Skeletal Remains release 'Relentless Appetite' • GRIMM Gent

“We feel it’s more brutal than the last one,” says Chris Monroy (guitars/vocals) about “Fragments of the Ageless” that is due for a release March 8, 2024. “We were pushing ourselves to be more extreme—vibing on that as much as possible.” Friday didn’t only mark official start of the preorder of the album, but also the release of “Relentless Appetite”.

Watch the blood-soaked video directed by Steven Grise of 197 Media here:

“Fragments of the Ageless” will be available in the following formats with first preorders already up under the following link: https://skeletalremains.lnk.to/FragmentsOfTheAgeless

Ltd. CD Digipak
Ltd. Gatefold transp. magenta LP
Ltd. Gatefold lemon colored LP (300x) available at cmdistro.de and Evil Greed
Ltd. Gatefold transp. light blue LP (300x) available at cmdistro.de and various other retailers
Ltd. Gatefold Opaque Spring Green LP (US version)
Ltd. Gatefold Sunspot LP (500x) available from US Indie outlets and SKELETAL REMAINS
Digital album

Lyrically, SKELETAL REMAINS took the left-hand path. Rather than topics and themes inspiring the cover art, Dan Seagrave‘s (Suffocation, Entombed, et al.) famously atramentous detail conversely informed the lyrics and album title. Monroy says they had working titles that they conveyed to Seagrave, but the final painting sparked the title, “Fragments of the Ageless”. Of course, the usual influx of sci-fi, historical, personal struggles, and fantastical also played a part.

“Seagrave completed the cover art before we had a title,” Monroy says. “That was kind of different, but it worked in our favor. The cover art directly inspired a few of the lyrics and musical themes, tying multiple pieces together, which is a first for us. We did show him different pieces of art—10 in all, I think—that we liked, so there was direction. We wanted a mixture of things, with the final idea being a creature being taken apart and its DNA extracted. Seagrave’s crazy brain made it all come to life.”

SKELETAL REMAINS recorded “Fragments of the Ageless” at various home and professional studios. Most of the guitars, bass, and solos were tracked DIY. The band wanted the drums to sound as imposing as possible, so they booked Trench Studios (Intronaut, Hirax) with John Haddad, while the vocals were cut at Birdcage Studios with Allen Falcon (Pestilent Death). Once the album’s core had been recorded, Monroy and the team sent their sick slab to Swedish studio ace Dan Swanö (Asphyx, Incantation) for mixing and mastering.

While SKELETAL REMAINS have had four full-lengths since forming in 2011, “Fragments of the Ageless” is the band in their highest grotesque gear yet.