Reviews: Skeletal Remains, Cult Of Lilith, Regrowth, Silius (Reviews By Rich & Matt)

Skeletal Remains: The Entombment Of Chaos (Century Media Records) [Rich Oliver]

I was quite late to the party with Skeletal Remains only getting into them upon the release of Devouring Mortality in 2018 despite them being musically up my street as it’s possible to be. For those in the dark Skeletal Remains are a death metal band from California who formed in 2011 and basically sound like a death metal band who have time travelled from Florida in 1990 to present day. They have released three killer albums and have been steadily gaining in popularity especially with the release of 2018’s magnificent album Devouring Mortality. They have also done extensive touring with some high profile bands and kill it as well on stage as they do on record. The Entombment Of Chaos is the fourth album by the band and sees the band with some new and old faces with Chris Monroy (vocals & guitars) and drummer Charlie Koryn (drums) joined by new bassist Noah Young and returning guitarist Mike De La O. The band seemingly have a statement to make as The Entombment Of Chaos is hands down the best album Skeletal Remains have released so far and considering how good previous album Devouring Mortality was this is no mean feat. 

 This is still death metal played the old way but everything sounds tighter, more refined and certainly more aggressive. This is old school death metal with a modern sheen and it sounds fucking phenomenal (with some help from a top notch production from the mighty Dan Swanö). Some eerie synths in the album’s intro Cosmic Chasm lull you into a false sense of security before the first proper song Illusive Divinity jumps out of the speakers and fly kicks you straight in the face. This is just phenomenal death metal from the word go and it rarely lets up with Congregation Of Flesh keeping up the momentum. There are some variations in pace and style with songs such as Tombs Of Chaos and Eternal Hatred steam rolling their way out of your speakers and crushes everything in their path with their emphasis on devastating old school groove. We also get a brief moment of calm in instrumental Enshrined In Agony but this album excels in all out violence with is duly provided with songs such as Torturous Ways Of Obliteration, Dissecstasy and my personal highlight the truly savage Synthetic Impulse which had me grinning like an idiot throughout. 

To close things off we get a suitably rabid cover of Stench Of Burning Paradise by Discarnate. Skeletal Remains have very much upped their game with The Entombment Of Chaos with its old school death metal aesthetics mixed with a modern sheen and phenomenal production. There isn’t a drastic change from what they have done before but it just sounds darker and meaner. There hasn’t been much to celebrate in 2020 but as a silver lining there has been some phenomenal music released and The Entombment Of Chaos is definitely the must hear death metal album of 2020. 9/10

Cult Of Lilith: Mara (Metal Blade Records) [Matt Bladen]

'Necromechanical baroque' is the way that Reykjavik metal band describe themselves. Formed as a one man project by guitarist Daniel Þór Hannesson, their preceding EP was made with hired guns but for Mara he has put together a band consisting of Kristján Jóhann Júlíusson (guitar), Samúel Örn Böðvarsson (bass) and Kjartan Harðarson (drums) with the final piece of the puzzle coming with vocalist Mario Infantes Ávalos. Hannesson says that the idea for Mara is "to write a diverse record with a lot of different influences melded together in an extreme metal package." So like avant-garde extremists such as Fleshgod Apocalypse, Allegeaon, Archspire & even Devin Townsend, Cult Of Lilith take you on a journey of extraordinarily technical metal music that not only features some breathtaking performances behind the drums. 

As well as the intricate, progressive fret melting guitar playing but also liberal usage of synths and orchestrations on Purple Tide especially where you are taken into Blade Runner-esque realms then you're brought down to earth with some mind-melting heaviness. You never know what to expect on these tracks as the extreme death metal sound often gives way to jazzy chord progressions (Comatose), strong clean vocals (Enter The Mancubus) and even a flamenco section (Profeta Paloma) where guest guitarist Reynir Hauksson plays the nylon strings. There is almost a relentless desire to impress on this album, every song is dense with virtuosity but never to the songs detriment and they also manage to keep things concise, not falling into the traps of some progressive bands with long noodling instrumental breaks, the name of the game here is straight ahead, aural assault with numerous flights of fancy thrown in to accentuate the talent of this group. 

Iceland may not conjure up too many extreme metal bands (they do do a great trade in Viking/Black metal) but Cult Of Lilith look set to change that with Mara, intense and at times incredible. I urge you to seek this record out. 9/10  

Regrowth: Lungs (Goldmine Records, Fresh Outbreak Records, Home Mort, Nothing Left Records and Fast'n'Loud Records) [Matt Bladen]

First thing about this album is how many record labels it's being released on. Talk about market saturation! Still with all that is happening in the world at the moment a metalcore band from Italy needs to do all they can to get their music out to their audience without gigs. Lungs is Regrowth's debut full length album and it's a vicious, explosive debut album featuring 12 songs that never really let the bile and aggression slip. Nothing here runs longer than 5 minutes with a few under 2 minutes such as the raging Surfacing (not a Slipknot cover) the more emotive melodic numbers on this record. Now I have said numerous times that I'm not the world's biggest metalcore/hardcore fan but I can appreciate it when it's done well and Regrowth do it very well indeed. 

From the massive breakdowns on tracks such as Knife and the more melodic Glass Case but they also deliver hardcore brevity and fury on We Never Give Up. As this record goes on you get the distinct impression that Regrowth are much better on the more metalcore styled tracks that feature changes in style and crushing breakdowns such as Believe In Nothing. Regrowth has a huge amount of special guests from the Italian metal scene helping out here on this debut as they have put everything into this full length and you can't fault them for that. They categorize themselves as 'fast music for sad people' and they will undoubtedly pick up a lot of sad people that will love this. 7/10

Silius: Worship To Extinction (ROAR! Rock Of Angels) [Rich Oliver]

Worship To Extinction is the second album from Austrian thrashers Silius following on from their 2017 debut album Hell Awakening. Austria isn’t particularly known for its thrash metal bands and despite being a European band Silius have very much a US influence permeating their sound. There’s a mixture of both Bay Area thrash and southern styled groove and it sounds like a mixing pot of Exodus, Testament, Exhorder and Pantera. There is plenty of old school thrash aggression present throughout with songs such as Worship, Lesson In Blood and Venom Baptism being fast paced thrashers which beg for a circle pit whilst songs such as Horrorscopes, Dance On Your Grave and Drowning play more to the groove elements and slow down the pace being more meaty mid paced tunes. That said each song on the album has a healthy mix of both the thrash and groove sounds. This is a decent album with some great riffs, tasty solos, furious drumming and some passionate vocals from frontman Mottl. Whilst not a mind blowing album this was fun to listen to and definitely has plenty of headbangable moments. If you enjoyed the last album from Exhorder then this should be right up your street. 7/10