Album Review: Skeletal Remains – The Entombment Of Chaos

The late '80s and early '90s were a golden age for death metal, when Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Obituary ruled the roost. Over the past decade there has been a concerted effort amongst a wave of newer bands to recapture not just the sounds of the aforementioned heavy hitters, the monstrous feeling as well, a new school of old school death metal, and Skeletal Remains have helped lead the charge.

Over the course of three albums, the California unit have churned out music mired in filth, relying on groove as much as complexity, and over the years they have developed their own signature sound without losing the influences they started out with. Returning with their fourth full-length things are very much business as usual, and once they get eerie synth opener Cosmic Chasm out of the way they are out for blood.

Amongst the best bits here are Congregation Of Flesh, which is truly brutality incarnate, a twisted storm of blastbeats and suffocating riffs collapsing in on themselves, and the stomp of the brilliantly-titled Dissectasy, which switches between steamrollering and thrashing its way through all in its path. Fans of shredding also have plenty to get excited about, every solo unleashed the perfect mix of technicality and ugly melody, slicing through the tumult.

Despite sticking to their core sound and not really going off on any tangents, Skeletal Remains have managed to deliver an album that avoids getting samey, mixing up tempos and moods to create something that is uniformly hostile and compelling from start to finish. Another fine string to modern death metal's already powerful bow.

Rating: 3/5

For Fans Of: Gatecreeper, Obituary, Behemoth

The Entombment Of Chaos is released on September 11 via Century Media

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