Beyond the Permafrost

The first decade of the 21st century birthed a new collective unconscious of various heavy metal revivalists. Skeletonwitch initially flew under the radar of bands like proto-metal faves the Sword, New Wave Of British Heavy Metal disciples Saviours, and ‘80s thrash devotees Annihilation Time. By their second album they were inadvertently carving out an anti-niche by refusing to adhere to just one microcosm. *Beyond the Permafrost* found the Athens, Ohio quintet blending a brutal brew of all things evil, heavy, discordant and shredding. “Upon Wings of Black” rips the head off their sophomore offering with lightning leads, hyper seizures of rhythm and a demonic-sounding singer in Chance Garnette who spews possessed inflections reminiscent of those corpse-painted, church-burning, black-metal frontmen from Norway. The title track starts off sludgy before Garnette hits a deeper and more sinister tone — sounding as if he drank the devil’s blood and barfed up hot lava while the tape was rolling. “Fire from The Sky’s” driving riffs recall early Metallica before Garnette conjures the kind of blood- curdling screams that nightmares are made of.

Such is the goal of Athens, OH's Skeletonwitch, whose fabulously named sophomore full-length, Beyond the Permafrost, starts off with a steaming helping of vintage thrash sounds, then garnishes them with smaller but still clearly defined ingredients of black, death, and vintage heavy metal -- plus the aforementioned N.W.O.B.H.M. Beyond the Permafrost's unapologetically metal cover art alone is sure to earn the scorn of musical hipsters everywhere, but the sheer ferocity and white-knuckled velocity of swords-and-sorcery thrash anthems like "Upon Wings of Black," "Sacrifice for the Slaughtergod," and "Fire from the Sky" will have those who stick around crying out for Mommy!

It would be one thing if only the band's logo and artwork on its new album reeked of vintage heavy metal and ripping thrash, but considering that the music on "Beyond the Permafrost" actually comes with a metal-as-hell attack makes it required listening for the true ‘heads. Beyond the fact that Athe...