Hidden Gems & Guilty Pleasures: New Skeletal Faces (USA)
Photo credits: Allgood Media Productions
New Skeletal Faces (Goth Rock/Death Rock // USA)
It’s been almost ten years since US death rock’s new rising sensation New Skeletal Faces arrived on our planet and embedded themselves in the seedy outlying corners of the Southern Californian music scene. Formed in 2017, New Skeletal Faces present themselves as a cosmic abomination that tote the genre lines between all manners of darkness in music. New Skeletal Faces cast their own black light onto the long dormant corpse of death rock, shattering the mirror of modern heavy metal into fragments that reflect back a fresh new take on a sound that time was never told to forget. It’s been with us all along, this darkness… the world can now pretend it always knew.
The band’s Peaceville debut, »Until The Night« (which follows in the path of 2019’s »Celestial Disease« full-length release) further enriches New Skeletal Faces’ effortless blending of the spirits of old. New Skeletal Faces are like listening to the 1980s Sunset Strip through a dirty filter now blackened with the soot of bands like Bathory and Midnight along with the uneasy savagery of Watain as well as the dark romanticism of death rock bands such as Christian Death and 45 Grave.
Recorded in the shadowy recesses of Hollywood, California, the opus was tracked, mixed and mastered by producer/engineer Bill Metoyer (Slayer, W.A.S.P., D.R.I.), capturing a richly-crafted, organic sound authentic to the legends of the past, presenting all-new haunted tracks alongside a reimagined take on Bathory’s own »Raise The Dead«. Of the recording Bill Metoyer said “It was a pleasure working with New Skeletal Faces. A band who not only chose to not follow recent songwriting trends of so many other newer metal bands seem to do nowadays, but also the trends in the sound of their record. They prefer to sound more old school metal than what most newer metal bands seem to lean towards as of late.”
The title track »Until The Night« was the first single from the album, delving deep into the forgotten, dark underbelly of rock and roll. “»Until The Night« is about the ritualistic deviancies partaken by the lost souls of our planet,” the band say. “It’s an anthem for the heathens that plague the night.” Alongside the single, the band also released a raucous music video directed by Gaberealhell. Speaking about the video, the band said, “The video for »Until The Night« captures the true essence of the song and lifestyle of the band. Done with little planning and no storyboard, you can feel the uncertain, spontaneous atmosphere.”
Courtesy of Peaceville Records
Discography:
• »EP« EP (2017)
• »Leather Funeral« Single (2019)
• »Celestial Disease« LP (2019)
• »Nacht Zen« Single (2021)
• »Sextinction« EP (2021)
• »Until The Night« Single (Peaceville Records, 2024)
• »Until The Night« LP (Peaceville Records, 2024)
• »Deterioration« Single (Decibel Flexi Series, 2025)
New Skeletal Faces is:
Errol Fritz – Vocals, Guitar
KRO – Bass
Don Void – Drums
FFO: Christian Death, Fields Of The Nephilim, Amebix, Grave Pleasures, Corpus Delicti, Unto Others, Beastmilk, Soror Dolorosa
Links:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well