Pulling Teeth

Pulling Teeth: Vicious SkinVicious Skin (2006)
Chainsaw Safety

Reviewer Rating: 4.5

Contributed by: AnchorsAnchors
(others by this writer | submit your own)
Published on March 2nd 2007Steve 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 assure.

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.

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Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not respon sible for them in any way. Seriously.

Anonymous (March 7, 2007)

Mike Riley sings. Dom Romeo plays guitar. Other than that...thanks.

asxyouxwish (March 5, 2007)

i took guitar class in high school with tony the guitarist. we sat around listening to nirvana and he would occasionally toss chairs around the room. he was kind of a hesher then and tended to listen to bad nu metal/butt rock (i preferred bad nu metal and pop punk). i saw him a few years after we both graduated working at a taco bell and he hooked me up with tons of free food. then years and years later i run into him at a pulling teeth show. and they covered nirvana. the circle was complete.

this is in or around livejournal.com

Anonymous (March 4, 2007)

Anchors is a fool who only plays recreational sports because he's not good enough in any of them to play in a serious league.

-Chinatown

Anchors (March 4, 2007)

Posted by johnnydanger on 2007-03-04 11:04:05
anchors sucks

This from a guy who has Robots and Empire as one of his top-rated bands.

moneenerd (March 4, 2007)

I just went to their MySpace. SO FUCKIN GOOD! Reminds me of Swarm!

Anonymous (March 4, 2007)

mike riley is the singer not dom romeo

johnnydanger (March 4, 2007)

anchors sucks, pulling teeth doesnt

Anchors (March 3, 2007)

Oh, gay jokes, the peak of intelligence and maturity.

I cannot wait until my next review so you can comment and call me a butthead.

Gator_Boots (March 3, 2007)

What do you know? Another worthless review.

"My boyfriend told me to listen to this band, and now I feel bad that I didn't!"

Christ.

feeeding5000 (March 3, 2007)

That "BSD" post is totally fake, considering anonymous didn't know that Will stopped posting as BSD like, 2 years ago...

Amazingthemike (March 3, 2007)

Good band... I love their mix of early crossover and mid-90's hardcore.

Adam_K (March 2, 2007)

Best record.

Anonymous (March 2, 2007)

Anchors is a date-rapist.

-BSD

Anchors (March 2, 2007)

Yeah the way the liner notes are set up is confusing.

Singer is actually Mike Riley, Dom Romeo is the guitarist.

My bad.

Anonymous (March 2, 2007)

I tend to think of scores as fluid, based upon the band...a 9 for a Fugazi album is better than a 9 for [insert name of band on cover of current Profane Existence]. Scores are more subjective, otherwise most albums would merit 3-7. Most reviews seem to be 6-10, unless it's a metalcore or emo-pop review.
-feeeding5000

eyeslikebombs (March 2, 2007)

I said that a 4.5 is LIKE a 9.5. Because I'm aware that there's a fuzzy area when dealing with 5 stars where an album can be a 9.0-9.5. But since there's no way to give an album a 9.5, four stars is pretty close.

Anchors (March 2, 2007)

Yeah, sorry about that link, it's actually:

www.myspace.com/pullingteethmd

And a 4.5 = 9. But hey, what do I know, I only took 1st grade math and have done like 500 reviews here.

Anonymous (March 2, 2007)

Palehorse does a better job of worshipping Integrity...but this is pretty good too.

Anonymous (March 2, 2007)

4.5/5 is actually just 9/10. so you're wrong. also the link goes to some random girl's myspace page. and this band is garbage when i finally did hear it.

eyeslikebombs (March 2, 2007)

4.5 stars is like a 9.5 out of 10. Do reviewers really believe that every album they give 4.5 stars to is a 9.5?

I wish I liked as much music as people who review music here do.

Anonymous (March 2, 2007)

dom's not the singer dude, he plays guitar. reread the liner notes.
but other than that blunder, good review and this is an excellent record.

skankin_in_the_pit (March 2, 2007)

I'm not sure if I like these guys as much as Mike's other band The Spark, but this is seriously awesome. I definitely get a slayer vibe from some of these tunes. Good review.

strangenotes (March 2, 2007)

"Hey, do you like Integrity? Me too!"

Anonymous (March 2, 2007)

do you listen to this cd with your frat?