FABRYKA MUSIC MAGAZINE - Skrew [reviews]

Katarzyna NINa Górnisiewicz | Review submission: About |

Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame |Metal Blade, 1992|

01. Orifice, 02. Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame, 03. Cold Angel Press, 04. Charlemagne, 05. Gemini, 06. Indestructible, 07. Feast, 08. Once Alive, 09. Sympathy For The Devil, 10. Poisonous, 11. Prey Flesh

The debut album from Skrew brings familiar names, thrash guitar riffs and... a bit of amateur sounding industrial. However, these features can be easily explained.

Skrew, the follow up project from guitarist and vocalist Adam Grossman, rose from the ashes of a thrash-experimental band known as Angkor Wat. There were a few other famous musicians hailing from the same Corpus Christi city in Texas involved in the Angkor Wat line-up such as Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails, Reinholder) and Mike Titsworth (Pail leader, currently working with the Dolphin Teeth project).
When Angkor Wat quit in 1990, a few past members continued to express their musical passions in the newly created band called Skrew. Along with the growth and importance of the industrial metal scene, there were a few meaningful names on the market, so they were invited to work on the debut Skrew album. It's enough to mention Al Jourgensen (Ministry, Buck Satan & The 666 Shooters), Phil Owen (The Skatenigs, Revolting Cocks), Mike Scaccia (Ministry, Rigor Mortis) and Jim Marcus (Die Warzau) to draw your interest at this point.

When it comes to the samples and electronics utilized on this album, keep in mind we're talking about the beginning of the 1990's, when music wasn't made with the use of home studio computers and all the advanced software of today making things easier. In contrast, big analogue gear – synths, samplers and mixing boards with quite basic functions did the job back then. This may be the reason why the samples used in the background tracks on Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame sound somewhat dated.

There are two types of songs on this album. The first brings brooding and heavy atmospheres applied to the arrangement of songs such as "Orifice", "Cold Angel Press" and "Feast". The other collection brings strong rhythms and aggression; this group includes tracks like "Gemini" (a side note: Gemini is Adam's zodiac sign) and "Once Alive", as well as "Charlemagne" with strongly accented bass lines. Some songs are black metal-esque in nature like "Indestructible", along with the title song "Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame" and a cover version of The Rolling Stones "Sympathy For The Devil" which is quite difficult to recognize at first.

"Poisonous" seems to be an outsider on this record due to DJ style scratching and rapping on vinyl. Your attention may be spiced up a bit by "Prey Flesh", the song that is on the ending of the album where the voice of Jim Marcus reminds me of Douglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb) a lot, even though this may not have been planned.

Burning In Water, Drowning In Flame is the noisiest song from the entire Skrew discography that has been released so far thanks to the guitars and vocals. However, the mastering could have been done better.

(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz, Fabryka Magazine, 12/16/2012 - update. Proofreading: Scott M. Owens. This review must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)

PS. Skrew reunited in 2010 and it seems they have come full circle with some of the newest releases from the album Universal Immolation as the music sounds like a return to their primal, thrash-industrial sound.