"Minimalist" is not how Desert Psychlist would describe Skulldozer's music but that is the legend sitting beneath the bands photo on their Bandcamp page, to be fair though they do follow that up with the sentence "loud riffs" and they are definitely words we at The Psychlist can get on board with. You would probably have to ask the band themselves why they decided to describe their music as "minimalist" but we are not going to do that instead we are going to just give you our thoughts on the bands new album "High Tide" and let you decide the rest.
A few thunderous drum beats announce the arrival of first track "
Bloody Ground" followed by an equally thunderous guitar and bass riff over which vocalist
Ben House sings of "
blood running in the streets" in tones that sit at the slightly helium end of powerful. If you were unfamiliar with the
Skulldozer before hearing this track you will now know that they are kick-ass unit with their feet planted firmly in the soils of
proto flavoured
doom and
metal, and a very good one we might add. Next track "
Sign of the Times" begins with a heavily fuzzed guitar motif from
Justin Morgan that is then joined by bassist
Dylan Wills and drummer
Jay Erbe in a ferocious
stonerized metal groove that if it were a few bpm's faster, and did not slow down to allow for a searing lead break, would almost fall into
thrash territory.
House once again excels in the vocal department here, his higher ended tones coming across at times like a hybrid cross between
Sabbath's Ozzy Osbourne and
Dope Smoker's Gareth Hopkins but with twice the power. Title track "
High Tide" explodes out of the speakers next, the songs dynamic a mix of stop start
sludge,
doom and
drone offset with a mantra like vocal, it is followed by "
Erosion" a thrumming slightly off-centred tome with
Sabbathian undertones that boasts a slightly lower key but just as effective
House vocal, Dissonance and drone introduces next track "
Mass Production" the band then hitting into a strident
proto metal/
doom groove beneath a surprisingly swinging vocal melody.
Skulldozer go epic for the ten minute plus "
Misanthromation", here we find the band mixing
stoner metal stridency with low'n'slow
doominosity, constantly shifting up and down the musical gears around a powerfully delivered vocal that rails against fake news, lies and misinformation, the real delight here though comes when the vocals drop out and
Wills and
Erbe settle into a thrumming and intense dank groove which
Morgan decorates with blistering but tasteful lead work. Final number "
Hand of Fate" sees
Skulldozer throwing everything into the musical cauldron with
doom,
heavy rock,
stoner metal,
sludge and even a little
blues all getting mixed and mashed together beneath yet another powerful vocal performance, if this is what the band call "
minimalist" then god knows what they might sound like if they ever decide to go down the extravagant route.
Those of you out there who bought into
Skulldozer's previous release "
Killing Season" will remember that it proudly carried the legend "
no bass guitars, bass simulators, or octave pedals were used in the making of this album" new album "
High Tide" however does contain bass and the inclusion of that bass has brought an extra thickness and depth to
Skulldozer's sound, the songs on "
High Tide" feel so much richer and fuller. Of course bass or no bass you still need good tunes and good grooves and you'll be glad to find there is no shortage of either of those on "
High Tide".
Check it out ....
© 2025 Frazer Jones
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