THORS HAMMER

Thor's Hammer are a bit of an unknown bunch picked out from the 70's prog scene, but usually in my experiences obscure bands produce the best music, and that's definitely true here. The band's sole album and debut was released in 1971 and is as energetic as the best of them.

A problem that I've found with eclectic prog bands is they feature too much emphasis on experimentation and not enough on, well, the music. Here however Thor's Hammer combines all sorts of dazzling elements, like operatic rock, symphonic rock, and hell why not throw in a few crunchy riffs here and there. It truly takes a lot of effort to be a consistent, but TH pull it off very well. Although extremely eclectic, the album is refined even when it gets to it's most climactic points. As for jazz influences, they aren't exactly prominent aside from Simon Koppel's drumming and Jesper Neehammer's occasional saxophone breaks. Hell, King Crimson used saxophone and I still don't consider them to be very jazzy. The song selection, although short is extremely well done and each track has careful time and care put into it. A major highlight is 'Not Worth Saying', a powerhouse of a song where there is not one, but two solos from guitarist Michael Brunn and from Koppel. I would sort of say that the following track 'Blind Gypsy Woman' is so similar in atmosphere that it is just a continuation of the former.

The only problem I would say I have with the album is after the third track the erratic powerful nature the album has starts to lose it's punch; there aren't any really breaking points or slower sections. I'd hate to parallel this with VDGG but on Pawn Hearts, after the loud rocker 'Lemmings', 'Man-Erg' started with a beautiful piano opening to sort of calm you down and prepare you for the rest. If the album were to have at least a few interludes that calmed the atmosphere a bit, this would be close to a perfect experience. Other than that I have no problems except for the cover. But I mean if the music's good what does that matter?

So I'd suggest take a look at this one. Eclectic prog, next to jazz-fusion is the prog sub-genre where I found has usually the best musicians. Give these guys more attention because they deserve it.

This was such a surprise as I just wasn't expecting a lot. I had heard the opener "Mexico" previously, and while I liked it, it did have this commercial sounding chorus, and I sort of expected this would be status quo for the whole album. Not! Recorded in January and February of 1971 at Metronome studios in Copenhagen, this would be the only album that this Danish band would release. The drummer is responsible for the unfortunate cover art. A six piece with the vocalist doing just that, plus a sax player, along with the usual instruments.

The sax brings in a nice jazz flavour and some of these guys would go on to play in jazz bands like DROPS, ENTRANCE and HEAVY JOKER. Perhaps the biggest pleasure I got from this was that OUT OF FOCUS sound because of the vocals mostly towards the end of the longest piece, the 13 minute "Not Worth Saying", and it continues with the next song "Blind Gypsy Woman". Many do not like the singer, but I do. And while the opener has a radio friendly chorus, I looked forward to hearing this each time. An interesting guitar solo as well around 2 1/2 minutes in.

The 13 minute second track is such an adventerous piece. I still haven't really grasped it yet, but it is full of highlights. The guitar, sax, organ and upfront bass all shine here. How about that guitar solo after 6 1/2 minutes. That OUT OF FOCUS vibe starts around 11 1/2 minutes, and continues to start "Blind Gypsy Woman". And really my top three are the final three tracks beginning with this one. The OUT OF FOCUS style is heard early and late on this one with the middle being such a treat as this band sets the soundscape on fire. So much going on as well.

"Believe In What You Want" just sounds amazing throughout it's 9 minute run. The sax and organ especially. I also love that calm around 7 minutes in with electric piano, sax, bass and beats. So good! The closer "Evasive Dreams Beyond" is the shortest track at 3 1/2 minutes. Sounds like a jam, and we get more electric piano thankfully with sax again. It's a beautiful thing. Well I just found a new band and album that I can point to as being one of the best from Denmark. The jazz element makes this one a keeper in my musical world. Closer to 4.5 stars.