Hammer Time
Formed in the winter of 1994 in Washington and active for a whole six weeks, Thorr’s Hammer’s enduring growled doom legacy is remarkable when you bear in mind that they only actually played live twice and recorded just one EP. And add to that the fact that the face-aching vocals were sung by an attractive Norwegian exchange student and not a feral child raised by wolves and you can begin to understand why they continue to be name checked by modern day metallers. Obviously it doesn’t hurt that Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley were in them either.
Temporarily reformed to play a couple of live dates, we caught up with singer Runhild Gammelsaeter ahead of their upcoming appearance at Birmingham’s Supersonic Festival to ask her just why they’re getting back together. Not that we’re complaining.
People often have a quite cynical view of bands getting back together (and rightly so),so why was now the right time to do this?
We didn’t want to do a reunion previously because we thought it sort of cynical, not “cult” and not “true” as we say in metal. All members of TH are old friends, I still call Steve when I have a broken heart. I love those guys to death. But we are getting old, people are having babies, careers, living all over the world, rarely seeing each other. We loved the idea of having an opportunity to fly everyone in, spend time together and experiencing the vibe between us again. It may be the last opportunity we have to do that.
I assume you’ve had rehearsals ahead of the Supersonic show, so just how strange is it playing these songs again after all this time?
We are all rehearsing separately now, and we meet up ahead of the shows to rehearse together. Listening to the record again is a strange experience. And my lyrics! I have good laughs at myself for those. And why did I write such long lyrics! Why didn’t I go for the 3 verses and chorus? Relearning those is a project in itself…I will have to write things down on my arm or something, my memory has gotten so bad.
Are you surprised by the continued adoration Thorr’s Hammer inspire despite the project being so incredibly short lived?
Yes, incredibly so. It’s mind baffling, and very flattering. I never thought the record would sell 15 years later. In fact, I never thought we would release it as a CD on a good label. In retrospect I see that we had something different, that few have followed our trail. And listening to the record again, I humbly admit that I sometimes think: damn that is a good record! I’m very proud to have been a part of that. It makes me happy to see people appreciate what we made.
Allied to that, with the benefit of hindsight do you wish you’d managed to stick together longer, work by proxy etc?
No, it was perfect. It was all magic, all good times, joy. Had we carried on, we may have had fights, spent a lot of time touring, be tired of each other. Part of the reason TH is still remembered is perhaps that it was ephemeral.
Are you nervous about playing Supersonic? It’s an obvious question but Thorr’s Hammer weren’t exactly road-tested for the short time you were active.
Yes, I am terrified. It is quite a strain for my voice to do long shows and physically demanding as well. We are rehearsing and playing many days in a row, and I have not done this for many years. I can still do a decent growl though, and hope the vocal chords will hold through the mayhem of it. Perhaps my vocals will never recover, getting a rasped voice like Marianne Faithfull. But I don’t care, I aim to do my very best and hope that the shows will be amazing for the audience.
Thorr’s Hammer play Supersonic on Saturday the 25th of July and tickets are priced at £35. You can get them here.
