Kev Rowland Taking their name from a song by cult NY thrash band Demolition Hammer, covering a song by Carcass on the album, along with it being mixed and mastered by Dan Swanö (Opeth, Bloodbath) and featuring cover art by Dan Seagrave (Entombed, Suffocation, Dismember), it is safe to say that with their third full-length album American death metal band Skeletal Remains are not showing any signs at all of slowing down. These guys have obviously been heavily influenced by Death, with a technical old school sound that is reminiscent of Schuldiner. One of the delighst of this album is the way that they mix tempos,. Not afraid to slow it right down almost to doom speed when the time is right, this allows them to hit back with real impact when they ramp it up, but also shows on songs such as “Catastrophc Retribution” that solos don’t have to be at the speed of light to have the corrcet impact.

There is a lightness within this, with the bottom end not always a sprevalent as it might be, but with Chris Monroy’s vocals not also being a guttural and brutal as one might expect, it actually works together really well. This is a really easy album to listen to, which isn’t something that one can always say of the genre, yet contains plenty of dynamic shifts which are always in keeping with the tone and allows the band to create a distinct sound within the genre. More melodic than many, and certainly not as abrasive, this is an album which is essential for any fan of the genre.

Nightfly I was pretty impressed by Condemned To Misery, the second album from Californian death metal band Skeletal Remains and three years later album number three, Devouring Mortality seems set to surpass it in my esteem.

Plain old school death metal which when done well is pretty hard to beat amongst the genres various subs or in metal in general for that matter. Skeletal Remains fortunately do it very well. On Devouring Mortality they may not surprise you with any great leaps forward or genre developments but what you get is an album of songs with classic old school styling with just enough of a modern edge to not sound totally retro. During the next forty five minutes they run through eleven tracks with plenty of variety – i.e. constantly shifting tempos from groove laden slower double kick drum led riffing to fast blast beats and inject moments of brutality into the mix. The riffs are totally compelling and kick ass but let’s face it, metal without great riffs is crap metal right. They’re made all the more powerful by the organic production and are well thought out and executed with precision, the guitar solos likewise which made me sit up on more than one occasion. Chris Monroy’s vocals may not be to everyone’s taste – they aren’t your typical low growl being higher pitched in the vein of Martin van Drunen of early Pestilence/Asphyx fame but work well within the songs being a good counterpoint to the low tuned guitars.

Picking favourites is a pretty futile exercise as the overall quality is very high with barely a weak moment. The only track that doesn’t earn its place is the short instrumental Lifeless Manifestation which sounds like the opening of a song and then fades out without going anywhere. A minor quibble though.

Such was my enjoyment of this album that when receiving it I played it three times solid and many times since. Devouring Mortality is definitely one of my favourite death metal albums of 2018 so far.

J-Man In spite of their Californian origins, everything about the American outfit Skeletal Remains just reeks of old school Floridian death metal. Clearly born and raised on the likes of Obituary, Death, and Deicide, Skeletal Remains has not offered the most original material on their 2012 debut entitled Beyond the Flesh, but they do a great job at executing the style, and also stand as a refreshing change of pace from the largely Swedish-influenced focus of the recent old school death metal revival. Beyond the Flesh may not be essential listening, but any fan of American death metal certainly will find a lot to enjoy here.

Skeletal Remains plays a style of music most closely comparable to Obituary's Slowly We Rot and Death's Leprosy - the music is fairly simple while still remaining sophisticated, and everything down to the production sounds like it could've been a lost album from the late eighties' or early nineties'. The production has that distinct Morrisound Studios flavor (where many classic death metal releases were recorded, of course) characterized by left-and-right guitar tracks, deep bass sounds, and use of reverb on the drum tracks. I can't imagine any fan of Death's Leprosy not headbanging like a madman during songs like “Extirpated Vitality” and “Reconstructive Surgery”, and though the derivative nature of the music may be a potential turn-off, the tracks are so well composed and executed that it's hard not to be impressed.

Chris Monroy's vocals have that raw, “I just ate a box of nails for breakfast” style that makes frontmen like John Tardy, Patrick Mameli, and Chuck Schuldiner such standout vocalists - it's a style that I really miss from many of today's generic and indecipherable deep growlers. It adds some personality to the music when you're able to understand the lyrics and feel the emotion in every single word. The rest of the musicianship is up to par as well, with lots of great guitar solos and rock-solid riffs being delivered throughout the album's short 33 minute duration. The vinyl edition of Beyond the Flesh also includes a cover version of “Disincarnated” (from the 1991 Gorguts classic Considered Dead) delivered in a faithful fashion. It sounds a bit too close to the Gorguts original to really stand out IMO, but it's still a cool version of a great track.

Although Beyond the Flesh is the sort of album that would likely be regarded as a forgotten masterpiece if it were released twenty years ago, its overall lack of innovation makes for a release that sounds perhaps too 'safe' in the modern death metal climate. Skeletal Remains is still damn good at what they do, though, and anybody who enjoys acts like Obituary, Death, Morbid Angel, Deicide, Pestilence, and Gorguts can't go wrong with this one. This promising debut establishes Skeletal Remains as a band worth keeping an eye on in the coming years!