Track Premiere: Shed The Skin – “Skeletal Firestorm”

With muscle like Kyle Severn (of Incantation and Acheron) on drums, Matt Sorg (of Ringworm) on guitars, and Ash Thomas (of FaithXtractor) on guitars/vocals, it’s easy to see why Shed The Skin immediately dominated the Cleveland death metal scene after the release of their debut full length in 2016. Two years before that marked the release of their demo, so this band’s held steady on the blast for over five years and counting. But let’s be real. The killers behind Shed The Skin have slayed in the extreme metal underground since the late ‘80s. We’re dealing with some masters here, so listen up. 

On June 26, Shed The Skin release their third album, The Forbidden Arts. With cover art provided by James “Human Furnace” Bulloch (Ringworm), The Forbidden Arts stands as 11 tracks of hard-hitting, old school Satanic death metal executed by four absolute warlords in this scene. We’re excited as hell to host this premiere of the opening track from Shed The Skin’s third album.

“‘Skeletal Firestorm’ sets the blazing tone of the album,” says Kyle Severn. “‘Ripping death & pummeling doom with vomitus bile as its voice…’ We wanted to start the album off with a ripping thrash attack, and that’s what this song delivers. It’s also got a pretty cool hard-driving mid-tempo section before the thrash kicks back in. Lyrically, this tune focuses on pyromancy divination, a forbidden art from 2nd century Asia. A still-untranslatable proto-language was inscribed on bone and plastron, then cast into fire to scry from the soot marks.” 

“Skeletal Firestorm”

Preorder The Forbidden Arts today.