Skincrawler - Lair of the Foul (2008)

   To recall the style and atmosphere of the earliest extreme metal tryings of the '80s was a commonly returning feature at bands who showed up with the New Wave of Old School Death Metal.
   Skincrawler's one and only album reminds to early Celtic Frost by it's levitation above the borders of different genres, that was usual in the '80 when extreme metal styles were just about to develop. The songs were put together from simple, basic themes, and to increase the old school feeling, many would fit even into punk music in the case of a softer sound. The whole album sounds raw, like if it was an experimenting project, even the vocal style is like between shouting and narrative performance, that's only a step away from growling. That also gives the impression like if to combine the vocal with the music was somehow random and not completely figured out how to manage it. Except the pioneer bands of the '80s it's possible to find similar difficulities at very young teen bands. Maybe it's not necessary to seperate the two, since the musicians who have created the earliest classics were not much older, but those were different times. Skincrawler definitely didn't represent the case of amateurism, since it was a short living project of Mr. Elektrokutioner, whose name is inevitable to avoid when it's about the late '00s/early '10s American death metal scene because of the numerous bands he appeared in. He played on all instruments, and if his goal was to time travel back to the roots of metal extremities, he succeded.