The Chilean foursome return with a slightly laidback but well-executed album for trad metal fans.

Lucifer’s Hammer is a traditional metal band from Chile named after science fiction author Larry Niven’s OTHER popular book (sorry, Ringworld fans!) Their previous album, The Trip, is well-regarded so I was excited to give this a listen when THENWOTHM Editor Rob took a break from teaching young people the ways of Road War and handed me the assignment. Let’s be, let’s exist, and let’s check it out track by track:

1. Cosmovision is an atmospheric intro piece that smoothly guides us into the second track…

2. Real Nightmares starts off with a simple but effective guitar lick that underscores the rest of the track. Those guitars are bathed in effects to give the atmosphere an otherworldly feel. The middle section features some fantastic guitar playing that takes its time to build excitement for the rest of the track as well as the album.

3. Glorious Night kicks things off with a nice riff leading into a slightly faster track. This song also has a nice, slower passage in the middle that works as a canvas for the guitars to do their thing. The twin-axe attack is used very effectively and will remind fans of older, Uli Jon Roth-era Scorpions.

4. Antagony eases you in with some tasty leads before giving way to a nice mid-paced gallop that drives the track. More guitars slathered in effects take the stage and it’s very welcome. The only knock against this track is that the lyrics are a bit too on-the-nose and obvious in what they’re trying to convey.

5. Son of Earth jumps into things with a Thin-Lizzy-esque twin-guitar harmony before giving way to an interesting main riff that will remind some listeners of latter-era Slough Feg. There’s more spacey instrumental exploration towards the middle of the track which is what led to me starting to notice a pattern. The band has a clear formula for the songs on this album and at this halfway point it starts to wear thin.

6. The Fear of Anubis is an instrumental track that will remind listeners of similar efforts from the glory days of Iron Maiden as well as Running Wild. The musicianship is the strongest element of this band and it’s used to great effect here. Some of my favorite riffs on the album are contained within and that doesn’t usually happen with most instrumentals.

7. Medusa Spell dives back into things headfirst with the twin-guitar harmony that underpins the track. This song breaks up the pattern of the ones that came before it by keeping things moving until we get to the solo. It’s a very welcome change at this point.

8. The Part of Being is a more sedate instrumental track that takes us to the album closer…

9. Be and Exist is a strong enough finale. The high level of musicianship is maintained while picking up the pace a bit. The double-vocal delivery, extraterrestrial guitar work, crunchy underpinning of bass and solid drums bring it all together to wrap the album up in solid fashion.

Wrapping Up:

Be And Exist is a solid effort from Lucifer’s Hammer with lots of great instrumental work that will have more musical nerds as well as guitar gearheads listening attentively. My only issue with the album is a glaring lack of variety. The songs are all good, but they follow a pattern that starts to become predictable after the second track. If the band can focus their strong musicianship into tighter and more diverse songwriting, they will easily catapult to the upper echelons of the NWOTHM landscape. This album is worthy of a listen if you’re looking for something more measured in your metal and want to hear one of the more technically sound bands from the South American part of our scene.

THENWOTHM SCORE: 7/10