Chances are many people have seen or heard the hard-rock group Skrape and its new album “New Killer America,” but people may not know exactly who they are and what they are about.
For one thing, the CD is easy to find at the local record shop because of its gross and disturbing cover of an infected fingernail. Then there is the music that comes off loud and intense. And then the band Skrape becomes instantly recognizable, even if their music isn’t that entertaining or well-crafted.
Maybe that’s what they are trying to do to sell albums and to make up for the average tunes they play. The majority of the tracks on the album are boring, with the exception of “Kill Control” and “Rise” which have a couple good riffs which make them a little more enjoyable to listen to.
When “New Killer America” was released, it became an instant hit. The band’s first single, “Waste,” also became a big hit and has been played on both the 99.7 WBZX and 107.1 WAZU as well as appeared on MTV.
The band consists of vocalist William Luther Keeton, guitarist Michael Lynchard, guitarist and keyboardist Brian Milner, bass guitarist Pete Sison and drummer/vocalist William Hunt.
Skrape’s sound can be compared to bands like Pantera and Static X, only Skrape doesn’t play as well as they do. The entire CD is comprised of Skrape’s front-man William Keeton yelling lyrics into the microphone backed by a good tune with keyboards.
One of Skrape’s best songs is the intense Filter-like song “Good-bye.” The song almost sounds identical to the band Filter’s style of music. It plays hard and has deep and scrappy lyrics. It’s an enjoyable song and one of the bands best tracks.
The fifth track on the album, “Rise”, is one of the few songs that doesn’t showcase any yelling or screaming. “Rise” has a catchy hook to it with understandable lyrics and could easily be one of its more popular songs. All of the songs on Skrape’s CD have a good rhythm, but are lacking in its vocal appeal and lyrics.
Still, Skrape is just the type of band that has the opportunity to be very successful right now. They have a Filter/ Limp Bizkit sound to them that teenage boys eat-up. Hard-rock bands are currently selling albums in huge numbers, no matter who is playing the songs and Skrape’s debut album is no coincidence to this new genre of music. In the past few weeks, two hard-rock bands, Tool and Stain, have had the number-one albums in America.
The Skrape album is an Enhanced CD, allowing the listener to play the music on the computer, watch the “Waste” video and get a link to the Skrape Web page.
Skrape is not the most original band to come around, but they do have a sound that many people will like.
“New Killer America” is selling for less than ten bucks at most record stores. For people that like hard rock and screaming lyrics, this would seem to be a good pick-up. Everyone else should probably stay away from Skrape’s killer voice.
