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SKELATOR
Blood Empire EP

Gates Of Hell (2022)
Rating: 6.5/10

Musically, this bunch of 80s heavy / speed metal throwbacks has always appealed to me. Their early demos – Taste My Demon Seed (2000), Behold… (2001) and Give Me Metal Or Give Me Death (2003) – were fiery racers with their wild axe work and driving percussion. However, there was one major flaw from the start, the vocal capabilities of founding member Jason Conde-Houston.

Five full-length albums would follow, the last being 2019’s Cyber Metal, but again the elephant in the room remained unaddressed. Conde-Houston, and it’s a fact I must focus on, just doesn’t cut it. Skelator, for all its wizardy deserves someone in the vein of Steve Grimmett (Grim Reaper) or Rob Halford (Judas Priest). Instead, we get our ears harassed by reckless warbles and nasal issues which, in my opinion, have let every release down in immense fashion.

Skelator isn’t alone when it comes to being a half-decent metal act let down by a weak frontman; it’s a reoccurring theme in today’s climate as countless bands continue in their quest for 80s mimicry. There is clearly an element of ego and stubbornness going on when a band can’t own up to its flaws, and so this new EP, unsurprisingly, continues the theme of sterling musicianship bogged down by a naff vocal delivery.

Blood Empire boasts four tracks, all of which brim with a nostalgic fizz. Opener ‘Deeds Of Honor’ builds with electricity, doomy almost in its nocturnal crawl as Patrick Seick’s drums march with militant gloom to the sway of Robbie Houston and Rob Steinway’s axe work before the quintet zips into an Exciter-styled haste… and then it just goes rapidly downhill as Conde-Houston introduces us once again to those almost cartoon-esque vocal whips. But if you can ignore such traits then you’ll greatly savour the whiplash fury of the speeding music.

‘Good Day To Die’ churns and chugs like Manowar battling it out with Manilla Road as Leona Hayward’s bass rumbles nicely within the mists of 80s Euro-metal moodiness. But what’s rather ironic about Skelator is that they quite literally boast a vocalist who sounds like He-Man’s arch-rival Skeletor, who, even in the world of animation, appeared more fearsome than his vocal yap suggested.

And so as ‘The First Empire’ and ‘Bloodwine’, both blazing rockers, rattle by, leaving smoke-trails across the sky I’m once again left scratching my head at how unfulfilling those vocal spurts are, wishing that a band of such muscular, molten, metal prowess could somehow ditch its leader and add extra armour, because as they stand, Skelator seemingly stands guard at the gates of Hell like Cerbreus, the three-headed demonic dog, but all too quickly scurries off, tail between its legs, with a whimper.

Neil Arnold

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