Review: Beastmaker – 'Inside The Skull'

BEASTMAKER
'Inside the Skull'
RISE ABOVE RECORDS

Fresno, USA trio Beastmaker waste no time on capitalising on last year's ferocious début album 'Lusus Naturae' with another bludgeoning mix of blues grooves, psychedelic overtones and demonic Sabbath worshipping riffs. 'Inside The Skull' sees the band invoke the tried and tested doom mantra of “if it ain't broke, don't fix it”, instead they channel their energy into performance and songwriting quality rather than trying to shake their sound up for no good reason.

As with the last album, the band come out swinging with their opening track, 'Evil One', with it's hammering rhythms and hypnotic grooves. The album follows the same pattern for the most part with tracks such as 'Heaven To Hell', 'Of Gods Creation', 'Give Me A Sign', 'Nature Of The Damned', 'Psychic Visions', 'Inside the Skull', and 'Sick Sick Demon' providing particular highlights. To be honest there isn't really a bad track on the album. It delivers exactly what a stoner/doom metal/occult rock album should – monolithic riffs, heavy grooves, and some horror movie samples thrown in for good measure.

In terms of production, 'Inside The Skull' still enjoys that nice, fuzzy, retro analogue stoner doom atmosphere employed on their début. But is just a little bit more polished this time around. The production on their first outing was pretty sharp so it's no surprise this time round that they've continued to put the effort in there.

The shadows of the bands influences (Black Sabbath, Cathedral, The Zombies, Pentagram, Witchfinder General, Danzig, and Witchcraft) still proudly loom over the band, but this time round the songwriting feels more self-confident and identifiable as Beastmaker in their own right. Despite a strong début and follow-up, they are a band that are still coming to their own, but with such a high caliber song writing right from the start you'll be forgiven from thinking they're already veterans.  

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Review: Beastmaker – 'Lusus Naturae'

BEASTMAKER
'Lusus Naturae'
RISE ABOVE RECORDS

Beastmaker by name, Beastmaker by nature. This trio from Fresno, USA come out swinging on their full-length début. Hard Sabbath riffs, blusey grooves and demonic psychedelia form 'Lusus Naturae' delves into influences from the likes of Black Sabbath, The Zombies, Pentagram, Witchfinder General, Danzig, and Witchcraft for an uncompromising slab of psychedelic doom.

A good début album has got to grab you straight away and Beastmaker know this as 'Clouds In the Sky' opens with bells tolling before dropping a hard Iomi-esque riff straight into the mix. Songs such as 'Eyes Are Watching', 'You Must Sin', 'Mask Of Satan', 'Lusus Naturae', and 'The Strain' follow on with the riffs and solos at the heart of the song's construction but ably complimented by strong rhythms and grooves.

The album really doesn't let up, with every song bringing something to the table. There's no filler, no messing around, just tight, steadily paced doom. And that is all they need. The song writing is strong, so strong in fact that you'd be forgiven for not realising this is their début offering.

The production has a nice analogue sound to it. Almost as if it was recorded on a four track tape live with a couple of overdubs. There is something very organic and honest about this album. A DIY attitude but some seriously good production skills thrown in as well.

'Lusus Naturae' is a great début. It hits hard and fast with a tonne of great material that will make you want to catch them live, and recommend them to a friend. Fans of doom, stoner rock, and occult rock will have a great time with this album, and hopefully this is just the first step on a long career path for the band.  

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