Yskelgroth is back from the dead.
Created in Spain in 2007, the band releases a first demo in 2008, followed by an album in 2010, then Dave Rotten (vocals, Avulsed, Christ Denied, Decrapted, Putrevore…), Vicente J. (guitar/bass, Bis•nte, Golgotha, Unbounded Terror) and Nexus 6 (drums, Nexus 6, TodoMal) took their time before announcing their second full-length album Bleeding of the Hideous, on Xtreem Music.
The Morbid Earth, the first track, immediately puts us in front of aggressive and impressive sounds which easily conjugate the different Black Metal influences with a touch of Death and massive screams. The efficient and frantic rhythmic leads us to Prone To Gobble Life, a composition which keeps the worrying and heavy approach while playing on a contrast between aggressiveness and sharp leads associated to a heavy basis, then Omnicidal End unveils heady keyboards joining raw riffs. Vocal parts cheerfully strengthen the oppressive atmosphere while leaving a rather important place to orchestrations and bass which inject the unhealthy elements, then Aeons Empty draws from its most Old School roots to create a wave of devastating and unstoppable darkness. The vivid and epic melodies rush us on Plagueridder, the shortest track, which first focuses on majestic tones before letting rage express itself in threatening waves before Spasmic Extinction returns to unhealthy and occult sounds. The different vocal parts offer a very effective diversity to alternate strength and oppression, creating an intense complementarity that we will also find on Primal Expulsion and its strange introduction. The more violent riffs will not take long to appear again to offer us this fix of wilder brutality, followed by Riddance Of The Graves which will reveal melancholic sounds before returning to violence. We can notice some dark Heavy influences on the solo, but Black Metal obviously dominates the rest of the track, which leads us to the catchy Path To Devourment, the last composition, which will close this album with an extremely oppressive occult sound interspersed with unhealthy samples, while keeping a rather martial approach.
The name of Yskelgroth will probably be unknown to most of you, but silence has lasted long enough for the trio. With Bleeding of the Hideous, the band offers us a striking and violent Black Metal, which will delight the fans of raw sounds.
85/100