Skeleton Glove

 

Skeleton Glove started as a studio side project involving mainly Assaf (originally from Israel but lives in Berlin if I'm not mistaken) who is behind the Berlin-based labels Order 05 Records and Twintoe Records (he also plays in Egonx and played in the Tanning Bats and other projects in Israel like the Uzbeks). There's been probably other people from the Berlin punk scene involved since the beginning but it looks like they wanna keep it a bit secret (what we do is secret!) even if there are clues that Dong Xuan Production was involved and that Skeleton Glove turned into a "real" band with the latest 12"...

Anyway the main idea is to make some kind of super dark, super angry, low-fi hardcore punk in the vein of Gimmick, Gag or Glue (to stay in the G section only).

So let's see!

 

 

I don't know if the word Demo freak does make any sense but if it did it would apply perfectly to Skeleton Glove. In two years (from early 2018 to late 2019) they released not less than four demos (well three actually but you'll see)!

Demos which are very logically called Demo, Demo, Demo #2 and Demo #3. 

I understand that, as a "bedroom black metal" project (or at least as an over-the-top parody of it), the quality of the recordings did not reach the point of a proper release but I nevertheless salute the literal creativity in terms of titles.

 

 

This 2018 demo is only two tracks and looks like it may have been a "solo" project only. 

On the contrary to what the aesthetic makes us expect it does not sound so distorted actually, but almost garagish thanks to the clean guitar parts and the weird little outer-space noises. It's not so fast either, it's totally mid-tempo.

Ok they obviously overplay the "dark" or "black metal" aspect with creepy "horror" lyrics (like a satirical version of a lame Misfits song, and there's plenty of choice) and a totally, and probably literally, "threw-up" vocals style (ahah I can imagine the recording session). 

It does work quite well actually as a fun little bedroom project.

 

 

 More than a year and a half has passed since the first demo and Skeleton Glove is back with four new tracks and another demo called Demo, probably to announce the resumption of activities on new bases (which will be confirmed by the "intense" activity of the following months).

 

 

  But to be honest, I'm quite disappointed by this release: ok the creepy "horror" atmosphere and the "threw up" vocals are still giving the same "color" to the Berlin "bedroom" hardcore punk but the recording quality is very very low-fi and turns the whole thing into a big smelly soup it's really hard to enjoy.

Too bad.

 

 

 Unfortunately I am obliged to make the same observation with the two following demos (Demo 2 and Demo 3): it sounds like shit guys!

 

Ok maybe there are a couple of tracks on Demo 3 which are barely edible (The Brain Is The Glove Of The Thoughts, These Shoes are Gloves to My Feet) but that's all (ok the track titles are funny also). 

So let's not waste any more time and let's go to the real purpose of this review: 

Skeleton Glove's first LP!

 

  Well well well... I've been waiting for that one for quite some time, first announced last December with only two streamable tracks on their bandcamp page and then for the end of March, here it is finally (6 months later!!!)... so was it worth the wait you're gonna ask ?

Fuck yeah it was!

 

Credited at first as the result of a one day recording session (at Dong Xuan Production) by the original duo (Assaf and Jake?), it looks like the project turned into a proper "live band". I know for sure that there is now Marian from Imposition Man and Constant Cold War who also played in Catholic Guilt, Gesture and Cult Values (great bands), Jake, a multi-disciplinary artist who plays in Stinkhole and Stéphanie whose background is unknown to me.

Well in the end all this time was not wasted as, finally, the result does sound good!

 

 

As you'd expect, the band delivers high quality mind sick trash/punk hardcore, it's fast, it's direct, it's mean as fuck, it's a real blast! You can hear screaming, barking, yelling, vomiting in all directions while the drums hammer relentlessly on a crushing rhythm and the guitar, with its rather and quite surprisingly not-so-distorted sound, keeps everything within the limits of an appreciable straight forward melodic construction.
With nine out of ten tracks under one minute thirty these guys don't waste any time, but don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean that all the songs are geared towards fast hardcore, for example there are the awesome, but super nasty, I'm Moving In and Spooky Tower whose mid-tempo construction has a lot to do with their dirty moods... Yes mean, nasty and spooky are probably the key words here, I would say that Skeleton Glove is doing to hardcore punk what Maladia and Slimy Member did to Anarcho-punk in a way, to turn it into something dark but more in the spirit of a genre film that manages the excess for the sake of entertainment than a real depressing and haunting approach like in black metal or that kind of thing (even if the four Berliners would probably say that making a parody of Black metallish bands was part of the original idea). I mean when you got songs called Gimme Chocolate, Booze Ghoul and Trillion of Dead Cops from a band called Skeleton Glove you can't deny a very appreciable sense of humour...

The comparison with the "G bands" mentioned in the intro are more relevant than ever and I can probably also add Candy Apple whose some tracks of their latest LP fall into the same kind of atmosphere and also the dark side of Nasti and many more more or less affiliated with what I call the freak punk scene.

To make a long story short, this album is a success, of course the tracks are very anchored in a very powerful and straight forward genre with a strong identity but with a final result which is nevertheless quite diverse and well made and is not without a very appreciable sense of humour and taste for parody. As in many places where the punk and affiliated scene revolves around a fairly small group of endlessly motivated individuals, these same individuals like to develop various highly musically connoted projects in order to indulge their overflowing love for the various chapels of punk rock, and Skeleton Glove is a good example of a successful "genre band". 

Halloween's not dead!

You can listen to Skeleton Glove on RAF#18.

 

 

 

Rien à Faire is on FB 

and INSTAGRAM