By: Daniel Jackson
Album Type:
Full Length
Date Released:
11/05/2018
Label:
Relapse Records
On “Savagery”
Skinless are very clearly still Skinless, they’re just a better and more
imaginative version of what they’ve always been
and in the process they’ve come up with an album that stands up to their
legacy albums and then some.
‘Savagery’ CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Savagery
2. Siege Engine
3. Skull Session
4. Reversal of Fortune
5. Exacting Revenge
6. Medieval
7. Line of Dissent
8. Cruel Blade of the Guillotine
9. The Hordes
Bonus Track:
10. High Rate Extinction (Crowbar Cover)
The Review:
You generally know what you’re
getting into when a new Skinless album finds
its way to the masses. It’s going to be brutal, ugly death metal, just as
they’ve done for more than 20 years now. But it’s also true that even the most
diehard death metal devotees are likely to feel a need to toy with their own
formula eventually. To a reserved degree; that’s the case on Skinless’ new album ‘Savagery’.
The changes the band have undergone with this album are not the sort of abrupt
sharp turns in direction of bands like Katatonia or Ulver or even Carcass.
Instead, Skinless have gone with a more subtle tact
to freshening things up.
One such change, which is obvious
from the get-go is that the band has opted for a much warmer, dirtier
production this time around. In the past, Skinless has tended to
go with a more “brutal death metal standard” production approach, where
everything sounds sharp, crisp, to the point of feeling clinical. On ‘Savagery’, a lot of that sharpness is
replaced by a grimier guitar tone, and by going with a much more natural, roomy
sound over all. The production works exceedingly well at setting this album
apart from the rest of the band’s discography without even looking at their
compositional choices.
The songs themselves feel different
than anything the band have done too. There’s less of a focus on speed. You’ll
still find plenty of intricate, hacking riffs, if that’s your thing, but you’ll
also find a greater variety to what you’re hearing than Skinless
have ever offered. “Siege Engine”
tries its hand at bigger, catchier riffs to great success, which should make
the track a live staple. Balancing those larger riffs with some blast n’ trem
keeps the song from feeling too self-awarely anthemic, but the song’s a
self-contained riff machine in either case.
Meanwhile songs like “Exacting Revenge” and “Medieval” have something of a moodier
disposition, where the riffs have an almost sludgy texture to them, the pace
sometimes slowed to a near crawl. With that in mind, “Medieval” might be the best song on the album. It’s absolutely
rotten with ugly harmonizing and apocalyptic chord work. It harkens back to
some of the slower moments on Suffocation’s ‘Pierced From Within’, but tackles that
sound in a very different way, and the slower breakdowns in the songs second
half are absolutely crushing.
It’s not that Skinless
have reinvented their own wheel on ‘Savagery’,
so much as that they’ve just found new ways to work within their established
sound. They’re very clearly still Skinless, they’re just
a better and more imaginative version of what they’ve always been. It’s a hard
thing, trying to compete with nostalgia and legacy, but Skinless
has come up with an album that stands up to their legacy albums and then some.
No mean feat for a band twenty years on from their full length debut.
“Savagery”
is available digitally, on CD and LP here
