"We got to drink and smoke and be lazy without having to worry about paying for studio time." - Jason Palaniuk of Skullbot

Skullbot consists of brothers Jason Palaniuk on guitar/vocals and Derek Palaniuk on drums, along with Anthony Beck on bass. Fans of Black Sabbath and other heavy rock bands must see this band live.

Titan, the bands second album was just released and the group is already working on its third full length album.

There are more great new rock bands playing the Seattle clubs than I could ever possibly cover each month in The Sinner. Skullbot is just one snapshot of what a new generation of young rock bands is bringing to the table.

This group has no problem holding its own against well respected bands like The Valley, Mos Generator and The DT's and is frequently booked with these popular bands and other heavy hitters. Not bad for a bunch of kids...

The work of Skullbot is impressive by any standard, but when you wrap your brain around the fact that the band is made up of two 21 year-olds and a 20 year-old, it's pretty mind boggling. I met the band last summer when they played a show at The Comet, and can honestly say it was one of the best live sets I saw all summer. I spoke with the band after the set outside, because at that time, none of the members were 21 and by law, had to leave immediately after playing.

Earlier that evening, I happened to be standing in front of King Cobra, talking shop with some local rock musicians. Out of nowhere, I heard this crazy guitar sound and fuzzed-out distortion coming from inside The Comet. The wall of guitar sound was backed by some pretty heavy bass and drums, which immediately caught my attention. Not to mention the fact that the windows were practically rattling, because the amps were turned up so high. I said goodbye to my friends and rushed into The Comet, which was packed that night.

After pushing my way through the crowd, I got to the front of the stage and was stunned to find what appeared to be three high school kids, blazing away on some "old-school rock". The sound was obviously influenced by late 60s and 1970s guitar rock. What really had the attention of the audience was guitarist Jason Paliniuk, who was also handling lead vocals throughout the set. He was rattling off all sorts of guitar licks in a style originally created by blues musicians, but later adopted by rock guitarists such as Tony Iommi (Black Sabbath), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Joe Perry (Aerosmith), among many others.

His brother Derek was playing heavy beats that were not always necessarily in the standard 4/4 time, which is common in most rock music, and was throwing in lots of quick drum fills that were pretty original. His fills packed lots of notes into tricky little "bursts", before he returned to the beat after each one. He never came back in an awkward spot of the following measure, or lost any time attempting the maneuvers, which could easily have happened, totally throwing the entire band off.

I was having a "This can't be happening" moment, mainly because the guitar style and sound Jason was playing was popular before he was even born. I assumed kids these days just weren't into it any more. Skullbot played three encores and the audience was still cheering for more that night. That was also something I had never seen at The Comet.

If you want like to catch a glimpse into the future of just one genre of Seattle rock, namely the "Heavy Rock Trio", Skullbot is a good place to look. It's not the only genre of rock that will be relevant over the next few years with the younger bands coming on the scene, but it seems to be one torch these guys obviously intend to carry forward.

Skullbot will be performing music from their new album Titan February 20th at The Central in Pioneer Square. I hope to see many of you all at the show.

How exactly did this band come about?

We formed in Stanwood about 5 years ago. My brother Derek and I had already been playing music together for a while, and wanted someone to play some bass along with our songs. I met our first bass player, Garrett Zipp, in art class at our old high school. He was playing an acoustic guitar in class, so I asked him if he wanted to come over to my house after school and play some bass. That's how it all started.

We played a bunch of local shows and parties around town for about a year, which were really fun, but also a little chaotic. When we first started, we were just having a good time, being drunk and loud and really didn't work so much on our lyrics and arrangements. I use to make up about half of the lyrics to our set as we were doing the shows. In time, that all changed and we wanted to write better songs. We started practicing together all the time and working on our songwriting. We eventually recorded our first album, the self-titled Skullbot. After the album was released, we started to get more radio play and began doing more shows in Seattle. We now have two albums out and are busy on a third, with our friend Anthony Beck on bass this time around.

Tell me about the new album called Titan.

Titan's a heavy, gritty, rock album that sounds just excellent when you crank the stereo to eleven. We recorded a few tracks at Egg Studios in Seattle with Conrad Uno, and did the rest of it in Stanwood on our 16 track recorder. We wanted it to have that cool lo-fi sound that a lot of albums that we listen to have. So, making it in our living room ourselves seemed like a good idea. Also, we got to drink and smoke and be lazy without having to worry about paying for studio time. We had all the time we needed to get the songs to sound right.

Were you looking for a particular sound with the album?

We did a lot more with the vocal performances this time around. We played with harmonies and actually took some time in writing lyrics and working on the vocal arrangements. Also, we messed around with a bunch of different kinds of sounds and effects, we used for little interludes and things between songs. A really cool part of the album is a track my brother made himself called "Rebirth." We remembered our old high school had all these cool percussion instruments in the band room. So, he went there with the 16 track recorder and asked the teachers if he could use all their stuff.

They were happy to help with Bongos, timpani, a gong... It's pretty wild. We recorded this album when our former bassist, Garrett Zipp, was still playing with the band. He has some great vocal performances on a couple of songs and wrote the very heavy track entitled "Torpor". The album has its fast moments, and it has its sludgy, more metal ones too. Overall, Titan is a killer record that rocks start to finish.

How do you guys like playing with other heavy Seattle Bands like The Valley and Mos Generator and are those types of bands influential in any way to Skullbot?

It's a lot of fun playing with those bands because the people who come to those shows are there to see some rock and roll. So, our music usually goes over pretty well with everyone at the show. Plus, they're awesome bands. As for them influencing us, I don't know... We've just been making hard rock from the start.

Check out Skullbot February 20th at The Central and listen to the groups' new music at www.myspace.com/skullbot.