It was only a few months ago that I was first introduced to the Japanese female trio Gallhammer and I still haven't quite recovered from the experience. Their unique blend of Doom, Black and Crust Punk was so powerful and commanding that even the often horrible sounding recordings that were featured in their previously released CD/DVD collection "The Dawn Of..." sounded quite welcoming to my ears. Things have not often been easy for this outfit in the past, yet a recently acquired contract with Peaceville Records meant that they would now have enough support to finally release their second full length album entitled "Ill Innocence" - a release that I personally expected to receive with great anticipation.

In terms of musical approach, "Ill Innocence" is not far from the direction that the band has followed so far in their career, but what is clearly audible is a tendency to invest more in long atmospheric compositions - quite a smart decision, seeing as creating simple but memorable/ 'haunting' melodies/themes is amongst the band's strongest attributes. It is also not very hard to believe that the members of Gallhammer have only begun to learn how to play their instruments four years ago (!!!), seeing as none of their compositions are what you would describe as 'technically demanding', yet they are capable of conveying strong emotions and of creating a much desired dark atmosphere that only a handful of bands are capable of doing nowadays.

The first couple of compositions sounded justifiably familiar to me, seeing as they were also featured in "The Dawn Of...". The opener "At The Onset Of The Age Of Despair" is a perfect example of what this band is capable of achieving in terms of atmosphere, seeing as its main mournful guitar theme works perfectly with Vivian Slaughter's 'nocturnal' vocals and the Katatonia-influenced background guitar themes. On the other hand, "Speed Of Blood" is a more straight-forward Black/Punk composition whose main guitar riff sounds terribly reminiscent of Burzum's classic "Jesus Tod" (see "Filosofem" album). There are a few compositions like "Delirium Daydream" and "Ripper In The Gloom" where the band's few experimental elements come to light, yet I believe that fans of this genre will find the Hellhammer/Darkthrone-influenced tunes of "Killed By The Queen" more to their liking.

Personally speaking, I found myself closer to the album's more atmospheric/Doomy compositions such as "Song Of Fall" and "SLOG" - both of which convey strong feelings of sorrow and despair, yet if I was to choose the best song of the album, my vote would go to "Blind My Eyes". It's not so much the song's Punky catchy/rhythmical theme that blew me away as the unique female vocals that are featured in the choruses and bridges, which can only be described as soundtracks to Manga comics - a unique musical approach which we should only really expect from a Japanese band.

Peaceville Records is renowned for discovering new and quite promising bands and with Gallhammer it looks like they once again managed to 'hit the nail on the head'. What these three musicians lack in height (no offence ladies) they certainly compensate for in energy and atmosphere and "Ill Innocence" is living proof of this argument. Having said that, I believe that this band is capable of even greater things in the future, and with that in mind, I simply cannot wait to listen to their next effort - for the time being, though, "Ill Innocence" will keep me quite good company in the months to come.

****1/2

Review by John Stefanis