Bones - Sons of Sleaze (2013)

   Bones debuted in 2011 with their self-titled album, that even though sounded like something very familiar, still had quite unusual approach - at least in the American scene. Punk influenced thrashing death metal isn't something common to find.  

   By "Sons of Sleaze" they've continued the same line. It's not quite clear if the style pick was just a coincidence, or a determined decision, influenced by the current tendencies of the underground scene. Their music could better fit into the British of Swedish scene, since as it was mentioned before, it became a trend at Swedish bands to take on the "vintage coat" and to recall the feeling of the '80s by turning back to the very roots of extreme genres. Bands like Witchery, Death Breath, Paganizer, Mordant, ect. all did something similar (of course, since we're now talking about an American band, here are no black metal influences), but even though among them only Death Breath involved punk directly, this step would be definitely a very Swedish thing to do, by their overwhelming attraction to the British scene. Also, Japanese bands had similar tendencies too, that probably they've developed independently, by analyzing their preferred styles to the depths. However, Bones had a slightly different approach, and therefore their music also had different main impression. Instead of trying to reproduce the sound and feeling of the '80s, they seem focusing on to play something pretty raw, dirty and essentially intense. By involving punk influences, the vintage feeling came instantly, but by the current noisy sound and heavier themes, the whole thing drifted further to become hardcore / crust punk. The song compositions and speed/theme switches are enough raw and compromise-less, to compensate the simple, and lighter punk riffs, that are giving the very basics of their songs. This kinda "archaic" approach also could be comparable to Nunslaughter.  At the end of the album a few songs even reaching the intensity of grindcore, making their British influences even more evident, if the listener might have any doubts. In total "Sons of Sleaze" is a pretty decent and sick record, potential favorite of the fans of old school musickness.