TRIUMPH OF DEATH – Brisbane, Australia 16th August 2024
It’s an appearance to attract all manner of kvlt enthusiasts and metal swots, namely the genre-inventing EP and demos recorded by Hellhammer between 1983 and 1984 as performed by original member Thomas Gabriel Fischer and his band Triumph Of Death. Laughed off the face of the planet when they first appeared, Hellhammer’s teenage no-fi blackened thrash anthems were soon buried and forgotten by Fischer’s subsequent (and considerably more accomplished) band Celtic Frost. Then kids in underground scenes around the world rediscovered those Hellhammer tracks (with particular notice being taken in Norway as the Second Wave of Black Metal was ready to rise in the late 80s and early 90s). By now, of course, Hellhammer are named alongside Celtic Frost, Bathory and Venom as among the main architects of extreme metal, so it makes poetic sense for the 61-year-old Fischer to dust off these gruff, youthful songs for 2024. With Fischer on guitar and lead vocals, Triumph Of Death’s line-up is completed by guitarist/vocalist André Mathieu, bassist Jamie Lee Cussigh and drummer Tim Iso Wey, all of whom are faultless throughout.
As with most shows, there are a couple of local support bands, and both are thoroughly suitable choices for this evening. Irönwitch are first and their rumbling deathly thrash makes for a delightfully potent way to start the night. With an excellent 2024 debut album under their belt, and members also in other Brismetal outfits such as Malignant Aura (three of them were in local thrashers Malakyte), there is experience and exuberance to spare in this short, sweet set.
Next, Graveir are on stage with their trademark cowls and corpse paint, though demonstrate evolution in their melancholic brand of black metal. The tempo changes, grey walls of guitar and unholy shrieks you associate with black metal are present and correct but it’s the riffs that really stick in your reviewer’s mind. Somehow managing to find the most despondent notes and chords on the earth and combining them to make dense, disturbing guitar motifs is one of Graveir’s neatest tricks and they put this to use in their most engaging songs. As with every time I see Graveir, they play to their strengths and make some despairing yet immersive noise in the process. With a few years already behind them, I really hope to see Graveir going on to bigger and better things.
There’s a drinking game that is guaranteed to get you sloshed quickly and that is to take a shot every time you hear Thomas Gabriel Fischer go “ugh” live or on record. It’s a vocal trademark as distinctive as James Hetfield’s “yeahhh”, and is similarly tailor-made for its style of music. Tonight, the cavernous avant-garde clang of Celtic Frost or the terrifying doom chasms of Triptykon are completely eschewed for the back-to-basics blackened thrash of Hellhammer, as Triumph Of Death take to the stage. Though instead of the inspired teenage amateurism of the original recordings, a seasoned Fischer and his excellent band add distinctly high-fidelity muscle to the songs. From the opener The Third Of The Storms (Evoked Damnation), Triumph Of Death are in absolutely thrilling form. Many of these songs are familiar to punks as much as metal heads, and you can see why as the likes of Decapitator and Massacra pummel along in a hardcore frenzy. A splendid rip-through of Messiah is another highlight, and there is even a small concession made to Celtic Frost, as that band’s Visions Of Mortality is also covered – though Fischer does explain to the audience that he and long-time collaborator Martin Ain (RIP) originally wrote the tune for Hellhammer.
The band closes with the epic Triumph Of Death, the song which inspired this combo’s name. Slowing to a wormy crawl, the dropped tempo doesn’t take away the brutality as Fischer and cohorts pile on thick, distorted slabs of guitar and stretch the song out to nearly 15 minutes in length. It’s a change in flavour after the direct onslaught of the rest of the set but gets to the gut as effectively as the bullet-speed chargers like Crucifixion or Horus Aggressor. With a bow, Fischer and band leave the stage. As Fischer himself says in joyful disbelief to the audience tonight, nobody gave Hellhammer the time of day when they were around – and now in 2024 he is touring those same songs around the world to adoring crowds. The world may have taken a while to catch up to Mr Fischer, but we got there eventually.
Review: Matt Thrower
