This year has been as chaotic as anyone has ever seen. And for chaotic times we need good, solid, tight riffs, and Junior Bruce provides them on their album Pray For Death (Sludgelord Records). The Florida quintet brings an album with absolute bangers for fans of Stoner/Sludge Metal. Having a clash of different styles, Pray for Death is an album that reflects the collective anger society has against whatever anyone they choose to be mad about, still combining a certain melancholy that grows some of the most interesting aspects of Junior Bruce. 

 Tracks like “7,000,000 Years (Ancient Astronaut)”, “The Basement”, and “one-nine-nine-nine” bring a very melodic yet precise collection of riffs that will make you headbang, no questions asked. The first two tracks of the album “The Sleeper Awakens” and “Terror Mounts (Wretched Thing)” are more straightforward and in your face kind of tracks, which makes them perfect to open the album. 

I find interesting the contrast between the melodic parts that Brett Walker and Chris Hayden bring in the guitars, with the rhythm section tightness between Tom Crowther and Jeff McAlear and the super aggressive vocals from Scott Angelacos, which brings a grimmer, Death Metal vibe into the band”s overall music. 

In conclusion, this album will either make you ready to start a fistfight with the next object that you may have on your right (hopefully a literal punching bag), headbang your way to a chiropractor, or simply bring you on a journey in a dark, heavy, fuzzy, beautiful world. Junior Bruce is a band worth checking out for and keep the eyes wide open for future releases since this is very promising. For fans of High on Fire and Converge.

7 / 10

WESLIE NEGRON