### St.Hood: Sanctified

#### 26/03/06 || Statik Majik

Once again I’m reviewing shit that appears in some version of Audio Autopsy. Well, this time for a reason: this fucken band deserves all the fucken publicity they can fucken get. Because they fucken kick ass and fuck me for saying “fucken” again, this album is fucken good. Magnificent even.

Take a good look at the album cover. See? It’s a computer illustration of a winged skeleton with a halo over its head and a sword in his hand. Basically those things could be considered metal, but excuse me for being honest here, the album cover is pretty fucking far from metal. It’s kind of nice, sure, but it looks like artwork suitable for some rap, or maybe even some wannabe punk-album.

Here’s a lesson learned: Unless we’re discussing the bible, never ever judge a book (or in this case album) by its cover.

Never.

Because the cover is the only bad side of this whole masterpiece these Finns just released.

First of all this is a very intense and powerful disc. It clocks in pretty close to 30 minutes, so you can be sure not to find anything extra from it. No intros, outros, intermissions, interludes, soft/slow songs, nothing. Only pure fucken attitude. Yes, that’s what this album is about. Attitude. You couldn’t hope for a better debut, I might add.

“What kind of music do they play?”, you ask. Well, metal is definitely the best description I can come up with. If you have a few extra minutes, I suggest you download Cursed Prayer from their labels’ site and decide for yourself. I’m sure you’ll find loads of similarities with various metal bands out there. If I was forced to compare St.Hood’s sound to other bands I’d say that you need to do the following: take a few ounces of Biohazard ( Note by The Lord: Jesus Christ, these guys must suck tremendously then. My opinion can be seen in the April 2006 edition of Audio Autopsy by the way ) and add some older Machine Head to it. Then stir it a bit. Now pick that jar of Pantera and the box of 2 Ton Predator from the stash where you keep all the good stuff reserved only for yourself and add a few spoons of those to the mix. Not more, not less. Then throw in some thrash metal (any brand will do). I’d say that half a cup is more than enough. Then let it brew for a while. Yes, that’s as close as we can get with these ingredients in order to describe St.Hood. And for some reason I got hungry.

I honestly don’t know what else to say about “Sanctified”... It has a damn good production, the music is more-than-well composed AND played. The singer does one amazing job. Everything just… rocks. It’s not perfect nor extremely unique, but way above the average shit out there. And I love it.

Do I need to tell you that it’s more than recommended to check this fucken band out?

8,5 /10

- Information
- Released: 2005
- Label: Fullhouse Records
- Website: www.sthood.net
- Band
- Sami Halme: vocals
- Heikki Iso-Sipilä: guitar
- Panu Willman: guitar
- Turo Pentikäinen: bass
- Timo Erkkilä: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Deep breath
- 02. Sainthood
- 03. Solid hate
- 04. Cursed prayer
- 05. Stone soul
- 06. My turn
- 07. Blessed with trust
- 08. A step beyond
- 09. Free from salvation
- 10. Balance out my path
- 11. Some regrets