May 27
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Thorr's Hammer "Dommedagsnatt" (1995) Southern Lord 2023 LP reissue
Thorr's Hammer: Dommedagsnatt EP (1998)
It's one thing to name your death/doom band Thorr's Hammer and sing/croak lyrics in Norwegian, but quite another when a 17-year-old Norwegian exchange student is doing it after bumping into a pair of depressed stoners in Seattle, Washington.
So goes the tale of Dommedagsnatt (Norwegian for "Doomsday Night"), which paired Runhild Gammelsaeter (the aforementioned Norwegian waif, a.k.a. Ozma) with future Sunn O))) and Southern Lord label masterminds Greg Anderson and Stephen O'Malley.
Recorded in 1995 and released in '98 as SUNN01, the three-track Dommedagsnatt EP was the product of a brief, six-week "career" during which Thorr's Hammer (augmented by bassist James Hale and drummer Jamie Sykes) performed all of two shows.
But they had the presence of mind to visit a nearby studio long enough to record three examples of their crawling, crushing, mythologically-inspired death/doom, topped by Runhild's haunting wails and unbelievable, inhuman roars.
Seriously, you may have to watch some vintage live footage for yourself to fully accept this incongruous reality as fact.
First cut "Norge" is basically an ode to Norway, extolling its frozen nights and midnight sun, virgin forests and deep mines, its sailors and adventurers, while "Troll" pits legendary beasts against the Viking gods (including Thor, of course) in an epic battle over Midgard.
And the title track recounts the Norse apocalypse itself -- Ragnarok -- and draws yet again from ancient texts to describe that final battle between gods and giants, as mankind helplessly awaits to learn who will be their masters after this immutable "doomsday night".
Southern Lord's first CD pressings added a live bonus cut entitled "Mellom Galgene," which translates to English as "Between the Gallows," and places Anderson and O'Malley's colossal, corrosive guitar tones somewhere between Electric Wizard and their most successful subsequent endeavor, drone lords Sunn O))).
These bands' names alone should stoke raging fires in the souls of extreme metal enthusiasts (and strike fear in poseurs' 'nads), and indicate the overwhelming power and enduring cult surrounding Thorr's Hammer and their small but seminal musical canon.
It ain't for everyone, but ... Happy Halloween!
p.s. -- Today, when she isn't being called into very sporadic tour duty with Thorr's Hammer, Runhild works in the field of biology, in which she holds a Ph.D. in cell physiology.
p.p.s. -- Some of these words were edited from my All-Music Guide Thorr's Hammer biography and Dommedagsnatt review.
More Death/Doom & Funeral Doom (or Close Enough): Ahab’s The Giant, Cathedral’s The Ethereal Mirror, Colosseum’s Chapter 1: Delirium, Confessor’s Condemned, dISEMBOWELMENT’s Transcendence into the Peripheral, Electric Wizard's Come My Fanatics …, Evoken’s Antithesis of Light, Mammoth Storm’s Fornjot, Morgion’s Among Majestic Ruin, Oromet's The Sinking Isle, Paradise Lost's Gothic, Rippikoulu’s Musta Seremonia, Samothrace’s Life’s Trade, Serpentine Path’s Serpentine Path, Shape of Despair’s Angels of Distress, Skepticism’s Stormcrowfleet, Solothus’ Realm of Ash and Blood, Spectral Voice’s Eroded Corridors of Unbeing, Swallow the Sun’s Songs from the North I, II & III, Symptom’s Caverns of Katabasis Thergothon’s Stream from the Heavens, Triptykon’s Eparistera Daimones, Winter’s Into Darkness.
THE BIRTH OF SOUTHERN LORD RECORDINGS IN ONE PHOTO -- A HISTORY OF DOOM!
PIC(S) INFO: Spotlight on a group shot of American-Norwegian death/DOOM metal band THORR'S HAMMER, left to right: Greg Anderson, Stephen O'Malley, & Runhild Gammelsæter, photographed in London, UK, c. 1998, New Years Day.
SUNN O))) (ANCIENT) HISTORY LESSON #1: Circa 1995 SUNN O))) axe-men Greg "The Lord" Anderson & Stephen O'Malley, a.k.a., "SOMA," convened for the very first time in a basement located in Ballard, Washington. The grimm result of those primitive, prehistoric sessions ultimately became their first ever group: THORR'S HAMMER! They were joined by 18-year-old Norwegian native: Runhild Gammelsæter on vokills and Jamie "Boggy" Sykes on war-drums. Dommedagsnatt is the only studio recording the band made."
-- SOUTHERN LORD RECORDINGS
Sources: www.picuki.com/media/2840499565581787527 (Picuki 2x).
