Gallhammer
Ill Innocence

Gallhammer is a trio of girls, from Tokyo, whose name is inspired by the extreme metal band Hellhammer.

This album, much like what Cradle of Filth did with pop (or commercial, as you prefer), has the virtue of connecting black metal with a genre quite distant from it, which is punk.

Anyway, the CD opens with ‘Onset of the age of despair’ where it infuses the black matrix with dark reverb and guitar groove, succeeded by drums and vocal lines, which are precisely those one would attribute to the Blair Witch of the famous film. The lyrics, in the track as in the CD, are sparse and crepuscular. The track continues with more of a parade rhythm, however, the mixing is excellent.

‘Speed of blood’ picks up on the parade rhythm, and on the horror film-like vocals; utterly incomprehensible lyrics, sonically we have a frenetic guitar (at least I believe so) with a distinctive sound, reiterating certain notes in turn. ‘Blind my eyes’ injects punk coordinates, laid out on a lighter sound, punctuated by guitar riffs. The vocals resume as before, but then another singer with a ridiculous voice, that I believe only the Japanese can produce, comes in. ‘Delirium daydream’ is no less absurd than the previous, still punk.

‘Ripper in gloom’ consists of acoustic arpeggios then sustained by percussion, with lyrics that are always short propositions (almost always repeated). ‘Killed by the queen’ continues uniformly in the punk style as the previous ones. ‘Song of fall’ features a beautiful piano chord, repeated for a long time until the drum's arrival, the song's very short lyrics are: fall in fall and dream in dream / i am in fear and eternal fall; followed by doom riffs, and again the verses pronounced by the Japanese 'witch'. ‘World to ashes’ is a song that alternates clean voice with scream, a sparse doom style. ‘Slog’ and ‘Long scary dream’ close the album and are practically identical to each other.

In conclusion, an unconventional CD, a bit repetitive, floating between black, the first two tracks, punk, and sparse doom for the rest; equally sparse lyrics. Anyway, it amused me, but having initially cited one of the bands among the most ingenious in my opinion, I don't want to inspire improbable comparisons. Then tastes are tastes, everyone has theirs. Returning to the CD, the sound quality is excellent, always clear.