Pray for Death is cliched metal-core, right down to the despair of the album's title. The vocals are barked in an undecipherably gruff half-scream, though the lyrics are thoughtfully printed in full on the inner sleeve. The 14 songs whiz by in a mere 25 minutes. Song topics? Hate, abuse, abusive cops, lies tearing apart friendship, suicide, revenge, depression, heroin addiction. Refreshing? Not. The
Hoods grind away bleakly with ugly chord progressions and tempos that shake like an earthquake and sometimes accelerate to the point of losing control. But the vocals and lyrical attack are so overdrawn that if you met these guys in a dark alley, you wouldn't know whether to get scared or laugh. ~ Richie Unterberger