Skeleton's primitive, punk-evolved-to-black-metal sound has been seeing some traction in a genre that rewards unaffected honesty, and with good reason: The self-titled LP has it in spades. The band's hardcore days are left behind them (or are they?), and what replaces it is crunching, snarling black metal of the first generation.

A lot of the albums we write about these days are retro worshippers of past sounds and movements. That's not to say that's a bad thing; a lot of the original excitement of a new metal genre in days of yore were very short-lived and often an extremely small scene, not to mention the fact that an increasing number of people nowadays were not alive to enjoy it back then, and the newer bands playing in that style often broaden its audience. But Skeleton doesn't give off that impression; its sound is akin to that of some of the first-wave black metal bands of the 80s, but only because punk and thrash influenced them in the same way. In keeping with the band's heritage, the songs are short but with a relentless, crunching tempo; whenever the tempo slows, the two guitars lay thick layers of harmonized riffing down, like Dissection without the smooth melodies.

There isn't one low-energy song in the bunch, and when they're not pounding the listener with blastbeats, they switch to infectious d-beat rhythms. The nice production of the album helps the sound a lot, giving the drums a lot of the room needed to drive the songs along. The last song, Catacombs, is one of my favorites: More blackened than the rest, starting with a spooky downward descent on a clean, picked melody and quickly switching to echoing corridors of distortion.

I heard some good things about Skeleton before, and this album definitely justifies them. Skeleton is spare and clean, with well-produced songs that are easy to put on repeat. The tracks partaking of black metal influences are my favorites, but they're all excellent.

Bandcamp: https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/skeleton.