When I found out Rochester, New York’s Kalibas had been struck with the Willowtip disease and disbanded shortly after the release of their split with the equally afflicted Rune, I can honestly say I didn’t bat an eyelash. Kalibas was just one of many new age of spastic deathmetal/grindcore acts from the American Northeast who did little-to-nothing for me. Fans of the band should be happy to know that three of the members of Kalibas; guitarists Matt Colbert (now on bass) and Jody Roberts (ex-Kill The Client) and drummer Kurt Lancaster joined forces with guitarist Scott D’Agostino and ex-Paleface vocalist Rich Kirk to form Skodag. Musically, Skodag have a lot of similar attributes as Kalibas, bringing forth a similarly spastic death/grind style but with a bit more variety, with the main difference being in the vocal department as Rich Kirk’s style is more of a deathcore/hardcore bellow. The band’s demo recording contains three tracks with plenty of unusual time signatures, breakdowns, style changes and a very solid production. Unfortunately, like Kalibas, Rune, and Harakiri, while there are plenty of solid elements in the music, and the musicians are all obviously talented, the music does absolutely nothing for me. In fact, it actually bores me to sleep. I know there are people who love the American Northeast new wave of spastic death/grind, but personally, I think it’s one of the least fun styles of extreme music to listen to. Basically, if you like any of the above mentioned bands, chances are you’ll love Skodag, but I can’t be bothered to even sit through the mere 8 minutes and 51 seconds of the full demo, it really bores me that much.

Written By: Teufel