SKINLESS

Wow! This album will definitely occupy one of the very top spots on the list of the best brutal releases of 2007. The band is not exactly prolific (this is only their fourth full-length since 1994), but they have already earned the respect of fans with their uncompromising approach to serving up raw meat. The recipe seems simple: juicy guitar chug, bestial guttural growling, and a furious, ferocious rhythm section that impresses with its intricacy (though not enough to add "techno" to the style tag). So what is the secret ingredient? I cannot say for certain, but in my humble opinion it is the successful variation of the overall musical tempo — sometimes slowing down to lend the music additional weight and severity, sometimes accelerating and revealing to the listener the band's second, equally important side (and indeed that of the style as a whole): a fury bursting outward that nothing can stop. I must admit that on the album in question, the guys do show a somewhat greater inclination toward a more deliberate pace (bearing in mind, of course, the general speed standards of the style), for which they earn a high mark from me.