Featured Band: February 2006

Himsa-Hail Horror
(Prosthetic Records, 2005)

These guys sure have changed since the days that they were on Revelation Records. Gone is most of the hardcore and what you are left with is a monstrously heavy slab of thrashy death metal mixed with hints of Swedish melody.

I’m not sure if people lump these guys into the metalcore genre, but honestly lose the core and just call this metal. This is aggressive, well written, and well played. You won’t hear the same tired, recycled breakdowns.

The band has a dirty sound, and even though the speed is definitely cranked at times, they have slower sections which bring to mind doom metal. This isn’t a bad trying to sound metal, this is a band that understands and appreciates metal and is 100% into crafting high quality metal music. Forget about all of the lame bands cramming bad Swedish riffs into indy rock songs, this is the American band that you should be listening to.

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Album Review

Hoods-Pray for Death
(Victory, 2003)

While Victory has been expanded their roster to include a wide variety of bands, Hoods play the style you would expect from them. Metal influenced guitars, barked vocals, and extremely heavy breakdowns is what Hoods have to offer. If you are a fan of hardcore, it's an offer you won't refuse.

I'd say these guys remind me of a cross between the New York sound and Slayer, with more then just a hint of Cro-Mags as well. The band is heavy, energetic, and just balls to the walls agressive. They don't waste any time with filler, and this album is just over 25 minutes long. You don't really need to make albums of fast and agressive music very long. 14 or 15 songs is the perfect length, and the band doesn't lose any steam before the album is over.

The band has a few moments that you wouldn't really expect from a hardcore band. There is more then a few riffs that could have easily come from a Slayer album. You've heard a lot bands being compared to Slayer, but a lot of the time it's because of fast riffs, but a lot of the riffs on this album that remind me of Slayer are slower and similar to what the band was doing on the South of Heaven album. You won't mistake these guys for a metal band, but they definitely do have a lot of metal influence at times.

The production is pretty much the pefect match for the style the band plays. The sound is very heavy, yet it isn't suffocatingly heavy, and still has a live feel to it. The mix is pretty much perfect as well. A lot of albums have certain things that are far too loud, or too quiet, but there really isn't anything I could complain about on this album. It sounds amazing, and gives the album the extra boost in energy it needs.

This album could appeal to a pretty wide audience of extreme music fans. Metal fans would be into the barked vocals and the bands heavier moments, and the hardcore kids would get into, well, pretty much everything this band has to offer. This one is definitely for fans of Slayer, Sick of It All, Cro-Mags, and Hatebreed.

 

  
 
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