St. Hood "Sanctified" CD
[Full House]
Fuck yeah, the latest export from Finland's fucking vicious metallic hardcore scene, and I'm all over it! I liked their demo (the four songs from which appear here in re-recorded form) and this, their debut full-length, is even better. The recording could use some work since the guitar tone has a clinical sort of unnatural edge to the distortion and certain elements of the percussion fall into a similar category with an overly rigid attack, but it's easy to get past that because the gruff vocal shouts sound great and the songwriting is dead on. They basically ought to crank the bass up, smooth over the drums a little, and give the guitars a little more of a warm edge, because then they'd totally annihilate everything. You should know the drill here: For the most part it's crushing chord progressions with thrashy picking patterns on occasion, and plenty of tempo changes from midpaced breakdowns to speedier levels of contrast. "Blessed With Trust" threw me for a major loop with its inclusion of what sounds like organ or something backing the guitars during the intro, but after that they plow through some straight chugging mosh rhythms and vocal tradeoffs with some alternate picking Swedish metal riffs, so they never stray too far from the path. "Deep Breath" opens with ominous clean guitars and some Slayer-esque dissonance that's certainly indicative of what's to come, while "Sainthood" hits on a few semi sludgy Entombed sounding runs with some strong vocal patterns that add a little more color to the flow. "Cursed Prayer" is the first track that flirts with some tactful melodic Swedish death metal melodies, but I want to make it clear that those influences are never taken too far: This material is rooted in the classic niche of the metalcore genre, the more modern influences are only scattered around for added texture and variety. "A Step Beyond" is a badass example of perfection its use of thrashy midpaced picking patterns and sweet palm-muting riffs, not to mention some unexpectedly discordant textures, and of course a few tracks like "My Turn" and "Some Regrets" hit on some Madball-esque grooves, though the latter's inclusion of some rocked out Swedish dual guitar harmonies is fucking slick. The layout is all done with digital illustrations of skeletal angels and flaming cityscapes and such that takes some getting used to, but some of the stylization of the skulls looks awesome, and if nothing else the disc definitely has a different look to it. It could be better, but it works. Rather than taking the violent and hardass road that many might expect, most of the lyrics, while hinting at that style, deal more with overcoming hardships in life and actually kind of have a subtly hopeful message for struggling through all the bullshit in this world: "Years of hard thinking got me seeing things clear for my own being, A healthy vision for what is good for me, everyday strength to face my reality..." This is another winner from Full House, so... chalk up another bruiser for the Finnish scene. Seriously, Finland is basically the new New York for this style of metallic hardcore. It's like it's still 1995 over there! You can't lose! I fucking love Finland, man! (7/10)
Running time - 32:44, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Deep Breath, My Turn, A Step Beyond, Some Regrets]
Full House Records - http://www.fullhouserecords.com

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