Demolition Hammer
Skull Fracturing Nightmare

The Demolition Hammer is a band from New York that, after a period under the name Overlord - 1986-1987 - in 1987 changed their name and, in 1988, gave birth to their first demo, titled Skull Fracturing Nightmare, consisting of four songs and performed as a trio, while after 1988 - following the demo in question - they became a quartet.

The central musical element is essentially thrash metal, accompanied by certain influences more or less distinct, which do not alter the predominant component. The first track, Downwind Death, is characterized by hardcore punk suggestions, as evidenced by certain guitar sections and the voice of James Reilly, the only track where he sings consistently; in addition to what has been mentioned, there are notable elements tied to the primordial manifestations of death metal, although these are minority traits in the overall composition.

The second track, Corpse Content (Happy Death), is more differentiated from the others due to a speed metal body, in whose second half one can clearly hear snippets that distinctly recall first wave black metal, of which Bathory and Vulcano are just two examples among many. The third and fourth tracks, respectively Assault of the Hammer and Cataclysm, are those with a more typically thrash metal imprint, especially concerning the guitar riffs by Reilly.

Despite the various aforementioned influences, this demo by Demolition Hammer remains overall attributable to thrash metal, although it is distinguished from the majority of other American bands of the same genre due to superior rawness and violence; the guitar sound is undoubtedly and deliberately - according to the sharp production - rough, as well as dark and, in a certain sense, down-tuned. The bass is audible and adds presence to the soundscape; the voice of Steve Reynolds is abrasive and growled, according to the typical usage of more extreme thrash metal bands, differing from Reilly's singing, which remains closer to the hardcore punk style. Rhythmically, in this demo, the Demolition Hammer are not as fast as in their subsequent releases (except for Time Bomb): the only truly fast track is the last one, Cataclysm - the only one revisited in a more aggressive version in the first album -where the tupa tupa is definitely used, whereas in the earlier songs medium tempos are predominant, alongside minor slowdowns.

Although somewhat differentiated from the path the band would later undertake, this demo already allows us to glimpse some key settings; in any event, starting from the following work, the Demolition Hammer would increasingly render their sounds brutal and impetuous. Here we present a molding of thrash metal, which later became thrash/death metal, where hardness and aggression accompany a certain articulation of musical parts, with the organic complement of less linear sections - just sketched here - never, in any case, declining into pompous Byzantine intricacies and unnecessary complexities.

We find it important to say something about the lyrics too. It must be said that, by 1988, metal lyricism, in its entirety, can be divided into four types, partially overlapping each other. The first of these is made up of texts concerning what is generally hedonistic, including certain exaltations of "freedom" - albeit understood in a lower sense, patchy and considered from spurious perspectives of the final degenerating cycle -, of orgasmic and orgiastic sexuality, of drug consumption and their related effects, sometimes of a dreamlike profile (and here there may be suggestions falling into the second type we will describe), sometimes crudely pleasurable. The second type, which for convenience we define as "mystical-occult", consists of lyrics primarily anti-Christian in character, which are also, but not only, "satanic" and conventionally, denoted as "occult". Sexuality returns, this time treated from distinct points, with mysticism-laden and ritualistic connotations; horror themes are not rare, whether literary or cinematographic, devastation and death, approached from various angles, in more than one case differing from each other. The third type consists of those texts of "social character" -again taken according to spurious points of view, typical of the lower decay of the kâlî yuga era - evidently borrowed from hardcore punk; in the metal genre, these are primarily found in what is thrash metal. The fourth and last of the primary types we have previously described - as of 1988 -is composed of epic lyrics, centered on war, but in a metaphysically higher sense compared to the previously mentioned "social" pretensions, of a chthonic and sub-personal nature, characteristic of the third type. Fantasy and, more generally, epic themes are also evident; in certain circumstances, faded traces of uranic-solar metaphysics can be seen.

Lyrically, Demolition Hammer predominantly belongs to the second type, with influences -in the demo in question -from the third type; the emphasis is typically on horror and thanatological aspects, where the pretensions of "social" critique remain confined exclusively to the first track.
From the second song onwards, texts concerning death and devastation hold sway (the text of Cataclysm concerns destruction following an "environmental disaster"), approached in a unique way: it involves a sense of detachment, with some forays into sadism, almost as if there were a demiurgic, semi-divine - or even divine - gaze directed from high to low; the use of an elaborate vocabulary and a broad choice of English terms with an intellectual register further highlights the aura of aristocratic and imperious countenance conducted from an elevated, contemptuous, and mocking position. Not many bands come to mind with the same or at least similar, lyrical traits, in 1988: the main name is, to a certain extent, given by Slayer (some compositions in the albums Hell Awaits and Reign in Blood serve as examples).

We finally come to the judgment and premise what our position is. Metal, and the genres into which it divides, whether in pure form or in a state of mixture, present spaces to express artistically, confined to certain limits. The greatness of a group doesn't consist of going beyond those limits (we recall the awareness of the hierarchically ordered cosmos, the classical ideal of form and limit are well-defined and present in the essence of the - variably - Aryan peoples, one only needs to think, among others, of the Indo-Aryans, the Aryo-Iranians, the Hellenes, the Dorians, the Romans), for it is in departing from these limits that one enters chaotic mass, nondifferentiation, atomism, promiscuity; the true quality instead lies in the eternalization of higher vibrations with creativity and personality - not to be confused with personalism - staying within artistic limits that metal - as well as other genres - presents.

Having made these considerations, our verdict on the demo Skull Fracturing Nightmare by Demolition Hammer is absolutely positive, as the group has thoroughly demonstrated their ability to merge compositional flair with hardness, in this case molding thrash metal - subsequently thrash/death metal - in a brutal and violent sense on one hand, refined and without lapses of style, as well as articulated, on the other. For this reason, we assign the highest marks to the work and recommend it to anyone who would like to listen to it.

Line-up:

James Reilly - guitar, vocals
Steve Reynolds - bass, vocals
John Salerno - drums