reviews - born with teeth

METAL HAMMER
Scald: ‘Born With Teeth’
Enter Irish crew SCALD and their demo ‘Born With Teeth’. Credit where credit’s due, the musicianship is pretty tight if only standard death metal fare. But are lyrics like "protein torso split hatch / systematic caesarean birth / eggs into swarm burst into life", and song titles like "The Flycatcher Orifice" and ‘Maggot Farmer’ really necessary? Maybe I’m just missing the point but (5) for the music and (1) for the lyrics.
[MD]

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SLAYER ZINE
SCALD - "Born With Teeth" CD (SCALD)
There is something incredible brilliant about this band!!!!!!!!!!!!! You must worship this!! In your face Thrash guitars dual vocals, insane drumming, distorted bass and disturbing lyrics. Mix SLAYER and CARCASS and it might not sound like SCALD but anyway ...... just get this!!!!

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The Metal Observer
Scald – Born With Teeth
Anyone who has read my other reviews of SCALD will know exactly where I stand. SCALD are amazing. And if the other demos show how good they are then this, the original, shows their development. Not as slow and not quite as good but still amazing.
I can't stress enough how good SCALD are.
Pure genius. (Online November 20, 2002)
8.5/10 Niall

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TERRORIZER
Scald / ‘Born With Teeth’
Scald did something a bit different on this, their debut 8 song promo CD. The song structures and guitar are heavily modeled on Machine Head, yet this sounds nothing like the Bay Area mob. Instead, the vocals are in a Black Metal style, the simple and straightforward bass lines move along in the back ground while the drums keep pace with the guitars, which are sharp and professional. Scald manage to walk the line between the overground and the underground.
4/5 [AC]

DARK WAVE
SCALD : Born With Teeth
(Self released, 28'42', 8 tracks, power / death-metal) : I done a review about another release of the band from Ireland in the black-metal page. Scald is born few years ago, in 1991, and they should sign with Head Not Found from Norway. This new release from Scald is different than the previous, different 'cause the musical way is less black-metal and more power death-metal. Sometimes near of Napalm Death in the vocals with the use of echo but also with compositions more power-metal and less death-metal, Scald shows another vision of its music. Maybe different of the others releases but very good and very original. (8/10)

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THE WORST FANZINE
Scald “Born With Teeth”
Belfast's Scald are first up with their Born with teeth release sound quality Ex. Kev says: Excellent, this is what I want more of, good solid underground music, very doom/ death/ thrash with black metal thrown in, reading other reviews from other mags, they describe the sound as Bay Area/ Black Metal. This is a new genre almost. I promise that this band will be signed soon, if not then it's a miscarriage of justice, despite what a certain mag thought about them. (5/10 for the music, 1/10 for the lyrics) It is more difficult to write as good as lyrics as they have than any old words. "I still feel cheated, a life wasted in the name of unseen fathers. I trusted, I lost." Are amongst some of the lyrics they have written to a quality only matched by some black metal bands and few death metal bands, if I was you I'd write on the off chance that they might part with a demo, coz I recommend them highly. (9)

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AILLEACHT NA DORCHA
Scald “Born With Teeth”
Scald are now a three piece from Northern Ireland. They started in 1993 and they have developed a style of their own. It is a heavy aggressive guitar style with vocals to match. The style is hard to describe but I think that death metal will give you some idea. It varies from being slow to quickish in tempo but the aggression is kept throughout. The singing style covers all the shades in between singing and the death growl. On the recording there are two voices on most songs with the background voice being the lead singers which was added onto the original and it works very well. The lyrics are very good as well angry and aggressive about life as they see it. This is a promo CD that has been sent around in an attempt to get a deal. This is a very good demo that has potential so contact the band to see how they are getting on…

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WALLS OF FIRE
Scald - Born With Teeth (Unsigned)
Autorbewertung: Erscheinugsdatum: 1997
Schon aus dem Jahre 1997 stammt das Album "Born With Teeth" der Nordiren SCALD. Auffällig ist zu Beginn ein leider sehr dünner Sound der die Erwartungshaltung etwas reduziert. Musikalisch sind SCALD auf "Born With Teeth" am ehesten dem Death Metal zuzuordnen. Zum einen gibt es nämlich deathlastige Vocals, die ab und an von total nervigen Screams durchbrochen werden, zum anderen gibt es schwere Gitarren, die sich durch sämtliche Tempobereiche schreddern. Dazu kommen immer wieder Melodien, wie man sie von der Atmosphäre her von anderen Bands der grünen Insel gewohnt ist. Sicher nicht ganz so mythisch wie bei Primordial, sondern eher etwas bodenständiger. Was den Hörgenuss aber wie schon angedeutet wirklich stark beeinträchtigt, ist die Gesangsarbeit. Sind die Growls noch im (unteren) Durchschnitt einzuordnen, so sind die oftmals eingestreuten Screams wirklich unter aller Kanone und zerstören das ansonsten ganz gute Gesamtbild. Denn instrumental ist bei den Briten alles in Ordnung. Die Drumarbeit ist angenehm abwechslungsreich und die Gitarren klingen schon aufgrund der oben geschilderten Atmosphäre äußerst interessant. Klar, auch hier werden keine Bäume ausgerissen, aber im Gegensatz zur Vocalarbeit kann man eine gelungene Performance attestieren. Für Fans die auf der Suche nach außergewöhnlichen Sounds sind, sollte SCALD eine Hörprobe wert sein. Wer aber Überraschungen gegenüber nicht allzu sehr aufgeschlossen ist, sollte hier definitiv seine Finger von lassen. Zu erhaschen ist "Born With Teeth" über paulruscald@hotmail.com oder über www.scald.co.uk .Autor: [Oppossum]

[Translated]

Already in 1997 the Northern Ireland based Band SCALD released their album "Born With Teeth". The first impression is unfortunately not the best impression, as the sound of the album is actually too thin for what you expect af a Death Metal production. The heavy guitars are worth a listening and provoke a quite strange and eerie mood, combined with loads of mystic melodies, though not as mystic as e.g. Primordial. But the vocals are baffeling all descriptions; though the growls are typical Death Metal (but below average), the screams are just unacceptably bad and impair the high quality of the music. The drumwork is pleasantly varied and the guitars sound really interesting - not only because of the mood mentioned above. OK, the music means no re-definition of the whole Death Metal scene, but all in all the album is worth a listen for everybody who's looking for extraordinary sounds. If you don't like to be surprised, leave it!

[thanks to Jens Gellner for the translation]

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ZEITGEIST ZINE
Scald “Born With Teeth”
In an unprecedented bout of unanimity, the outright winner of this months “We’ve Bent The Rules ‘Cause It’s Not Really A Demo, Demo Of The Month Award” goes to SCALD and “Born With Teeth”. Yes, this is, with out doubt one of the finest not-quite-a-demos of any genre I’ve heard in a long time. No ifs, buts or maybes. There should be a long queue of Roadrunners, Century Medias, Earaches outside their door now. Scald have somehow discovered a genre all of their own. The riffing is pure metal, with touches of classic thrash, merging with bay area touches that wouldn’t be out of touch on a (whisper it) new Metallica album. The vocals have to be heard to be believed. It’s black but beyond black, if that doesn’t sound too tapish. There’s out of harmony harmonising which makes everything slightly schizophrenic. There’s not a duff track here. If pushed, I’d plump for “Maggot Farmer” or “The Flycatcher Orifice” but everyone will have a favourite. Easily, demo of the month. Write, begging for a copy.

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DEATH TO DEAD THINGS
Excerpt from VARIOUS ARTISTS No Holy Additives Vol.2 (CD Eldethorn)
“…Northern Ireland’s Scald next who give us a track from their private pressed CD "Born With Teeth". Scald are a hard band to define as they can remind me of Lard sometimes or Eyehategod at other times or, like on this track (Flycatcher Orifice) they have an original feel which I can best describe as powercore. Check 'em out.”