Is it already one and a half years since HOD from Texas released their impressing demo “The Uncreated”? Time flies, I guess. So now it is due time for a new sign of life from the Masters of Evil. Arctic Music nailed down the right to unleash “Book Of The Worm”, HOD’s second full length assault. And all those who already like the other stuff they released won’t be disappointed. But what are them newbies to expect from this album? Nothing less than a raw and brutal attack of US Death Metal, spiced with the spirit of the Black Metal of old times. From the first seconds of ‘When The Ghouls Feed’, HOD take no prisoners and tear down everything in their way by the power of the riff. This song was also on “The Uncreated” and it seems that the version here is only slightly remixed (the same goes for the other demo tracks as well), but not re-recorded. But this doesn’t change the sheer power of this berserking song a little bit. The double bass drumming of Del “The Entity” in the slower passages is just killing ears! And the groove in the middle part is an irresistible headbanging guarantee. ‘Den Of Wolves’ strikes with the same sword, while the hyperspeed blast ‘I Am Destroyer’, another demo song, is nothing less than not even two minutes of pure rage. With the a little longer ‘Through The Gates (They Come For Me)’, HOD slow down the pace a little bit in some passages, without sacrificing sheer power for diversity. ‘Death Whores’ is up next, a song that musically would fit early MORBID ANGEL perfectly, with Carl Necron’s guitar work inspired by Mr. Azagthoth. As the “Book Of The Worm” reaches its final pages, the authors slow down the tempo distinctly for the benefit of longer chapters. ‘Under Tyranny’s Hammer’ and ‘Where Are The Demons’ are more diversified in comparison to the high speed overkill the first songs had to offer. But these songs are either classy and lead the way for the final smasher ‘Beneath The Mountains Of The Scorpion’, the last song taken from “The Uncreated”. This riff monster is a dignified finisher and makes it easy to listen to “Book Of The Worm” again. To sum it up: this album is one of the finest offerings US Metal of Death gave us in the last years. And if there is one thing to criticize from my point of view, it’s the sequence of the songs, since I personally think it would be better to place one of the final longer songs much earlier. But that’s peanuts, more or less. So, if you ask yourself: ‘Where Are The Demons’?… Here they are: www.facebook.com/pages/hod/118127951554999 or: www.arcticmusicgroup.com