make a point to post accessible music or not? As much as I would love
to post an album that everyone downloads and loves (and there will be
those, hopefully), in the interest of full disclosure I will be making
balls-out, uncompromising posts. To kick this off, here's something
that no-one will enjoy.
Today I present to you Skinless, a brutal death metal band out of
Glens Falls, NY. Death metal is (generally speaking) ugly music, and
"brutal" death metal takes the genre's misanthropic lyrical themes and
technical, driving sound to an extreme. Guttural vocals, blast beats,
and tremolo picking are all distinguishing sound of brutal death
metal. All of this can be found on Skinless's fourth full-length
release, Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead. While their sound
is fairly standard in many ways, there are a number of things about
this album that make it worth your attention. First, while brutal
death metal is notorious for lyrical themes centered around sexual
violence and gore, Skinless falls among the small but sizable number
of bands which use the genre for political commentary. From its title
to song names like "A Unilateral Disgust" and "Deviation Will Not Be
Tolerated", Trample the Weak... demonstrates a critical stance
on society. However, similar to many of their fellow artists, their
views appear to be grounded in nihilism and disgust with humanity -
essentially, war and destruction are disgusting but logical outcomes
of the human condition which will eventually and hopefully destroy us
all.
Another notable characteristic of this album is how high-energy it is.
"Overlord" begins the album with an effective use of sampling which
leads into an excellent and heavily guitar riff. The guitar,
vocals,and drums drive this album, which unfortunately leaves the base
buried and barely audible. Skinless will be playing the New England
Death Metal Fest in August, and if their live act is anything like
their recorded stuff it's going to be a very rowdy show.
What makes this album stand out to me? I'd never listened to Skinless
before, and upon downloading them enjoyed the sound and progression of
the album. It's fairly short, so if you do check it out it's only a
little over half an hour in its entirety. It's a fun album and
entertaining if you don't take it seriously or expect too much from
it.
Outstanding tracks: Overlord, A Unilateral Disgust, Trample the Weak,
Hurdle the Dead
Enjoy!
Next time: something very different
1 comment:
Ok, well, I didn't absolutely hate it. After reading the review I was expecting something like...cannibal corpse meets rage against the machine (which I absolutely would hate). It wasn't that though, it was actually pretty standard stuff if you ask me; nothing really stood out or grabbed me, but I wouldn't jump to turn it off by any stretch.
I would say the political lyrics were interesting if the guy managed to be articulate at all, which I know is a lot to ask, but isn't impossible. It actually seems kind of silly to put in political messages that can't be heard unless you look them up, but whatever.
Like I said, nothing special here for me, but if I was forced to distinguish between the songs, and further forced to choose a favorite, I would be go with "Deviation Will Not Be Tolerated", because it had some actual guitar parts I could enjoy, and the weird little midget, black-metal-y voice deep in the background made me laugh.
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