The first time I talked about Hammerfilosofi was for their EP Solus last year, and now they’re back with a soul shredding new album called Signum. Eight tracks of well-crafted blasphemy that surpass what they’ve done to this point.

Signum sees the band flexing their muscles in the most Marduk way possible, and that’s from the first riffs of “A Dance Above the Abyss” echoing the “Christraping Black Metal” of Panzer Division Marduk. This is pure savagery unleashed, hell on all fronts.

“Falling Monuments” reigns it in at the beginning, but only for a short while, because by the end of the track, they have laid waste to the remaining threads of your sanity. The drums become a battering ram that is just jaw-dropping, and it’s scorched earth all the fucking way.

After three China cymbals *tinks* they rip a new asshole for the world with “My Blood is my Voice” another Marduk raging track. Hammerfilosofi has so much combative riffing that it’s like a mental war going on in your ears, but goddammit, that chorus sounds like “I am the Black Wizards” by Emperor, and that’s okay.

“Centuries” is automatically my favorite song because its introduction is from Twin Peaks; plus, it’s a pretty haunting track, with some reverb-heavy vocals and the air of menace that permeates through the boundaries of the song.

“Funeral Veil” brings back the Marduk level blasting and chaos, a staggeringly vicious little number that serves as a face-degloving ceremony; there’s a respite around the three-minute mark where it becomes a discordant dirge before the whirlwind picks up speed again. “Destroyer of Worlds” does exactly what it professes to be, it’s outrageous brutality and the once again, heavily reverbed vocals. It gives it a cavernous feel like echoes from a dark past.

“Meta-morphobic (The Infamous Lord of Shadows)” is a slow burning death machine that erupts into a blast furnace of hypnotic fury; the force of the song is tsunami level; rushing over you and sweeping you into a black flood of hatred.

“Premonitions Long Forgotten” brings some Dissection into the miasma, especially in the midsection, where it’s a crawling horror before the blasts kick in for the remainder of the song.

Overall, Hammerfilosofi have staked their spot in the pantheon of Black Metal. Signum is a fucking solid album, nasty Black Metal that pays homage to the greats in Marduk, Funeral Mist, and even Funeral Winds. This is an album that you need to have in your collection.

[Visit the band's website]

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