Hammers Of Misfortune – 17th Street

Hammer of Misfortune 
17th Street
(2x 180g Black Vinyl) 
Release: 2011

Track Listing:

1. 317
2. Salt
3. 17th Street
4. The Grain
5. Staring (The 31st Floor)
6. The Day The City Died
7. Romance Valley
8. Summer Tears
9. Grey Wednesday
10. Going Somewhere

More Info:

Hammers of Misfortune’s fifth studio album, 17th Street, stands as a crowning, bittersweet masterpiece of theatrical progressive metal and vintage hard rock. Masterminded by guitarist/composer John Cobbett and tracked predominantly to tape at San Francisco's Light Rail Studios, the record serves as a defiant, nostalgic love letter to the Mission District’s fading bohemian heavy metal community before the waves of Silicon Valley gentrification permanently altered the city's skyline. Sonically, it trades the sprawling medieval fantasy narratives of the band's earlier work for punchier, hook-driven songwriting that collides the twin-guitar gallop of Thin Lizzy and Iron Maiden with the symphonic swagger of 1970s Deep Purple, Kansas, and Queen.

The record's secret weapon is the dazzling interplay between Cobbett and Leila Abdul-Rauf’s roaring tube-driven guitar harmonies and Sigrid Sheie’s Leslie-whirling Hammond B3 organ and upright piano runs, locked to Chewy Marzolo’s dynamic, jazz-inflected drumming. Out front, powerhouse vocalist Joe Hutton delivers a dramatic, operatic performance full of grit and soaring range, interweaving with three- and four-part vocal harmonies from Sheie and Cobbett on anthems like "The Grain," "The Day the City Died," and the melancholy ballad "Summer Tears." Free of sterile modern studio quantization and soaked in rich, organic analog warmth, 17th Street captures an ensemble operating at the peak of their songwriting and arrangement powers—delivering an urgent, soul-stirring triumph of pure American heavy metal.