Skeletal Remains - Fragments of the Ageless (2024)

If the title doesn't sort of tip you off, the first track on Fragments of the Ageless will begin to show a new influence emanating heavily and centrally from the Skeletal Remains crew, and that is Morbid Angel, or rather a more sleek, modern, hyper-technical evolution of that band's sound circa the 90s. There are still plenty of Cannibal Corpse and Vader chops, and through a few of the picking patterns, thrashing and grooving sections I feel a little Pestilence still poke through, but this fifth record is most assuredly one that cements the band as a more brutally honed entity than their earlier records with their Death-like old school vibes. That's not to say the foundation isn't there on a few tracks, but this definitely seems like they are pushing themselves even harder than on The Entombment of Chaos, and frankly, writing better songs.

From the production to the precision this thing is their most flawless execution, and carries a good variety with it to boot. The drumming is by far the most intense it's ever been, again with that Morbid Angel influence of 'more is better', from blasting to fills there's not really a moment to catch your breath. The grooves are significantly more complex than those they've performed in the past, with busier riffing patterns and the same incessant drums that roll out below them. The vocals definitely have lost a lot of that Chuck/Martin style and follow a more David Vincent mold, another element that makes me feel like their most important influence has fully shifted over from one Florida legend to another. That said, the riffs are certainly more excellent and memorable than anything Trey has written in decades, and the leads here have the usual Skeletal Remains penchant for being catchy and well constructed, technical and flashy but never going too overboard where it sounds like self-flagellation. And the rhythm guitars are 'holy fuck' awesome in both their potency and dexterity, creating a framework with the drums that the bass can hardly penetrate, but thankfully you can still here that too cruising along.

There are a few places where they do give you some space like the sweet interlude "Ceremony of Impiety" with its evil piano and percussion sounds, or the intro to "...Evocation (The Rebirth)" with its dark acoustic twangs that erupt into some more awesome, rolling riffs, or the proggy bits in there where you can hear the bass take control, but this is still pretty soundly the most aggressive they've sounded through their career. Rather than sounding completely soulless, there are just a billion riffs in there that make my ears perk up, and the album plays out like an unholy and delicious union of Domination and Bloodthirst, which I have no major complaints about; for my money, this album is second only to Devouring Mortality in their catalogue and in many technical departments it sends that one away in an ambulance.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/SkeletalRemainsDeathMetal

Skeletal Remains - The Entombment of Chaos (2020)

I know several death metal fanatics that consider The Entombment of Chaos to be the best Skeletal Remains album, and it's an entirely understandable perspective, since this feels even more visceral and intense than Devouring Mortality before it. It's largely on the same level creative field, but I would say that they do incorporate some even more atmospheric elements like the synth intro "Cosmic Chasm" or the eerie acoustic interlude "Enshrined in Agony" which feel like a great way to round out and diversify their sound. Also, this is the first album where they do start to drop out the more obvious overtures to some of their influences...this one feels more like its converted those basic building blocks and energies into a more strictly brutal modern death metal offering...you get traces, here or there, but this is much angrier and in more direct contention with the bands of its age that rely more directly on technicality and brutality.

The riffs don't quite stick with me as much a Devouring Mortality, although a lot of this stuff does have me reminiscing of bands like Cannibal Corpse, Vader and Severe Torture, which I do appreciate, since they have long thrived on the level of speed and punishment that this record operates on. The vocals do seem a little more straightforward, not aping Schuldiner or van Drunen too much, maybe the latter more than the former, but I'd also say that they're just not as distinct as either, or even as their own attempts at either that were worn on their sleeves. Still, though, very brutal and destructive in how they mete out the blunt force against the more dexterous and detailed riffing barrages, and for good measure they also spit out some more snarled goregrind-like backups to offer a little more dimension (although these are not a standout for me). I'd say the real strengths to this record are the dizzying levels of musicianship that all hands have achieved, with lightning drums and guitar patterns that pack a lot into a reasonable song length that usually hangs around 4-5 minutes.

This still has its love letters to the 80s/90s death metal scene that birthed the band, for instance they go without another amazing Dan Seagrave cover art, and the album itself is second in a row produced by Dan Swano of Edge of Sanity, Infestdead, Bloodbath and a million other bands. It's also got a thrifty cover of Disincarnate's "Stench of Paradise Burning", fitting as that one-shot band was clearly another part of the Skeletal Remains DNA even on the earlier albums. But apart from the intro and interlude, it does stick out as noticeably less intense than the new originals due to its age. All told, Entombment is a disc I'm more likely to break out than the first two, but it rarely hooked me as much as the last one, though it's clearly a sign that the band isn't afraid to keep mutating and intensifying its sound, as if it was always intended to scope out all the decades before it until catching up to the now.

Verdict: Win [8.25/10]

https://www.facebook.com/SkeletalRemainsDeathMetal

Skeletal Remains - Devouring Mortality (2018)

While I enjoyed the first two Skeletal Remains records as competent entries into the death metal throwback machine, it wasn't until their third outing, Devouring Mortality, that I was truly impressed. They haven't exactly dropped the obvious influences that informed them, but taken those and transmuted them into a more modern context that can run toe to toe with a lot of the more technical and brutal death metal acts of the 2000s and beyond. Yes, somewhere in the skeleton of this music you'll find the DNA belonging to Chuck Schuldiner and Death, or Patrick Mameli and Pestilence, or perhaps a little Suffocation, Malevolent Creation, Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, the list goes on, but here it's all canvased over with a fresh, punishing coat of paint, and plants itself into the more brickwork-like production of a lot of the 21st century peers.

It doesn't hurt that they kick off with some of the better songs, riffing storms like "Ripperology" which integrates some excellent leads that never seem as forced or excessive as some on the previous album, but probably occupy the same-sized chunk of the tune. Or a "Seismic Abyss" which seems like a brutal mixture of Death and Pestilence carrying the 2010s torch towards another decade. You hear a few other elements from classic bands, like the title track opening volley that sounds like a more intense Bolt Thrower until it curves over to an Asphyx/Pestilence verse. The rhythm guitar here sends that of the prior two albums home on a stretcher; sure you can write it off as being too 'polished' but it definitely gives me a potent meatgrinder vibe that perfectly matches up with the clinical vibes of the riffing. I also think the songs are just generally stronger, something like "Torture Labyrinth" or "Ripperology" I'm often heading straight for without necessarily visiting the entire album, yet none of it is weak at all, and even into the bowels of the closer "Internal Detestation" I'm still hanging on to my seat because it's fucking awesome.

I realize I said the band had come unto its own and then name dropped so many of the usual suspects, and I guess I do think that more than anything, it sounds like a potential successor to both Mallevs Malifecarvm and Consuming Impulse SIMULTANEOUSLY, if it had been put out instead of Testimony of the Ancients, but then thrust forward 30 years in terms of studio wizardry. The writing, structure, lyrics are all improved, the Dan Seagrave artwork definitely gives the impression that the band were mentally moving into the more brutal territory of the 90s and 00s bands, but despite that they keep a lot of the core values of death metal intact. To make it a bit frightening, menacing, rather than just an exercise in pummeling and moshing and vapid technicality. They clearly mapped out these 11 tracks very well, and there's always something special...some lead, some melody, nestled into the formula that appeals. I think this album also hits a creative peak for the Californian trio, but that's not to say they can't capture this lightning in a bottle again.

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

https://www.facebook.com/SkeletalRemainsDeathMetal

Skeletal Remains - Condemned to Misery (2015)

Condemned to Misery continues to act as an amalgamation of the same familiar influences that defined the Skeletal Remains debut, but that's hardly a negative when those components are drawn from the rare breed of Death, Pestilence and their ilk throughout their 80s and 90s tenures as spearheads for the death metal genre. That's not to say this band is ever performing a 1:1 ripoff of anyone, but it's clear that some of the riffing patterns and style are drawn from the first three Death records, the vocals channel Chuck with a little Martin van Drunen or John Tardy over the top, and frankly if these first couple records by the Californians arrived in a parallel reality, they might well have been successors to Spiritual Healing had the O.G.s gone for something sideways and slightly more brutal rather than the nerdy and progressive.

I do hear a smattering of new elements here, like the brutal rhythmic choices in "Euphoric Bloodfeast" or the opening to "Atrocious Calamity" which sound as if they might have come from Cannibal Corpse's Bloodthirst, and that's important to note since I feel that, as good as they already were, the more choppy and aggressive the band would grow on subsequent albums would only improve them. In addition, a lot of the palm muted tremolo picked rhythms often have a little bit more harmony woven into them, it's just a fraction different than what their influences would write, but makes a difference. The leads are also a bit more involved here, generally well written and implementing a number of techniques, but I feel that they do often suffer from a little extra lengthiness where they pass some emotional climax and then feel more like an exercise until the band escapes the bridge. The drums are unending thunder, with lots of nice fills, and the bass is efficiently bodied but only gets a few moments to roll off on its own. The rhythm guitar has a good punch to it, a modernized Morrisound vibe but without too much of the muffling that marred a few of those old albums at the dawn of the 90s.

There are a decent variety of riffs, most memorable enough to justify their existence, although I don't feel that the band excels here on any particular tune more than its neighbors, and there's never quite a section that I would have wanted to spin repeatedly. The lyrics definitely read like some of Chuck Schuldiner's darker philosophical musings but occasionally get more visceral and violent like, say, earlier Suffocation. Condemned to Misery is, for my money, just as good as the debut and perhaps a little more advanced, but the derivation does hold it back some, never a facsimile of its forebears, but close enough in certain rhythm guitar riffs or vocal patterns that you feel they haven't quite broken out of tribute mode to their own idols. That said, those happen to also be some of MY idols, so I have a fun time whenever I spin through this sophomore outing, so it's worthwhile, just know what you're getting.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/SkeletalRemainsDeathMetal

Cirith Ungol - Dark Parade (2023)

With the news that Cirith Ungol has retired from touring after 2024, one can only wonder what the future might hold for the studio side of their collective career. But if Dark Parade ends up being the last that they record (and perhaps it isn't), they could retired with full confidence that they survived a quarter century hiatus and returned to rival all of their original output. Though my heart belongs to One Foot in Hell, there is no question that this record is the best-balanced, most impressively produced and heaviest proof of concept they've ever released, one that hooks you directly with its first and most exciting tune (unlike the Half Past Human EP before it), and then never really lets the listener go from its dour and overpowering paean to epic swords and sorcery, through the might of American heavy/doom metal!

This album sounds so fantastic that it almost feels like clones of the band from another dimension found the secret to immortality and transported themselves into our reality to continue the Californians' sound forward. Most of the guys in the band were in, what, their 60s, and sound like they can crush the fuck out of you with the simple squeeze of a hand. Tim Baker's voice sounds as mighty as ever, and I often find myself wondering how he can do that stuff without it hurting. (Maybe it does?) Robert Garven lays down a simplistic and straightforward set of beats but puts so much power into them you can just feel yourself lurching along with ever kick and snare, there isn't a single strike misplaced, and the bass has a great presence curving along with the slate-carved rhythm guitars, though it doesn't pop out as much as on the EP. The mix is loud, crystal clear but man do the guitars slam into you as they're chugging along, and the bluesy, burning leads are just dirty and dusty enough to send me flying back to my early teens and One Foot in Hell obsession. It sometimes feels like they tapped into my love of "Blood & Iron" and made a whole album just out of that.

"Velocity (E.S.P.)" is so awesome that I remember repeating it several times before I'd even pay any attention to the rest of the disc, which by the way, did not let me down. Other favorites include the glorious, fell majesty of the Moorcock tribute "Sailor on the Seas of Fate", the hammering "Looking Glass" which has verses that feel the perfect soundtrack to a smithy forging instruments of war, and the epic finale "Down Below" which has thunder fucking drum fills and some of Baker's most angry and bitter howls that seem to condemn the very listener to the implied underworld to perish eternally in its most sulfurous and fiery pits. With age, Cirith Ungol seems to get ANGRIER, and it's a beautiful thing, not that they can't lay in some nice acoustic segues or wa wa leads to evoke the wonder of 70s and 80s fantastical sword & sorcerous landscapes, but this one gets the best at its heaviest and though the songs might not rign out in my memory as much as "Blood and Iron", "Chaos Descends", "Nadoskor" or "Doomed Planet",this record deserves all the praise I could hoist upon that one, and TECHNICALLY you might say this is their peak performance. I mean if I were picking an album to introduce someone new to their sound, this is that choice. Can they top it? Will they? Do they even need to?

Verdict: Epic Win [9/10]

https://www.facebook.com/cirithungolofficial

Cirith Ungol - Half Past Human EP (2021)

Half Past Human is not only impressive in that it proves the new era of Cirith Ungol wasn't going to be a one and done, but also that it does such a great job of revisiting older material and updating it to the production qualities of Forever Black. Dropping just a year after the reunion record, it's got one re-recorded track from their album-length 1978 demo and a couple others that Greg Lindstrom had reused in another of his bands called Falcon. Regardless, they all fit in pretty well with what the Californians had been doing in the later 80s or the new full-length, and a couple are decent enough to be staples on anyone's Cirith Ungol playlist. "Route 666" does give me a little of a "100 MPH" vibe, which doesn't quite put the short-player's best material to the fore, but like that song, it's still pretty catchy with some good lead glazing, a thumping bass tone and some aggressive vocals from Baker.

The rest of the material is a little darker and stronger though, like "Shelob's Lair" and it's bluesy, stomping tribute to everyone's favorite giant spider, or the title track which has an atmospheric doom vibe that sits alongside some of the epics from the record before it. You can kind of discern that these overall might not be quite awesome enough to have included with Forever Black or Dark Parade, some of them do feel like recycled and polished-off B-sides, but I remember this was plenty enough to tide me over while I was waiting for something more elaborate. They're not hitting at their hardest here, but you could easily imagine any of these tracks being part of Paradise Lost, it has that same sort of smoother production without losing the towering angst of Tim Baker's tone. The drums sound great, the leads shine wherever they show up, the bass is possibly the most corpulent on any of the recordings and even the little chants and things you hear layered in for atmosphere do their job. The Michael Whelan cover art slays, in this case literally, but when doesn't it?

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/cirithungolofficial

Cirith Ungol - Forever Black (2020)

What truly makes Forever Black such an excellent 'comeback' is not only that it maintains consistency with the records that came 30 years or more before it, but it also doesn't rest so much on its laurels to feel safe or redundant. There are new riffs to be found, song structures that are arguably more adventurous than Paradise Lost; but at the same time, it's so damn loyal to the Cirith Ungol aesthetic that you feel as if all that intervening time never happened...the band admirably avoided all the trends that might have poisoned its sound. There's no grunge here, no groove beyond what they already incorporated from their 70s hard rock influences, and no technical acceleration towards the more European power metal sound or polished, sterile modernization. This is the tried and true heavy/doom style, only with a production more in line with what younger and newer bands were meting out in the 21st century.

And even then, I'd say that mostly just applies to the volume of the mix and perhaps a bit of thickness to the rhythm guitars. Tim Baker's grating, unforgettable, tyrannical timbre sounds like his pipes haven't aged since the 80s, and it's mixed here with just enough air and reverb to flow perfectly above the charging and thundering of the instruments. Songs like "Legions Arise" hearken back to a favorite like "Blood & Iron", but they've also got steady proto-metal vibes in "The Frost Monstreme" with its dour, bluesy little licks, or "The Fire Divine" as an epic, primal stomper. "Stormbringer" is perhaps the most epic tune among the bunch, a tribute to the black sword which adorns Elric's person and most of their album covers, and given a properly moving chorus with some barbarian choir backing vocals that give it that fantastical atmosphere it so deserves. Even as you get deeper into the track list, there really are no weaknesses, with some killer little hooks appearing in the verse of "Nightmare" or the title track that rivals "Stormbringer" in strength.

This might in fact be their most consistent offering to its day, with nothing semi-silly like a "100 M.P.H." to break up the proceedings, and it's the perfect way for the band to return to Metal Blade, the Michael Whelan artwork, and also to a fanbase which had grown in the interim since the divisive Paradise Lost. Not only has their style of epic/doom become more popular with younger audiences thirsty for retro sincerity, but also the literature upon which they base a lot of their lyrics. The number of bands covering Moorcok, Tolkien, Howard and their ilk has only expanded drastically, and Forever Black slides in like a titan to those nostalgia-fueled expectations while satisfying modern standards as well. I don't know that I'd put it as their best album, but it's clearly in the upper half, and I'd even go so far to say that it's superior in craftsmanship and performance to One Foot in Hell, only the songs don't seem to stick with me quite as much...but time will tell.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

https://www.facebook.com/cirithungolofficial

Cirith Ungol - Live at the Roxy (2025)

What if I told you Cirith Ungol didn't have but one awesome live record, but they actually have two? Live at the Roxy does feature a lot of crossover with I'm Alive, with regards to the second half of the set presented, but what makes this one stand out is that it kicks off with an astonishingly good performance of their ENTIRE excellent Dark Parade album from 2023. In fact, while I might be caught blaring the studio version more often from my motor vehicle at unhealthy volumes, I can honestly not tell you which version is better, because they perform the record with such clarity and conviction and prove beyond the shadow of any doubt that they are one of the most legit epic/fantasy heavy metal bands in the history of mankind.

That they get through all of that material and then announce 'they'll be back for some classics in five minutes', you have to wonder how these legends have anything left within them. How does the crowd, after being steamrolled by that flawless album performance? And yet, here they go with some recent renditions of "Frost and Fire", "Chaos Descends", "Master of the Pit", "Join the Legion", and the very track that got me into the band to begin with, "Blood and Iron". I'd also mark that I prefer these to the recordings on I'm Alive, for while that was a damn good live offering, the band sounds much more road worn and sinister here, there are just that many more cracks beneath the surface that make the clobber you all the harder. Tim's voice does sound slightly less studio perfect, but it's got a vicious wisdom and age to it that makes it all the more impressive, while the rhythm guitars and rhythm section perform everything a little harder, making it sound more natural than its live predecessor.

I do wish a little more love had been given to Half Past Human and Forever Black material, but at least we've got "The Frost Monstreme" to represent the latter, and it sounds awesome. For some of the earliest tunes, I think the versions here are so good that they supercede the original studio recordings as the place I'd most like to listen to them. Just an amazing release, and considering the band are on the verge of stopping live performances, they've really saved the best for last. As of my writing this, Live at the Roxy is only a couple weeks old, and it's well worth your time picking up, whether you're familiar with the band or just crave some badass traditional metal, it's one of the best live albums I've heard in recent years.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/cirithungolofficial

Cirith Ungol - I'm Alive (2019)

I'm Alive had the distinction of being our first proper Cirith Ungol recording after their 2015 reunion, but the catch was that it was a live recording from Greece's Up the Hammers Festival, featuring the modern lineup and 90 minutes of material from the first four albums, the last of which had been put out close to three decades before this. It's also spectacular, with almost studio quality sound that perfectly captures the band's doomed, epic metal vibes and even helps bulk up some of the earlier tunes with some well-needed muscle so they can tango at the gym with One Foot in Hell or Paradise Lost. There's probably a tiny fraction of sloppiness that one could attribute to any live performance, but it only adds to the personality and the glorious triumph of having this long underrated band deliver a solid beating to the audience.

The guitars are nice and chunky to carry the classics like "Blood and Iron" or "Atom the Smasher", and maybe if there were any complaint they almost sound a little too cleanly performed. However, once the leads erupt you get a great balance of atmosphere against the rhythm player and in this I think it does sound superior to even the studio takes. The bass sounds good and the drums have a simple shuffle to them but hit hard enough to support the straightforward riffing. Most importantly, Tim Baker sounds like an absolute menace, like there isn't even an iota of grime or age beyond which he already had on his delivery back on those 80s performances. I can only imagine if you were a longtime Greek fan just how ecstatic you would have been with this live set, the band playing almost all your favorites and sounding pretty much how you would have dreamed when you purchased your ticket. 

No, they don't play ALL the material from the earlier albums, some fun ones like "The Troll" are mysteriously absent, but all the surefire hits are played back to back for a very long set and, without knowing that the reunion would also be producing some great NEW records later on, this would have been a one and done experience, since it would be unlikely to get any better. They do a great job capturing the audio here with excellent quality, just a little hint of crow noise that's never intrusive, and it's so clean that you might even think part of it was overdubbed in the studio like some famous classic 'live albums'. Or Cirith Ungol were just damn serious about getting back and giving back to their fans, and even did so here with another Michael Wheln cover art featuring the legendary Elric. A benchmark live recording for epic heavy/doom metal fans or for anyone wanting to hear some veterans return from the dust, stand and deliver.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/cirithungolofficial

Cirith Ungol - Servants of Chaos (2001)

Servants of Chaos makes for an interesting fan package in that it offers an extensive exposure to what the band was up to in that entire decade before they dropped their debut record. Largely comprised of their 1978 and 79 demos, each album-length in of itself, with some live tunes tacked on, it's about as comprehensive a backlog as one might ask for and really rounds out the collection of any completist. Naturally the presumption is that this material is going to embrace the 70s hard rock aesthetics even more than their first few official studio efforts, and I think that holds true, but even then I wasn't prepared for just how wild and adventurous the band was going to be. This shit is raw, it's often all over the place, but you can generally hear how they formulated the heavier hitting sound they would progress with.

"Hype Performance", the opener slaps you with some very Hawkwind-sounding spacey hard prog rock, with weird sounds and keys glitching through the guitars, where some of the other tunes like "Last Laugh" have more of the vibe you'd expect from their era, bluesy hard rock with some talky vocals that almost remind me of punk and garage, or even later grunge stuff like Mudhoney. There are a number of the recognizable tracks like "Frost and Fire", but they sound even quirkier with the acid synthesizers, or "Better Off Dead" which sounds like you're jamming it through even more of a marijuana haze coming from the back of some airbrushed van. Even "1000 M.P.H." makes an appearance, sounding a little more suited to this mesh of material than on One Foot in Hell where it ended up. Tim's voice is already in that grating, warlike mode on many of these earlier tunes, and to be fair, the demo-level production has a good raw charm to it that makes the band sound absolutely savage, despite the nerdy prog cheese that they are often escaping towards.

Some highlights for me were the instrumental duo of "Ill Met in Lankhmar" and "Return to Lankhmar", based on the Fritz Leiber classic fantasy stories, they really manage to capture the vibe of those old anthologies with the prog rhythms, synthesizers and blazing leads, making me which they'd have these all re-recorded on some possible concept album in the Lankhmar setting. In fact a lot of the stuff from that '79 demo is instrumental, and while it does feel weird not to have Baker's voice present, they experiment with some weird sounds in "Witchdance" and "Feeding the Ants" too. To that extent, much of the material does feel unfinished or not properly organized, it's clearly not the full band spread we'd expect since there are also a lot of drums missing, but it's definitely imaginative. 

The live recordings are from the 80s and kick some ass, raw and ripping and Baker himself sounds phenomenal, potentially even more menacing than he does in-studio. The cover of "Secret Agent Man" was unexpected and doesn't feel as if it belongs, but they definitely create a dirtier and amusing version of that song which feels like it's filtered through acid trips in some abandoned garage. There are also some rehearsal recordings which sound alright, again the rawness seems to work with the vocal style and certainly makes the rhythm guitar sound more crushing. All told, there's a lot going on with this compilation, they include some extensive notes on their earlier years, and while I can't say I'd make a recommendation for new fans, or that it's got a high ratio of quality to the quantity, old heads who already love Cirith Ungol band might find it an entertaining, flawed retrospective.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

https://www.facebook.com/cirithungolofficial