All-female Tokyo trio Gallhammer was formed in February 2003 by Vivian. Largely because all members had been vocalists in their previous bands, none could play an instrument at the time of the band's inception.
Quick learners, by March 2003, Gallhammer had already recorded an impressive demo tape. Only a few months later, in July, the demo CD “Gallhammer” was recorded and released. On November 11th 2004 their debut album was unleashed by Hello From The Gutter Records.
Entitled ‘Gloomy Lights’, this 8 track album was a dedication to their influences. but also created a fresh, unique and dark sickly sounding atmosphere of their own.
In early 2007 Peaceville Records released ‘The Dawn of…’, a CD collection of demo recordings which also included a DVD of live shows in Japan, which brought this fantastic new band to the music world’s attention, with Gallhammer gaining much acclaim for their uncompromising attitude and songs. Alongside a collection of outstanding reviews, The Guardian, UK went as far as giving the band the honour of ‘band of the day’.
‘Ill Innocence’ was recorded & mixed by Makota Fujishima of Weird Truth Productions in Japan during late 2006/early 2007. The album was mastered in Oslo by Nocturno Culto of black metal legends, Darkthrone.
Although Gallhammer is known primarily as a Black Metal/punk act, Ill Innocence is an impressively diverse showcase of the band's brilliant handling of a variety of influences and moods, from both Metal and non-Metal genres.
The album's themes are based around isolation, oppression, and a world without colour, with Vivian describing the image-laden Delirium Daydream as being like, "A midday nightmare under the scorching sunshine”.
‘Ill Innocence’ features new recordings of the tracks ‘Speed of Blood’ & ‘At the Onset of the Age of Despair’ as previewed in demo form on the recent ‘The Dawn of…’ Peaceville release.
‘Simply fucking horrible. In all the right ways. KKKK’ Kerrang!
