May 12
Tuesday, May 12: Witches Hammer, "Solar Winds"
Most of the next-gen Slayer copycats focus on the aggression, speed and misanthropy of the Metal Blade years, but Witches Hammer wisely recognized that Dave Lombardo’s towering grooves were the band’s secret sauce and built “Solar Winds” around very Lombardo-esque percussion. And that opening sounded more like prime Slayer awesomeness than anything Kerry King attempted since 2001, while the transition to more conventional speed/thrash beats was similarly seamless though the vocals had a bit more death metal even if they weren’t too extreme. “Solar Winds” was mostly Witches Hammer kicking ass for about 3 minutes, and did its job rather well.
