SkinKrawl – SkinKrawl

SkinKrawl’s new self-titled five song EP is about as far from either of those two bands as one can get. More along the lines of a cross between Pantera and Vision of Disorder, SkinKrawl delivers the most brutal attack of metalcore I’ve heard in quite a while.

The tuned down aggression expodes in your face within seconds of the album’s opening track, Self-Inflicted, and never lets up. Each song on the album has several riffs and tempo changes that tie them together – these guys do NOT sound like beginning song writers, that’s for sure. The songs are held together with a serious metalcore backbone, with short bursts of death metal and melodic moments strung throughout to change things up.

Usually bands of this genre write fairly simple “chorus/verse/chorus” songs, but SkinKrawl spends most of their time mixing things up – and they pull it off well. “Nothing Left” starts building as a metal sounding song, meanders off into a death/thrash section that eventually drops the listener off into a heavy, doom-ish riff. Somehow, it all works.

I feel like I need to take a moment and talk about the amazing production of this CD.
As a part-time studio dabbler, take it from me, the sound here is great. The drums set the sonic boundaries of the CD with deep thick kick drums and crisp, clear cymbals. The bass is perfectly balanced, with just enough volume and tone to be in the forefront and not disapper in the background. Any fan of palm-mutes and barre chords will love SkinKrawl’s fretwork – no solos here! The vocals cover the entire spectrum, from yelling, to singing, and back to screaming. And two words for everyone out there – “NO RAPPING”, which makes me give any band one thumbs up right off the bat.

The only unfortunate thing about the band is that there’s at least one more SkinKrawl. While this one is located at SkinKrawl.NET, there’s already one at the .COM address – bad news for one of them.

While most new metal bands come out sounding like bad nu-metal clones, SkinKrawl conveys true emotion through their music. Hard, heavy, punchy metal music that’s enough to make your skin cra … nah, the joke’s just too obvious.

Tracks:
01. Self-Inflicted
02. Once Again
03. Don’t Look
04. Nothing Left
05. Looking Glass

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