Skull Album Review by Graham Finney
Released through Shove It Up Your Cult Records, Thoughts Of The Others is the debut album from rowdy Leeds rock quartet Skull. Clocking in at just over forty minutes long, Thoughts Of The Others is certainly the kind of album that will have the neighbours banging on the wall with its raw cocktail of alt-metal, punk rock and stoner rock.
Using spoken word passages between songs, the album regularly bleeds into inseparable blasts of noisy, jarring rock that most definitely isn’t for those of a weaker nature. Belted out with bloody knuckles and equally raw throats, Skull’s sound isn’t something you could call pretty at all. Songs like recent single “Whispers” and “RPM” lurch along through a barrage of rough, unpolished alt-metal. It’s a blueprint the band stick to throughout Thoughts Of The Others and, after listening to the album, it has to be said it’s something they do very well.
Things do slow down a little bit for the more restrained “Lightswitch” but, as these moments are few and far between, we suggest you take this opportunity to get your breath back a bit. Chucking in bits of Sabbath and Kyuss, “Yellow King” is a wailing four minutes of riffs and droning vocals while “Mother” sees the band thunder to the finish line in gloriously raucous fashion.
Thoughts Of The Others is a bruiser of an album that should come with a warning sticker. Loud and fairly ugly, this is the sort of album that, as we alluded to early, will not put you in the good books of your neighbours especially in this fine weather. Thoughts Of The Others is a solid start from a band who we can add to the list of suitably rowdy acts currently coming out of the Leeds.
Rating 7/10
Track Listing:
Midnight Oil
Hide & Seek
Rumours
Whispers
Masks
A Whole
Colours
RPM
Sleazy
Ships in the Night
Lightswitch
Yellow King
Remembrance
Paean
The Exit
Mother
