Top Ten of Twenty Thirteen: Dustin Boltjes of Skeletonwitch

Dustin Boltjes

Dustin Boltjes


In 2003, when American teenagers were raiding the makeup sections of their local Halloween shops to paint up like their favorite black metal bands… there was Skeletonwitch.  Today, in a landscape that finds them surrounded by a) bands begging their own fans for money, b) vest-wearing, by-the-numbers “retro” rock nostalgia and c) heavy labels blindly signing bands based on breast implants… there, still, is Skeletonwitch, a band that has successfully carved its own left-hand path with an unwavering quality of metal and old-fashioned hard work. This organic approach has garnered legions of fans and an undeniable level of respect in the worldwide metal community from both sides of the stage.
2013 brings us to Serpents Unleashed, the group’s fifth and latest release. Recorded with Kurt Ballou (Converge, High On Fire, Isis) in Salem, Mass. (insert bad “witch” joke here), the album – which features artwork by Baizley, who returns to the fold for the first time in six years – is another blistering helping of two-and-a-half minute blasts of blackened metal amalgamation
Naturally, Ghettoblaster sought to find out what SW’s Dustin Boltjes was seeing inspiration in this year.  This is what he was rocking.
Gorguts – Colored Sands
Carcass – Surgical Steel
Noisem – Agony Defined
Kvelertak – Meir
Nero Di Marte – s/t
Suffocation – Pinnacle of Bedlam
Ulcerate- Vermis
Watain – The Wild Hunt
Portal – Vexovoid
Wormed- Exodromos 
(Visit Skeletonwitch here: http://www.skeletonwitch.com/.)