SKELATOR is the kind of band you'll probably see in a future 'Keep It True' (Germany) or 'Up The Hammers' (Greece) festival billing. They're loud Metal motherfuckers who show no quite moments when shaping songs. It's all about loud guitars, shrieking vocals and steel-meets-beer-meets-Metal lyrics concepts from a young band that honestly honors its influences deliberately opposing to any post-80s genre trends. I can recall the flavour of their previous "Time of the Sword Rulers" effort (which was a compilation of demos and EPs, actually) with "Death To All Nations" being categorized as the American band's first proper studio CD.

The music of SKELATOR is passionate, sincerely traditional and draws influence from both the European (from the NWOBHM to traditional central European Power) and American (here the list's too long) Metal standards. The vocals of Jason Conde-Houston are true, relentless and uncontrollable; screams and cry-outs are widespread here and there. I'm pretty sure he could do even better but maybe the decision was to focus on the primal majesty of unpolished Heavy/Epic/Speed Metal all the way. The guitars are quite rampant with traditional Metal dual leads here and spiteful licks there, bringing to mind the riffing savagery in bands like SACRED STEEL, SKULL VIEW and PARAGON. The rhythm section is playing in safe mode, exchanging tempos even in between songs but showing off a naïve attitude.

The production is not bad, it holds the genre's ruthless ideology high but it could be more fat in volume. It does justice to the songs' message, though. In regards to the "Time of the Sword Rulers" release I should say SKELATOR have somehow abandoned their filthy side in favor of their epic/fast/metallic outline. If EXCITER and VENOM had some portion of saying in their previous songs, now it's HELSTAR and MANOWAR with the STORMWARRIOR, PEGASUS, SACRED STEEL trio (I know they're all contemporaries) pulling the strings. To be honest, I better liked their previous mixture but this formula seems to be working fine too.

The album has quite a long duration, clocking to nearly 6'30" for each song. The second half, in particular, may evoke signs of wear in the listener's mind/ears. Nonetheless, "Death To All Nations"'s dogma is quite understanding in its entirety and SKELATOR's doctrinal primitive Power/Heavy Metal style shall probably meet lots of friends in its way to the Metal pantheon.

P.S.: "Stand Up (For Rock 'n' Roll)" stands out as the catchiest song off the whole album and is a no-doubt banging manifestation you'll fall in love with.