Customer Reviews

Breathing the Fire

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hopefully the title will give you some idea of what "Breathing the Fire" is like. Skeletonwitch has made another great thrash metal album, and honestly, it's even a few steps ahead of "Beyond The Permafrost". This album is like a musical flaming electric hurricane that may just instigate a gigantic moshpit with each time it's cranked.

The band is quite talented indeed, coming up with plenty of riffs that are catchy but not too simple. The drums are also insane, putting an edge to an already edgy sound. And to top it off, the vocals add an interesting element because instead of the aggressive singing of thrash masters such as Metallica's James Hetfield or Machine Head's Robb Flynn or the whine of Overkill's Bobby Ellsworth or Exodus's ex-vocalist Steve Souza, Chance Garnette uses a cross between gutteral death metal vocals and upper register black metal vocals. This sort of overlapping vocal styles for different metal subgenres adds a fresh feel and makes things even more exciting. It's also crazy to think that most of these songs are all of three minutes but contain just as much energy as a song twice their length.

Now, as for the album itself, I think "Breathing the Fire" is a few steps forward form "Beyond The Permafrost" for a few reasons. For one, the songwriting here has gotten even better. Secondly, the band has added some more melodic elements to their sound. Listen to the beautiful, clean guitar passages on "Repulsive Salvation" or "...And Into The Flame". Skeletonwitch is able to combine a good sense of melody with brutal, crushing thrash metal. And the combination works here!

Well, I've said enough here. For a half-hour of pure, raw metal, this album is one to get! Five stars to the newest album from the most evil band from Ohio! Thanks for the time, and peace.

I really felt Beyond the Permafrost was an incredible release. Every song was catchy both musically and vocally, and I can hum every tune in my head. It's rare to find a band that can create such a memorable release w/tons of catchy riffs and vocals. So I set the bar high for this release, maybe a little too high. This is 100% Skeletonwitch, no doubt, but it's not as memorable as BTP. the first thing that is noticeable is the production has a much rawer sound than the last cd, not as polished and has a more underground feeling. I feel this detracts from material, as it's not as punchy sounding as BTP. The other big draw back, for me, is the fact that the songs are not that memorable. Sure their are a fair amount of tunes that rock like the awesome opener submit to the suffering, stand fight and die, crushed beyond dust and strangled by unseen hands, but more often than not I zoned out of the songs. I got the preorder last thursday and have listened to it half a dozen times already and the songs just don't stick out that much. Muscianship is top notch and this band still cranks. I think this is more of a grower, as an album, but when something does not hit me hard the first several times I ususually relegate it to the pile of cds I will listen to down the road. The band claim this is their most brutal release. It's about the same as BTP. Blast beats woven in between thrashier parts. I love the vocals. The black metal coupled w/the sinister deep death growls are better on this release, I feel. Anyway if you like this band you will like this, for me, it's just not as striking as BTP.

Good album. Their sound changed a bit, different tone with the drums/guitars, but still a very good album from a very good metal band. If you like Skeletonwitch, buy it.

Skeletonwitch would like you to think they're a very down and dirty nasty band, at least according to the quotes on the cover of "Beyond The Permafrost" and what I've checked out on youtube. Maybe they're a little dirty behind the ears, but this is one smoking thrash outfit that will not remain a relative unknown for long, one hopes. Like its predecessor "Beyond The Permafrost", "Breathing the Fire" is a somewhat short but blazing thrash attack that recalls the speed and especially instrumental prowess of the early to mid-eighties period and blends it with snarling dog vocals for a slightly more up-to-date sound, if snarling dog vocals are your bag.
Personally, these rough scratchy vocals are a lot more tolerable than gutteral belching that most metalcore and deathcore "vocalists" prefer - I will not call most of these cookie monsters singers. What makes Skeletonwitch a cut above is the amazing duel guitar work, heavy and very musical. These guys know how to run you over and make you whistle the riff while they do it, which is something a lot of bands either never learned to do, or simply don't care to. Hailing from the small burg of Athens, Ohio, home of the Ohio University, SW may just make us forget all about Ohio State and Columbus up the road. Midwest thrash that can raise hell with the best of 'em.

If you enjoyed their first album Beyond the Permafrost than theres a good chance that you would love this. As on the previous album, the band is relentless never slowing down or changing up its basic attack in any but the most minimal ways still, the supply of catchy thrash riffs seems inexhaustible. Vocalist Chance Garnette is occasionally annoying; his lower death growls work well, but his other voice is a high-pitched shriek, like a witch from a Halloween sound effects album for children's parties. But the dual lead guitars are smokin' hot, and the band knows how to keep it simple and get in and out fast. The longest song on this album is 3:43, and seven of its 12 tracks come in well under the three-minute mark. Breathing the Fire is a thrash/speed metal album with occasional dips into black metal (but not enough of them to annoy listeners who don't like that genre) and with tons of melodic, anthemic riffs and hooks, my favorite tracks were Submit to Suffering, Stand Fight and Die, Where the Light Has Failed and Repulsive Salvation. Skeletonwitch do for thrash what the Sword do for stoner/doom metal -- take the best of the old style and drag it into the present and future. I would recommend this disc to anyone that's into real metal music.

This is another amazing album by Skeletonwitch, who happen to also be an amazing live band. If you like Beyond The Permafrost, you are going to love this album also. I have this album stuck in my head right now! If you dig these guys, I reccomend you check them out live, they put on one amazing show!

This album is way better than the awesome "Beyond the Permafrost" if that gives you any idea how good it is. If you are in any way homicidal, genocidal or any kind of cidal, please do not pick this up. If Mother Theresa had been listening to "Breathing the Fire" while helping African children, the results would've been somewhere between genocide and necro-orgy. I also encourage you not to drive while listening to this album as you might be inclined to brutally murder anyone who forgets to use their turn signal. It unleashes the primitive, murderous anger buried in all of us. Also, if you're fat, please consult your doctor before putting this on.

Skeletonwitch, is a unique thrash band. As you can probably tell from the sample MP3 player that their songs are relatively short at 2-3.5 minutes. But just because they're short, doesn't mean that they're not good. In fact, they're catchy as hell. Why? Because the songs get right to themselves. Meaning that there's none of those 2 minute guitar intros that a lot of metal songs tend to have. Instead the songs get right into the vocals and catchy riffs. One thing that can sometimes make metal songs too predicable and boring is that they start off with a good guitar intro which establishes the riff for the song, and then when the vocals start, the guitar riffs settle down and you're like "What?" But with Skeletonwitch those awesome guitar riffs start and continue through the whole song, but in this band's case, the riffs are quite progressive, making each song very catchy.

Another thing unique abut Skeletonwitch as a thrash metal band is that the vocals are a harsh growling type that one would think of as death or even black metal, but I'd equate it more with the Mille Petroza of Kreator style. In fact, back in the day, Mille's vocals kind of put me off of that band after a while, but with today's metal scene, those are somewhat mild vocals compared to a lot of bands these days. So Skeletonwitch's vocals are great for their style of metal.

That said, I really liked this album. Haven't heard the first one yet, as it's still in the mail as of this writing, but I'm sure I'll love it too. I'm really digging this resurgence of thrash metal bands over the last couple of years. Never thought I'd see the day, especially after the onsalught of power metal bands. Which I love too, but it's nice to see thrash make a comeback in such a big way.