RSS Feed


SKELETAL REMAINS
Devouring Mortality

Century Media / Dark Descent (2018)
Rating: 9/10

Album number three from this Californian troupe burps out the usual frantic death metal rattling we’ve become accustomed to since their birth in 2011, as Skeletal Remains continue that well-worn, familiar deadly dose of death metal that nods heavily to the likes of Death, Pestilence, Obituary and Morbid Angel. But it’s no bad thing when executed with such energy and aggression.

The belligerent outfit hammer their way through a flurry of aggressive tracks within that classic framework that provides harsh, dehydrated vocal rasps, solid, crunching bass lines, weighty hammering percussion and a vicious, thick guitar sound that peels the skin.

There’s an ancient arrogance to this platter as the band slides into comfortable gear to provide us with the menacing furrows of ‘Ripperology’, ‘Seismic Abyss’, ‘Grotesque Creation’ and ‘Mortal Decimation’, all of which are built upon a morbid foundation of speedy rhythms which occasionally give way to Floridian mid-tempo waves of sickness and morose melody.

Considering the glut of “new wave of old school” bands within the extreme metal genre, Devouring Mortality is without doubt one of the most refreshing and powerful within a genre where we’ve heard it all before. Unashamedly Skeletal Remains bark, batter and pound their way through each track, but with a vigour that makes you sit up and listen rather than mock in its homage. The sheer brutality of a track such as ‘Seismic Abyss’ is admirable, as with thrashing malice they hammer and bludgeon with an unnerving precision.

The weighty groove of ‘Parasitic Horrors’ supplies such an earthy, twisted chug that we’re immediately transported back to the late 80s and early 90s, but a blast of pace soon puts pay to any hope of accessibility.

Skeletal Remains really do know how to create a vile, punishing groove of grotesque beauty, and the terrifying tremors of torment continue. Huge slabs of chunky old school death metal abound with the deadly title track, where percussive monster Johnny Valles drums as if his life depends on it, no doubt leaving blood and pus on those skins. Again we’re reminded of that despicable mix of Pestilence, Obituary, and even Morgoth, but with added zip and horror as Chris Monroy harshly rasps over a dense wall of bone-shuddering rhythmic amalgamations, as fusty solos leak into the atmosphere before being sucked back into the mesh of downtuned solidarity as the chainsaw webbing gnashes with nastiness.

The destructive segments of ‘Torture Labyrinth’ make way for further acts of depravity with the bass heavy ‘Lifeless Manifestation’, where the gruelling waves of cacophony are both melodious and rank in their stirring before the slurs of ‘Reanimating Pathogen’ provide extra gloomy death and blast-beat brutality.

All the classic ingredients are here; the chunky bass-driven passages of putridity, the worming solos, the rough vocal delivery and the grinding riffs. But Skeletal Remains have something else too, an ability to fuse those familiar techniques together to form an ominous and terrifying wall of sound, all encased with that Dan Seagrave artwork for good measure.

Devouring Mortality is proof that old school death metal homage still works, and still hurts.

Neil Arnold

<< Back to Album & EP Reviews



Related Posts via Categories
Share