The band formed a while ago in San Francisco and released their first album in 2000. Sharing members with Slough Feg, the band has put out three albums to date with this one being the most recent. Now, straight away, I have to say that this whole retro scene bores me. I don’t like a lot of 70s rock and I generally hate bands that worship at the altar of those relics. What made me fall in love with this band though, is that while undeniably retro in their outlook, Hammers Of Misfortune add enough ingredients of their own to come across as being quite original.

The album starts with the lengthy and quite superb “The Locust Years.” The music is mostly like Tony Iommi jamming with Uriah Heep. While the Iron Maiden gallop occasionally raises its head the music is a superb mixture of stoner rock and old school heavy metal. The female vocals used throughout the album are unique in that they remind you of almost Celtic folk sounding vocal melodies that are seamlessly incorporated into the heavy metal structures of these songs. “We Are The Widows” is driven by the female vocals and the song is one of the stand out tracks of the album. “Trot Out The Dead” is another strong song and sees the band rocking out till a mid song piano and female vocal interlude interrupts the rocking out to sublime effect before the band once again grab the reins of the beast and gallop along. Super stuff. “Famine’s Lamp” is a slow paced song that starts quietly with female vocals before a doomy guitar riff suddenly breaks the tranquility.

I think it’s a little pointless to go over this album song by song simply because there are no bad songs here. There is in fact nothing wrong with this disc. The songs never get boring and there is a sense of fun to this music that should appeal to the older generation of metal fans. While the female vocals might put off some people I thought they were terrific and used superbly.

While an easy reference point, as already stated, would be Uriah Heep and particularly their “Look At Yourself” album, the influences are varied. There’s bits of Sabbath, Maiden, maybe some early Scorpions and some doom bits here and there all wrapped in a flair for the theatrical that would make Jim Steinman proud. At the same time, Hammers Of Misfortune write such good songs that the compositions have become greater than the sum of its influences.

“The Locust Years” is a many headed beast that is well worth your time. Awesome band, awesome bloody album.

Year Of Release – 2006

Label – Cruz Del Sur