When the new Hammers of Misfortune album arrives

[BenMech]

Does that mean the entire 20-page issue of LotFP will be that ONE album review?

 

[Lee_B]

I hope so

 

[Jim LotFP]

I'll just be happy when the Hammers of Misfortune album arrives.

Maybe to celebrate I'll write 20 pages of sword and sorcery fiction, put a review header on top, and a summary after, so all the Hammers fans searching on Google have to read my sword and sorcery fiction trying to figure out how it relates to Hammers of Misfortune.

 

[BenMech]

Hammers news:

Our 3rd LP ("The Locust Years") has been done for quite some time now. Why isn't it out yet? Good question. We hear it'll be out by June.

Ron Nichols (ex Grinch, Christ On Parade) is officially our bass player and has been for a while now. Jamie is now living in Texas with her new baby boy Errol and fiancee Brian! We doubt that the world has heard the last of Ms Myers, however...

Chewy is playing with the excellent King City (not to be missed if you live around here), and some other projects as well. John Cobbett is currently mixing Ludicra's 3rd LP, which will be out on Alternative Tentacles sometime this summer. Mike Scalzi's Slough Feg will be touring the US this summer. Sigrid Sheie is about to start her graduate program in classical piano.

Hammers almost has a new drummer. Just a few more tryouts should do it. By late summer we should have a new album out, a new website, a new line-up and some shows booked.

 

[CruzDelSurMusic]

Well... seems that the time has come.
I am sorting out with John the last details regarding graphics (which is a killer one!) but there should be no problem in respecting the release date set for the 26th of June in US and the 4th of September in the rest of the world.
I will post soon some (one full) mp3s on our website.

It's a low-quality file, but that's the first of their promo pics...

 

[Occam's Razor]

 

[Jim LotFP]

Well... seems that the time has come.
I am sorting out with John the last details regarding graphics (which is a killer one!) but there should be no problem in respecting the release date set for the 26th of June in US and the 4th of September in the rest of the world.
I will post soon some (one full) mp3s on our website.

It's a low-quality file, but that's the first of their promo pics...

Why is it no matter what country I live in, I get fucked for release dates?

 

[DBB]

Is the new one going to be a concept album about a classy nightclub?

 

[JayKeeley]

Samples for Locust Years.

 

[Zealotry]

You know, on first listen I'm a little disappointed with this disc. A lot of the songs are really repetitive.

 

[JayKeeley]

The only song that disappoints me is "Famine's Lamp". Yes, I'll agree that it's a little repetitive and sort of goes nowhere.....

....but, I've listened to the album about 10 times now and I am absolutely loving the hell out of it. It's not The August Engine, it's not The Bastard, but it's still very much the Hammers and extremely "theatrical" throughout. Some of it could have been written for a 70's prog-rock opera.

Now, if you're not a fan of Jamie's vocals then it might impede some, since she's singing even more than Scalzi. I think he may have been left on the sidelines here (tensions between Mike and JC??)....and yet, could "Trot out the Dead" be one of Scalzi's finest performances yet (whether on HoM or SF?) He is magnificent on that particular song.

And of course, the song of the album: "Widow's Wall". The last half of that song is spectacular, or rather, inhuman. Mere mortals can't come up with this level of genius.

Too early to honestly rate this album but it's sitting right alongside the new Agalloch in terms of brilliance. (Both albums will take several listens to fully absorb).

And even now, as I listen to the dying moments of "Election Day", I'm thinking the Hammers could have the album of the year. Again.

 

[Zealotry]

The only song that disappoints me is "Famine's Lamp". Yes, I'll agree that it's a little repetitive and sort of goes nowhere.....

I think you mean "Chastity Rides". The last part of "Famine's Lamp" is the best part of the album IMO.

My biggest problem with the album is that it doesn't balance female and male vocals the way the first two did. Scalzi's voice was a large part of what gave the first two albums so much of their personality, and the female vocals on this album simply aren't as good as Janis Tanaka's.

This doesn't mean I don't like the album. The music is still, for the most part, superb. The lyrics are brilliant - perhaps even more so than the The August Engine's, and the production is perfect. But this definitely is not as good as The Bastard or The August Engine.

 

[JayKeeley]

this definitely is not as good as The Bastard or The August Engine.

Fair enough. I'm just amazed that you can decide this all in a single day* of listening.

*Correction: 3.5 hours.

 

[Zealotry]

Fair enough. I'm just amazed that you can decide this all in a single day* of listening.

*Correction: 3.5 hours.

I've already spun the album 8 times. That's plenty enough to pass judgment on it.

 

[JayKeeley]

I've already spun the album 8 times. That's plenty enough to pass judgment on it.

Haha.

 

[BenMech]

I hate to say it, but I understand Zealotry's PoV.

 

[Jim LotFP]

You know, on first listen I'm a little disappointed with this disc. A lot of the songs are really repetitive.

My only complaint concerning this is We Are the Widows. They go through the song twice. Why? Good lyrics don't grow on trees but something different couldn't be thought up for the second go-through?

I've been playing this way too many times for sanity. I think the album's brilliant, so I can objectively say at the very least that they didn't run off a cliff with the album.

Trot Out the Dead is the catchy number of the album, War Anthem has the coolest part (the march!), and it has a perfect album ending. Care to take bets as to when a larger label will be licensing this and throwing a bonus track after the proper end, utterly ruining the album like Black Earth got FUBAR? As for Scalzi's vocals being a defining point of Hammers, well, I'd probably think his vocals were more vital if he didn't have his own band where he sang all the time.

And I remember Cobbett telling me that Church of Broken Glass got left off the last album because the new lineup could do it better. Unless they changed it (or I forgot it... I FRICKIN LOST THE CDr WITH THE EXTRA AUGUST ENGINE SONGS IN THE MOVE FROM ATLANTA TO ORLANDO TWO YEARS AGO. Punishment for missing their Atlanta show by a week, surely. How is it I lose stuff every time I move?), it still ain't here.

 

[Occam's Razor]

I just got the album and it's playing at the moment for the very first time - No judgement for now, of course, but I have to say that nothing has stuck yet (song six just started...), probably a good sign.

 

[JayKeeley]

Care to take bets as to when a larger label will be licensing this and throwing a bonus track after the proper end, utterly ruining the album like Black Earth got FUBAR?

Not anytime soon.

What's a good benchmark for determining how deep within the underground a band exists? Put it this way -- "The Locust Years" didn't get leaked until AFTER the official release. (By the way, the leak is missing "Widow's Wall", haha).

As for Scalzi's vocals being a defining point of Hammers, well, I'd probably think his vocals were more vital if he didn't have his own band where he sang all the time.

That's a good point, but...

Scalzi singing Cobbet songs > Scalzi singing Scalzi songs

 

[DBB]

Scalzi singing Cobbet songs > Scalzi singing Scalzi songs

That is just crazy talk.

I haven't heard this yet, but I am wary. Then again I am the type who thought The August Engine, while good, was a significant step down from the beauty of The Bastard.