Hammers of Misfortune is an American heavy metal band from
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
. The band's style has varied from album to album, at times incorporating different elements of
folk metal
Folk metal is a fusion genre of heavy metal music and traditional folk music that developed in Europe during the 1990s. It is characterised by the widespread use of folk instruments and, to a lesser extent, traditional singing styles (for exampl ...
NWOBHM
The new wave of British heavy metal (commonly abbreviated as NWOBHM) was a nationwide musical movement that started in England in the mid-1970s and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Journalist Geoff Barton coined the term ...
,
black metal
Black metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include fast tempos, a shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, raw (lo-fi) recording, unconventional song structures, and an emp ...
, 1970s rock, and
thrash metal
Thrash metal (or simply thrash) is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music characterized by its overall aggression and often fast tempo.Kahn-Harris, Keith, ''Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge'', pp. 2–3, 9. Oxford: Berg, 2007, . ...
. It is the brainchild of guitarist John Cobbett, who serves as the band's producer and primary songwriter.
History
Hammers of Misfortune was formed in the mid-1990s under the name Unholy Cadaver. At the time, the only members were guitarist John Cobbett and drummer Chewy Marzolo, both of whom shared vocal duties. Enlisting the help of other musicians, among them Mike Scalzi of Slough Feg, they recorded a full album's worth of material in their rehearsal space. However, only three of these nine tracks were included on the band's aptly titled ''Demo No. 1,'' and the majority of the material remained unreleased until 2011, when Shadow Kingdom Records released the entire recording as the ''Unholy Cadaver LP''. Unholy Cadaver's output laid the groundwork for what would become Hammers of Misfortune's signature style, but it also contained elements of death metal (mainly in John Cobbett's vocals) that would be phased out in future recordings.
In 2000, the band changed its name to Hammers of Misfortune, taking its moniker from a track on the Unholy Cadaver demo. Recruiting Scalzi and Janis Tanaka (formerly of Fireball Ministry and L7), the band released its 2001 concept album '' The Bastard'' on Tumult Records. '' The Bastard'' received many positive reviews in the metal community, including several "best of 2001" awards from magazines such as ''Terrorizer'' and ''Lamentations Of The Flame Princess''.
In 2003 the band signed a deal with Cruz Del Sur Music, releasing their second album '' The August Engine'' by the end of the same year. This album was also well received by the metal community, getting a 10/10 review from ''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'' magazine among other acclamations. After '' The August Engine'', Janis Tanaka left the band and was replaced by Jamie Myers.
After '' The Locust Years'', there was a large lineup change. Mike Scalzi left the band, in order to focus on his main band, Slough Feg, and Jamie Myers left the band in order to raise a family. Scalzi was replaced by Patrick Goodwin, and Jesse Quattro replaced Myers. The original drummer, Chewy, left and rejoined the band. With this new lineup, the band recorded the double album, Fields/Church of Broken Glass, in 2008. However, this lineup was not to last, as Quattro and Goodwin parted ways with the band in 2010. Cobbett subsequently recruited guitarist/vocalist Leila Abdul-Rauf and lead vocalist Joe Hutton.
In March 2010, Hammers of Misfortune announced that they had signed a record deal with Metal Blade Records. Since then, Metal Blade has re-released '' The Bastard'', '' The August Engine'', '' The Locust Years'', and '' Fields/Church of Broken Glass''. In October 2011, the band produced their fifth studio album, '' 17th Street,'' which was well-received by critics, with positive reviews from
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
,
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
,
The Quietus
''The Quietus'' is a British online music and pop culture magazine founded by John Doran and Luke Turner. The site is an editorially independent publication led by Doran with a group of freelance journalists and critics.
Content
''The Quietu ...
, and
PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, fi ...
.
The band's sixth album, ''Dead Revolution,'' was released in the summer of 2016 following a long hiatus, during which Cobbett and keyboardist Sigrid Sheie had a child and Hutton recovered from a motorcycle accident while other band members were involved with various side projects. Cobbett mentioned "technology and gentrification" as two of the subjects he thought about during the writing of the album.
Band members
Current
* John Cobbett – guitars (ex-
Gwar
Gwar, often stylized as GWAR, is an American heavy metal band formed in Richmond, Virginia in 1984, composed of and operated by a frequently rotating line-up of musicians, artists and filmmakers collectively known as Slave Pit Inc. After th ...
Ludicra
Ludicra is an American heavy metal band from San Francisco. They originally formed in 1998 as a quartet and later expanded to five members. In 2011, the band announced on their official website that they had disbanded,Amber Asylum,
Jarboe
Jarboe Devereaux, known mononymously as Jarboe (), is an American singer and musician who came to prominence as a member of the New York City experimental rock band Swans in 1985. Jarboe and Michael Gira, the founder of Swans, were the two consta ...
, Malefice (DC), VHÖL)
* Joe Hutton (The Worship of Silence) – vocals
* Leila Abdul-Rauf (Saros, Amber Asylum) – guitar, vocals
* Sigrid Sheie ( Amber Asylum, VHÖL) keyboards, vocals
* Paul Walker (The Worship of Silence) – bass
* Will Carroll (
Death Angel
Death Angel is an American thrash metal band from Daly City, California, initially active from 1982 to 1991 and again since 2001. Death Angel has released nine studio albums, two demo tapes, one box set and three live albums. The band has ...