New Skeletal Faces are an active California deathrock bands who have been playing all over the state for a few years now. I had the lucky opportunity to review their highly anticipated debut LP before its release. Pre-order your copy of Celestial Disease here!
“Crucifixion Cries” opens slowly at first with tribal drums and devillish guitar, then follows up quickly with fast punk guitar and anguished howls. It’s an intensely dark sound that vaguely reminds me of Lost Tribe.
The next three tracks on Celestial Disease were previously released on their debut EP in 2017. “Skeleton Structure” has the vocalist wailing ferociously over a badass downtempo guitar liner. The vocals on this track are particularly demon-like here, but the focus is definitely on the varying guitar lines that evolve as the song progresses.
“Flesh Mirror” opens with a catchy yet dark bass line, then creeping guitar, and crashing drums– I remembered this one from the initial EP straight away. I especially love the guitar-heavy interlude. “Empathy Asphyxia”‘ is my absolute favorite off the original EP and this time around was no different. The vocals almost have a Flesheaters vibe to them that really sticks out here. I get chills when the song ends with that fluctuating guitar line…
Here we get to what I consider the fresh meat of the album! “Ascension of Other Beings” has an almost Egyptian style guitar that draws you in hypnotically. The shrieks from the vocalist are at the perfect pitch, with wails that harken back to Virgin Prunes’ If I Die, I Die… and other daring, animalistic noises.
The following track “Drowning In Celestial Graves” actually starts out as an atmospheric interlude of sorts. The vocalist reminds me a lot of Rozz Williams in this one, in fact there are several elements of this album that remind me of Christian Death. This one just has that classic California deathrock sound to it– demonic, crazed, energetic,
The ritualistic “Leather Funeral”, released as a preview track for Celestial Disease, is a slower paced song– the way the vocalist seems to be channeling Rozz makes this one very fitting to play in a graveyard. The album is brought to a close with my favorite song on it, “Cult Disease”. Punk influenced guitar lines, wailing vocals, and a dancey beat, it absolutely kills and leaves the listener begging for more!
