2003-07-02
If Sacramento, California’s Hoods had chosen more
modest cover art for
”Pray For Death” it
might have made the fourteen brief hardcore-metal
tracks easier to take seriously -- an
illustration of dentally challenged clowns
moshing only reinforces the opinions of people
who grew up, over, and out of punk decades ago.
Sick Of It All, and shouty, chant-chorus hardcore
fans will love this, except when vocalist Benito
Garcia goes cod thespian, like on “John And
Kitty”’s double-tracked “I HATE YOU WITH ALL MY
HEART, YOU MOTHERFUCKERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!”
On the other hand, “By My Side” had an almost
dub-reggae quality to the vocals not present in
most hardcore albums of the past, who all relied
on minimal production.
Pray also uses
samples from
Repo Man and scenes from a
few other midnight movies to set up a despondent
mood that is in harmony with the songs, but it’s
all so campy and over-the-top that listening
without a smirk isn’t possible.
Pray For
Death takes itself much more seriously than
even the old concept albums of the 1970s, and
that’s makes it tough to recommend.
Jason Thornberry
