"Hammerhead" is a song by American punk rock band the Offspring. The song is featured as the fourth track on the band's eighth studio album, ''

Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace ''Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace'' is the eighth studio album by American punk rock band The Offspring, released on June 11, 2008, by Columbia Records., Offspring.com, 04-09-2008 It was the band's first album of new material in five years, followi ...

'' (2008), and was released as its first single. The song was first played at the Summer Sonic Festival in 2007. It peaked at No. 2 on ''Billboard''s

Alternative Songs Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

chart. The song was originally set to go to radio on May 6. However, the world premiere of the song took place on May 2 at 6 PM PST on

KROQ KROQ-FM (106.7 MHz) is a commercial radio station licensed to Pasadena, California, serving Greater Los Angeles. Owned by Audacy, Inc., it broadcasts an alternative rock format known as "The World Famous KROQ" (pronounced "kay-rock"). The stat ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

(their hometown station). On May 5, 2008, the Offspring's official website released a free download of the song MP3 format, in much the same style as " Original Prankster" (from 2000's '' Conspiracy of One''). To download it, users were required to provide an email address to receive a link to a high-quality MP3 of the track, which came free of

digital rights management Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...

Song meaning

According to singer/guitarist Dexter Holland, the lyrics are from the perspective of a gunman in a school shooting. This is supported by the closing lyrics "''and you can all hide behind your desks now/and you can cry teacher come help me''". Lead guitarist

Kevin 'Noodles' Wasserman Kevin John Wasserman (born February 4, 1963), better known by his stage name Noodles, is an American musician and singer who serves as the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for The Offspring. Biography Kevin John Wasserman was born in Los Angel ...

elaborated on this, stating that the lyrics describe a gunman who believes that everything he does is for the greater good - "''take a life that others may live''". He is affected by a huge force (Hammerhead - "''it hammers in my head''") in his mind that makes him deluded.

Music video

Video contest

The band created a competition for fans of the band to create their own video for the song with their own original material.
YouTube group
had been set up for this purpose. The band picked their favorite video and the winner received $10,000. The contest was only available to U.S. residents.

Video

The music video was directed by Teqtonik and debuted on

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...

's website on June 9, 2008. The video alternates between the perspectives of the deluded shooter (who believes that he is a soldier) and that of the real world, often blending the two together. For instance, two children are shown tossing a "bomb" between one another, presumably simply a ball, while birds take the image of stealth fighters, and the shooter is consistently accompanied by the warped image of a military commander, presumably a personification of his military delusion.

Reception

Reaction to the song has been generally positive. Describing it as a 'good harbinger' to base the album off of, Michael Roffman of ''Consequence of Sound'' also said that the song 'works lyrically', and that '

Holland Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...

hasn't sounded quite this sincere since the very best '' Americana'' had to offer'. Richard Cromelin of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' also claimed that "Hammerhead" had the strongest lyrics of the album, and ''The Dreaded Press'' praised the song's 'hard-hitting drums' and Dexter's 'urgent howling' giving a 'surprisingly fresh' result. However, Chris Fallon of ''

AbsolutePunk.net ''AbsolutePunk'' was a website, online community, and alternative music news source founded by Jason Tate (the most recent CEO). The website mainly focused on artists who are relatively unknown to mainstream audiences, but it was known to fea ...

'' claimed that it was too long and Roffman later commented that 'uninspired riffs' resulted in a lack of enthusiasm from the song.

Track listing

Chart performance

The song debuted at number five on the ''Billboard''

Modern Rock Tracks Alternative Airplay (formerly known as Modern Rock Tracks (1988–2009) and Alternative Songs (2009–2020)) is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in ''Billboard'' magazine since September 10, 1988. It ranks the 40 most-played ...

airplay chart, making it the first song to debut on the top five of the Modern Rock Tracks since "

What I've Done "What I've Done" is a song by American rock band Linkin Park. It was released as the first single from their third studio album, '' Minutes to Midnight'' (2007), and is the sixth track. The song was released as a radio single on April 1, 2007, as ...

" by

Linkin Park Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. The band's current lineup comprises vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave Farrell, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn and drummer ...

, and the band's highest debuting

Modern Rock Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. Radio format Mod ...

single. It went on to peak at number two for six weeks on that chart. It also debuted at number eighteen on the

Mainstream Rock Tracks Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in Ma ...

, peaking at number eight on that chart.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

In popular culture

* The censored version of "Hammerhead" is featured in the soundtrack for the 2008

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

videogame ''

Madden NFL 09 ''Madden NFL 09'' is an American football video game based on the NFL that was published by EA Sports and developed by EA Tiburon. It is the 20th annual installment in the ''Madden NFL'' video game franchise. The game was released for the Ninten ...

''. * "Hammerhead" is featured as downloadable content for the ''

Rock Band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

'' video game. It was released on June 17, 2008. It was the first Offspring song to be released for the game.

Notes

External links

* {{authority control 2008 singles The Offspring songs Songs written by Dexter Holland Song recordings produced by Bob Rock Skate punk songs 2008 songs Columbia Records singles