There’s something in the water in Loveland Colorado.

Whatever it is, it’s got these boys sick.

Watch for Skinned when they come to your town.  I didn’t get to see them live the night they came to mine, because as per usual in B.F.E., someone at the club skrewed something up.  But they were kind enough to leave a CD with me, and thus the review.

The songs on this CD span back from 1996 all the way up through 2003.  The sound stays brutal throughout even though the players change over time.

Death metal.  The musical equivalent of a very large, extremely painful bowel movement?  From deep within the guts, the putrescence moves; terrible, beau-tiful (?), a welcome relief to the addled body and mind.  Especially the raw stuff that hasn’t been all polished up by some studio in Austin or NYC or South Florida.

This is that death metal.  The kind that cleanses.  The kind that maligns in a way that leaves one’s ears somehow more holy for the indignation.

I will say that to the band’s credit, I prefer the most recent incarnation with Dan Adams on main vocals, only because I am more partial to the really low death-metal vocals a la Incantation over the higher-end black-metallish type vocals.  I also prefer the more straight-up death metal style of the most recent work whereas the older work still shows moments of hardcore-ness which just ain’t my thang.  I want my death metal like a f***ing saw to my skull and I don’t want it to let up.  Ever.  The early stuff approaches that intensity, but the more recent material from ‘99-‘03 reaches it wholly.  I’m looking forward to a Skinning in person sometime this summer.  Wherever you are guys, horns up and head West!

Track List:
We Arise
Darkness Follows
Hard In The Boneyard
Pig Fucker
Bloody Orifice
Slurping The Sour Juices
Rape And Pillage The Village
Silent Screams
Human Herion
Massacre The Weak
Kill Krist
Regurgitated Afterbirth
Meet My Mulcher
Army Of The Dead
Ripped To Shreds
Disfigured Prophet

On Dead World Syndicate Records
http://www.dwsrecords.us

Skinned website:  http://www.skinnedweb.com/main.htm

Booking, contact:  
Skinned
P.O. Box 2945
Loveland, CO 80539

05/11/04