Band:	Skinbleed
Album:	Starving And Burning
Style:	Post-metal
Release date:	August 01, 2007
A review by:	Jeff

01. Disguised Macabre Dance
02. Khaos Aenima
03. A Ghost That Walks
04. Naked Souls
05. Shapeless

First EP of a young French act, Skinbleed, "Starving And Burning" is a good way to start a career in my opinion. Not that the album is a pure masterpiece of Metal but the band has some good ideas which should be developed and with time it should work for the band.

"Starving And Burning" is a good release actually. The band has not done the mistake to write songs which sound too French. Because in France a lot of newcomers who choose to play Hardcore are clearly most influenced by the French NU Metal scene than anything else and we have some real repetitions in the scene. All those bands just play the same kind of music this is really boring in the end. Even if Skinbleed plays Hardcore, they have some good Thrash and Noisecore influences. I'm not saying that the band plays the same music than Mastodon but they play a kind of mix between Thrash and Hardcore with some really dark and even progressive influences. This is direct though and not so complex but it's never commercial or anything this is maybe not perfect and the five songs are not real hits but it's well done and I'm really optimistic for the upcoming releases of Skinbleed.

The EP is not particularly well recorded but for an auto-production, the goal is scored. The sound is maybe just a bit too loud some time but all in all we can easily listen to the different musical parts and instruments in all the songs. Skinbleed is also composed of good musicians even if here, in reason of the music that the band uses to play, it's a bit hard to know if they're master of Metal or not. But the singer has a good voice and the songs are well played, it's the most important thing here, because with this band we weren't looking for something technical anyway. In the end I can tell you that it's a correct EP with nice artwork and all what you need, Skinbleed is already on the good way.

Mixing Hardcore and Metal, "Starving And Burning" will not be something for all the metalheads. However, the band is different than all the other Hardcore / Nu Metal French bands that we can listen to everyday in the country. If Skinbleed is able to follow this road and still write songs which are clearly between Metal and Hardcore, it should be good for the future of the combo. Let's keep an eye on Skinbleed their first EP is promising release.