To atone for my lack of new jam postage, today I will not only provide you with Vitus/Saviours goodness, but I will also, for no additional fees or agreements, give to you two of NGNV's most awaited heavy hitters of the last year. The first is none other than Skeletonwitch's Breathing the Fire. Although I haven't really written much about them since Scion in like March or something, long time readers know that I fall under the "I stand for thrashing black sorcery" camp. Skeletonwitch are, first and foremost, fucking awesome musicians. The dudes have mercilessly sledgehammered out their own niche in the metalworld by throwing classic thrash with modern black metal in a way that doesn't come off as fucking cheesy camp crap (...well not all the time...) and it doesn't come off as lame, underchopped not-quite-thrash-not-quite-black-not-quite-good garbage. Secondly, these dudes put on one of the most killer live shows around. It's like a wall of be-haired thrashing meat, relentlessly bearing down upon you with the fury of over a combined century of life lived in Ohio. Pretty fucking heavy man.
Anyways, "Beyond the Permafrost" was on pretty heavy rotation when I first found it, but after a while the thin production kinda fell out of favor. It wasn't for lack of killer songs or anything, just the album didn't really translate just how fucking heavy these guys get on stage. Thankfully, Breathing the Fire takes care of that shit with... uh... aplomb. I guess... Basically, it sounds fucking great, the songs thrash like a motherfucker, Chance's vox have that great 90's black wail, the guitar riffs have me fiending like Rush for oxy, and the songs never really lose their balls. Don't get me wrong, there are definitely stand out's among the crowd but as a whole, this album makes for a great listen. Grab this shit and feel the demonic black shredpocalypse.
