### Skinless: Foreshadowing our demise

#### 16/02/09 || Daemonomania

It seems the task of reviewing another New York style death metal band falls upon me, but I shall do it whilst heaving a sigh and hitching up my pants. These dudes are fucking wizards of Suffo-worship in comparison to their upstate New York kin Malamor. And from what I’ve heard Skinless has gotten better and more original as time goes by. In 2001, however, they produced a chugging, blasting, and somewhat enjoyable slab of NYDM called “Foreshadowing our demise.” Note the somewhat.

The band takes the formula laid down by the “Handshaker” and his homies and runs with it. Some brutal pit-slamming slow parts spliced in to blasting with a healthy incorporation of those flowing riffs that only Suffocation themselves seem to have mastered. Oh yeah, and the vocals are low and pretty damn guttural. Not “clogged sink” guttural, but close. Unfortunately, unlike the album “Souls to Deny” there’s just not a lot of differentiation between tracks. Skinless throw in a bunch of wrestling, horror, and exploitation film samples to give the songs a unique identity. A good idea. Almost works.

Really, the only shitz that really stick in your head are the more juvenile ones. You see, most of lyrics are about enslavements and affirmations of hatred, but they added a couple of funny tunes to split that ugly mug of yours into a smile. And smile I did when I first read such lines as…

Hacky sack heart and monkey in the middle liver Hot potato pancreas, these are games with my guts! Kick-ball kidneys, leap-frog lungs, soccer stomachs Tennis ball tongues, tug of war intestines Volleyball, baseball, and shot-put with my head Testicle golfing, they’re 15 under par, sanguine sports

… from “Tug of war intestines,” or, from “Pool of stool”…

How can anybody stand the smell A two hundred megaton fart bomb from Hell Diarrhoea and vomit too, I float around in whatever you spew My nostril hairs are singed from the aroma of human dump Here I sit, with the shit – here I be, with the pee

Call me Retardo Joe, but I find that chuckle-producing every time. Doesn’t hurt that the dumb jams are the shortest, with the least attempts at complexity, and the possessors of the most chug-tastic breakdowns. The rest of the tracks try to be overly serious and the band attempts to display too many chops, and the result is a stew of heaviness where the carrots are not discernible from the beef. “Enslavement” is a winner though – an epic riff carries it.

So while I wouldn’t exactly call this bad, I would call it bland. If your vagina weeps for NYDM, then by all means add it to your collection. If not, and you can find it cheap, pick it up for the humour value contained in the “joke” songs and the samples.

6 hundred megaton fart bombs from Hell out 10.

- Information
- Released: 2001
- Label: Relapse
- Website: Skinless MySpace
- Band
- Sherwood Webber: vocals
- Noah Carpenter: guitars
- Joe Keyser: bass
- Chris Mahar: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Foreshadowing Our Demise
- 02. Smothered
- 03. The Optimist
- 04. Salvage What’s Left
- 05. Tug of War Intestines
- 06. Affirmation of Hatred
- 07. Enslavement
- 08. Merrie Melody
- 09. Pool of Stool