Review Summary: "Sounds like a fist-fight between Hellhammer and Discharge while Motörhead, Bathory & GBH are being blasted in the background!"
There’s been a recent trend with the fascination of the occult recently. Where modern punk seems to drift more towards the indie spectrum, its mutated half-brother crust seems to delve further and further into the obscurities of paganism and Northern European black metal. No slight against either, of course, but with Dishammer’s newest EP ‘
Under The Sign of the D-beat Mark’ we see that trend still being carried into the new decade, with greater enthusiasm then damn near any other band in the scene. You would assume right from the album cover, a tattooed, nude female, that the album itself is both unfriendly towards the ears and inaccessible to the masses. Now crust punk has never been a genre for the faint hearted or for the angelic beings of our society, quite the contrary actually, but Dishammer have outdone themselves by crafting an EP that follows the trends of modern crust punk, hell, even 70s crust punk and marries it with the head banging addictiveness of old school hard rock and metal. This makes Dishammer’s newest EP both a joy to listen to, even for those not accustomed to the genre, and interesting because of the new ideas Dishammer introduces on this take of the genre.
Their last.fm describes them as ‘a fight between Discharge and Hellhammer with Motorhead and Bathory being played in the background’. This is probably the most accurate description to classify Dishammer. Following subtle feedback, the fight-song ‘
The Devil’s Advocate’ bleeds the grit and blood of crust punk while carrying the same bad attitude and beer pounding sound of 80s hard rock. The production of ‘Under the Sign of the D-beat Mark’ is also an interesting take on crust punk. While still following the minimal work that most crust punkers have followed since its inception in the late 70s, ‘Under the Sign of the D-beat Mark’ carries the sound of badly produced early 80s metal that will produce a very feverish sense of nostalgia for those around in that time. Of course, the album name itself is homage to the d-beat crust bands of the 70s and Dishammer have done an excellent job of creating an album that appeases to both heavy metallers and puritan crust punkers alike. While there may be little new ideas from Dishammer in regards to their discography, their newest EP is basically a continuation of their original full length two years prior, their unique blend of hard rock and crust is both refreshing and welcome in a genre that is drifting further and further into the lair of Satan.
