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Salt the Dead: The Rare and Unreleased is my first exposure to Chad Davis' Hour of 13 and I'm pretty happy to have finally given this band the time of day. Heavy/Doom Metal is the style, for those not familiar, with just the right amount of crunch and reverb to the guitars and tempos that range from mid to slow, never too fast or too slow. This compilation features several tracks sung by main vocalist Phil Swanson with his traditional lack of studio enhancements and songs like "Grim Reality" crackle with late 70s acid rock energy. Due to Phil's frequent comings and goings (probably because he is in 100 other bands) several songs are presented here with both his vocals and alternate vocals from Davis (who handles most of the other instruments) and vocalist Ben Hogg, who replaced Swanson for a spell. For instance, you can hear the simplicity of the Sabbath-inspired "Call to Satan" sung by Swanson followed by the same song sung by Davis. With Davis' version, his vocals make use of echo and the song takes on a NWOBHM feel similar to Witchfinder General. It makes for a lengthy album but it's cool to hear the same song interpreted in different ways side by side. Salt the Dead: The Rare and Unreleased may not contain the best from Hour of 13 (I'll have to go back and listen to the rest of the band's catalog to be sure) but is some absolutely solid Heavy/Doom Metal with a bit of twist that keeps it more than interesting.