Bones came in recommended as an honest grassroots death metal I have to hear. A few facts boosting their credentials: Bones are on Planet Metal, the young label scooping everything worthy in the Illinois and Michigan underground (like Zuul and Wastelander), and the trio is the phoenix which rose from the ashes of the Chicago derelicts Usurper.

Having gone through the self-titled debut several times I would love to hear Bones in the live setting. Promoters everywhere, if you are looking to get the crowd going, sign them up. Bones would be perfect in the smoked out crowded bar as an opening act to some bigger name death metal crew. Without any need for big production, they deliver crusty and energetic death metal based on riffs which could not have been any simpler. There is just this strap-on can-do attitude and the self-restrained chaos emanating from this album. Whether the Bones guys are older and experienced, but this album is a lot more the devil-may-care ruckus party, rather than the angst driven modern deathcore people are getting tired of.

With the riffs made for gang shouting and bottom end having the subtlety of the Mack truck (666), the songs on Bones are made for the pit. Introspective moments, if any, are quick amidst the persistent death march (Good Die Young, Slowburn). The overdistorted bass on Bloodlust reminds actually of old Venom and their dance of the possessed. The record also has a decent amount of punk vibrancy and Motorhead inspired mocking speedy thrash, interspersed throughout the album to bounce these tunes from moshing to delirious (March of the Dead, Bitch, Lonely Death). Vocals are also not bottom scraping death bellows, but more of the throaty thrashy variety. And if one begins to just settle in with this brew a crazy-ass sick solo will drive you off your rocker (March of the Dead, Bitch, Delirium Tremens).

Without much regard for melody and far from being technical, Bones are a perfect outlet when you just want it to “let it rip”. They have shown that one can be perfectly brutal, even without excessive downtuning, or when your riffs sound in parts as borrowed from Killing Machine by Judas Priest (although I understand the most trad metal sounding Apocalyptic Warrior is a cover of another defunct Chicago band called Devastation). Booming and in your face, Bones is very much what the old school death metal fans are looking for.