{"id":97825,"date":"2023-02-01T00:00:10","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T00:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=97825"},"modified":"2023-02-03T17:18:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T17:18:17","slug":"album-review-skeletor-mental-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-skeletor-mental-state\/","title":{"rendered":"SKELETOR – Mental State (2023) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SKELETOR
Mental State<\/strong><\/span>
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\nSelf-released (2023)<\/span>
Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019m unsure as to why this Netherlands death metal act has been so sporadic with its releases since forming in 2004; their self-titled debut full-length opus from Skeletor was released 13 years ago! I guess life just gets in the way sometimes but it\u2019s good to have the combo back, although the band have stated that Mental State<\/em> is their \u201cfinal album\u201d.<\/p>\n

To an extent Skeletor is a rather strange outfit. The varying line-up changes over the years suggests they have never truly found their sound, and this time round there still appears to be some upheaval. Whether this album is the true sound of Skeletor I will never know. The death and thrash metal strains seem to cavort with an almost groove metal thesis that doesn\u2019t always sit right with me, and that\u2019s mainly due to the vocal retorts of guitarist Bram Peters. His bruising, muscular and confrontational barks tend to grate at times as they veer towards a hardcore, streetwise chop not too far removed from the likes of Pro-Pain.<\/p>\n

Tracks such as \u2018Skeletor Salvation\u2019 offer a nice crisp thrashy chug, while a song such as \u2018Pounder\u2019 has a groove metal judder to its angst. Sadly, the album becomes rather generic all too quickly as it unravels and there are no real surprises or deviations from the brute force approach.<\/p>\n

Bram\u2019s vocals have shifted since the 2015 EP Bastards Of The Universe<\/em>, but still remain in that shouty tone. Imagine then if you will a mix of Lamb Of God, Anthrax and Pantera, which is all rather regressive, in your face, unapologetic and at times limited even with the varying influences. Arguably delivered in the wrong era, Mental State<\/em> is a humourless and angry slab for those who still like to flex their muscles to metal.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SKELETORMental State Self-released (2023)Rating: 6\/10 I\u2019m unsure as to why this Netherlands death metal act has been so sporadic with its releases since forming in 2004; their self-titled debut full-length opus from Skeletor was released 13 years ago! I guess life just gets in the way sometimes but it\u2019s good to have the combo back, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5199],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-skeletor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97825"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97828,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97825\/revisions\/97828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}