The Skull Collectors

The Skull Collectors was released in Japan first, by Spiritual Beast on 10 December 2008, with the worldwide edition following on Remedy Records in 2009. After the debut Defying the Rules had built its reputation as an import, this was the first Hibria album with a proper Japanese release behind it. The opening "Tiger Punch" is a sprint named after exactly what it delivers, fast riffing and Iuri Sanson's piercing top register both wide open from the first bar. "Reborn from the Ashes" and "Sea of Revenge" run a melody through without dropping the speed, and do it more cleanly than anything on the debut. "Devoted to Your Fear" and the title track are constructed pieces of around six minutes that use shifting metres and key changes freely without ever becoming diffuse. The closing "Wings of Wax" spends eight and a half minutes on the Icarus myth and ends the record on the gap between quiet and loud. This album took Hibria to Loud Park 09 at Makuhari Messe on 17 October 2009, and their name spread quickly in Japan from there. Japan has been their fastest-reacting market ever since. The Japanese edition is POCE-16043 with one bonus track added; in October 2024, timed to a Japanese tour, King Records reissued it remastered as KICP-4084.