Review: Hammers of Misfortune

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Hammers of Misfortune
“Self-Titled”
(Cruz Del Sur)

After opening with a lengthy instrumental metal jam, I thought this was just music.  Then the second track came in with these acoustic guitars that trickled like a small waterfall while soothing female vocals layed down mythic sounding words.  A stark piano made its presence known.  What a shift of gears.  Then back into a story telling mode of metal (you know… where it all just starts to rhyme way too conveniently).

The weak vocal delivery is about the only thing that is unaccomplished about this whole effort.  Anytime lyrics come in, it starts to get tired, as they seem trapped in these forced rhymed schemes.  The music however is rather grandiose and dramatic, (rocking fast to super slow) with obvious guitarists with truckloads of talent, even when it’s just regurgitating on metal grounds well trodden before them.  There is a whole pedigree of bands John Cobbett (the main source of song inspiration for Hammers of Misfortune) has as his previous building blocks to create a release like this.  Very thought out and (thankfully) very minimal on the vocals.  This is 80% just music.

Displaying high degrees of technical execution while leaning towards the more “beautiful” spectrum of metal sonics.   Which means the music soars more than it pummels.  But the metal is so big and cathartic and you can’t mess with talent.  Only recommended for people who really love metal and can look past the cheese for the music.