Skull And Crossbones – ‘Time’
Power Metal
Massacre Records
Release Date – November 14th, 2025
Review By Smudge Smith
Screaming out of Germany come Skull And Crossbones with their sophomore effort. Having not heard the debut, I cannot comment, but I will be getting hold of it asap. Born out of loads of previous bands, with three of the members having been in Stormwich, I can only assume they were not happy with that band’s direction and sought a better outlet for their power metal fury.
Kicking off with the superb ‘Echoes Of Eternity’, they waste no time in getting to it and then go for a bass-driven power metal anthem on ‘Labyrinth Of Time’. Singer Tobias Hubner has the perfect voice for this stuff. Big and powerful with a huge range. ‘Time Thief’ is a proper NWOBHM banger with some fabulous leads and twin harmonies, and boy, does Hubner go high – almost smashed my glasses. Things come down on the darker ‘The Illusionist’ before Hubner gives us a proper scream, and they careen off on a fist-pumping anthem that rises and falls seamlessly before ‘The Price’ gets a dose of the chugs, and they kick up a shed load of dust on some classic power metal. ‘Thunderstorm’ starts with – you guessed it – a storm before they launch into another monumental masculine metal banger. Then we get some shimmer on ‘Passing Hours’ before they give us some more of those superb twin lines on a melodic metal gem. It gets better on the heavier, nastier ‘Eye Of Wisdom’, and then we get a jangly ballad on ‘Nocturnal Dreams’, which is almost a West Coast/Southern rocker. We get some Viking ‘woooaaah’s’ on ‘The Ocean’s Call’, and we’re away on a rollicking shanty.
Blimey, this is good. This is quality power metal expertly played with a monster production. Great songs that are full of excellent cinematic visions. If you’re a fan of Helloween and Hammerfall and like those big epic tunes, then this will be right up your Strasse.
Track List –
Echoes Of Eternity
Labyrinth Of Time
Time Thief
The Illusionist
The Price
Thunderstorm
Passing Hours
Eye Of Wisdom
Nocturnal Dreams
The Ocean’s Call
+ There are no comments
Add yours