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SKELETHAL
Deathmanicvs Revelation EP

Iron Bonehead Productions (2014)
Rating: 7.5/10

How about a dose of suffocating old school metal then? Skelethal are a relatively new French combo consisting of Gui Haunting (vocals / guitar) and Jon Whiplash (bass / drums). Both guys also feature for thrash quartet Infinite Translation, but with Skelethal they bark out a stuffy brand of ghastly death metal. Deathmanicvs Revelation is their debut seven-track EP which should appeal to anyone with a craving for old school death metal, particularly the likes of Autopsy.

With a number of bands jumping on the gore-obsessed bandwagon, Skelethal have attempted something a tad different by melting their act of perversion with a British as well as Swedish sound, meaning that the riffs are accessible yet often squalid, and the solos which weave their wave through the dense haze are also of a deranged nature. As the press release for this opus states, despite their young age, these guys are more than happy to nod to the 80s and early 90s, but by no means is this a rip-off – far from it, in fact.

This is a solid, phlegm-ridden opus that sounds as if it’s been recorded in some dust-ridden crypt. The drums are akin to someone, or something, banging on a coffin lid as if to escape from its grim tomb, while the vocals are extremely deathly – a choking bellow beneath the mist of soiled guitars. It all feels so natural rather than forced, as if these young upstarts are veterans of this grubby field. When one lends an ear to the pulverising strains of ‘Putrefaction’, ‘Death Returns’ and the macabre closer ‘A Violation Of Something Sacred’, one could easily imagine themselves back in the late 90s, such is the putrid nature of this fiendish creation.

The EP only runs for 22 minutes, but it’s the sort of shot one requires before visiting the local graveyard in order to resurrect a corpse. While a number of bands are paying homage to vintage death metal, only a handful have stirred their cauldron correctly and added the correct ingredients to not sound like mere mimicry.

This French duo may never come close to the unearthly delights us kids experienced all those years ago, but as a guiding light back into that cesspit, Deathmanicvs Revelation is one of those modern gems that just might spark further interest among the modern generation, and get them salivating over bands like Death, bands who have clearly influenced Whiplash and Haunting in creating this morbid composition.

Neil Arnold

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