Artist: Nuclearhammer
Country: Canada
Label: Iron Bonehead Productions
Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP
Year: 2026
Three years after the release of Nuclearhammer’s last sign of life, the ‘Xaos Tenawas’ demo, released on Nuclear War Now! Productions, the illustrious duo are back with new material. This time they’ve chosen Iron Bonehead Productions to partner with, but that is basically the only difference, as musically Nuclearhammer didn’t change a bit. Consequently, people who liked the band’s previous work will definitely be pleased with what’s for dinner this time around…
‘XAOS 333’ is a 17-minute assault on the senses, just as we’ve always come to expect from Nuclearhammer. At 3:26, the opening track is still relatively short and feels more like a warm-up for the main course: the almost 10-minute-long “Mother Of Poisons”, which strings together a multitude of swirling riffs and thunderous drums. I think it’s safe to say now, once and for all, that the electronics of yesteryear have disappeared from Nuclearhammer’s musical palette, but the sonic outcome has actually hardly changed. There is still a slightly hallucinatory atmosphere, although this is now achieved mainly through the fast drums and the repetitive nature of the razor-sharp riffs. It is, however, more clearly audible that the band’s foundations lie in Death Metal; not only because of the roaring vocals, but above all the heavy, meaty riffs give the band’s origins away. As a result, Nuclearhammer feels more than ever like an organic blend of Angelcorpse, Bestial Warlust and classic Blasphemy. Now that the slightly experimental edge has been stripped away, fans of the more chaotic work within the Black/Death Metal genre will find this even more to their liking.
It isn’t particularly ground breaking, in the sense that Nuclearhammer pushes boundaries or even explores them. But that doesn’t seem to have been the intention, particularly with the last two releases: the aforementioned demo on Nuclear War Now! Productions and this new EP. It feels more like a deepening of the musical concept, with ‘XAOS 333’ representing a clear step forward in terms of quality and, above all, intensity.
