Thursday, February 9, 2012

Skeletal Remains-Desolate Isolation Demo


Do you know, when sometimes you come across a band who basically worship one legendary old-school band and play in their exact vein? Well, I found one of those bands: Skeletal Remains. These guys come from Californie but their sound is hugely influenced by Dutch DM legends Pestilence. In fact you can not only hear the influence but also see it as it is blatantly obvious from their cover of  ''Chronic Infection'' by Pestilence. This menacing four-piece, created an independent demo with only four sogs-in which one is a cover. But whether they worship Pestilence or not they still kick planty of ass.

Even though the archives state these guys as straightforward death metal, I think they're much more than that. This is a heavily thrash-tinged, death metal demo with alot of technical elements thrown in it. The technical bit makes the songs really catchy and as a result you get something between Pestilence's debut and their sophomore effort. This when brutality meats catchy and memorable yet surprisingly melodic riffs. The top notch riff pattern and technical riffs which are somehow linked together really make time fly. The demo may have been recorded in a garage or maybe a porr studio, but the production certainly is great. I's bulky and pretty loud, especially when the vocalist screams out the lyrics. The music is really intense and never ceases to downgrade in quality or intensity. Speed may change-but energy never goes down.

The vocalist sounds like a madman during last confession of serial-killing. Anyonw who hears thevocalist for the first time will instantly think-Martin Van Drunnen! But it really isn't. After giving this demo multiple listens during a bus tour I even thought that this might have been sort of a side project the the legendary growler-after all wouldn't be that surprising since he joined so many bands, but that's not the point. The point is that the vocalist sounds alot like Van Drunnen even though he isn't, but I don't care if someone calls him a wannabee, I think he ads a great flavor to the bands not-so-present distinctive sound. The solos are also great. Long, melodic and lasting, unlike many other bands who just want to shred a few notes then get back to smacking some chords.

Skeletal Waste really surprised me with this catchy and brutal demo, and I was even more surprised by the age of the band. But that's how big bands get big now isn't it? Three songs, one cover song is surely not enough to be a legend, but it's a start.

Highlights:
Sub-Zero Termination
Traumatic Existence
Desolate Isolation

Rating: 87%

No comments:

Post a Comment