Let’s take to the battlefield with Gallic Hammer.
Created by Swiss multi-instrumentalist Katurix, he wrote and recorded his first EP, Echoes of Ancestral Battles, on his own, out thanks to Orko Productions and Remparts productions.
The doors to his world are opened with Ceremony (In the Heart of Sacred Woods), revealing a heady melody and then a storm that strikes just before Winter Moon imposes an epic but palpable darkness. The menacing vocal parts join the race, revealing even more of the musician’s obvious influences, both rooted in Old School Black Metal, but also in warlike keyboard-laden atmospheres. The charge slows to a trickle, leading us on to In the Depths of Phurunargian, which offers both the most aggressive and the most soaring, ethereal parts, linking them with raw and sometimes aggressive elements, before finally letting us plunge into the disquieting Taiga, where Pagan influences and throat singing await us. Although sounding like an interlude, the track features a few melodious riffs on the second half, before Echoes of Ancestral Battles takes up the torch, returning to the ferocity of icy Black Metal. Folk roots are not forgotten, as can be heard in the heady choruses and the relatively calm but effective rhythm, then Fall of the Warrior King begins with a crystalline sound before returning to the second-wave of Black Metal’s dark sound of and its Norwegian origins, carrying our minds through the sumptuous landscapes we can easily imagine when we close our eyes.
With its distinctive sound, Gallic Hammer pays tribute to Old School Black Metal on Echoes of Ancestral Battles. The EP is relatively substantial, and allows us to escape for half an hour in the cold.
85/100
