Hibria used to slay. Defying the Rules may have had a horrible story but at least the music was entertaining and high octane. It was chock full of power metal classics like "Steel Lord on Wheels" and "Millennium Quest", but The Skull Collectors gives us "Tiger Punch" and nothing else. Maybe I'm just broken, but nothing clicks here. The only catchy track is the aforementioned opener, and I think one of the reasons I like it is because it's just changed the way I pronounce Sagat's moves when I'm playing Street Fighter. And strangely, there's a LOT of shit going on here. If the vocals aren't wailing, there's a blistering solo being shredded on either guitar OR bass. The drums are kind of unnoticeable thanks to the unfortunate tendency to just double bass their way through the entire album, but the fact of the matter is that they're always going full speed. There's no reason my attention should wander while this album is playing, there's always something going but it's almost always dull. It's like some dude showing up at a party and juggling for six hours. Yeah, you can juggle, awesome, can you do something else? No? Well then get the hell out.
Oddly enough, the music hasn't drastically changed since Defying the Rules. So, as at least a moderate fan of the previous album, I should at least like this album somewhat. That right there is proof, to me at least, that Hibria has just completely forgotten how to write a song. It's even more diversified than the previous album, with tracks like "Sea of Revenge" and "The Anger Inside" treading on some more traditional heavy metal aspects at times, but none of the songs are anywhere near as GOOD as the last one. I suppose I could just chalk this one up to me "not getting it", but I've given this bastard two years to grow on me and it has yet to do so. So sorry, Hibria. You'll have to try again next time. Fans of the previous record may like this, but then again I liked the previous record and this one bores me shitless.
RATING - 27%
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