SKULLVIEW – Metalkill The World

Back when the US Metal act, Skullview, first hit the scene, especially via the Kings Of The Universe album, it was a time when yet another band joined the Manowar-style family. Unfortunately, this family of War Metal prowlers, on most occasions, did not do anything that wasn’t first done by Manowar. Skullview, as a veteran member of that family, sounds and feels like Manowar, yet much more in a raw sense. Now being newly signed by the German old school label, Pure Steel Records, they are out to a new and glorious battle.

Their new album, Metalkill The World, after almost nine years without an official release, can’t be considered their strongest effort … actually, far from it. Although they kept their line-up from their last album, Consequences Of Failure, which was rather good, they weren’t able to keep their Metal flame going even though they successfully preserved their old school sense with an equally paralleled production to their other releases. As a supposed proud member of the Metal world and as an old school US Metal act, it was expected of them to make an equal to their last album. However, you can’t recreate success each time out. Metalkill The World can be viewed as a fair album, no more … no less.

Skullview’s material was always on a rather basic scale. As Manowar through their career created classic Metal hits with the ease of simple chords and an anthem-like approach, so did Skullview. However, this band tried something else. Besides being strongly infused to their warrior image, they chose to turn to the epic side of Heavy Metal and dwell on it. Being epic served them well on Consequences Of Failure, yet, on this one, their efforts turned to boredom or just a plain misdirection of the songs. On such tracks as “Remnants Of The Storm”, “Metalkill The World”, or even the opener “Legions Of The Star Scroll” Skullview could have been more original than they were with their old stuff, ad they could have kept it simple and short without trying the squash the potential that these songs had.

If Skullview was trying to overcome their simplicity by instead becoming complex at any sort of level, this was not the way to go about doing that. They have nice stories to tell, although many other bands formed their material on the same basis. In summary, Metalkill The World is a fair Heavy Metal album from a veteran band. They show their vigor on several tracks such as “The Bruce”, “Behind The Cell”, and “Blind And Unconscious”, however, they should concentrate on perfecting themselves in order to get their old glory back.

Lineup

Mike “Earthquake” Quimby Lewis – Vocals
Dave Hillegonds – Guitar
Dean Tavernier – Guitar
Peter Clemens – Bass
Joe Garavalia – Drums