31 January 2022

SKEMÄTA

 

First off, SKEMÄTA did it backwards on Sanctioned Genocide - they started the thing with the obligatory midtempo DBeat stomp they typically comes somewhere near the end of the first side (take Neverendinglasting, for example) and then they shred expectations on the B side (or, in the case of the cassette, on the final two songs). So it's kinda like getting beaten up before you get scared...but still getting scared after you get beaten up. It's very confusing. What's not confusing is the pure power that this band had - just the right amount of metallic discordance (check the last 20 seconds of "Hierarchy" in particular, just before the pummeling returns to close out the song) and no shortage of unhinged shred. You hear ghosts of their collective pasts (and futures) all over the recording (DRUGCHARGE, DOUBLE NEGATIVE, FATAL, STRPIMINES, LOGIC PROBLEM, PUBLIC ACID, SCARECROW...there are more); the title track has a DIE KREUZEN vs. Technocracy vibe that is just so fukkn sick and it still sounds like SKEMÄTA. Every record is essential (especially in retrospect) and these three burners just make me wish I'd seen them more than once.  Good luck. 


EDIT: I've seen them three times. San Francisco, Oakland and North Carolina. Age is a motherfukker. 

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