The Upstarts: Skeletal Remains

 

 

CLICK FOR POLISH VERSION

Mhmmhmm..... yeah... Today we will talk about a very special band, worth every bit of attention. From what I've seen, the line-up had some issues recently, hopefully the guys can figure things out and work together...

Nowadays, in Metal we have a Golden Age. We have everything we want. We have remasters of old stuff, veteran bands returning back to the scene with vengeance. New bands are either trying to do something completely unique, or like the heroes of this episode, to fill a specific niche.

I will be blunt, I like Swedish Death, but I hate the trend that followed. The constant barrage of the same bands copying  Nihilist / Entombed sickened me heavily. BTW, not many bands tried to be like Dismember, or Unleashed, but then again, that requires subtlety. Not to mention Grave. I hated this trend, and avoided copycats. When there was another fashion, to play cavernously, like Incantation, I also wasn't really happy about it. I've felt more heart, when people discovered Finland, or Polish Black Metal, alas...

What I missed the most, was for bands to do something in vein of old Malevolent Creation, Exhorder, or Death. Namely, complex and sophisticated titles of the songs, and lirycs requiring dictionary to decypher them. Cover art reminding me of Dan Seagrave. And first and foremost, that feel of Death / Thrash from the early 90s. Harder than Thrash, but not as edgy as Brutal Death. Something in between. Something that sounds outta Florida, released by Roadrunner, and produced by Scott Burns.

And here comes Skeletal Remains. They're not from Florida, but California, they were never on RR, nor produced by Burns, but also, they don't copy things 1 to 1. Nonetheless, they filled the void that somehow no one else dared to explore. While their debut album had more of Pestilence / Obituary muscle, their second work (OP pic) is exactly what I craved all this time, all along. It's pure perfection. On their next albums, they moved too far towards forward thinking stuff in vein of Gorguts / Morbid Angel (not quite, but still), meaning, more abstract riffs, but I can't blame them, for growing up as artists. And these albums are still above the league of your average band.

This is certainly one of the few bands, that can compete with the legends. Listen or die!

https://skeletalremains.bandcamp.com/album/condemned-to-misery