By Leandro Abrantes and Luis Fernando Ribeiro
Forged in the potholes of the asphalt road and the exhilarating adrenaline of the stage, the São Paulo-based band Hammathaz , despite their almost 15-year career, had until then released few studio albums proportionally to their already extensive career, culminating in their most important record at the very end of the disastrous year 2020, which is officially their first full-length , The One , loaded with all the highly flammable fuel that the band absorbed in their many years of hard work.
Even with a fairly established career in the Brazilian underground, with relative international recognition and a discography consisting of two demo tapes, Antahkarana from 2006 and Downfall from 2009, two EPs, Crawling from 2011 and Inner Walls from 2013, and three singles, “Cursing” from 2010, “Enslaved” from 2012 and “So it Comes” from 2018, those who have followed Hammathaz for a longer time have been longing for a full studio release from the band, with a quality worthy of their compositions.
If in Inner Walls , from the distant year of 2013, the band already showed a contemporary feel in their compositions, being able to sound both modern and organic, in The One Hammathaz delivers their technical, creative and professional peak, in an extreme metal record that manages to sound aggressive, devastating and yet extremely tasteful, with direct but absolutely well-structured and elaborate compositions, and in the hands of the experienced producer Thiago Bianchi ( Noturnall / Shaman ), from Estúdio Fusão, they conceived an album worthy of placing the band on another level of the world heavy metal scene, which seems quite clear and well defined for Hammathaz, who released their album in physical format simultaneously through Voice Music in Brazil and Defense Records in Europe, in addition, of course, to making it available on all major streaming platforms.
After some natural changes in members over the years, the band went to the studio with vocalist Thiago Pasqualine , guitarist Thales Stat, Anderson Andrade on bass, and Lucas Santos on drums, recording these nine explosive tracks that range between Thrash, Death, Groove Metal, and Metalcore, without adhering to the constraints of labels, fearlessly using elements and devices from other Metal subgenres whenever the compositions called for new nuances to be explored. After another reformulation, the lineup stabilized and defined its purpose more clearly, arriving at the excellent and cohesive team composed of vocalist Fernando Xavier , Thales Stat and Rodrigo Marietto on guitars, Anderson Andrade on bass, and Lucas Santos on drums.
The album opens in an apotheotic way with the devastating "Farewell," whose crushing weight introduces us to the album and the band's concept, thus maintaining an admirable linearity until its closing with "The End," making all the songs stand out individually and collectively.
“Devil On My Shoulder” is a death metal track that naturally weaves between classic and modern elements, with a very interesting melodic vein, worthy of big names in Swedish metal like Amon Amarth and Arch Enemy , for example, something quite typical for the band. “From the Grave” takes a different direction, following the paths of groove metal with all the musicians taking center stage, functioning as an unshakeable unit, from Thales Stat's powerful riffs and solos, to the violent and intricate rhythm section of Anderson Andrade and Lucas Santos, to Fernando Xavier's frenetic and cataclysmic screams.
“New Blood” is full of groove and metalcore elements, at times even flirting with black metal, giving the band a very broad, yet mature and well-defined identity, which is further confirmed in “Bringing Hell”, one of the most elaborate and complex songs in the repertoire, with a masterful solo and passages full of technique and an extremely intelligent melodic construction.
The overwhelming savagery of the trio "Self-Chained," "Tear the Walls," and "Irrational Beings" delivers the album to a grand finale with "The End," the most melodic and probably the best song on the album, reinforcing expectations for the band's next discography and for their anticipated return to the stage, Hammathaz's natural habitat.
"The One" delivers in just over half an hour of listening much more than an extreme metal album; it's an undeniably high-quality record from a band at their creative peak, with a performance far above average. This makes Hammathaz not just a welcome revelation, given their already extensive experience, but one of the great Brazilian heavy metal bands of today, proving themselves fully prepared for the international market.
