NATTHAMMER
“The Hammer Of The Witch”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9.5/10

Natthammer are a heavy metal & hard rock band from Peru formed in 2017 by singer Fatima Natthammer (ex Mandragora), releasing ‘Break The Steel’ E.P. later the same year. The bands debut album ‘Natthammer’ was released in 2019, with sophomore album ‘The Hammer Of The Witch’ emerging in 2024…

…consisting of seven, incredibly traditional heavy metal sounding songs across a blistering thirty six minutes! Featuring the classic sound of metal and rock from the glorious eighties, ‘The Hammer Of The Witch’ is definitely much more metal than the bands debut, Natthammer planting their collective feet firmly on the old school monitor to roar louder than ever before – ‘Don’t Burn The Witch’ storming into life with a furious gallop! You know the kinda gallop I mean, the kind that immediately rocks your head back and forth, fists rising high to vigorously punch the air.

A stunning belter of an opening gambit, Natthammer roars on with the red hot ‘Steel Warrior’ – chiming in at less than four minutes in length! ‘Steel Warrior’ maybe the shortest song on offer, but boy does it have one of the biggest traditional metal sounds ever! The pace and power is a perfect match to the early eighties when iconic bands such as Angel Witch, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Samson and Saxon created the sound of heavy metal as we know it today. I pointed out in my review of the bands debut album how much Fatima’s voice reminds me of Canadian rock singer Lee Aaron – a point that I still stand by now! ‘The Hammer Of The Witch’ marches on with the more mid tempo, but nonetheless heavy ‘Evil Nightmare’, Natthammer pounding the ground hard with immense force while all around walls are shaking and buildings crumbling! The energy level shoots right off the fucking charts as ‘Guardian Of Light’ comes thundering out of the blocks, smashing everything and everyone outta the way with savage intent! And the turn of speed at halfway is jaw dropping, the band opening the throttle all the way to cruise down the highway at top speed! A perfectly head bang-able top speed to boot!

The intriguingly titled ‘The Traitor With Lizard Eyes’ saunters into view with a sassy swagger, and for the first time since ‘The Hammer Of The Witch’ began, the band meld together the sounds of rock and metal, emanating a rich early-to-mid eighties sound. The head bang ability too since the album began has been sky fucking high, every listener I’m sure energetically rocking their head back and forth – I know I am! And with a blistering change of pace and power, ‘Queen Of Acid Skies’ explodes into life, roaring on with a surprising amount of ferocity! Now I don’t mean thrash metal ferocity, I just mean the urgency and intent is ferocious, every metalhead around the world entering head banging heaven right now. And to bring the album to a close, Natthammer serve up a gourmet dish of diversity, courtesy of ‘Visionary’, featuring an opening mellow meander that strolls outta rock territory through the epic and glory neighbourhoods and finally into the traditional heavy metal arena – I’m telling ya’ll, ‘Visionary’ has more styles of music on offer than Eurovision! And should Fatima ever make it to the UK, It’d be great to hang out and listen to some Doro (the metal love of my life) and who I believe, Fatima is a huge fan of too!

Overall, a glorious gallop of infectious and highly head bang-able heavy metal, ‘The Hammer Of The Witch’ is an energetic blast.

TRACKLIST

Don´t Burn The Witch 
Steel Warrior
Evil Nightmare
Guardian Of Light
The Traitor With Lizard Eyes
Queen Of Acid Skies
Visionary

https://natthammerheavymetal.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/natthammerheavymetal

This review is the property of Iron Mathew and Metal Gods TV. It is strictly prohibited to copy any part of this review, unless you have both of the parties’ permission, or are the band/record label/PR company in question. Failure to adhere to these instructions will be considered as Plagiarism and you will be reported to the appropriate authorities

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