Hammers – Vardøgr

To call Hammers a crust band would be doing them a great disservice. Don’t get me wrong, I like crust but it’s a label being hastily foisted on anything with a propensity for split-four rhythms, an over-driven bass sound and a mulchy guitar tone.

Hammers are far too intelligent for that, deftly mixing raging power-chord punk and hardcore riffage with slightly off-kilter, winding melodies that instantly remind me of His Hero is Gone or Converge. Sorry for the not-so-kvlt references, lurkers. The drums perfectly compliment this, cracking along at breakneck pace, fluidly changing from the obligatory punk beats into bursts of blast and powerful rolls. This alone makes me a very happy listener, I have a great love for anything that forces me to head-bang like a motherfucker when I’m sat on the back of the bus scaring old ladies on their way to the supermarket. However, alongside this Hammers also have a flare for incorporating fist-shaking, rhythmic and familiar but unobvious breakdowns reminiscent of Level Plane bands (such as Welcome the Plague Year, Neil Perry and Graf Orlock, to name but a few).

To sum these guys up, Hammers craft memorable, anthemic hardcore songs for a generation of music fans that should expect more than generic, by-numbers music and posturing from British bands. If you love to bang your head and shake your fist in the air at the front of a show with a shit-eating grin throwing beer everywhere, then I urge you to go and see Hammers live and buy their beautifully packaged 10” Vardøgr. Then when you get home visit their bandcamp page and download the rest of the backcatalogue (FOR FREE!), ready for the next time you get an opportunity to see them because you WILL want to.