There’s a brand of aggression throughout metal that I just don’t immerse myself in despite my love for it: sludge. It’s so visceral and holds so much excellence in its endless heaviness that it’s hard for me to rip myself away when it’s done right. Warcrab, Inter Arma, and Lord Dying are just a handful of examples for me, and it was with their last album that Hammerhands really impressed me. I wondered going into this record how much they would improve if at all and they blew past all of my expectations by the third track.

What got me about their last record was how diverse and organic it felt for the entirety of the record as there wasn’t a single track that didn’t feel as though Hammerhands was out for blood, and that still rings true with their third full-length album. Right from the start, their aggression is shown to be as potent as ever but with a much more refined edge that makes “Model Citizen” a far more engrossing a Hammerhands also puts the throttle on the intoxication factor so that there isn’t a single piece of this effort that doesn’t grab your attention almost immediately. From absolute grinders like “Bastard Jesus” to magnificent lessons in calculated hostility like “Too Many Rivers” to ferocious beats like “Do It Right”, Hammerhands really found their peak with “Model Citizen” such that it’s as heavy as it is satisfying and as diverse as it is uncompromising. It all comes together such that “Mode Citizen” really stands on its own not just for Hammerhands’ discography but modern sludge in general as it sticks to what we’ve always come to associate with the style, but that doesn’t make Hammerhands hesitate for every a second to expand their sound and deliver something that’s truly interesting.

This is an incredibly fun record if you just let it all take you which feels weird for me to say because normally I go into sludge looking to be obliterated and shown ferocity like none other, but it’s in the case of “Model Citizen” that I just can’t help but feel like I’m having an awesome time just being in the presence of the riffs and bloodthirst on full display. In no small way, Hammerhands has absolutely dominated at every turn with this monolithic album.

“Model Citizen” releases on July 19th!

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