Four years after their debut full-length Polish black/thrash band Ragehammer has returned with Into Certain Death, which features what might be one of the most eye catching covers I’ve seen so far in 2020. With a name like that, you’d expect that these guys offer up the type of scorching and unrelenting black/thrash that bands like Nifelheim, Aura Noir, and Deströyer 666 pioneered decades ago, and that holds true throughout this material. But compared to their debut, Ragehammer has a bit more nuance to their writing this time around and injects some traditional black metal and heavy metal into the mix which allows each song to stand out a bit more.
A short intro track “Beneath the Red Suns” starts the album off with rumbling drums and a jagged guitar riff that feels like it’s building up to send you off into battle, building appropriately up to the blasting of “We are the Hammer”. Early on the instrumentals go for the throat with equal amounts of blistering speed and mid-tempo sections that still manage to stoke the flames with razor sharp tonality. It’s certainly not reinventing the wheel, but Ragehammer plays this black/thrash combo with precision and there are several riffs early on that will have you banging your head to the point of whiplash. However, while Into Certain Death falls into a pattern early on, as you get further into it the songwriting starts to switch things up a bit more and the second half in particular has some real staying power. These tracks showcase further shifts into black metal’s iciness and even some injection of classic heavy metal, giving them more of an identity. “Prophet of Genocide part 2 (Mother Winter Eternal)”, a follow-up to part 1 from the band’s War Hawks demo, sprawls outwards into a nearly nine minute adventure that builds up slowly with a heavy metal gallop and develops into an epic sounding climax that explodes into furious, fast paced riffing that destroys everything in its path. As someone that’s very rarely found groups in this sub-genre capable of writing songs of this length that can keep things interesting for the entire time, Ragehammer has achieved this and it ends the album on a high note.
One of the other elements of Into Certain Death that leaves a lasting impression is the vocal performance of Heretik Hellstörm. The first taste of his performance you’re greeted with is a gruffer scream/growl that reminds me more of Bay Area thrash vocalists than black metal, but after a few minutes his voice gets much higher in pitch and reaches ear piercing ranges that are even more distorted and in your face. There’s quite a bit of deviation to each verse, which sets Ragehammer apart from some of the more one-dimensional sounding black/thrash bands. It’s also worth noting that everything’s enunciated well enough that you’ll likely be able to make out the lyrics after only a few times through. Into Certain Death could’ve succeeded with just these two ranges, but on “Omega Red” and the aforementioned “Prophet of Genocide part 2” the vocals shake things up even further. The former has the type of triumphant battle chants you’d see on heavy metal albums, while the latter finds Heretik Hellstörm adopting a rough-edged singing pitch that reminds me heavily of Alan Averill from Primordial. These smaller touches go a long way, and it’s something I’d like to see the group continue to utilize in the years to come.
Some of the more straightforward songs that go for brute force and fire blur together a bit, but as a whole Ragehammer has taken their songwriting to the next level and started to branch out in a way that feels natural. There’s a bit of heavy metal incorporated into some of the later tracks and the almost nine-minute closer feels like a successful experiment for a genre that’s typically fairly conservative in its approach. While there’s still room for further refinement, there’s a lot to like about this album that will keep listeners coming back and it’s a significant leap forward. Into Certain Death is available from Pagan Records.
-Review by Chris Dahlberg
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