HELLHAMMER Controversy Over 'Demon Entrails' Satanic Artwork

With the release of "Demon Entrails" on February 26 in the U.S. the days of numerous sub-standard bootlegs of the classic HELLHAMMER demos "Death Fiend", "Triumph of Death" and "Satanic Rites" are finally over! However, the new versions did not come without its fair share of controversy as Tom Gabriel Fischer states: "25 years after the recording sessions for HELLHAMMER's legendary demos, HELLHAMMER is still as controversial as ever. The print shop supplying our German vinyl manufacturer refused to print the gatefold sleeve, as well as the inner sleeves of the triple vinyl of the 'Demon Entrails' release, due to the satanic content. The print shop in question is the only one in Germany able to print the special kind of gatefold sleeve required by the format used for 'Demon Entrails'. As a result of this unexpected circumstance, the gatefold sleeve and inner sleeves are now printed in the UK."

"Demon Entrails" has been specially re-mastered from copies of the original master tapes under the supervision of Fischer, and the demos now represent HELLHAMMER exactly as the band sounded when recording these songs in June and December of 1983. Drawing from a wealth of previously unknown historical liner-notes material and artwork as well as plenty of unreleased HELLHAMMER photos from 1982 to 1984, "Demon Entrails" features all lyrics and essays detailing the individual demo recording sessions.

"Demon Entrails" will also be available as an opulent oversized double CD media-book packaging and as a gatefold triple vinyl album. Both versions will feature a lavish booklet and a poster. These versions will not be available in stores and the only place to order them would be directly through www.cmdistro.com.

The bare-bones, lower-price CD version will be the only version made available to retail stores.

Fischer recently discussed the difficulties he and bassist Martin Ain have had in coming to terms with the legacy of HELLHAMMER. Speaking to the UK's Zero Tolerance magazine about "Demon Entrails", the Swiss guitarist/ vocalist said: "It took many years, and for us to grow into older men, for us to actually be able to analyze HELLHAMMER properly and look at this band in the context that it deserves... The fact of the matter is that it took me years to feel at ease with some of the things that we wrote back then. The situation at the time was horrible. [My] youth defies description — there are things that happened then that I haven't told anybody, not even my ex-wife of 16 years. But I'm now 43 years old and it's taken that long for me to feel comfortable publicly talking about that. It was horrible at the time and my situation, and Martin's rather similar situation, led us to do some radical music and radical lyrics. And later when we became adults it was rather difficult for us to live with that legacy because we had yelled that desperation out of our bodies and become professional musicians. Then the press started to cover our work and then we were faced with the fact that everybody talked about this image and these lyrics. That wasn't very easy for us to accept and it took a long time for me to look at it, as I do now, as a period in my life that was very important to me and to be at ease with that. Now I have put all these lyrics in the reissue and commented on them and even though some of them are nothing to be proud about, I'm proud of HELLHAMMER as a whole. This was my reality, this was my life."

Here is the tracklisting information for the CD formats of the release:

HELLHAMMER - "Demon Entrails" 2-CD track listing:

CD 1: "Satanic Rites" Demo, December 2/3/4/7, 1983 (45:57)

01. Intro (0:58)
02. Messiah (4:18)
03. The Third Of The Storms (Evoked Damnation) (3:02)
04. Buried And Forgotten (6:01)
05. Maniac [re-recorded version] (3:46)
06. Eurynomos (3:10)
07. Triumph Of Death [re-recorded version] (6:58)
08. Revelations Of Doom (3:03)
09. Reaper [re-recorded version] (2:28)
10. Satanic Rites (7:18)
11. Crucifixion [re-recorded version] (2:45)
12. Outro (2:01)

CD 2: "Death Fiend & Triumph Of Death" Demos, June 10/11, 1983 (56:18)

01. Crucifixion (3:04)
02. Maniac (4:01)
03. (Execution) When Hell's Near (2:38)
04. Decapitator (2:07)
05. Blood Insanity (4:22)
06. Power Of Satan (4:11)
07. Reaper (2:06)
08. Death Fiend (2:35)
09. Triumph Of Death (5:15)
10. Metallic Storm (2:19)
11. Ready For Slaughter (3:36)
12. Dark Warriors (3:03)
13. Hammerhead (2:48)
14. Angel Of Destruction (2:58)
15. Bloody Pussies (4:59)
16. Chainsaw (3:58)
17. Sweet Torment (2:09)

To check out the artwork and some rare HELLHAMMER photos as well as discover more info on this release, visit www.hellhammer.org.