Summer is here and the time is right for fistfights on the dancefloor. Diehard brutes from Edinburgh, Scotland, HAMMER get straight to the point. Purposefully filling the gaps between metal subgenres, the songs on their debut for increasingly potent UK imprint Church Road takes large servings of death metal, both brutal and melodic, and nails them to a muscular, unrelenting framework of riffs, grooves and all-out assaults. “Trapped” features two songs that appeared on the band’s self-titled 2020 debut, but in every other respect this is an album that screams its distinct identity from the rooftops. HAMMER are fucking heavy and joyously impervious to cliché or gimmick.

“Trapped” starts with explosive, chaotic flair. An angular, broken-necked riff detonates, front and center, and all hell breaks loose as the Scots’ amorphous diet of churning death metal and smart, sludgy hardcore comes into focus. This is proudly meaty and malevolent extreme metal with brains, balls and vocals that spit, spew and devour. “Mea Culpa” is an opener that tells all. HAMMER are a serious proposition, and their disregard for convention is a thrill to behold. “Trapped In A House With A Maniac” pushes the classic metal fader up a few notches, with some visceral chugging, MACHINE HEAD-like mastery of the groove, and sporadic breaks in the violence that blend tech-death guitars with the overpowering rumble of a lethal rhythm section, and oceans of glowering, crusty bottom end. If HAMMER were an animal, they would be a ravenous, cocaine-huffing bear. In the most benevolent of ways, “Trapped” feels designed to put people in the hospital.

The heaviness continues, unabashed and thrumming with urgency. “The Hanged Man” is a horrific pileup of bone-shattering riffs and grotesque howls all crammed into three minutes of scorched-earth extremity with all channels set to barbarism. “Gorehound” is an obnoxious, punk-poisoned, speed metal skull-basher, with venomous thrash riffs that jab and slash like an unhinged murderer’s switchblade and a fiery lead break that resounds with old-school intent. Recent single “Basilisk” is the album’s most accessible moment, but its mid-paced momentum and melodic core are balanced out by the sheer ferocity of HAMMER‘s ensemble performance.

“Trapped” is a wonderfully live and organic sounding record, but one that is blank-eyed and relentless in its pursuit of carnage. “Golem” is one of the oldest songs here, but it connects like an uppercut and digs its hooks in with a fearless sense of purpose. Brutal modern metal rarely displays this kind of maniacal self-belief, but HAMMER are made of more authentic stuff. The closing “Alive” is a parting shot that will give people nightmares and headwounds: seven minutes of steroidal groove metal might, it meddles with the groove metal formula, making it heavier, harder and unremittingly bleak and hostile. Like everything else on this hugely confident piece of work, it will sound even more terrifying in the flesh. But until HAMMER crack your cranium directly, “Trapped” is an unmissable 30 minutes of aggro, and the perfect introduction to one of the most exciting heavy bands in the UK.