ALBUM REVIEW: Skeleton – Skeleton

There must be some spell in the Texas heat that conjures forth such great metal from within its borders. POWER TRIP and CREEPING DEATH are leading the South in the bold new horizons of metal, but SKELETON have now emerged from the crypts of Austin. Though not soaring to the heights of those aforementioned acts, the four piece have truly crafted a verifiable witches brew of sonic templates on their debut self-titled record. It’s part black, part sludge, and part punk that combines into a filthy slurry with some mammoth riffs that will stir up pits at every club. Though they certainly don’t nail it on every song, there’s enough here to have some fun and bang your head through the majority of the record’s runtime, which at 28 minutes, perfectly capture its punk ethos.

The title-track Skeleton kicks the record off right away with some great big sludge riffs that pervade the album, but sound thick and meaty and right in the pocket. Guitarists David Skeleton and Alex Guzman strike hard and fast with great intensity, while drummer Victor Skeleton holds it down going from standard beats to blackened blasts with little transition and while also handling vocal duty with some burbling, throaty growls that have good atmosphere, but don’t really stand out too much. Some of this is due to the inconsistent mixing on the album, but some of it is just the nature of the beast. But right away the indefinable genre blending comes into play, with the punk urgency and the sludge riffs coming together. There’s no mucking around with this band.

Mask of Death keeps up that gritty production and has riffs for days. It’s an absolute banger and Victor’s vocals sound great on this track, almost like he’s choking on blood, but in an awesome black metal way. Also the chugging on this song will get heads a moving, no doubt. Going right into The Sword, the slow and droning opening opens up into more sludge riffs to black blasts. It’s chunky and thick, and the thought crosses the mind that this record would make a great introduction to those seeking to explore aspects of black metal for the first time with some very accessible riffing and more straightforward song construction while still maintaining a blackened sound.

T.O.A.D. is perhaps the most punk song on the record, but unfortunately the vocals are mixed so quietly on this track that it was hard to enjoy that aspect of the song. This track was a bit uninteresting and didn’t necessarily jump out, but with Ring of Fire the riffs are back and the head is moving again. Also, a shout out to bassist Cody Combs who really adds a whole lot with his massive bass sound on this track. It’s a headbanger for sure and a favourite on the record for sure.

A very black opening begins At War, but the drums are a little thuddy on this one and lack the punch of the previous tracks. It feels the most like a straight forward black metal song more than any other song on the record, but does still keep that chugging sludge feel the band is showcasing, and it’s a solid amalgamation of the band’s sound. But unexpectedly, Taste of Blood just busts through the door with a huge thrash opening and huge riffs. Speaking of amalgamation, this track just may be the most Frankenstein creation of a track we’ve heard in quite some time, but it works and is a lot of fun. If the band is showing it can cover a lot of ground, we’re buying it for the most part at this point.

Victory is just a short, transitional instrumental that leads into A Far Away Land, which, unfortunately again, just doesn’t pique much interest. It starts with an interesting choice of standard 4/4 beat that builds in tempo over staccato black riffs. The main issue here is repetitiveness, which can be forgiven at times, but with such little time to work with here, we would have liked to see some more mix up on a few of these tracks. Turned to Stone though has some big, big riffs to start it off, and the slow, driving tempo sounds awesome. The guitar tone sounds huge and despite some awkward transitions to blackened parts, this song is a highlight. Catacombs ends the record with a MACHINE HEAD-esque picked opening, but it’s really a straightforward track that ends the album on a bit of a low note. The vocals are too washed out, and the best part of the song is the cool atmospheric black ending which we would have loved to have heard more of, as the melody really stood out. Alas, like life, it’s all too fleeting before it’s over.

SKELETON‘s debut is a melting pot of metal that shows great promise and would be a ton of fun in a live setting. It’s got some massive guitar work and song construction that mostly makes you just want to rage like crazy, and it does a good job blending elements of sludge and black metal with punk, and once again, we think it would be a great introduction to someone wanting to gain an accessible foothold into black metal without going all in. Once the kinks are knocked out, transitions are worked on, mixing problems are fixed and the band gains a bit more consistency in its writing, there’s great potential for this group to be the next great talked about band out of the Lone Star State.

Rating: 7/10

Skeleton is set for release on July 10th via 20 Buck Spin.

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