Post by forlornjackalope on Feb 10, 2020 18:19:35 GMT
Lucifer's Hammer was a black metal/OSDM band from Westland, Michigan that was active from 1986-2005, and were best known for their 1994 and 1995 demos The Burning Church and Hymns to the Moon which resulted in them having a small cult following. In total, the band produced five demo tapes and two full-albums during the span of their career, however, one of their demo tapes is currently lost and unaccounted for.
While the time frame varies between sources (1988 and 1989), it was reported that the demo tape for Tales of the Midnight Hour and the master tape for Descent into Beyond were destroyed in a house fire. While copies of Descent into Beyond are available for purchase and on YouTube, very little is known about Tales of the Midnight Hour. The most that we know about the demo itself is that it was more thrash oriented before the band diverged into a stronger, old school black and death metal sound with the release of Descent into Beyond the following year, and would remain their primary sound and style until they split up. There's currently no track list or album art related to the demo available anywhere, as well as no live performances that could be linked to it either.
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July 2020 Edit: I was looking around a bit more and I'll make some corrections now before I forget.
Tales from the Midnight Hour isn't lost like I initially reported, it's just considered to be extremely rare and hard to find. However, the master tape for it is considered to be lost just like with Descent into Beyond - which is also rare and hard to find. I'm also not sure where I got information from about it being on YouTube, unless I was referring to when I posted this to a horror board years ago and it may have been up. As of writing this, it's not on YouTube and there's no live performances of them doing anything from either demo at their live shows - though Tales from the Midnight Hour is a bit out of place with the rest of their discography, as I said, due to it's more thrash oriented sound and style. I haven't heard either album yet due to their elusiveness, so I can't say whether or not "The Entrance to Gehenna" from their demo The Burning Church is just a polished up version of "Marching into Gehenna" from Descent into Beyond.
Speaking of which, the cover art isn't lost either and I don't know if new things surfaced since I posted this or I just figured nothing new changed since I originally posted this elsewhere years ago. While you can find scans of them on Discogs, Metal-Archives, and Zenial, that's sort of where things dry up. Descent into Beyond has fared better of the two though, as I've only been able to find the full track list for that demo thus far. If it wasn't for Zenial having cover art for Tales from the Midnight Hour up (and a few other websites that mention it by name), I wouldn't have said much about it. Zenial's site, at one point, had a 7/10 review for it up on his website. However, when you go to access it, you'll be met with a page error. I've had no luck trying to get in touch with him either through his website to see if he still has a copy of it. Thankfully, however, his site does appear to be active, and his most recent contribution to Facebook was in May of this year. I'm hoping that if he posted the scans that he still has the track lists and he can repost them somewhere.
So, this is where we're at now. The master tapes are still lost and will likely remain that way for good assuming the band is correct about them being destroyed. However, knowing that there's still copies out there in general is reassuring that they won't become completely lost - fingers crossed. I'd like to think that if someone has them, that they can post them online and I don't think it would be a problem either. I've seen members of the band, specifically John Caldwell who was their drummer, interacting with fans in the comment section of various videos that are uploading their albums and he seems like such a chill dude. Hell, I'm listening to Hymns to the Moon right now, and he commented a month ago expressing appreciation that more people are coming to find out about them. It's a shame that he and the other members haven't said much to each other since they split up, but hey, shit happens. Their pages on Metal-Archives appears to be up to date, and while their original vocalist hasn't been reported to have been active since the band split up in 2004, everyone else has been doing stuff which is cool.
Here's the cover art for Tales from the Midnight Hour and Descent into Beyond, though they aren't perfect:
Left: Tales from the Midnight Hour | Right: Descent into Beyond
