Artist: Skinless
Title: “Trample The Weak, Hurdle The Dead”
Label: Relapse Records
Release Date: 6/13/2006
Genre: Grindcore
Rating: 5/5
To Trample The Weak, Hurdle The Dead should be the mantra of every technically inspired Grind outfit on the planet. The bombastic approach that defines the genre is as much about the imagery as it is of the end-result on the listener’s tympanic membrane. Leaving the ear-bled ruins of Death Metal’s underbelly gasping for their own survival, Skinless has returned with what might be a new benchmark for the genre.
After years of battling line-up changes and losing key songwriter and front man Sherwood Webber in 2005, the quartet struck back with their most decisive blow upon the overture of generic melody in the Hard Rock realm with Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead. Drawing upon the foundation of the acclaimed From Sacrifice to Survival and taking the momentum of the new lineup to heart, Skinless marry their blistering best upon a subtle undertone of melodic uprising.
Labeling a Grind influenced outfit as ‘hook laden’ is about as acceptable as a faux-hawk and eyeliner in the scene, however, the balance between catchy riffs and wreckage-provoking onslaughts is not only intimidating, it is unparalleled by Skinless’ contemporaries. Each of the eight passages on TTWHTD propels focused writing and fanatical execution in a truly demolishing fashion. There is nothing pretty about being beaten upside your already weak cranium by Skinless but its intriguing how you’re probably tapping your foot and bobbing your remains to the final blows in the process.
In that regard, New York’s Skinless stand apart in attracting attributes as harbingers of the harmonized passage; they are bombardiers beckoning brutality and followers of factious dissension that dominates the scene. The opening greets you with a grinding girth strong enough to smother even the most cynical with its cerebral crush and the most brutal, bombastic blister. Their seismic sensation will sooth the most savage of the beasts in the same manner as it will crumble conceptions created by critics of the this scene.
So prepare to trample your temptations and weak willed wonders by the skewering of Skinless’ insanity. They hurtle your dying corpse with a convincing execution of exceptional Grindcore greatness with their third full-length for Relapse Records and in my humble opinion have given the listener the Grindcore album of the year.
Track Listing:
1. Overlord
2. A unilateral Disgust
3. Deviation Will Not Be Tolerated
4. Trample The Weak, Hurdle The Dead
5. Spoils Of The Sycophant
6. Endvisioned
7. Execution Of Reason
8. Wicked World
Official Website: http://www.4skinless.com