Foreshadowing Our Demise

A lot of people seem to not like this record, though I can't really see why as it's very solid NYDM. It's quite a step up from the band's first album, where the songwriting was a bit green and unmemorable. 'Foreshadowing Our Demise' seems to be packed with an almost limitless array of delightfully thuggish Dying Fetus-style chug riffs along with some deft tremolo and well executed, brutal vocals. It's a conventional album through and through, but it earns plenty of points in execution.

The most important part of this album is its consistency. Every track has at least one excellent riff that's guaranteed to induce headbanging in all but the quadriplegic, and beyond that have an array of nearly as good ones which maintain interest throughout the song. The sense of pacing on this album is almost remarkable; though all the songs have the same general ingredients, they're arranged with a great sense of timing that keeps what in all probability should be boring and trite music exciting and interesting despite an entirely unoriginal aesthetic.

The band maintains a careful balance between fast-paced blasting and tremolo riffing and grooving NYDM breakdowns that come in at just the right moment. Most of this album is predictable, but in a good way, as where you expect the song to go is where you genuinely WANT the song to go. Tension builds and is released at the correct intervals, vocals aren't too verbose but when employed are used very effectively, riffs are solid in every department, and drums are tasteful and as technical (or not) as needed by the rest of the music. The band has a great dynamic altogether on this release; it's a shame it's not appreciated for what it is more.

At the end of the day, this is just another NYDM album, but it's a brilliantly executed take on the genre that just about any death metal fan should love. If you're particularly enamored with ultra high-speed, spazzy death metal, the amount of groove on this record will disappoint, but in general it's difficult for me to imagine people being unsatisfied with such a well composed and played release. Highly recommended for fans of NYDM.

...but not that good. I saw this band open for SFU, and they had a whole lot of energy and were pretty damn funny. So I picked up "Foreshadowing," and had a good amount of laughs. But the last reviewer is correct in that there is not a whole lot of variety, and a lot of songs just pass without the listener caring. But contrary to their opinion, the songs with the nonsense lyrics are probably the best on here. I had my two DM-hating friends laughing their asses off at "Pool of Stool" and "Tug of War Intestines." I mean, how can you not enjoy someone singing about a megaton fartbomb from hell or kickball kidneys?

Anyway, the use of samples helps to differentiate songs, and there are a couple goodies in the vein of Dying Fetus (who they sound a lot like) that will stick in your head. "The Optimist" has a good Vince McMahon sample, and rocks pretty hard, and the intro and closing epic riff to "Enslavement" is excellent. And "Tug of War Intestines" has a brutal groove that will keep you headbanging and laughing for a while. So while this is not by any means a great CD, it is not a spit in the face of NYDM either. And really, if you take lyrics about kicking god in the face and eating maggotty asses seriously, maybe some nonsense lyrics will do you good.

New York death metal is something I always look forward to with its extensive history of landmark NYDM acts (Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation, Dying Fetus, etc.) Here we have yet another clone of the brutal NY death metal movement, but for some reason, this group doesn't seem to excite my music emotions at all. For a lack of better terms, this CD is boring.

The production has a very grind feel to it; it's raw in the sense of having guitars down tuned with very dull sounding drums and bass lines that fade in the background of all the mess. With sick cheesy humor and vocals that sound like a toilet continuously flushing, it's hard to appreciate this group. I appreciate death metal for what it is, but this guy sounds like he's shitting through his mouth literally! There's a fine line between a good growl and an overdone growl. It sounds very hideous (and I'm not saying that in a good sense.) As I said before, there is a lot of sick cheesy humor which begs the question: why do groups make such stupid lyrics such as "Tug O War Intestines," "Pool of Stool," and so on? I can't stand bands that use stupid humor as found in the songs mentioned above; I'm more into lyrics with depth and meaning and not just some "holy fucking shit, I'm in a pool of stool!" Plus, as with Mortician, all the songs start with silly horror/humor samples, but at least they don't overdo it like Mortician do. This right away made me not like the album, not to mention the production as mentioned above.

The songs are very uncreative and most are just plain boring. There is not a guitar solo to be found within miles! I don't mind songs without the solos, but with a group like Skinless recycling boring riffs over and over in every song, they really need the solos inserted in. Going back to the "uncreative" part of the music, the album consists of nothing but the usual death blast beats (yawn), down tuned recycled guitar riffs (...yawn), and a vocalist with no range in his shitting (...zZzZzZz...)

There are some noteworthy tracks, such as the first track "Foreshadowing Out Demise." It starts off brutally, without time for you, the listener, to take a breath from all the madness. There is an awesome breakdown to be heard here, where before it happens, you get a chance to breath. There's also "Smothered" that starts off very slow, but then progresses to be a monster of a death metal track in my mind. Despite the mediocrity behind the music, it's definitely brutal and very enjoyable to listen to. This is the highlight of the CD in my mind, go download it and don't bother wasting your $ for the CD! After a while, up to "The Optimist" (track 3), you'll begin feeling drowsy because the album is nothing but recycled mediocre brutal riffs and blast/double bassing drumming with toilet vocals. Not to mention track 3 is ultra boring, so is "Salvage What's Left" and so on.

As I said before, I really appreciate the death metal genre for what it is, but this kind of stuff is a joke! Maybe it's me or most of these brutal death acts really blow, I don't know, but my run-ins with brutal acts have not been all well, and Skinless is an example of this. Very poor lyrics (with the exception of the non-humor songs), crappy musicianship, and a guy that sounds like a restroom... you do the math and tell me if you would like such crap like this. If you really love those groups with "sick humor," and incorporates mediocre grind/death influences, then this my friend is your group to listen to. Otherwise, make sure to clean your toilet like I have by getting rid of this crap from my collection (my very poor use of a metaphor, but whatever.)

Ear Catchers: Foreshadowing Our Demise, Smothered...