What even is skramz

The last few weeks have been eventful and has seen a ton of new releases out of which I’ve listened to probably just handful of albums. There was a toilet themed slam band that put out something with some really sick riffs. There was the album from Serein that used a painting by Thomas Cole called “The Voyage of Life: Old Age” from 1942 as their cover art. Most people that checked it out, complained that it had clean vocals, something not everyone appreciates in death metal. This painting, however, was first used by Candlemass on their phenomenal 1987 album Nightfall and that led to some hilarious reactions from people on Bluesky.

Very pleased to announce that I've narrowed my album artwork down to these four public domain options! I'll put it to a vote, which do you all prefer?

— Sleeping Village Reviews (@sleepingvillage.bsky.social) 2025-01-17T16:38:21.415Z

Nergal from Behemoth apparently decided to become the “oldest teenager” and went on a rant about Christianity and posted something pretty lame on his Instagram. And over the last two weeks, there have been a bunch of fairly interesting death metal albums that came out.

What even is skramz?

What started as me just checking out something Adzes posted on Bluesky went on to become a full fledged phase for me. It was Orphan Donor’s Old Patterns and it went from there to checking out a whole bunch of what is called screamo or skramz. Now, I"m not entirely sure whether the two are interchangeable and I haven’t really checked but they’re all closely linked to hardcore and other *-core genres, grindcore and crust. They often sound similar to each other but perhaps some defining characteristics of the genre include loud riffs, short songs and albums (not typically over 20-30 minutes long) and vocals that are typically high fry screams. The vocals are delivered somewhat rapidly with some slurred words so you really have to pay attention to catch their lyrics.

What is really interesting abut the genre is the wide range of sounds you get to experience within the genre. It is perhaps one of the most diverse amongst metal and allied styles. Ranging from aggressive grindy guitars and fast-as-fuck drums to softer melodic riffs to abstract mathy songs or even the occasional slow, sludge-ey chugging ones to the emotional and sad sounding kind. It is quite the experience. If I’m understanding this right, the variety comes from the various stylistic origins for the genre, and it being a melting pot of sorts, taking inputs from all over the metal spectrum, rather than just a handful of genres such as with thrash for example, which comes from just hardcore and maybe crust.

I remember how skramz and hardcore became something I was listening to a lot more than the other metal I usually played over the last few weeks since it helped cope with a lot of what I was going through. It felt like I’d finally found the right music for my prevalent mood, especially in January of this year when I was in a very hostile place with people I barely got along with. There was a sense of constantly having to censor myself and behave in ways I normally wouldn’t and all the pent up resentment and anger at what I was going through, I could only vent out through the experience of listening to skramz and hardcore.

I’ve found that discovery within the genre is actually quite easy considering how popular it is as a genre and how many people post about music they listen to on Bluesky. We also have frequent, spontaneous discussions on things like how skramz and screamo have become a regular part of what we listen to like this one from Colin where I got to talk about my relationship to hardcore and skramz.

Honestly friends I’ve been more skramz than metal these days I hope that’s okay

— ℭ𝔬𝔩𝔦𝔫 (@colinbwilliams.com) 2025-02-02T01:54:39.822Z

However, I’d like to highlight how some people have created feeds exclusive to this and by just posting a skeet with the hashtag (or even with these words) #Skramz, #SkramzSky, or #Skramz, anyone can contribute to an ever growing list of posts that cover music of this kind. Tim pointed two of these out:

1. Tim’s Screamo/Hardcore/Crust feed
2. the other Screamo feed (by letsgetpivotal)

Other ways to find new music within the genre is to follow certain labels. Zegema Beach Records and (I think) no funeral records are some to get started with. The Zegema Beach roster is quite large and they put stuff out very frequently.

I’ve been listening to a lot of this, some death metal and some hardcore and I’ve talked about some of the highlights. A lot of these are recommendations from various friends on Bluesky so if you’d like to hear more, these people are always talking about loud and screamy music.

What I’ve been listening to

This is a very rough list of music I’ve come across, in roughly chronological order of discovery.

Orphan Donor - Old Patterns

Being the first album I listened to while looking out for skramz, this has become very dear over the last month. Adzes posted about this a while back and I just picked it up. It appears to have a lot of repeating themes within riffs that were melodic and created a kind of emotional motif for all the songs in the album that really maintained the energy of the album from start to end. Or, perhaps in simpler words, the key and scales used for all the songs is quite similar and so it flows from one song to the next smoothly. The sound is very reminiscent of Mastodon’s sound on Crack The Skye, with those delicious sounding open chords and a very similar tone that perhaps comes from a combination of chords overlaid with very stringy plucked guitar parts.

The album was released on Zegema Beach Records in March 2020.

Orphan Donor - Unraveled

Orphan Donor’s latest is quite unlike Old Patterns. It is somewhat slower and with more anguished sounding riffs. It is definitely more sludge/post-metal influenced with more droning guitars, simpler riffs and some very quiet instrumental passages in songs along with feedback on the heavier parts. The vocals too are emotionally dense.

The album was released on Zegema Beach Records in June 2021.

Frail Body - Artificial Bouquet

I have been hearing of Frail Body since quite a while back. I first came across them in 2022. Now I can’t remember if they were touring with KEN mode or Chat Pile then but I just didn’t play them until recently when Gary suggested them to me along with Dreamwell’s Modern Grotesque (also worth listening to for it’s unique take on screamo.) This is a more or less straightforward screamo record with fast, chaotic riffing interspersed with more ambient post-hardcore passages. The guitars have a sort of discordance to them in the fast parts that makes the slower sections all the more epic and melodic.

The album was released on Deathwish Inc. in March 2024.

City of Caterpillar - Mystic Sisters

Mystic Sisters very nearly featured on my 2022 Albums of the Year article. City of Caterpillar released this album after about 20 years. This is more ambient and melodic which sometimes build up into chaotic and dissonant sections. The vocals are not always screamed and their songs have tense but melodic cleans as well.

The album was released on Relapse Records in September 2022.

Eyelet - The Devil Shining Out Your Eyes

This is quite possibly my favourite out of the bands I’ve come across in the last month and it’s some pretty damn good skramz too. Very melodic, there are layered riffs. Starting with the rhythm which is typically very groovey, there is a kind of lead that plays on top for which there’s a harmony too and all together it creates a rich tapestry of sound. A lot of the riffs are catchy as hell too and they’ve really stuck with me even days after I last listened to this.

The album was released through the artist’s own label in December 2020.

Eyelet - Nervewracker

Being the older release from Eyelet, this album is rawer and somewhat wilder than the later one. It’s melodic too, with the same layered approach to riffs. The vocals seem more emotional and pained.

The album was released through Fake Crab Records in December 2015.

Coup d’etat - What Happens After the Epilogue…?

Starting with a piano intro, the record quickly slips into deft riffing that is not just melodic but very catchy in its groove. They switch between screams and tight riffs and tense cleans accompanied by softer, clean guitars. It is quite the experience vocally and in terms of the music itself. The lyrics too are interesting and range from political rants to quite personal matter. The aggressive, high gain guitar tone too adds a sense of urgency to it.

The album was released through Yetzer Hara Records and Tomb Tree in December 2024.

Crowning/Oaktails split

I just want to take a moment to appreciate the cover art on this album first. The sainted cat sparked quite a bit of awe from a bunch of us on Bluesky and Tim mentioned another such: Meta by Thy Catafalque which has a similar sainted cat on it.

The EP itself was a great listen, and I kept revisiting it like much of Crowning’s discography but the addition of the Japanese screamo band, Oaktails, whose only other release is What I Think, What I Love makes it very interesting. Crowning plays a kind of proggy, melodic hardcore while the Oaktails side is more ambient and atmospheric with very sad sounding, angsty vocals.

This was released through Zegema Beach Records in October 2024

Ясность (Yasnost) - Минское море

This was on my 2023 end-of-year list and back then I only barely knew this to be screamo. It was just an album I’d discovered on some streaming service I was using in the autoplay after playing an album from KEN mode I was really obsessed with. It must have been either Null or Void, I can’t remember which. The album plays out quite smoothly, it’s almost as if it’s one song split into seven. The riffs are intense and melodic. It is a tranquil and surprisingly happy sounding album and the lyrics (or the English translations they’ve provided) are almost abstract.

The album was released on Zegema Beach Records in January 2023.

me and him call it us - Loss

This was one of Faith Healer’s recommendations. He’d also suggested Dead in the Dirt along with this which I’ve talked about later on in this article. This is an incredibly chaotic and dissonant sounding grindy record which just hits you with some of the sickest mathy riffs, panic chords, very grindcore-esque drums and really loud screams. Blake Connally, who performs guitars on this also went on to form Dead in the Dirt and Infernal Coil, one of my favourite death metal bands.

This album was released on Stickfigure Recordings in Jan 2006 but I suspect this is the 2020 remaster, as noted on the Bandcamp page.

Stormo - Endocannibalismo

I’ve come to understand that Italy has a LOT of screamo being made and this is one of the best I’ve come across. Tim and (I think) B mentioned this a few times and I checked it out after that. …And Vol. 4 All wrote a review for it too. The most startling feature of the record were the vocals which were a very different kind of scream from most of the others I’ve come across in the genre. They were very full-throated mids to highs, and made the record a very interesting listen. I hadn’t realised this the first time I’d played it but it also features microtonal guitar parts too, which makes it an even more curious listening experience.

They have a new full-length that releases March 21!

The album was released through Prosthetic Records in February 2023.

athousandangelsandseven - athousandangelsanseven

If chugging mathy riffs is your thing, this EP is for you. It has not just piercing screams but anguished semi-clean vocals. The arrangement is primarily in a mathcore format and it’s got all of the stuff: panic chords, chromatic sections and just generally chaos.

The album was released through Zegema Beach Records in January 2025.

Gospel - the moon is a dead world

Very proggy and atmospheric screamo. It was another of Faith Healer’s recommendations and as I listen to it again, I feel like it needs many more listens. The guitar work is immaculate and it’s riffs galore and the drums really match up in every way. There are melodic passages overlaid over feedback, a loud bass, and a sort of cinematic score in the background, seemingly played on the guitars themselves. The blend of progressive rock and hardcore with the powerful melodies makes it a very curious listen. Being their debut release, it was the band’s only release from when the band was together initially.

The album was released through Level Plane Records in May 2005.

Envy - A Dead Sinking Story

Japanese band Envy played this album with three guitarists apparently and it is epic. The guitars play soaring melodies interspersed with soft, mellow clean sections. The songs are sorrowful and poignant. They also seem to have oddly long songs unlike most skramz. There are a lot of post-rock elements to the record too making this a very close favourite.

The album was released through Level Plane Records in August 2003.

Other non-skramz stuff I checked out

Frothing - Vile and Debased

Max from Sublation announced that he had played a guitar solo for this album with a slide (?) and he describes it as an “improvised, fully unhinged” one. Alice Simard, who I’d talked about on my last article on music also performs an “unhinged” solo on this. It is a sort of techy, brutal death metal project with a lot of weird stuff happening. What’s even more interesting is that this album was recorded live and in one sitting, and all the songs were written in one sitting.

The album was released independently in February 2025.

World Eaters - Hounds of Blood

World Eaters’ debut album is a deliciously old school influenced death metal record. There is a good deal of a hardcore tinge making it wonderfully face meltingly good with all those sick riffs.

The album was released independently in January 2025.

Bloodcrusher - Voidseeker

Kep put me onto Bloodcrusher last year when they had put out their debut. The one man project returns with even more brutal, behemoth of an album.

The album was released independently in January 2025.

Wake - Misery Rites

Unlike their more recent album, which I’d talked about on my 2022 end-of-year list, this is pretty much a solidly death metal infused grindcore record with no post-metal influence.

The album was released through Translation Loss Records in February 2018.

Dead In The Dirt - The Blind Hole

Vegan, straightedge grindcore band Dead in the Dirt’s only album is powerful and angry. Blending grindcore, hardcore and the occasional sludge riff and being one of Blake Connally’s projects, it doesn’t fail to impress with some of the sickest riffs around. Lyrical themes are to do with things like religion and bigotry too. Faith Healer recommended this too, like I’ve mentioned before and it has very easily become one of my most played albums of the last month.

The album was released through Southern Lord Recordings in August 2013.

Anaal Nathrakh - Hell Is Empty, and All the Devils Are Here

Do I really have to tell you anything about Anaal Nathrakh? This grindy, industrial black metal just whips. I will forever be a Mick Kenney fan. I hope to do a discography run soon so I hopefully will write more on the article that follows that.

The album was released through FETO Records in October 2007.

Sicarius - Serenade of Slitting Throats

Being a Mick Kenney production, you can bet anything on how this sounds. It’s black metal, but it’s also got a good amount of grindcore in it making it sound very reminiscent of earlier Anaal Nathrakh. Needless to say, it feels angry and is replete with blastbeats from start to finish. The vocals are pushed though some kind of distortion making them all the more intense.

The album was released independently in October 2017.

Well, that’s it for this time. I hope to write more such pieces covering stuff I generally listen to along with newer releases from small projects that caught my attention.