SS Hammers – IV Sanctions

SS Hammers is a blackened noise project from California that contains some of the members of Fields Of Rape. Judging by the name, their racism has become a bit more overt.

Unlike Fields Of Rape, whose songs were incredibly short bursts of unhinged nastiness, the songs played by SS Hammers are longer and have more structure to them. Their longest song is almost five minutes long. Since the songs are longer, the drums have more room to show off more tricks, such as more fills, crafty cymbal work, and slower rhythms, instead of just sticking to hyper speed blast beats.

The vocals remain largely unchanged. They still consist of nasty rasps and howls that are filled with hate and wrapped in corrosive distortion. Like the drums, the guitars also exhibit greater variety. They still play black metal tremolo riffs with a punk vibe, but they also play some more mid-paced riffs, such as on the second song. They're still distorted to absurd levels, but these mid-paced riffs serve as a breather between the furious blackened noise assaults.

If you liked Fields Of Rape, then you'll also like SS Hammers. Don't let the name scare you off.

CORRECTION: I later learned that the guys involved in both Fields of Rape and SS Hammers are in fact antiracist. I apologize for calling them racist.