Tracklisting: 1- Good To Be Back | 2- Don’t Call It Love | 3- Stronger | 4- Can You Feel It | 5- The Book Of Your Life | 6- When I’m With You | 7- Trigger Inside | 8- Indestructible | 9- Redemption | 10- Bad Reputation | 11- Born To Rock & Roll
From the ashes of Jagged Edge, SKIN became one of the best British bands of the `90`s hitting a high with an appearance at the 1994 Monsters Of Rock festival. After becoming disillusioned with the Rock Scene in general, they eventually called it a day in 1998. But things change, and after a personal plea from Live Nation Europe promoter Andy Copping they re-united in 2009 to play Download, returning to the scene of their greatest triumph – Donington. December sees them on their final tour before calling it a day once again. So what do we get here? Steve and Mark had a listen:
I had been looking forward to this for a while now, ever since exchanging e-mails with Myke Grey earlier in the year just before the big Donington gig. The interim ‘Up Close and Personal’ acoustic CD and DVD from late last year went down well and hinted that this final release might be something special.
It was always going to be hard though, with SKIN being right up there with my favourite bands of the day.
So here we get more or less what you might expect: something that sounds typically SKIN without trying too hard to really cash in on the good publicity they have had since reforming. The sound starts out like the first CD but there are touches of the more evolved, but less commercially successful sound of their third album ‘Experience Electric’.
The good news is that if you are a SKIN fan then you are unlikely to be disappointed with ‘Breaking the Silence’. Nev still sounds the business and Myke still writes a song like he always did- beautifully. Opening pair’ Good To Be Back’ and ‘Don’t Call It Love’ sound like classic SKIN albeit with a little restraint that perhaps comes with age, before the latter kicks into high gear!
‘Stronger’ changes the pattern slightly coming across as a very definite sing-along rocker but infused with a real country rock sound that may or may not do it for you.
To be honest there’s only a couple here that I’m not too sure about: ‘Can You Feel It’ just doesn’t catch with me, and the almost Celtic sway of ‘The Book of Your Life’ is nice enough, with a great performance by Nev, but again it doesn’t quite do it for me. Kudos though for trying something a little different.
Everything else is pretty much golden! ‘When I’m With You’ has hints of ‘To Love Somebody’ in the chorus, a very nice slow one. ‘Trigger Inside’ brings a fresher sound that recalls the later stuff he band put out first time round. I like it, but then I’m a fan of the ‘Experience Electric’ album, it’s as metal as we get. ‘Indestructible’ is a darker, more brooding heavy groove of a song, again with that later sound, another winner in my book, and it sits nicely paired with the previous song.
If you need a lesson in closing an album with killer rather than filler then the final three are the business. ‘Redemption’ is one of the most emotive ballads I’ve heard in a while and the full electric treatment elevates it from the acoustic sketch we heard last year. ‘Bad Reputation’ rocks loudly and closer ‘Born to Rock N Roll’ is the best track on the CD. This band was too good to split last time round and they still are. The fact that they remain to a large degree ‘unknown’ outside of the UK is everyone’s loss. Bands as good as this don’t come round every day.
My only disappointment is that only the wonderful ‘Redemption’ from last years ‘Up Close’ made it here: but that really is splitting hairs.
4/5
