Who else besides yours truly has a soft spot for metal bands that were bold enough to inject punk's fury into their sound circa the early '80s? Good, it's comforting to know I'm not alone. And one such band that never seems to get the credit for doing so was one that can also be credited for serving as an important stepping stone for what we now all lovingly know as 'black metal' – Hellhammer. 

The major reason why this Swiss band is not on the tip of the majority of metalhead's tongues is simple – they never issued an album nor played live shows (but did issue demos and an EP, 1984's Apocalyptic Raids). However, the names of two of its members are quite recognizable – Tom G. Warrior (who went by the alias Satanic Slaughter) and the late Martin Eric Ain (aka Slayed Necros), who immediately formed Celtic Frost after Hellhammer's dissolution. 

To pay tribute to this underrated band, Warrior assembled the group Triumph Of Death in 2019, which performs Hellhammer material on stage – resulting in the new live album, Resurrection Of TheFlesh. Also including guitarist André Mathieu, bassist Jamie Lee Cussigh, and drummer Tim Iso Wey, the twelve-track offering is comprised of songs recorded in the spring of 2023 at the Hell’s Heroes Festival in Houston, Dark Easter Metal Meeting in Munich, and SWR Barroselas Metal Fest in Portugal. 

And judging from such standouts as “Massacra,” “Messiah,” and “Visions Of Mortality,” Resurrection Of The Flesh does a dandy job of paying tribute to this crucial metal band.