Skalmar - BIRTH TESTING

Skalmar

BIRTH TESTING
self-released; 2016

​3.4 out of 5

By Jamie Funk
​

Felix Richards (vocals/guitar/synth), Guy Piechoczek (drums/ percussion), Edward Higgs (bass/keys) and Luke Leszczar (guitar) are Skalmar. The grunge band from the UK recently released BIRTH TESTING which is their debut effort.

For this album the band decided to go fully DIY. The band recorded the album in Richards’ garden house with consumer gear and the results are about what you would expect. Suffice it to say the recording is not close to professional studio quality but more or less gives you a general idea of what the band sounds like.

The songs are fairly straightforward although there are some deviations. First up is “Intro...” which is a purposely messy-sounding song that features sporadic drumming, waves of white noise and more feedback. I thought it was a solid intro that led up to the first girth-y song entitled “ Come With Me.”

“Come With Me” revolves around basic power chord progression and some heavy rocking out. The vocals are so buried in the mix it’s really hard to make out much of what's being said. The song is fairly catchy and gets the job done. “Future Reaches” is another solid rocker.

“Hero Talk” is the first deviation from rock in general. The song starts with a vocal sample but the words are indecipherable. It actually reminded me of post-rock at first but it doesn’t end up going in that direction. Instead a spoken word starts to happen and for some reason it reminded me of something you would hear in a play. I couldn't make heads or tails of “Hero Talk” and sandwiching it between two straightforward rock songs made it stick out even more. “Thrash” is less grunge and more punk while the closer “Separation” is an explosive highlight the goes out with a bang.

I think Skalmar is off to a good start but still seems to be searching for their sound. The truth is that sometimes it just takes a while to happen. I think if they keep at it they will eventually find it.

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