Lucifer's Hammer-Night Sacrifice (Demo MMXIII)

Shadow Kingdom Records
2014

Initially a 2013 self-release/independent recording, with Shadow Kingdom Records doing the right thing by stepping in and snagging up this Santiago-based traditional heavy metal band's 3-track demo for a (limited-edition) cassette run (which seems fitting enough as seeing as it looks as this remarkable slab of true heavy metal was a limited-run, cassette-only release to begin with!*), "Night Sacrifice (Demo MMXIII)" showcases the efforts of this two-man heavy outfit to re-create the perfect eighties metal recording! Or at least that's how I take it having now listened to this demo a half-dozen times through! Now, technically-speaking Chile's Lucifer’s Hammer, who are not to be confused with the black/death metal band of the same name from Westland, Michigan**, are not a strict, by-the-numbers, eighties metal band. As that would entail total Priest/Maiden devotion and nothing else it would be far too restrictive, and not to mention hardly fair at all given the sweeping nature of their work, to simply start and finish with those two heavy metal heavyweights! Rather, the band, which features Hades on vocals and guitars and Titan on drums, draws their sound from not only the N.W.O.B.H.M. scene, but cult U.S. metal bands like Salem's Wych, Graven Image, Sinister Angel, Griffin, Warchylde, Heathen's Rage and DarkStarr!  All of which adds up to a mini-album that could have been a long-lost nugget from another time and another place! From the vocals, which seem custom-crafted out of pure fire on a number like "Night Sacrifice", to the actual music on hand here for Lucifer's Hammer sole-release this is one band that SCREAMS "Huge Potential"! With any luck this demo will just be the first of many as nothing short of pure heavy metal thunder runs thru the bloodstreams of this epic release from this highly-talented two-piece! For now, while you wait until (from the looks of it)  February for the limited-edition cassette re-issue, you can download this great demo from the group's bandcamp page below.  


http://shadowkingdomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/night-sacrifice-demo-mmxiii

*The Metal Archives does make mention of a hand numbered (and limited to a mere 40 copies!) CD-R being released by the Argentinian label The Power Cage Records, but (for all intensive purposes) this was/still is a cassette tape release.

**Besides the difference in genres, which is quite the huge gap anyway(!), this Lucifer's Hammer from Chile reportedly took their name from a Warlord song (which would be more then appropriate!) whereas their U.S. counterparts took name their name from the 1977 apocalyptic novel of the same name by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle!