Hour of 13

I'm normally kind of leery of Sabbath-worship bands, as too often they veer too far off into shitty stoner territory and end up as crap bands like Electric Wizard, Wolfmother, or Sleep. So I was not too sure about Hour of 13, but since they were on Shadow Kingdom Records, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. That turned out to be a good thing.

Hour of 13 are Sabbathy, to be sure, but this is a band that is all about riffs and dark imagery, not weed. A lot of bands who try the Sabbath thing can't pull it off because their riffs suck, but Hour of 13 write killer riffs, and while the guitar sound is retro, it is not a fuzzed-out mess, but a very classic sound. The lyrics here are really something else, as they are like the narration to a Hammer movie - all Satan and blood sacrifice and black magic. The vocals are a bit weak, but the delivery fits well with the mood of the album, and it's not something that will distract you.

If you are a fan of mostly modern metal, then approach this with caution, but if you like your metal so old-school it borders on the primordial ooze then this will be just what you are looking for. Hour of 13 are inventing nothing - that's not their intent at all - but they do their worship very well indeed.