Pray To Be Saved: Demo cassette

Description

The debut cassette from Washington, DC’s Pray To Be Saved.

Six tracks of Extreme Noise Terror Worship played with expertise. For Fans of fast drum beat and the Boss HM-2.

Our take: Not to be overshadowed by last weeks Record of the Week by System Maintains, Sex Fiend Abomination also dropped this scorcher from Washington, DCs Pray to Be Saved. While the bands name might seem strange, once you know its a song from Extreme Noise Terrors Phonophobia, it makes perfect sense. I didnt get the reference at first, but ENT was the first band I thought of when I heard this demo. In other words, this is blistering fast and noisy d-beat hardcore with a harsh, almost industrial edge to it. The drummer feels like theyre playing as fast as they can, constantly on the verge of losing control, yet always landing perfectly on the tight, Gauze-esque punches that punctuate the songs. I love it when bands burst out of the gate intense as fuck, yet continuously find new ways to up the ante, and thats precisely what Pray to Be Saved does here. The songs always feel like theyre at maximum intensity, but then a blistering solo will come out of nowhere and make things even crazier. The vocals are also strong, occasionally breaking out wild screams (like the beginning of Guillotine), but primarily using a slightly guttural shout that works great when its time to deliver a big vocal hook (see, once again, Guillotine, particularly the chorus, when the singer screams Guillotine!). While this is Pray to Be Saveds M.O. for the first three tracks, on the back half of the demo they get a little weirder. A phaser-drenched guitar grows more prominent over the last few songs, then the demo climaxes with the five-minute closing track When Will We Learn?, a mid-paced song that leans into that quasi-industrial, post-Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing thing I mentioned above. This is a bruising demo, and honestly it seems like a shame that its just a tape. If someone wants to press this on vinyl, Ill be your first customer.