| Reviews for Skeletonwitch's Breathing the Fire |
| More Soul Thrashing Black Sorcery - 86% |
| Written by Winterfell
on November 4th, 2009
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| Skeletonwitch established themselves with Beyond The Permafrost as a badass mixture of thrash and melodic death metal. Holding themselves to 2-3 minute songs, they thrashed like mad and still had time for the odd epic melody or wild solo. To me it was awesome, but many were turned off by the minimal death metal influences and sometimes-happy melodies, which may not have been helped by the extremely clean production. Well, intentionally or not, Skeletonwitch have addressed all those concerns with Breathing the Fire, and it’s a better album for it. The sound here is about 70% thrash metal, and I mean real thrash; fast, headbanging riffs and pounding drumbeats. What’s left is about 10% pure death metal, with crushing, dissonant riffs backed by blastbeats, and 20% melodic black metal that Dissection would be proud of. The real change is that where on BtP the riffs were generally fast pedaled melodies, here there are discreet sections of thrashing and melody. However, the fantastically tight songwriting lets these sections interweave seamlessly. The result is extremely organic songs that move between different tempos while remaining dark and violent at all times. The songs haven’t gotten any longer, either; the average song length is actually shorter here, but the songs never feel like they’re too short. The melodies and guitar solos are given ample time to develop, while the thrash bits benefit from being compressed into lightening fast, high-impact doses. There are points at which you might find yourself thinking that maybe some of these ideas should have been developed further into longer songs, but overall the 2-3 minute song works fantastically for Skeletonwitch. They also tend to mix things up a bit to keep it fresh; one song may be more melodic and then followed by a total thrasher, although every song contains bit of each. Clearly they gave at least some thought to the track listing here. Indeed, lots of thought clearly went into the entire affair; the songs are, as on BtP, stripped down completely of any fluff, the solos are again well-composed and extremely fitting, and the vocal lines fit perfectly. Another thing that definitely deserves mention is the production. The guitar tone this time around is thicker and heavier, although it lacks bite, which the thrash sections suffer a bit for. The overall sound of the album is much rawer and darker (although it is actually quite clear), and at points some atmosphere definitely develops. This helps a great deal to give some credibility to the lyrics, which are all about fire and murder and Satan. The one downside to the production is that the drums are a bit quiet, which hurts the thrash parts again. Rounding things out, the vocals are top notch, mostly excellent mid-range rasps with deep growls here and there. The vocalist sounds pissed-off enough to carry off the lyrics, which are often a bit silly. Overall, this is a great album recommended for people who love both Reign in Blood and Storm of the Light’s Bane and think it would be awesome if someone tried to combine them. Only that makes it sound more badass than it is, because both of the aforementioned albums are way better. The one downside to the short song lengths is that none of them really feel weighty or terrible memorable. Skeletonwitch don’t shoot for the moon, but they blow a low-flying satellite out of orbit. I gave this an 86 because I gave the last one an 85 and I wanted to indicate it was a better album; however, I don't want to give it much higher because I don't feel it's ambitious enough. If you don't give a shit about that and just want to bang your head, add about 10 points. |
| They're getting close... - 80% |
| Written by DethMaiden
on October 14th, 2009
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| There doesn't seem to be much consensus in the metal world on exactly what subgenre Athens, Ohio quartet Skeletonwitch belongs in, but classification shouldn't really matter as long as the music is this awesome. Breathing the Fire, the follow-up to 2007's top-notch Beyond the Permafrost, is stylistically identical to its predecessor but has even better riffs, solos, demonic vocals and horns-in-the-sky, Satan-hailing lyrics. This album is, if nothing else, incredibly goddamned metal. Things start off a little weaker than the incredible one-two punch of "Upon Wings of Black" and "Beyond the Permafrost" from the last album, but once the record kicks into gear it's a thrashing good time, and it's clear that this is beer metal in the purest sense of the term. Thrashing tracks like "The Despoiler of Human Life" and "Crushed Beyond Dust" storm into the room, take no prisoners, and leave sword-filled corpses and crushed PBR cans in their wake. This is music that the listener is almost required to bang your head to, and if that was Skeletonwitch's only goal, then the album is a runaway success. That said, this band could still stand to tighten the screws a little bit. Very few of the songs feel fully fleshed out, and the album feels somewhat incomplete as a result. Skeletonwitch seem to have a handle on the riff-writing and solo-writing processes, but are still eluded by the songwriting process. Still, there's a lot of promise for the future. The brilliantly titled "Repulsive Salvation" is an honest-to-God song, with a beginning, middle, and end, and there's no compromising of intense riffs and shredding solos as a result. That song is the obvious highlight of this disc, and the 'Witch should try to recreate what they did there (as well as on "Baptized in Flames" from the Beyond the Permafrost album) in the future. I've sold this album somewhat short by complaining about its shortcomings, because it's still a solid thrash record with a nonstop barrage of riffs and no shortage of moments that demand headbanging. I'm just hoping that the next time Skeletonwitch release a full-length, the awesome riffs and solos evolve into awesome songs somewhat more often. It's not as if I'm going to stop worshiping the 'Witch in the meantime. |
| Stand Fight and Die! - 90% |
| Written by atanamar
on October 9th, 2009
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| I've been Breathing The Fire for a couple of weeks now, and the new Skeletonwitch is definitely a burning, spicy, molten feast of metal. I can't get enough. Boatloads of ink have been spilled trying to describe the Skeletonwitch sound. I think the most commonly used adjective is "old school". It's still the most appropriate. Their Myspace page says that Skeletonwitch "sound like Bay Area Thrash and NWOBHM with elements of Black and Viking Metal." That sounds about right to me. When I threw on the album for the first time, Breathing The Fire instantly made me think of Megadeth's Peace Sells. The riffage on "Submit to the Suffering" and "Longing for Domination" brought to mind the completely unhinged spirit of "The Conjuring," "Good Mourning/Black Friday" and "My Last Words." That's a pretty impressive compliment. Breathing The Fire doesn't reach the iconic nature of Peace Sells, but it really is a massively entertaining treasure trove of riffs. Beyond the Permafrost was an awesome album only occasionally marred by leads that couldn't keep up with the rest of the barreling war machine. That problem is completely rectified on Breathing The Fire. Nate Garnett and Scott Hedrick seem to have perfected the delicate balance between speed, chaos and shredding. In addition, the band's songwriting skills have improved quite a bit. I can tell all of these tracks apart. The choruses and riffs are floating around in my head constantly. There is perhaps less melodic death and more thrash on Breathing The Fire. But why even try to parse our the pieces? Skeletonwitch have forged their own sound from all the best parts of old school metal. This shit just rules, hard. Chance Garnett seems to have upped the ante with his vocals. The sometimes black, sometimes death screaming has an undeniable and unique character. Every song has a memorable chorus or some line that you'll undoubtedly yell along to. The production is guitar-centric, and appropriate to the music. I do get occasional twinges of regret about the guitar tone. I sometimes wish it had a bit more crunch, but it doesn't really harm the overall experience. I can balance that out in my head with the relief that this isn't an over-compressed shit-fest. The drums and bass gets ample space, and propel this thing along at ludicrous speed. Breathing the Fire never stops moving. That would be a bad thing if it weren't driven by a myriad of fantastic rhythms. The melodic guitar sections on Breathing The Fire are probably more subtle than on the previous album. There's still plenty of melody, but I think it's used to greater effect on these tracks. "Stand Fight and Die" is positively anthemic. Skeletonwitch play directly to the "less is more" aesthetic that's currently appealing to me in metal. Short songs, riff driven, simple production, pure metal. Two guitars, bass, drums, vocals and that's it. This pure approach is our last defense against the wretched proliferation of mash-up metal that's currently occurring. From what I hear, Skeletonwitch are absolutely amazing live. I've not yet had the pleasure of seeing them in person, but I plan on remedying that in October when they play with The Black Dahlia Murder at The Chance. So yes, this album fucking slaughters start to finish. I'm quite sure it will be on my year-end list. I can't stop listening to it. Originally posted here: http://atanamar.blogspot.com/ |