkthrone and Bathory can be heard, and it's fitting that DT's Nocturno Culto provides the brilliantly no-frills production.

This record just screams (literally) conviction at you. You can't really fault it on that level. It might feel a bit amateurish in places, but that kind of makes the brilliance and relentlessness more noticeable when it happens (which is often). Any fans of genuine murky, loping, downer music from Sonic Youth to Burning Witch should pick up on this.