Release Date September 25th, 2026
Format CD/LP
Genre Speed/Black Metal
Origin Canada
Skumstrike is a trio out of Montreal: Olcadóir on guitar, Zak on drums and GraveDecorator on bass. Their debut “Deadly Intrusions” came out in 2022, and a first run of European shows led to this second full length, their first under the German label Dying Victims Productions. Patrick McDowell, the mind behind the Quebec black metal band Spectral Wound, handled the recording. The album also covers the Japanese speed metal band Abigail, and its skeletal cover art comes from Chris Kiesling, who has also drawn for Mortuary Drape, Hooded Menace and Grave Infestation.
Ten tracks of speed metal soaked in black paint “Flawless Intrigue From Hell”, and the pace rarely drops. The riffs follow Japan’s Sabbat and early Slayer, with a reckless Bathory streak underneath. McDowell records the trio raw: the guitars buzz, the drums batter from the front and the bass grinds low, with nothing smoothed over. That sound agrees with the speed and puts a burnt edge on the fast tracks. Zak pounds the kit non stop, Olcadóir shreds through the riffs and GraveDecorator rumbles beneath them. The songwriting runs mostly in one lane, and a few of the fast tracks share too many ideas when the tempo stays maxed.
The slower, poisoned dirges break the rush and give the album a second gear, though each drop in speed halts the push, and the next riff needs a moment to catch fire again. The cover of Abigail’s “Satanik Metal Fucking Hell” is wild and loose, and it sits comfortably beside the original tracks. Ten tracks is a sensible size, and alternating the ragers with the dirges prevents the speed from turning into one smear. A solid, mean second album that does its job without holding back.
|7.5
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