Biography
Warhammer, a German trio, assembled in 1994 with the explicit goal of honoring the long-defunct Swiss metal band Hellhammer—whose brief existence preceded the more enduring Celtic Frost—through precise emulation of its raw doom/death metal approach and distinctive album artwork aesthetic. Whereas Hellhammer, which dissolved in the early 1980s after releasing only one EP, Warhammer endured to issue multiple full-length albums and secure a contract with Nuclear Blast, one of the leading underground metal labels. The 1996 demo Towards the Chapter of Chaos brought the group a deal with Voices Productions, which issued the debut full-length The Winter of Our Discontent in 1997, performed by guitarist/bassist Frank Krynojewski, vocalist Volker French, and drummer Rolf Meyn. Two years later the sophomore album Deathchrist appeared on Grind Syndicate Media, a Nuclear Blast subsidiary, after the addition of guitarist Rainer Filipiak, whose presence enabled live shows. Nuclear Blast then released the third album, The Doom Messiah, in 2001, followed in 2002 by Curse of the Absolute Eclipse, the band’s first title to reach American distribution. By that release Warhammer had returned to a trio configuration consisting of Krynojewski on guitar and bass, French on vocals, and drummer Jens Küchental, who had replaced Meyn.