Favorite New Bands of the 2000's Pt. 6: Skeletonwitch

I have fallen a bit behind in doing these. Initially, I intended to do one per week, but I missed a week last week, so here's a second one for this week.

Skeletonwitch is quite possibly my favorite new band of the decade. They started strong and they ended strong and were active enough to end up in me buying a couple of albums. Scar Symmetry is probably the band's only real competition for this title, but their latest album was abit of a disappointment.

Skeletonwitch is a band that somehow gets lumped in with the thrash revival and people refuse to check them out. That is just plain fucking crazy. Skeletonwitch plays a brand of metal that brings together influences from old school thrash and black metal. The band sounds like a mix of Sodom, Venom, Bathory, Exodus, Slayer, and Dark Angel. But they don't sound retro at all, in fact they sound very modern despite these older influences. Part of the reason people do not like the retro-thrash movement is due to the perception of the bands not bringing anything new to the table. Skeletonwitch blends their influences and plays in a modern fashion.

I own two albums from Skeletonwitch.

The first album I owned was Beyond the Permafrost. This album was my introduction to the band and I was very impressed with the riffing, vocals, and speed of the album. The guitar solos were also very impressive. The whole thing sounded raw and energetic. Still, it was a little uneven at times and it was clear the band was not done growing.

They hit paydirt on Breathing the Fire. Skeletonwitch tightened up their sound enormously on this album. The songs were fully realized and yet retained their energy and rawness. This is an incredible album and the band is still growing. I have a feeling the best is yet to come.