Hamerex are a 4 piece Metal Band hailing from Wakefield. Their third album, Traitor, was released October 7th 2016. From the opening minute of title track ‘Traitor’ you get a great feel for what the album will offer. A good, mid paced tempo, music to bang your head to, accompanied by some old fashioned soaring vocals by front manSteve Blower.

The eerie ritual like opening of ‘The Dark Tower’ shows off how in tune with each other these guys are. Steve and fellow guitarist Andy Firth are a great team and seem to work well together. They have been writing together and working on this album since the release of 2015’s EP, ‘The Last Ride’. The opening of ‘Dead Mountain’ by Darren Kelsall on drums, the lead riff backed by the low end backbone of the bass, also played by Andy Firth, all builds up to a slow yet crushing monster of a riff. These guys prove that you don’t have to play at 200mph to have a good Metal song.

‘The Nameless One’ certainly has its high points. The welcome addition of clean guitars, the vocals and the closing 2 minutes are reasons to like this song. ‘Eyes Of Deceit’ feels really together and there is a lot on offer here. The chorus is one of my favourites on the album, great riffs, thundering bass lines and hard hitting drums throughout and also a nod to the cowbell backed opening. The addition of synth/strings is a good addition too!

The shortest song on the album, ‘The Abyss’ is just shy of 4 and a half minutes long and is an instrumental. But it has a bit of everything Hamerex have to offer musically. The song constantly builds up in preparation for the song that follows it. From the shortest, to the longest! ‘The Evil Within’ stands proud at over 9 minutes of music. It’s a much more upbeat song than anything so far. The song changes feel completely around 3 minutes in, and it’s a nice change, before coming back to the upbeat attack. The one thing I like a long song to do is progress. This song certainly does that.

The closer ‘Journey’s End’ has the slower heavy feel at the start, before breaking out with the most upbeat riff of the album. The double bass filled drums give the verses a state of urgency before the slower first riff comes back for the Chorus. The last minute is feedback and guitar swells before it fades out to silence.

This is my first time listening to these guys, and I’m impressed with what I’ve heard. There are a couple of rough edges here and there, but what album doesn’t have those somewhere? The majority of this album is real good stuff. The band work together very well and they’ve delivered a great sounding album overall. A year and a half of working hard and writing together has really given Hamerex an album that would feel right at home alongside any of the classic albums from the bands that influenced them.

Connor Ormerod

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