{"id":13641,"date":"2014-09-26T01:00:52","date_gmt":"2014-09-26T05:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=13641"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:51:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:51:25","slug":"album-review-death-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=13641","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Death Penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-13642\" src=\"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Death-Penalty-album-cover-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"Death-Penalty-album-cover\" width=\"225\" height=\"225\" \/>Death Penalty \u2013 Death Penalty<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Release Date: August, 2014<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Label: Rise Above Records<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When I heard that former Cathedral guitarist Gary \u201cGaz\u201d Jennings had a new band, my first thought was, \u201cHow could this possibly suck?\u201d Then again, shortly after that my thought was, \u201cDon\u2019t get your hopes up and allow yourself to be disappointed.\u201d Well, from the opening riff fest of \u201cHowling at the Throne of Decadence\u201d I just knew that I needed to strap in because I was going to be taken on a sonic doom ride.<\/p>\n<p>To call Death Penalty a doom band really isn\u2019t fair to be honest. Gaz has such a distinct style of playing and writing that it\u2019s undeniable that there is some heavy Cathedral influence infused in there. While this is true, Gaz has taken that sound to a whole new level and instead of dipping heavily into the doom genre that Cathedral pretty much owned has opted to go for a more classic heavy metal sound. Lead vocalist Michelle Nocon is Gaz\u2019s secret weapon for sure and it\u2019s Nocon that breaks any and all possible comparisons to Cathedral.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sunDXr29hxI\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>\u201cEyes of the Heretic\u201d and it\u2019s galloping rhythm picks up right where the \u201cHowling at the Throne of Decadence\u201d left off totally switching into third gear. It\u2019s such an amazing sounding song that completely blew me away and had me feeling excited about what else lied ahead no this ride. \u201cGolden Ties\u201d totally came out of the blind corner and once again floored me. Nocon\u2019s subtle yet passionately strong voice coupled with the chunky, groove laden rhythm brought me to goose bumps with its dark and beautifully haunting aura. \u201cThe One That Dwells\u201d is such a eerie dose of occult laden psychedelia that slides right into \u201cShe\u2019s A Witch\u201d with its varying tempos and once again haunting vocals.<\/p>\n<p>Fans of Cathedral should totally love Death Penalty but go into this knowing that while elements of Cathedral are present, Death Penalty is not an extension of Cathedral but a step forward. Gaz and Co. have produced one of my favorite albums of 2014 with some of what I feel to be some of the best metal of this kind. Death Penalty also captured a very live, passionate energy on their debut album that I cannot wait to see done live. Death Penalty is one of those bands that reminds me why I love this kind of music and that they can do it better than just about anyone should surprise no one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Death Penalty \u2013 Death Penalty Release Date: August, 2014 Label: Rise Above Records When I heard that former Cathedral guitarist Gary \u201cGaz\u201d Jennings had a new band, my first thought was, \u201cHow could this possibly suck?\u201d Then again, shortly after that my thought was, \u201cDon\u2019t get your hopes up and allow yourself to be disappointed.\u201d Well, from the opening riff fest of \u201cHowling at the Throne of Decadence\u201d I just knew that I needed to strap in because I was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,277],"tags":[1226,1224,1225,1164],"class_list":["post-13641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-music-news","tag-cathedral","tag-death-penalty","tag-gary-jennings","tag-rise-above-records"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19754,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13641\/revisions\/19754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}