Hammerheart is a quite widely used name in Metal. At first there was BATHORY’s cult album “Hammerheart”, then Dutch label Hammerheart Records (now Karmageddon Media) and now also a Metal band from Slovakia. What do these three things have to do with it? Well, apart from the name absolutely nothing!

Here we have the band HAMMERHEART and a promo mini CD, which bears its name correctly as it also physically is a small CD, with four songs, of which I do not really know, when they actually were made, because the homepage does not even state them. Well, founded in mid 1994, HAMMERHEART have gone through a whole bunch of line-up changes, resulting in one demo, one compilation song and one promo, but apparently these songs are a preview of the debut album, which is said to be out still this year.

Who is the biggest influence on the band around singer and guitarist Denis Belácik, is evident from the very start of “Back From Serenity”: IRON MAIDEN! Driving, strongly influenced by the Eighties, with mid-pitched vocals, not as obvious to call HAMMERHEART a copy of the old MAIDEN, but still a strong influence. And this almost seamlessly continues with “Describe In Fate“ and “The Revival“, the first one also driving, the latter more mid paced, both with good melodies and firmly rooted in the Eighties.

The closing „When Dark Dreams…“ stomps ahead, of course again influenced by IRON MAIDEN, which also is shown in the good use of the twin guitars, plus Denis’ quite own voice with its own timbre, which I really like in combination with the music, got something!

As you can read above, originality is not the biggest trait of HAMMERHEART, but that should not keep you from checking out these Slovaks, because they have the talent and there still should be plenty of fans of the Eighties’ MAIDEN, no? I am already looking forward to the full album! (Online July 10, 2004)