HOD - Book of the Worm (Album Review)

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 09/09/2014

Label: Arctic Music

‘Book of the Worm’ track listing:

1. When The Ghouls Feed
2. Den Of Wolves
3. I Am Destroyer
4. Through The Gates (They Come For Me)
5. Death Whores
6. Under Tyranny’s Hammer
7. Where Are The Demons
8. Beneath The Mountains of the Scorpion

Bio:

San Antonio’s favorite blackened death tyrants, HOD, will drop their long-awaited new full-length upon the weak later this Summer. Titled Book Of The Worm, the follow-up to last year’s The Uncreated Demo teaser, which Decibel likened to a “snake eating itself and a bigger snake eating the smaller snake, a kind of infinite and horrifically malign Ouroboros,” was produced by Dennis Munoz (Solstice), features the recording line-up of guitarist Necron, vocalist Vladibeer Reebs, bassist T.A. and former drummer Dennis Sanders and boasts eight blasting psalms of deviance, decadence and overall suffering with artwork by the masterful Jon Zig (Averse Sefira, Deeds of Flesh, Pyrexia)

Comments the band from their den of iniquity, “Finally, Book Of The Worm is finished! Through Hell and back we went to get this completed. Comrades fell. Labels failed. Studios changed. But we soldiered forth with iron determination and it is done. Blood, sweat and sacrifice are the ingredients. Fueled by hate and blasphemy. Prepare for the storm

HOD is:

Vladibeer Reebs | Vocals
Carl "Lord Necron" Snyder | Guitar
Trans Am | Bass
Del "The Entity" | Drums
Danny "Blackwolf" Luebben | Guitar

Review:

Hod are straight-talking, straightforward death metal from San Antonio, Texas. They offer you no gimmicks and no reprise. In an era when more and more metal bands are prefixed with tags like ´post´, ´ambient´ or ´progressive´, it’s rarer than you think, for a metal band to be this stripped back and to the point. 

There isn’t much progressive about ‘Book of the Worm’, but what it does deliver is classic extreme metal in abundance. Every riff is as catchy as hell and there are enough time changes and brain melting drums to wear your neck and ears out pretty quickly. Like ‘Reign in Blood’, the record can fit onto one side of a cassette, so despite the lack of respite from pounding double bass and chainsaw guitars, you are never bludgeoned to the point of saturation. I’m guessing that length would fit many listeners commute to work - perfect for preparing for whatever onslaught of crap you are about to face, or to wind down from whatever the day threw at you. 

It would be easy to group them in with current blackened thrash pallbearers Absu and 

Goatwhore, indeed given now that the latter and Hod share bass players, and if I was to lay some criticism on Hod, it would be that unlike their Louisiana counterparts, the vocals lack variety and depth.  "Death Whores" is sufficiently gruesome and savage for every extreme metal fans taste, and the epically titled closer, "Beneath the Mountains of the Scorpion" contains just about every lesson from the book of the death metal riff. Exhilarating stuff and it just may be exactly what you need during these depressing winter days.

Words by: Jack Taylor

You can pick up a copy here

For more information:

http://hodmusic2.bandcamp.com/album/the-uncreated-demo
http://www.reverbnation.com/hodtheband
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hod/118127951554999?ref=ts&fref=ts
http://www.arcticmusicgroup.com
http://www.facebook.com/arcticmusicextreme