Review by Ben for Demolition Hammer - Tortured Existence (1990)

Even ignoring the insanely bad artwork, I really didn't expect to like this much. It's hyper intense thrash metal with a hardcore edge and that's normally a bad combination in my book. But this is just too good not to enjoy. The band sound at times like an extremely pissed off Kreator mixed with Exhorder, with decent musicianship and production to go with it. The riffs are constantly exciting throughout, the drumming is rapid fire destruction, the vocals are venomous to the max and the leads are surprisingly good, which all adds up to an entertaining debut release by these US thrashers.

While Steve Reynolds vocals are on the hardcore side, they're one of the album's strengths. His ability to create memorable structures out of completely juvenile lyrics combined with all the immensely inspired thrash riffage totally make this album worth tracking down. Demolition Hammer are one of those bands that seemed to remain completely underground, even though they were better than a lot of other more popular bands (yes, I'm looking at you Exodus). Hopefully, sites like Rate Your Music will take their thrashing madness to a much larger audience, albeit somewhat late in the day. Highlight tracks for me are .44 Caliber Brain Surgery, Neanderthal, Crippling Velocity and Cataclysm but it's all solid.