Embedded Files
SKUMSTRIKE “Flawless Intrigue From Hell”
SKUMSTRIKE “Flawless Intrigue From Hell”
By Dr. Abner Mality
What you see is exactly what you get from this Montreal band. And that is throat-cutting, glass-chewing speed metal insanity with touches of black metal and punk. Here you will find no flowery statements about “exploring the emotional fragility of loss” or “the heavy burden of modern identity”. You put bands like SKUMSTRIKE on to go batshit crazy and paint pentagrams on the wall.
It is very effective within that limited range, but there are times here where I wished for maybe a few slower riffs or some shreddier soloing. Here we have 10 tracks of hell-spawned speed coming across like old German thrash meeting d-beat violence. Lead singer Zak even sounds like the long lost cousin of SODOM’s Angelripper. All the tunes last about 2-3 minutes and the guys cover ABIGAIL’s “Satanic Metal Fucking Hell”, which right there tells you about all you need to know about this disc.
Like almost all Dying Victims records, this captures the sound and fire of a bygone age pretty well. This is one of the raunchier offerings on the label. I do think SKUMSTRIKE have the ability to “switch things up” just a bit and they will need to exercise that ability on their next offering. In the meantime, if you think the latest HELLRIPPER was too cleaned up and fancy, this should be a welcome antidote.
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