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Tömmermenn - Urbant Helvete
Reviewed by AJ Blisten in 5/15/2006
TÖMMERMENN is a Norwegian band and TÖMMERMENN is a Norwegian word and is a phrase for… well, hangover. The word is not that much used anymore, but most people are still familiar with the expression (and what it feels like to have a hangover, I suppose…).
This band plays their music hard & heavy.
You'd better not have tömmermenn when your listen to TÖMMERMENN. If you do, the chances are good your head will explode. Not literally, of course, but a hangover is definitely not the best state to be in when meaty bass tones bangs against your eardrums.
These musically muscular carpenters show how to handle their tools and the music is probably best described as dark & melodic heavy metal with a small potion of thrash thrown in for good measure.
"Urbant Helvete" (Urban Hell in English…) is full of groovy and monstrous riffs and consistent and steady flow in the songs without weird twist and turns. Moreover, the atmosphere and feeling in some of the songs reminds me of good ole Norwegian hard rock bands like Høst and Flax from the good old days… TÖMMERMENN is a band that manages to generate the same good feeling as the pioneer bands I mentioned did three decades ago. At least to me, they do.
The vocals are in Norwegian and comprehensible for Norwegians, but probably not for foreigners (Swedes included…). Don't let that stop you from checking this record out. It's too good to be ignored and rejected because of the language. Besides, the vocalist is a good singer with a lot of testosterone in his voice and definitely one of the best in the Norwegian metal scene, regardless of genres.
"Urbant Helvete" is a great record and definitely not a go-with-the-flow band. TÖMMERMENN is a band with a definite style and expression they can call their own, no compromise and no musical wizardry. What you get is straight and real, groovy and dark heavy metal, a band that takes their heavy metal heritage seriously.
Some times it's like I can just count such band on one of my hands. And believe it or not, I've got only four fingers on that hand…
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