There’s something to be expected of a band named ‘Eat Skull,’ and this Portland-based group certainly delivers. While perhaps there’s no thrashing metal or hellish yelling, there’s enough macabre imagery, psychedelic stupors and jarring cacophonies to this variety of garage-rock to justify the irreligious name. In III, the band’s third-full length album, they craft ultra lo-fi ambiances over persistent bass grooves and amp-blown vocals to raise distorted walls of noisy slacker-surf sound.
The album’s first four tracks are heavy on the discordance. There are storms of distorted guitars, barely discernable vocals, crashing surf solos, and steadily marching percussive elements. “Dead Horses” is as strangely morbid as its title. “Your Hate” is something of a static-wrecked slacker anthem. “How Do I Know When to Say Goodnight” is like an off-color Beach Boys track with its relaxing waterfall melodies and crushed grooves.
At the tracks “Stupid Moon” and “Twin Sikk Moons” the group dials down the clamor and begins to sift through more subtly rich material. Settling their sound into a pool of static amp ambiances, they bring their vocals, which cleverly sound like a slacker-take on those romantic male eighties voices, upfront to politely evoke disturbing images and initiate a tour into their twisted mentality. In “They Burned You” they add a gleaming synth and low, unsettling murmurs to evaluate the burdened complexities of familial responsibility. “Summer Inside” and “Catch Em Before They Vanish” speak to abject disillusionments and teem with a sense of troubled isolation. This sort of music is not for everyone, but it has something to say, and if it’s your thing, it’s definitely worth a close listen.
