Carrying a loaded 30-count box of metal CDs into the office, I couldn’t figure out later why I only had 29 reviews. There was a Royal Thunder EP in there not critiqued, but those standard boxes used to ship product to record stores have some give where Digipaks are involved. Whatever the miscalculation, instead of 30 albums written up over the course of three weeks – discs I had been stockpiling since the beginning of the year – it’s 29. I did, however – just this week – get the boutique new EP from local excoriaters Prey for Sleep, featured in this week’s Music feature, “South of Heaven.” Hunter Townsend typically shreds a lung and his four bandmates pound and ground a quartet of metallic death threats. Let’s call that 30.

This article appears in August 10 • 2012.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.