Rating: 2 Pulses
After listening repeatedly to the latest release from Skullkin, I have been reminded about a condition known widely as ear fatigue. If you are unfamiliar with this term, please turn up South Inflicting Torment to a moderate volume and push play. You will quickly understand.
South Inflicting Torment is a heavy album. It is constructed mostly from noises that some people consider abrasive.
Some could say that’s good. I say it’s bad. Regardless, the general feel I get from this album is either that someone is trying to be funny, or someone is pretty pissed off, a little stoned and a bit unclear as to what continent they’re standing on.
The album seems to drag. The songs aren’t particularly driven by hooks of any sort, and there aren’t strong memorable melodies to follow. The main drive in the songs is a heavy, angry, distorted and somewhat monotonous groove. The majority of the musical content is in the change in rhythm patterns. Unfortunately, the atonality in the sounds creates a droning feel that becomes extremely tiresome. I actually fell asleep during the first listen.
The droning feeling is accented by the general sound of the recording. The album lacks any noticeable bass, and possesses a shrill, thin top end (please, no more CDs that sound like MP3s). As my ears fatigued while listening, my mind also fatigued and paying attention became difficult.
The only part of the CD that actually stuck in my head was the last (hidden) track. NOTE TO BAND: you are supposed to put the hidden track at the end of the last track and not on its own separate track. Otherwise it’s just an additional track with a long bit of silence before it.
Overall, I would consider this album a novelty. I couldn’t imagine listening to this album very often. Skullkin is obviously a band that needs the exchange of energy that comes from a live show. If you like heavy, mid-tempo, groove metal, with a GWAR overtone, I bet you would have fun moshing to this music. They might even rip your faces off. But, as an album, I’d say it fails to capture hearts and minds.
As one friend of mine put it, Skullkin’s South Inflicting Torment “sounds like the videos that Beavis and Butthead used to crack jokes at in 1994.”
