Release Date: 18th April 2026. Record Label: Self Released. Formats: DD
Beneath The Skin - Tracklisting
1.People 04:45
2.Internal 04:37
3.Rivalry 04:25
4.So Strange 03:59
5.Fade Away 04:58
6.Sunshine Of Your Love (Cream Cover) 04:21
7.Rearranged 05:21
8.Lies and Politics 06:34
Members
Mike Riley - Vocals
Russell Conner - GuitarT
Josh Bowles - Bass
Jimmy York - Drums
Review
Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metallers Beneath The Skin self titled debut album taps right into the murky underbelly of the NOLA scene whilst still keeping themselves closely to the wider underground scene with flashes of influences from the likes of SLEEP, Electric Wizard and The Melvins. The record itself is a mixture of different styles that does take time for everything to fully gel together.
The recording techniques used for the album are quite stripped back with that sudden “LIVE GIG” feeling appearing throughout the majority of the album. That’s one of the albums main strengths with Beneath The Skin not being bogged down by flashy progressive gimmicks and just playing some mean sounding NOLA grooves with a reflective DOWN influence being used to great effect.
The songs that appear on the record can be wholly aggressive and even superbly riff-driven; that was all the range in the heyday of NOLA and Southern Metal. The record works best when the band merge certain Stoner Metal structures to an ever-increasing gloomy atmosphere which adds a level of slight creepiness along the way.
The lyrics are quite understated which taps into the area of the nineties and early-millennial era of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. The sudden shift into Grunge dynamics brings small movements of Alice In Chains musical delivery with Beneath The Skin creating their own great blend of Doom & Gloom heaviness into the mix especially on tracks such as: People, Rivalry, So Strange, Fade Away and Lies And Politics.
Beneath The Skin may add some realistic situations into their lyrics which have an emotional quality and experience to them which makes the music even more powerful. The band creates a superb mid-to-slow instrumental flow where everything is played with real muscular precision that only adds real weight into everything that’s being played on the whole album.
There’s an excellent cover of the CREAM classic track Sunshine Of Your Love which doesn’t stray too far from the original. However, Beneath The Skin adds that unforgiving and seedy style of NOLA heaviness which gives it quite an uneasy and gloomy sound compared to the original. The raw melodies and sinister vocal delivery make this a great cover through and through as the song becomes possessed by a DOOMED OUT and BLUES ROCK spirit especially within the epic instrumental solos that we all know and love.
Beneath The Skin is packed full of great tunes and they bring a sense of world weariness to the party that allows their album to have a cool outsider effect which should hopefully go down a storm with the Sludge/Stoner Metal community.
If you require evidence why it’s always great to be part of the actual heavy metal underground scene and not the mainstream then it’s thanks to great bands such as Beneath The Skin releasing outstanding albums such as this the mainstream scene can never offer!!!
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Good Boy PR for the promo.
Links
Facebook | BandCamp | Instagram
