Send "Hammers of Misfortune " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Hammers of Misfortune's fifth album, 17th Street, is a song cycle about "loss and endings," though it sounds like a series of new beginnings. For starters, guitarist/lyricist/songwriter John Cobbett-- of recently disbanded SF black metal group Ludicra and onetime member of comrades-in-classic-metal/sister band Slough Feg-- has again retooled his rotating cast: Longtime drummer Chewy Marzolo returns, as do more recent additions Sigrid Sheie (organ) and Max Barnett (bass), but this is the first HoM album to feature guitarist Leila Abdul-Rauf (Saros, Amber Asylum, Vastum) and power-piped vocalist Joe Hutton (the Worship of Silence).The band, which debuted in 2001 with the three-part rock opera The Bastard, have never shied from ambition. When I spoke with Cobbett in 2008, he said HoM's 2003 sophomore collection The August Engine was his "first attempt" to make an album as big as The Wall. 2008's sprawling Fields/Church of Broken Glass, two individual concept albums packaged together, was his second. But the music Cobbett writes is detailed enough that he doesn't need to fill four sides of vinyl to make his point. He's finally figured that out on 17th Street. At a time when fans can get caught-up on how fast someone solos, or how ominous a back story they have to offer, HoM shake aside gimmicks and play classic progressive metal in a way that makes room for thrash, doom, NWOBHM, and legit hooks alongside honest feeling and larger concepts. Cobbett didn't spell out the specifics in the record's accompanying press materials; his songwriting and lyrics are evocative enough that it isn't necessary. These are songs about gentrification (in his hometown and elsewhere), paeans to areas of San Francisco, and stories about individuals living out their lives in those spaces-- though it's easy to ignore all of that and just go along for the air-guitaring....full text |
| Heavymetal |
| 17th Street is the fifth studio album released by visionary, San Francisco, CA-based progressive metal band Hammers of Misfortune. I have to be honest: reducing their genre to “progressive” feels disingenuous. Hammers of Misfortune are Hammers of Misfortune, full stop. They borrow elements from hard rock and folk, doom and thrash, but at the end of the day, Hammers of Misfortune are the result of an artistic vision, possessing a sound all their own. They will use whatever tools suit the work, borrow from any style and transform it so that it fits their aesthetic. The greatest compliment I can pay them is that they sound exactly like themselves. Hammers of Misfortune are the primary project of the driven, outspoken John Cobbett, who was also the guitarist for Ludricra, who sadly disbanded earlier this year. Ostensibly this was done so that Cobbett could give his full attention to Hammers of Misfortune. As much as I will miss his other project, I have to admit that the sacrifice and focus have produced something extraordinary. 17th Street is complex and haunting. The layered male and female vocals are paired beautifully with the incredibly complex guitar work. The riffs stack on each other, drawing the listener out then laying them bare with intricate, plaintive solos, like the one at the end of “The Day the City Died.” Thick, groovy bass lines are caramel dark and creamy, contrasting the sharp, warbling guitar tones in “Staring (The 31st Floor).” The keyboards are nimble and playful, or wistful and emotional, as the song dictates, and the album is full of powerful, sophisticated drumming that has the sense of effortlessness, like a heartbeat. Over all of this, Joe Hutton’s vocals soar, soulful and pure. Listening to 17th Street is the experience of having the knots in one’s heart untied — this isn’t an album that allows cynicism. 17th Street is nothing short of an incredible album: discontent, unsettling, never still and terribly lovely. “The Grain” is one of the best songs I’ve heard this year, and I have no doubt that this album will be on many year-end lists, including mine....full text |
| Metalreview |
| Turbulent times make for desperate and inspired art. Whether it’s the Vietnam War informing Hendrix’s guitar screaming out the national anthem in gestures of agony and bomb blasts, or the dismal economic and political climate of late-1970s Britain fomenting the primal scream of British hardcore, extreme music is often both a reaction to and an indictment of the turmoil from which it is birthed. At its best, such art gives voice to a formless hope and anxiety, and if not, well, let’s at least hope it finds some new way to kick ass. On 17th Street, the John Cobbett-masterminded Hammers Of Misfortune manages to do both with consummate ease, and thus remains one of those rare bands that effortlessly makes the majority of active bands appear extremely foolish. For a full decade now, San Francisco’s Hammers Of Misfortune has been one of the most consistently lauded bands in heavy metal, which is no mean feat given the exponential sprawl of the underground over that same period. Even more impressive is that such success has come about through nothing more than as old-fashioned a conceit as careful songwriting. Following the pastoral and deeply prog rock-ish double album Fields / Church of Broken Glass, 17th Street sees yet another set of line-up changes -- with Joe Hutton joining on lead vocals and Leila Abdul-Rauf (of Vastum and formerly of Saros) on guitar and backing vocals -- and manages to intensify the classic and prog rock touches of the previous album while simultaneously ratcheting up the metal quotient from that relatively subdued offering. What this means is that the Hammers’ sound, though a unique and beguiling trad/progressive/vaguely-folky metal brew in its own right, thrives on healthy nods to Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, Rush, Iron Maiden, and (more noticeable here than ever before) Queen. As befits a band with such a well-worn approach to the craft of heavy metal, 17th Street is neatly divided in two halves. After the scene-setting introductory song “317,” the listener is thrust immediately into the knockout one-two punch of “17th Street” and “The Grain,” which together form, without question, the most perfect twelve minutes of music you will hear this year. The title track screams from your speakers with Priest-ly pyrotechnics before piano and drums introduce a key four-note motif. “The Grain,” meanwhile, is the best song here (and a damn-near lock for metal song of the year), boasting a deceptively simple rhythmic verse that erupts into a soaring chorus showcasing Hutton’s powerful voice in a cascade of sorrow. The elastic dual guitarwork that crops up later in the song takes up the vocal melodies from the song’s early verses, which is just one display of the kind of careful songwriting touch that elevates this band to utterly indispensible status. Musical themes are voiced by different instrumentation, and the pure glory of sound rings out over and over again, whether it’s in both guitars diving earth-ward to lock into a rollicking thick rhythm with Max Barnett’s gruffly rubbery bass and Chewy Marzolo’s earthy drums, or the consistently electrifying interplay between Cobbett’s lead guitar and secret weapon Sigrid Sheie’s organ and assorted keys (as on the firestorm of interlocking 32nd notes on the title track). ...full text |
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