EXOSKELETT - Collected Bones CD

Exoskelett, Sweden’s breath of freshly rotten air, part ugly death, part ugly punk, part ugly gothic!

Crunchy, kinetic, and coated in grime, Stockholm’s Exoskelett blew shit up with the two EP’s that make up this full-length album. Merging crust, thrash, grind, and first-wave black metal, these guys’s music is noisy and evil in the most basic and satisfying of ways. Theirs is the sound of a local band you’re watching who rehearsed for weeks before the show and then got shitty on beer before walking onstage. No one else is doing sweaty and gross this damn well.

With production, style, and attitude to similar to early Venom, Posessed, and Death while also channeling Sweden’s Ghost! This is a not so nice, nice collection that really just kicks ass.

It’s not so much in your face blast and thrash beats stomping your guts into a pulp and pure blazing speed death metal. It’s just really good, period. It’s just slightly melodic enough that it keeps a solid balance of being very easy on the ears, yet still heavy enough for purists. Plus there’s this almost doomy vibe going on, all of which is what reminds us of Ghost and Tribulation. The vocals resemble Cronos and Chuck Schuldiner getting together at a Satanic ritual to discuss how it is to create and inspire entire genres of Metal for decades.

Even with the raw lower fi production (which we really like), you can hear every instrument, clearly. The track “Ossuary” is the fastest most in your face track, but a favorite might be galloping opener, “Unholy Alliance”.

These guys wear their influences on their sleeves, and yet actually sound pretty original in the process. Coming across Exoskelett was a pleasant surprise.