Hellhammer - Satanic Rites
Review: Live (from the bathroom) in Switzerland Dec. 1983. A view into the developmental minimalism of Hellhammer, this live recording preserves a fuller range of their early efforts than official sources, showing a band with a flatter, more nullified sense of lead guitar tone and inflection of rhythm playing; this perhaps reveals many of the hardcore punk stylistic influences in this band.
Components of "Triumph of Death" may be found in their original granular status along with a high-energy primitive hardcore version of the song by the same name, as well as ideas in riff texture later to appear on Celtic Frost albums crop up here. The delayed sense of delivery and range of concept even appearing on the final Hellhammer EP is underdeveloped here, showing raw ideas in a jumble of presentation order not yet clear. As the back of the CD says, "This record is for Hellhammer maniacs only" - or other assiduous students of black metal.