Review by Jack on December 15, 2002.

I really don’t know quite where to begin with Rakoth. “Planeshift” is certainly a decent album with some good moments at times, but also it is a mediocre record with some, well, mediocre moments.

Largely playing folk black metal inspired by the works of author J.R.R. Tolkien, Rakoth go about forging their craft in some weird ways. Musically this record is pretty solid, but Rakoth just barely miss the mark with “Planeshift”. The vocalist is at times somewhat difficult to listen to. His black metal rasp is fine, but the clean vocals are strained and it becomes more or less a struggle for me to listen to his crooning throughout 50 odd minutes. The biggest problem for “Planeshift” lies in the fact that Rakoth are either too tepid or too bombastic with their material, never a happy medium. One section may be comprised of some beautiful keyboards and then it will radically jump to another section that keeps the keyboards intact whilst layering it with drums and hard guitar riffs; it destroys the mood the keyboards had working at the start.

While there are certainly some issues that need resolving here, Rakoth has a great musical concept happening and seem to be brimming with musical creativity and ideas. This is a fantastic thing and hopefully a refinement of “Planeshift” should see them only improve in the future.

Bottom Line: A bit of a fuzzy record. “Planeshift” suffers from some fantastic ideas not quite be correctly implemented. Rakoth has got some sound creativity working for them, they just need to find the correct musical equation to exploit it.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 6
Atmosphere: 6.5
Production: 7
Originality: 7.5
Overall 5.5

Rating: 6.5 of 10

Review by Yener on May 9, 2019.

“From this day forward, my people will people will crouch and conspire, and plot, and plan for the inevitable day of man’s downfall. The day when he finally turns his weapons against his own kind. When cities lie buried under radioactive rubble. When the sea is a dead sea, and the land is a wasteland, and that day is upon you. NOW!”

What comes after the intro to this disgustingly beautiful album is easily some of the dirtiest, angriest, filthiest metal ever recorded. 

Skinless are a strange bunch. They have never been able to reach the peak that this album offers in my opinion. For them, this was easily the height of their career. But what a height it is. The onslaught of absolute, unrestrained savagery on display here will leave you shocked. Rarely will you come across an album which sounds so incredibly angry that you have a hard time processing where all this disgust and hatred is coming from.

But wherever it’s coming from, I never want it to end. Despite the album clocking in at just under 37 minutes, it feels like you’ve been having your head kicked in for a week. There is no mercy shown on this album, no quarters given. There are no slow bits. There are no ballads. There is just assault, and enough distortion to level a small country. 

Seriously, the guitar sound is one of the nastiest, grimiest things you will ever hear. I guess guitarist Noah wanted to replicate the sound of a tank, but what he got instead was a nuclear warhead. Every time he grinds a riff, it sounds like bombs are dropping on your face. All of the instrumentation on this album is fantastic though, riffs for days, you can literally hear the bodies being thrown on top of each other in mass graves.

The concept of this album is obviously war, as one can guess from the track titles and album cover, which stands out as one of my favorite covers of all time - as the image is quite an accurate description of listening to the music. A guy in a gas mask shoving a shotgun down your throat and pulling the trigger. Yup, this album certainly sounds like that.

Jason Keyser (Origin) does vocals on this album, and they are excellent. However, it makes me wonder why his vocals aren’t half as good for Origin. Either way, the vocal performance here is quite varied and packs a nice, thick punch. The general production, sound and mix on the album is what makes it so beautiful though. It sounds like a rotting tank covered in mud, rolling over fields of corpses, unleashing hell on earth. Honestly, this could not sound more perfect for the theme and vibe of this album.

A display in barbaric savagery, Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead should not be missed. If for some reason this has slipped under your radar, then it’s time to pick it up, give it a spin, and be decimated.

Standout tracks: Overlord, A Unilateral Disgust, Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead, Execution of Reason. 

Rating: 9.2 out of 10