HOODS
Pray For Death (Victory)
Reviewed by Jason Thornberry

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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, which 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 makes it tough to recommend.

© 2003 - Jason Thornberry