Hellhammer
Hellhammer was an early
black metal and
death metal band, hailing from Switzerland and popular briefly in
Europe in the mid-
1980s. Singer/guitarist Tom Gabriel Fischer (then known as Tom Gabriel Warrior, later of
Celtic Frost) and bassist/vocalist Steve Warrior formed the band in
1982 (
1982 in music), originally naming it
Hammerhead. They were subsequently joined by drummer Bruce Day. In spite of their rather marginal musical and technical quality, demo tapes called
Triumph of Death and
Satanic Rites became underground, word-of-mouth hits and the band was eventually picked up by German-based Noise Records (
1984 in music). Steve Warrior had been replaced by former Schizo bassist Martin Eric Ain, a change which marked the beginning of a serious and radical transformation in the band's music and lyrics. These changes were ultimately responsible for Fischer's and Ain's increasing feeling of being limited within the confines of the purposely primitive Hellhammer vehicle. A legendary four-track 12" EP,
Apocalyptic Raids, was released in spring of 1984. At the time, it was regarded as one of the heaviest and most extreme records yet produced. By then, the band had already broken up, but the recording was one of the original black/death metal recordings, and spawned a legion of imitators, playing
doom metal,
Norwegian death metal and
industrial metal. Both Fischer and Ain later teamed up again when forming the seminal
Celtic Frost in summer of 1984. Apocalyptic Raids was officially re-issued in expanded form on CD in 1990; this project was overseen by Ain.