Pulling Teeth

Vicious Skin (2006)

Jordan Rogowski

Steve Hornyak, if you're reading this -- I'm sorry. I should have listened sooner, I should have listened much, much sooner. I know you've been incessantly talking up Pulling Teeth for what seems like years, and I was too foolish to heed those suggestions until just a couple days ago.

Rest assured, I am fully aware the scope of that mistake.

So, to preface: Don't make my mistake. Go out and buy Vicious Skin right now. Order it online, steal it from a friend, I don't care, just get this record somehow. Not convinced yet? Let me tell you why you should be.

This is some of then most raw, unbridled, aggressive hardcore I've had the pleasure of hearing in quite some time. The caustic vocal delivery is only the tip of the iceberg, too, as the rest of the band serve up some crushing riffs and blistering drum rolls while singer Dom Romeo is busy shredding his vocal chords to their very last fiber for each of the record's 11 songs. Every aspect of these tracks broods an intensity and level of musicianship that few bands can match; from the power of "Heretic" to the speed of "Bleeding to Death," they never take their foot off the gas. Be it two minutes or thirty seconds, Pulling Teeth make sure song durations are of no consequence as they can pack the punch of a goliath into a song the size of his toe.

It's hard to even pick a song on the album to hold in higher regard than other, as all the aggression and dynamics were pretty evenly distributed throughout. I can appreciate the incredible clean soloing of "Sand and Cells" just as I can appreciate the incredible blitzkrieg that is "Weapon of Mosh Destruction." Though the title may lead some to believe the song belongs to Bury Your Dead, rest assured that the combination of light-speed riffing and barricaded walls of distortion belong to none other than Baltimore's finest. It's quite impressive how epic the band can sound in such a reserved timetable, and even more impressive that they seem to get better, and more focused by the song. The progression from track one to eleven is something to behold, and by the time the fourteen-minute record is over than the only thing to do is listen to the record again, and again, and again.

I hope you'll forgive me Steve, because I had no idea one person could possibly be so right.

You need to ask yourself, what are you doing right now? If you can answer that question with any statement besides "buying Vicious Skin" please check yaself before Pulling Teeth wreck yaself.