Formed in 2017, New Skeletal Faces look like the bastard offspring of Alice Cooper and W.A.S.P., and sound like an unholy alliance of Bathory and Christian Death. Newly signed to Peaceville Records, a label that know a good thing when they hear it, the band make their label debut with Until The Night (following 2019’s Celestial Disease), an eight track abomination, tracked, mixed, and mastered by Bill Metoyer (Slayer, W.A.S.P.). Heavy, but with an unquenchable thirst for exploring the darkest regions of goth, black metal, post punk, and simple rock ‘n’ roll, it is an ambitious and inspiring album from a band unafraid to stand apart from the crowd.
Setting out their stall, New Skeletal Faces open the album with Disexist, a seething blast of old-school metal that eschews modern production tricks in favour of a raw, organic sound that is perfectly in-keeping with their look. With churning riffs, reverb-laden leads, and explosive percussion, the band make one hell of an entrance, neatly straddling the line between the brutal and the melodically memorable. More surprising still is the airy assault of Until The Night, which adds The Cure and Joy Division to the band’s lengthy list of influences, the echoing basslines and thunderous toms driving the track in a direction which is uniquely the band’s own. Still heavy, but with a powerful sense of atmosphere, Until The Night is a genuinely brilliant anthem from a band who will seemingly settle for nothing but world domination, albeit on their own terms. The album takes a heavier turn with the crunchy riffing of Ossuary Lust, the bass remaining prominent in the mix, even as the guitars conspire to whip up a storm of frozen, black metal riffage. With the band turning in a performance that teeters on the edge, capturing a rare sense of spontaneity, I challenge anyone to listen and not feel the adrenaline surge as the track rages forth. The first half of the album spins to a halt with Wombs, a somewhat more atmospheric piece that sees eerie, understated guitar pinned down by a tightly wound rhythm section and augmented by a vocal reminiscent of Jello Biafra. Post-punk but with a gothic twist, it’s another brilliant arrangement from a band who consistently delight in surprising the listener over the course of a diabolically diverse first side.
Opening side two, the band shift tactics again, drawing Zeitgeist Suicide from its doom-laden introduction to explode into vibrant life. Having (un)eased the listener in, the band deftly pivot once again, the track mutating into a stabbing riff-monster as wave upon wave of glorious noise rolls out of the speakers. More direct, the frantic Pagan War channels the ferocious march of the undead, with its relentless percussion and gut-pummelling riffs. A straight up heavy metal anthem, you can imagine the band, feet astride the monitors, as they simply unload on the audience, and it keeps the second half moving briskly forward. Returning to the more atmospheric sounds of the album’s first half, Enchantment Of My Inner Coldness once again mines a toughened vein of post punk, this time shot through with a gothic coldness that speaks to some unnamed inner turmoil. Somewhat perversely, for a band with such a strong vision of their own identity, New Skeletal Faces wrap the album up with a cover of Bathory’s Raise The Dead. Faithful enough to the original, albeit drawing out the gothic imagery and with better production, it’s a fine track, but it says much of the quality of the New Skeletal Faces’ own work that it feels more like a fun coda to a ubiquitously excellent record than an essential addition to the album.
A genuine surprise, New Skeletal Faces exist in some turbulent alternate realm where The Cure, Dead Kennedeys, and Bathory ruled the Sunset Strip, with all the tantalising sonic prospects such an image evokes. Aided no end by a brilliant production that captures the band’s darkly nuanced sound, Until The Night is a refreshingly different album, that tempers its ferocity with a curiosity that keeps the listener guessing from song to song. 8.5/10
