Skeletizer Credit: Courtesy

Skeletizer are a metal band. That name probably makes it a foregone conclusion. In the past year or so, the new Orlando group have been building visibility and cred with an increasing frequency of live shows, all of them on very notable bills among the local heavy vanguard. So far, it’s mostly been a street-level rise. But if you haven’t caught on to them yet, you’re about to get up to speed real quick. 

On Saturday, Feb. 21, their debut collection — the seven-song mini album Sounds From the Doomshed — is released. When it drops, you’ll be dropped into the passenger seat of a hard-rock hotrod that rips right off the line like a hurtling fireball. With opening track “Skeletizer,” the quartet of Nikki Sorenson (guitar, lead vocals), Tyler Rosenberg (lead guitar, vocals), Steve Jonker (bass, vocals) and Garrett Ward (drums) slam the pedal with maximum metal in an instrumental blitzkrieg that hits the pavement with wheels ablaze. From there, they don’t let off the gas until the closing note. 

Front to back, Sounds From the Doomshed is a skull-peeling thrill ride of hard-charging, high-riding heavy-metal thunder. Dark, hulking riffs certify its doom bona fides up front. But unlike their terminally forlorn trad-doom contemporaries, Skeletizer are looking to raise some goddamn Cain here. Even with some trench-digging breakdowns, this record is a stampede that storms like a thrash-baptized Sabbath. It’s got aggression, velocity and flame-throwing guitars with a cumulative effect that’s the best of all heavy worlds.

One of the hottest metal debuts in a long time, Sounds From the Doomshed drops everywhere Feb. 21. Besides streaming, it’ll also be available on colored vinyl and cassette on Skeletizer’s Bandcamp. Finally, the free release show is that night in Sanford with Gainesville psych punks Supertwin, Orlando thrashers Ensanguined and local experimental punk act Future Bartenderz (7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 21, Tuffy’s Music Box). And because they’re party boys, there’ll also be a Skeletizer beer by Sideward Brewing on hand called “Black Water Void.”

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This Little Underground

This article appears in Feb. 18-24, 2026.

Music columnist.