Hod – Book of the Worm

Honoring Obsequious Derivations, Perhaps?

First and foremost, Hod would like you to know that their name is not an initialism. It is not H.O.D. It’s Hod. It doesn’t stand for anything. The same cannot be said for this San Antonio five-piece grindcore metal band. They stand for the anyone who is not afraid to take their metal to the most extreme. They stand for anyone who is willing to look beyond macabre lyrics and uncover the frivolity within. Their second full-length, Book of the Worm, does not break new ground or provide a compelling reason to listen, but it is a solid collection of fast, loud, screaming metal.

Book of the Worm wastes no time getting down to business — no gradual intro, no synth build-up, just some pounding drums and demonic riffs, leading in to Vladibeer Reebs’ tuneless growls on “When the Ghouls Feed.” On “Den of Wolves,” he manages a lower register, creating the effect of a beast waking from hibernation. The instrumental portions of this track are more successful, though. Without Reebs’ indecipherable grunts, Hod shows an appreciation for the finer points of the “core” element of grindcore — function over form, speed over technique. Subject-matter-wise, all you need to know about Hod can be found in the song titles: “Death Whores” (including the classic line, “beware the death whores / fucking the dead”), “Where Are the Demons,” “I Am Destroyer,” etc. A teenage boy can come up with these ideas, which is precisely the point. If you take Hod seriously, you have bigger issues.

Book of the Worm ends with “Beneath the Mountains of the Scorpion,” cementing Hod’s intention not to offer any reprieve from its onslaught. If no grindcore is on your playlist, and you have no intention on discovering this genre, then you will not gain anything new from Hod. But if you are the type of person who attends festivals featuring this kind of music, then you already know exactly what this album sounds like, and will embrace it in your collection.