Here’s the third album from one of France’s best death metal bands, SKELETHAL. Starting out as pretty much a tribute to classic Swedish death, they shifted their sound somewhat with their second go around, Unveiling The Threshold, adding more technicality and a bit of the Floridian DM vibe.
Within Corrosive Continuums emerges in a time of an overstuffed death metal scene, so it needs to be a definitive statement. And it just might be. This time around, SKELETHAL remain resolutely morbid and brutal yet they show more different influences than ever before. This is an album that benefits from a second or third listen to get the full impact. They push themselves in some new directions, but they don’t go overboard like TOMB MOLD did on their last record. This is old school death metal all the way.
Once past the intro track ‘Creation’, there are just six tracks here, but one of them is a 12 minute plus monster, the title track. Songs this length really test a band’s songwriting. The verdict? The track is a lesson in riffology, unleashing a ton of great ones over its length. And it’s an instrumental, to boot! Even the prolonged eerie synth interlude in the middle doesn’t hurt it…it’s quite atmospheric in itself. This takes SKELETHAL to the next level.
The rest of the record is a deft combination of the tried and true with new elements. ‘Spectrum Of Morbidity’ and ‘Fatal Abstraction’ are pure high speed bulldozers reminiscent of Consuming Impulse era PESTILENCE. ‘Mesmerizing Flies At The Doors Of Death’ is brings doom into the picture but also plows you under with speed as well. ‘Eyes Sewn Mouth Full’ starts with odd jangly dissonance, another change for the band and ‘Upon The Immemorial Ziggurat’ has some weird jazz like noodling in the mid-section. But have no fear, that mid-section is sandwiched between some of the most brutal riffs on the album.
Just too much death metal out there these days, that’s a fact, but SKELETHAL have kept their relevance and managed to move forward without disappointing old fans.
Review By: Dr. Abner Mality
SKELETHAL
Within Corrosive Continuums
Hells Headbangers Records