Wednesday 5 June 2013

Skewered - Skewered

Anopsys Records / Inherited Suffering Records 2012
 
1.Contaminated 2.Bad Aids 3.Wretched Cum Slut 4.Ordained Abstained
5.Inside The Crematory 6.Bound And Gutted 7.Born Into Pain
8.Blasphetus 9.Rectal Prolapse 10.Skewered11.Pear Of Anguish
12.Razor Speculum 13.Others May Die
 
Debut album from Irelands Skewered blastsopen unmercifully with some great old school inspired death metal, dripping and oozing putridity from every gore-soaked note. Especially prevalent is a ‘Swedish death metal’ sound and opener ‘Contaminated’ shows off this style from start to end. It’s a mid-paced opener that does inject some blast beat laden brutality sporadically and is certainly a good introduction to the band. What is also quite pleasing to listen to is the vocal delivery, death metal yes, but not cookie monster ultra-guttural, it is possible to make out what Mark is bellowing out, especially on the chorus sections. ‘Bad Aids’ see’s the band up the pace dramatically in places before falling back into the more old school, mid paced sections. Again, there’s a very heavy Swedish Death Metal influence on display which suits the more mid-paced sections well. The band does switch well from the faster passages into the slower sections, the transition seeming effortless. ‘Wretched Cum Slut’ is full on death metal at its dirtiest and whilst remaining old school influenced there is a great sense of urgency to the track and being the shortest track on the entire album (1:58) it is delivered with utter ferocity. ’Ordained Abstained’ drops well back pace wise as it begins at a gnarly crawl before  slowly beginning to speed up and sounding slightly more technical that anything heard so far and with the addition of some (almost gore-grind) backing vocals makes for a real slab of brutality and adds a new dimension to the band’s sound. ‘Inside The Crematory’ begins in similar fashion to the previous track being of the slower and heavier style. It’s not long however before the furious blast beats are introduced with these faster sections sounding extremely catchy and precise. ‘Bound And Gutted’ see’s the band returning to the more familiar Swedish inspired sound, paces once again varied well and again another relatively short track that clocks in at the two minute mark.
‘Born Into Pain’ is an absolute belter of a song and for a death metal song is very catchy. It’s simple, straight to the point and certainly doesn’t hold back musically. As with the majority of the guitar riffing, and mentioned a lot so far, it’s the melodic tinged Swedish inspired riffing which really makes the songs, very catchy! ‘Blasphetus’ is a crushing affair, heavy punishing guitars crawl at minimum pace, with an almost ‘slam element’ to them. The technicality heard previously is re-introduced and isn’t too over the top, just enough to make the song a bit different and ultimately more interesting. Next up is ‘Rectal Prolapse’ and the heaviness to the opening guitar riffs is probably enough to induce one.  It’s another really straight to the point death metal barrage which sounds very similar in places (as has much of the album) to Germanys Fleshcrawl. Named after the band obviously and next song up is ‘Skewered’ and once again its more ferocious death metal that is sounding especially potent, particularly when the faster sections are introduced and the dual vocals (growled and screamed) and layered over the top. ‘Pear Of Anguish’ follows on brilliantly, another short, sharp lesson in ‘for the throat’ old school death metal. It’s not pretty and that’s the whole point. Its putrid, it’s horrible and nasty but extremely well played. As with many of the tracks on offer, it’s around the two minute mark, which for some might not seem long enough and the songs do seem to pass extremely quickly but again, that’s the point – get in, do the business, then fuck off out leaving you feeling utterly battered. ‘Razor Speculum’ sees a slightly different influence on display, the pinch harmonics used let lose a U.S death metal sound which works well in amongst the bands now trademark sound of old school Swedish influenced death metal. Finishing off is ‘Others May Die’ which is another monster and a great song to end things on, blast beats ravaging the speakers with paces diving from the sludge laden crawls, through to the mid-paced sections before the blast beats let lose once more. It sounds deadly and more brutal than the band have sounded on any of the previous tracks. The band does right by ending on a high. For a debut album this is a very worthy effort and is a solid slab of putrid and brutal death metal that never lets up. Each and every song smashes along brilliantly and although the majority of the songs aren’t very long, there is definitely a lot on offer. Skewered might not be wholly original (but there again who is?), or the fastest, or the most technical, but what they do offer is an extremely well played death metal album that reeks of nastiness, morbidity and is an aural horror show that has you reminiscing of death metal how it used to be played and which definitely deserves your attention and comes well recommended.
 
8 out of 10
 
Band Page: Here
Buy it: Here