Fresh Tracks! - Skeleton & Lamb of God

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        We're skipping Jazz day for this week as two tracks caught my attention that I wanted to share. First up is a new-to-me band that has an album up for pre-order on 20 Buck Spin called Skeleton. After digging around the internet I found a bio of Skeleton placing them in the Austin Texas scene forming in 2014 and contains Victor Ziolkowsky on drums and vocals, David Ziolkowsky on guitar, and Alex Recide on bass. The song is called "The Sword" and it's this funky blend of punk, a hint of hardcore, and a healthy dose of Black 'n' Roll, which is a blend of Black Metal and Rock 'n' Roll made popular by bands like Kvelertak and Midnight. 

        "The Sword" starts with a high distortion tone with a slow and ominous intro lasting ~28 seconds. From here on in it's this Thrash/Black Metal/Rock experience with a vocalist who sounds like Tim Armstrong of Rancid if he joined Darkthrone, which oddly isn't a bad thing. It spends the rest of two minutes bouncing back and forth from the pummeling Rock verses and the evil Black Metal choruses. Lasting two minutes and 27 seconds in total it's hard not to want to play this track a few more times and just rock out. Check it out the track here on YouTube. If you like what you're hearing you can pre-order the LP here at 20 Buck Spin. It will be shipping out on July 10th, 2020. 

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        Next up is a track off the new self-titled Lamb Of God (LOG) album that was released June 19th, 2020 titled "Gears". LOG has been putting out music since 1994, and this album marks their tenth studio album (if you include the two releases under the name Burn The Priest). It seems to be getting solid reviews, and I look forward to taking in the whole album this weekend. 

        While I don't know LOG's discography as a whole, this track was excellent! The riffs are gripping, the tone is tight, and Randy Blythe's vocals still sound great. It really gets the headbanging going, and that chorus riff might be one of my favorites they've ever offered. Lyrically you're getting some pretty typical offerings including critiques of consumerism and man-made annihilation, but it fits in the music perfectly and is well written compared to many other metal tracks (here's looking at you LoBodomy! Sorry Children Of Bodom, they can't all be winners). 

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        It's great to see such an established band continue to put out some quality music. There aren't many metal bands that can continue for 26 years and still sound fresh. Where I to guess, I'd say it definitely helped that they went on two hiatuses as breaks are important. You can listen to "Gears" here on YouTube, and you can pick up the album here at their store.

Have a great week everyone!