Skeletonwitch, Breathing The Fire

They’re coming out of the woodwork. Like any genre, when something gets remotely popular, they come crawling out of the dark like roaches. Even the relatively minute movement known as neo-thrash has experienced the same phenomenon — a style that’s supposed to invoke the legendary sound of the bands from the ’80s has now become a moniker for bland guitar playing, lazy songwriting, and mundane vocals.

While Skeletonwitch does not fall into that undesirable category, their newest release, Breathing The Fire, comes precipitously close. The band showcases some very nice guitar playing that retains the thin but heavy sound that came out of the San Fran sound of the ’80s. What’s not there, though, are the creative riffs. Fast gallops with the most obvious of changes do not do this band any favors. You can tell where a song is going because of the predictability of it.

One thing this band does differently than their throwback contemporaries is the vocal style. Chance Garnett’s style is more of the gruff black metal style with some growling added in. At first it may seem it seems off-putting, but that’s due to its uniqueness. When used correctly, as on “Stand Fight and Die,” it adds to the power of the track and helps to emphasize the guitars.

For this release, the band chose to use a more raw sound. While the drums do get a tad lost at times, the overall feel adds to the reminiscing of the style they are going for. This is not necessarily a sophomore jinx for the band, but considering the unbridled success of the their debut, coupled with the shortcomings of this release, this had to be a home run, and sadly, it’s maybe a double.