SHORT BUT SWEET: PRAY FOR LOCUST — “INTO THE OCEAN”

Those with sharp memories may recall that we included Stockholm’s Pray For Locust in a feature about a month ago, spotlighting their excellent new video for a song called “Hang A Traitor”. The video may be new, but the song was taken from an album called SWARM that’s now more than 18 months old. But a few days ago Pray For Locust updated their discography with the release of a new EP — Into the Ocean — which is available for free download.

The music is part thrash, part hardcore, part groove metal. I imagined it as a gene-splicing of Lamb of God, DevilDriver, and Shadows Fall, with a few building blocks of latter-day Soilwork thrown into the chromosomes.

“Memories” kicks off the EP with pneumatic, grooving riffs, tight rhythms, and a squalling guitar solo. The song also introduces the listener to the two-part vocal tag-team of hoarse roars and screamo highs. “The Serpent v1” mixes things up a bit with Gothenburg-style melodeath riffing and and extended breakdown that puts the back end of the song on a slow burner.

“Shock Doctrine” and “Into the Ocean” complete the second half of the EP, and they’re out-and-out groove weapons. The clean, sharp production makes the most of the straight-razor riffing and the hard-punching drum-and-bass undercarriage. These songs are primo mosh-and-mayhem material.

If you’re looking for some hard-nosed, body-shoving fun that will get your muscles twitching, give this EP a once-over. Here’s a taste:

“Shock Doctrine”

[audio:https://www.nocleansinging.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Pray-For-Locust-Shock-Doctrine.mp3|titles=Pray For Locust-Shock Doctrine]

You can stream and download each of the EP’s remaining songs, one by one, at the PFL Facebook page here. But with the band’s permission, we’re also providing high-speed downloads of the whole EP plus album art at NCS, in both .zip and .rar formats. To download, right-click in either of these links and save the file to your device.

DOWNLOAD (.zip)

DOWNLOAD (.rar)