The Altar of Sculpted Skulls

The EP The Altar of Sculpted Skulls followed Graveyard's impressive 2009 debut album, and the Barcelona, Spain–based death metal group displayed remarkable growth in musicianship. Returning to the obscured production of the band's Into the Mausoleum EP, the opening title track here whips up an overdriven maelstrom of guitar distortion and riffs played so fast they kick up a sonic dustdevil. It’s when this six-string storm settles that the dynamic guitar work nearly upstages Julkarn’s demonic barking. “An Epitaph Written in Blood” follows with a matured intro that pulls influences from the darker corners of classical music before shapeshifting into a riff-heavy rocker that finds the band veering slightly away from its early-'90s Swedish death-metal influences, while retaining just enough of the genre’s foundations to add its own innovations. Those craving Gusi’s relentlessly bludgeoning drums need look no further than “Deathcrowned,” an apt title for a song that ruthlessly batters listeners with hamfisted rhythms and crumbling walls of guitars. “Cult of the Shadows” flirts with an instrumental direction.