Herod

For Whom The Gods Would Destroy (LifeForce)
By Martin Popoff

Buffalo, NY’s Herod actually have a punk past, but man, have they mastered metal… This bloody thing just leaps off the plastic with a recording that has more punch than Andy Sneap knob-jobbing after a bottle of Jack. And the music is worthy of the production bombast, Herod creating a gorgeous combination of Swedish thrash, Finnish drear/thrash/doom and… hard to pin… but all the things that made Metallica great, sorta in a space between Master… and …And Justice…

Vocalist Judah Nero croons a bit like Hetfield, and the riffs… man, check out “Revelations” or “I Will” for something that possesses the excitement you felt when you first heard “Seek and Destroy,” but with a sensibility up there among The Crown or The Haunted. And not an ounce of punk anywhere, unless you accept a bit of a Shadows Fall comparison (see “Into the Sky”). Killer stuff, ornate yet loose, melodic yet so knowing of European metal’s push-worthy buttons.
(www.lifeforcerecords.com)