The idea for SKELATOR was conceived by Jason Conde-Houston (vocals) and Max Parry-McDonnell (guitar) in 1998, in San Diego, California. In 1999 Pat Seick (drums), Robbie Houston (guitar) and Chris Fryer (bass) joined and in 2000 the band recorded "Taste My Demon Seed", their first demo. In the following year a line-up change occurred and the second demo, "Behold..." was recorded by Jason, Robbie, Pat and a new bassist, Ben Thompson. At that time they were more of a raw thrash metal band influenced mainly by SLAYER. This line-up didn't last long either and after going though a few trial musicians, Nick Milic (guitar) and Derek Williams (drums) joined the band and SKELATOR began to play numerous shows around San Diego and Tijuana. Pat came back to record the drums for the full-length demo "Give Me Metal Or Give Me Death". Shortly after it was completed in 2003, Nick and Derek were fired.
Around this time SKELATOR adopted a more old school, epic true metal feel. With their original drummer, a twin axe duo (Robbie and Jesse Jensen) and their new bassist Rah Davis, in 2005 SKELATOR recorded their first EP "Swords", which has received great reviews and has given the band a big boost in the true metal scene. A tour in the west coast of America followed in the summer.
In 2006 SKELATOR released "The Gore of War", a split album with their drinking buddies GUTROT. Shortly before the recording, Robbie, Pat and Jason moved to Seattle, WA, but they kept playing around San Diego. Their last San Diego show was opening up for HELSTAR and AGENT STEEL at the first Burning Star Festival.
In 2007 SKELATOR reformed in Seattle with Samuel Rodger (guitar), Zach Palmer (bass) and Joshua Hannenburg (drums) and started playing shows again, supporting SLOUGH FEG. At the end of the year they ventured out to Germany to play the Swordbrothers Festival VI where they shared the stage with bands such as DOOMSWORD, ZANDELLE, SILVER FIST and they were fans' favourites with their high-energy stage show, catchy songs and vocals that can break glass.
After seeing the band's performance at Swordbrothers festival, Metal On Metal Records approached them with a deal. The original idea was to release "Give Me Metal Or Give Me Death", a 2007 re-recording of their demo with the same name, however in the end the remixed and remastered songs from "Swords" EP and "Gore Of War" split saw the light of day on September 13th 2008 under the title "Time Of The Sword Rulers". The CD came with 2 previously unreleased bonus tracks and was adorned with new artwork and booklet with lyrics.
Soon after, in November 2008, the band made "Give Me Metal Or Give Me Death" recording available for free downloading from their website. This one is for all old-school metal maniacs for whom attitude matters more than production and it leans more towards thrash, as these songs were written in the early '00s.
Meanwhile SKELATOR's line-up changed. Johanson Waymire took over the drummer's position, while Rob "Ice Wizard" Nass replaced Samuel Rodger on guitar, but eventually he was replaced by Rob Steinway (who came from FALLEN ANGELS), and the original drummer, Patrick Seick, came back to bash the skins in the band.
The unsteady line-up didn't influence SKELATOR's live (hyper)activity: they have played countless shows, slaying posers wherever they could. They shared stage with bands like PRIMAL FEAR, SLOUGH FEG, THOR, ROTTING CHRIST, ENFORCER, CAULDRON, SKELETONWITCH, MANTIC RITUAL, HATCHET, their label-mates FALLEN ANGELS and more. In June 2010 they traveled many miles to play at Warriors Of Metal III festival in Ohio, alongside OMEN, CAGE, ASKA, IMAGIKA, JACOB'S DREAM, ICARUS WITCH, TAUNTED, BEYOND FALLEN, DANTESCO and many others. SKELATOR's shows are always packed with pure energy, emanating from the stage and spreading among the fans.
In the meantime they were working on new material for their first regular full-length CD entitled “Death To All Nations”. The recording was finished in the spring of 2010 and the album released in July 2010. After 12 years of the band’s existence the time has come for their studio debut album. Unlike many other bands, SKELATOR never lost their zealous passion for true metal and they still sound convincingly genuine delivering 8 hymns of over the top epic heavy/speed metal. The production is definitely better than of any of their previous recordings, but the “raw metal” and rebellious attitude of the guys always shows through.
In 2011 and 2012 the band kept on conquering the stages, mostly in the Seattle area, playing with such acts as WITCHHAVEN, EVIL SURVIVES, SPELLCASTER and most notably opening for ACCEPT, SYMPHONY X, SABATON, ANVIL and RHAPSODY OF FIRE.
The work on SKELATOR’s following album, “Agents Of Power”, continued. The concept for the major part of it, a 40 minute epic titled “Elric: The Dragon Prince”, was actually carefully crafted for over a decade, so there are also some new versions of older songs on it, while the first 4 tracks are brand new and are catchy bad-ass metal anthems that will have you singing along instantly. Overall, this is the most epic SKELATOR release to date, displaying big versatility of the band’s music.
“Agents Of Power” CD is scheduled to be released on April 27th by Metal On Metal Records. On the same day RAW Metal (Metal On Metal Records division) will also release “Give Me Metal Or Give Me Death” (the 2007 re-recording of SKELATOR’s 2003 demo, previously available only for downloading) on pro-tape, limited to 66 copies and including also the very first band’s demo, “Taste My Demon Seed” from 2000 as bonus.
Read more...