Skelethal – Within Corrosive Continuums

Probably recognisable to most readers: there are those bands that keep falling off your radar time and again unintentionally and for no apparent reason. For me, Skelethal is one such band. For over a decade, these French stand for quality Death Metal that saw the light of day via reputable labels like Iron Bonehead Productions and their current host Hells Headbangers Records. Still, despite having some of their records in the collection, I rarely reach for them; a terrible shame. Because on this third album too, the Frenchmen show that they have not compromised on their quality and persuasiveness.

That dead straight line in quality comes from stoically sticking to the musical formula that has basically remained unchanged since day one. The band is firmly built upon the solid cornerstones of Death Metal old schoolism, subsequently meaning that Skelethal is not quite a band that is going to be fooling around with all sorts of progressive wizardry or jump other random bandwagons. Yet, going through the full 40 minute of ‘Within Corrosive Continuums’ and, for the sake of refreshing the memory, a cross-section of their back-catalogue, it is clear that the band has taken firm steps in terms of musical maturity.

Although this new album doesn’t show any real new aspects in the band’s musical DNA and the previous statement of the band refusing to cave in on “progressive wizardry”, there is quite a lot more going on compared to their earliest recordings. While there was always a good dose of Morbid Angel in the music, the early recordings were pretty straightforward, ‘Within Corrosive Continuums’ on the other hand shows more and more of the song structures of Nocturnus and Atheist. Technically sophisticated and with refreshing twists and turns that mainly manifest themselves in the guitar department. It does not yet go as far as, say, VoidCeremony, Tomb Mold, Altars or Faceless Burial (let’s call that the 20 Buck Spin sound for the sake of convenience), but when you listen to songs like ‘Upon The Immemorial Ziggurat’ or the closing title track (with its nice spacey midsection), you can hear that the band has grown by leaps and bounds in writing interesting and well put together Death Metal.

Don’t let that put you off, though, as the lion’s share of ‘Within Corrosive Continuums’ still consists of Morbid Angel-inspired Death Metal, with the emphasis for once not on ‘Altars Of Madness’ but much more on ‘Formulas Fatal To The Flesh’ and, albeit to a lesser extent, ‘Domination’. Incidentally, the second part of the epic 13-minute title track, the one with the spacey section, has most in common with the atmospheric ‘Blessed Are The Sick’ and with that, the Morbid Angel circle does seem to be complete; plenty of ingenious riffs, Trey Azagthoth-worshipping leads and rolling Pete Sandoval drums.

Maybe not quite on the same level as the heroes from Tampa yet, but definitely more than good enough to avoid falling off that damned radar every time. Note to self: now keep those bloody Skelethal records within reach!