Skate for the Devil

The tracklisting of Skate for the Devil is really quite different on this site and on Bandcamp, which may affect the experience when the 10 tracks on The Boneless Ones’ debut album all vary widely. This is 1986 and we’re right there in the middle of the skate craze in California, though also the crossover thrash craze, which is how this four-piece come in. Now resurrected with a few famous names in their line-up, The Boneless Ones originally broke up a while after this album, and the messy nature of the release shows one possible reason why.

You won’t hear thrash on all the songs from this half hour listen, since it also opts for punk, surf rock, and a touch of heavy metal when the mood strikes. Everything feels kind of loose to me, rumbling bass giving away the band’s roots in punky precincts, while the vocals have none of the aggression that the growing Bay Area scene turned into the norm, Max Fox almost talking through some of the songs with his incitements to skate and tales of things gone wrong and right. ‘Jason’ displays chuggy storytelling about “a friend of mine” and along with ‘Murder’ forms a darker tone than much of the other material, which sometimes even feels throwaway in its casual attitude. Especially with the punked up ‘Give It to You’ up front and ‘The Happy Song’ feeling like a jam in a room packed with people talking and shouting, the album starts on the wrong foot, while the middle and second half leads to longer thrashy songs like ‘Love to Hate’ and the title track that even feature some wailing shredding.

Skate for the Devil bears the marks of neglect because of the slightly limp production and minimum amount of content, both of which have some relation to a DIY ethos that may have garnered approval in the ‘80s but doesn’t help now, when I’m listening to this on my computer and struggling to pick out the guitar leads and rhythmic details. Almost a parody song, ‘Miss Fresno’ works better in the context due to its simplistic strutting riffing and punchy vocal lines, though I wouldn’t have imagined that the crowd drawn by The Boneless Ones was that similar to Mötley Crüe. It all adds to the fun feel of Skate for the Devil, however the inconsistency across the release - coupled with its mediocrity - makes this inessential.