SKIN FAILURE
Radillac SMALL POND
Former Black Peaks members get out their Hi Tops
FOR THOSE WHO were enough in the know, Black
Peaks were one of the best bands that Britain had produced in the last decade.
For these people, the return of Peaks frontman Will
Gardner and bassist Dave
Larkin to the scene with
Skin Failure, alongside members of Bristol noise rock band Memory Of Elephants, will definitely be enough to get excitement levels pumped way up for this debut before a note has even been heard.
A word of warning, though. If you were expecting a Black Peaks-style album of serious, progressive, conceptual metal, then you might want to temper your expectations somewhat. This is a far more straightforward and tongue-in-cheek project, with Radillac diving deep into the instantaneous thrills and excesses of pure thrash. Nothing wrong with that, of course, because when Skin Failure lock into the Motörhead groove of Meat Pond / Down By The River,
they’ll have your neck windmilling like a loon.
Although Will spends most of his time here growling and grimacing like prime Tom Araya in a powerviolence band, when he does utilise the full range of his exceptional voice on Southern Fried Homicide / The Radillac Battle Sequence, he manages to channel both Randy Blythe and Rob Halford in the same song.
As you can tell from the songtitles and artwork, Skin Failure aren’t being entirely serious here. But regardless of intent, the quality of the thrash they’ve managed to whip out on this debut is actually far greater than a lot of bands that are exhaustingly sincere about this type of music. Big, dumb, beer-swigging, headbanging music it may be, but Skin Failure sure know how to make it loads of fun.
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FOR FANS OF: Power Trip, Municipal Waste, Havok
STEPHEN HILL