Led To The Grave – “Pray For Death”
Led To The Grave was probably my first exposure to what I came to know and love as the Cape Cod Crew.
And searching it on our website it seems I interviewed them about five months after we were first online.
It’s been ten years now, for TNB, this month BTW.
My, how I have changed during those years.
Not really- I’m still a wise-ass, drunk music writer who spends most of his time being ridiculous while occasionally being spot on.
And when I tell you that Led To The Grave is one my favorite and best metal influenced bands I’ve written about- Well, that’s me being of the latter case, that’s when I’m being spot on.
And what makes LTTG so special to me, is that I can’t think of any other band that I’ve written about that combines the traditional, headbanging styles of metal with more later forms, such as thrash and death and black and does so, so successfully.
And that continues here, with this two song, single release, that I’ve been calling all the radio stations, requesting they play this, as I pray that it will hit the top of the charts any day soon.
Might as well pray that I get through a review by being sensible for once, but good luck with those prayers.
If there is a God he’ll surely hang up on you.
But enough talk about theology, let us lend our ears to two these two new tunes:
“Pray For Death” starts with some calming, cooling, cerebral, synthesizer sounds and a spoken word sample that proclaims, “More people live like animals, and behave like animals.” While I feel that animals conduct
themselves in a far more natural and intelligent way, so I won’t insult animals with the comparison.
But once the chuggin’ guitar leads us towards the growling, death vocals along with the headbangin’ beat- all hell break loose.
The chorus is a dragged out refrain of the title enabled by a dangerously, delicious, dissonant guitar lick.
This tune combines elements of metal, thrash and death- blended together to complete one perfect concoction that is tasty as well as full of substance.
But wait! There’s a breakdown towards the end with a grindcore riff that leads to a short, but effective guitar solo, before a halting, stop and go rhythm creates an original, awesome ending.
I pray not for death, but for metal songs that sound as good as this one.
With an ultra fast, ultra cool guitar riff, “No Salvation” buzzes out like a fly full of amphetamine enclosed in a narrow space. But as the screen door is let open, some intense, death vocals spring up. We’re then rushed along with a barrage of audio violence in an aggressive and passionate whirl of vocals and sounds.
There’s a unique flamenco/classical section that is ultra cool and is, in fact, my favorite part of this release. But soon we’re once again, thrust into the previously thrash’n’death onslaught that builds and erupts in intensity, emotion and power towards a fiery, fantastic finish- like a race car crash!
This is from Andy Bang, long ago when he still wrote for TNB-
“The first time I saw Led To The Grave was at the Metal vs. Punk II show at the Middle East nightclub in Cambridge Mass. They were the first of six bands to play that night. Without too much fanfare they
took the stage and commenced to drum up demons from below with their own excitingly unholy brand of thrash metal. I remember really enjoying their set and made a mental note to check them out again real soon…”
He goes on to write about their first release, all the way back to 2008! Longer than TNB have been alive, longer than Andy Bang and Slimedog have been alive!
(Editor’s note: Hmm, we’re even older than The Rolling Stones. Well, at least as they have existed as a band!)
Andy again:
“Led To The Grave’s musical tendency leans towards the demonic side of metal with a consistently upbeat, driven, high energy vibe. You can call them thrash, you can call them death, you can call them black, even groove and metalcore at times. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what you call them. Led To The Grave equates to one hot rockin’ good time.”
And I couldn’t agree with him more, and what he wrote is true even more today.
(Slimedog)
