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SKELETON
Skeleton

20 Buck Spin (2020)
Rating: 8/10

20 Buck Spin is one of the deadliest record labels around at the moment, and Skeleton is one of the newest bands to join the roster of festering souls which includes the likes of Cerebral Rot, Black Curse, Fetid, Tomb Mold, Torture Rack et al.

Skeleton began life just a few years ago as a punky thrash act out of Austin, Texas, but this new 27-minute self-titled debut has elements of death n’ roll too. Black slashes of old crossover filth filter through also, and this is apparent from the start with the gloriously melodic and catchy namesake track ‘Skeleton’, which then picks up the pace as the band become an all-out black / thrash act.

There are 11 short, snappy and destructive songs on this platter. ‘Mark Of Death’ is a caustic, fully barbed charger with hideous rasping vocal drools, while ‘The Sword’ simmers into motion, cold and stark before its meaty chug grinds in tarred with cutting frost.

‘T.O.A.D.’ is punky, and so in turn lethal. A friend of mine commented to me that it was like hearing an old school crossover thrash act playing punky black metal, and I agreed in full because when the band adds those razor-sharp passages of haste it’s like a strange amalgamation of, say, catchier Entombed with maybe Darkthrone and streaks of Powertrip.

‘Ring Of Fire’ has flashes of old Samael in its black guise, and remains my favourite cut for its melodic nastiness; the trudge just dig into the soul like talons from infected claws.

Elsewhere, ‘At War’ begins with oily menace, with that stark, primitive trudge blanketed by well soiled drum thuds and grim riffage. It’s another belter of a track, as is ‘Taste Of Blood’, which is an all-out black thrash cacophony spewing rusty nails, and yet in the depths of its soiled form are traditional metal grinds and speed metal machinery toiling away amidst the blizzards.

Meanwhile, ‘Victory’ glistens initially like some defrosting first wave black metal odyssey, which is merely a short instrumental interlude before the strains of ‘A Far Away Land’, a song that trudges with that eager, billowing melody of black smoke and Bathory burning.

‘Turned To Stone’ brings back the fusion of straight up metal mayhem and thrashing suspense before the ultras fast blurts of noise emerge from nowhere, hacking you to pieces in a frenzy and leaving a blood-spattered crime scene.

Closer ‘Catacombs’ provides further permafrost blackness, where full force gusts of hail and blood howl down that wind tunnel of terror. It closes off a record of some familiarity, yet with enough gusts and gusto to leave you cold, stranded, naked and, above all, afraid of 20 Buck Spin’s latest devious brand of devils.

Neil Arnold

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