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Vanity Project
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www.vanityproject.co.uk

Skin the Pig - Its not the truth its what you believe

Northern Ireland based Skin the Pig have delivered a quite exceptional three track of heaviness. If a label is needed then Metal Core is probably most apt. 'Wraith' is an exercise in exorcising demons to a backdrop of pile drivin rythmns though they are not adverse to slowing things down and taking the music back from the edge to offer some light amid the darkness. 'Exponential' sounds like the devil himself is being belched out of Johns throat while 'Dau Tranh' takes things down a notch to begin with, just to teade your mind, before laying siege to your eardrums. Of the Three tracks this is probably the most mature sounding with some nice guitar sounds. Goes to Prove that a decent recording can be accomplished in a bedroom with a minimal budget, as this is an impressive sounding demo. Ones to watch out for sure. G

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Metalhammer
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"This northern ireland based quintet have two feet firmly planted on planet metalcore. The band's latest demo "It's Not The Truth, It's what You Believe" has a reasonable production job, and the music showcased herein puts Skin The Pig firmly between Florida metal titans Obituary and mighty Euro death metallers Arch Enemy. They also throw in a little bit of Killswitch Engage into the mix and have the occasional Akercocke-style gothy inteludes. Some promising stuff here."
7/10

Some nicely put together blu sky/cloud dominated artwork houses this 3 track from 5 piece Skin The Pig, and with an Arkangel-esque intro, my ears are firmly opened. "Wraith" begins things and has some quality moments, crossing Reprisal/Liar with Boysetsfire, Texas is the Reason and Life of Agony, with some good sung vocals.

There are some good exponents of this sound in the UK at the moment, Johnny Mental and the like, and I think Skin The Pig could be pushed into the bracket of those worth another look, being more than just out and out mosh, injecting some nice sombre clean sound moments and then rocking out again. A very solid opening song with plenty of twists and turns and despite the simpleness of the riffs, this still kicks.

Not too bad a production for a demo either, drums sound a touch odd, moreso with the clicky, mid sound, but it has a hefty amount of power and nothing is lost.

"Exponential" is so far up my street, it is living in my house, eating my biscuits, and choosing what website to look at on my computer. Imagine Thirty Seconds until Armageddon, Torn Apart, Stand, As the sun Sets, Xiii PFP all gathering together to throw ideas around, then we have this belter of a song. Harsh guitars and vocals, disturbing breakdowns in the vein of Deadguy and Kiss it Goodbye, and basically is a pure face peeler.

"Dav Tranh" has that same stomping groove and use of chords that Earthtone9, Will Haven and Stand up Guy have, same mix of clean and distorted hypnotic guitars. A good song indeed, rounding off a very nice trio of diverse songs covering hardcore, metalcore, noisecore and doing all pretty well.
They also wander into Tool territory quite heavily on this song, imagine if Tool were a metalcore band, then this song might be what they emit, topped off and pieced together with some simple but nice and odd ambient sounds.

Look forward to more works from Skin The Pig.



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Skratch the Surface
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www.skratchthesurface.co.uk

"Skin The Pig – Its Not The Truth Its What You Believe"
(demo/self released)

Mixing up various elements of thrash and hardcore, Skin The Pig are an energetic 5 piece that bring to mind a number of influences ranging from Morning Again to Breach to Slayer.

Although they utilise a lot of generic elements of the metal core scene such as Slayer inspired riffs melding into pounding beat downs, the band keep things interesting by daring to write fairly lengthy songs and injecting some varied structures into proceedings.

It’s perhaps to early to judge the band fully yet and just on the strength of three tracks – this is very much a demo from a band in its formative stages, but there is certainly a lot of potential and creativity on display throughout these three tracks and you get the sense they’d kill it in the live arena.

Musically the performance throughout is tight and proficient and vocalist John has a frenzied bark that can more than hold its own, although some of the more melodic moments come across a little weak.

The verdict overall? A promising demo which contains some ferocious riffs and some thunderous drumming but you get the sense that with a little more distilling and refining Skin The Pig could deliver something a few months from now that could REALLY compete on a bigger level. Keep an eye out."

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I Love Metal
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www.ilovemetal.co.uk

Skin the Pig - It's not the Truth. It's what you believe.
(UK) [Independent Release)

Skin the Pig (nice name BTW) seem to like their metalcore and noisecore a lot, and all the big names in those genres are given more than passing nod in terms of stylistic and riff content. Nasty guitars with big breakdowns and punchy drums back-up the yelps and growls of vocalist John whilst melodic singing and ambient passages add texture in amongst the brutality. Math-metal rears its discordant head in "Exponential" (ironically?) and "Dau Tranh" adds art-house leanings (including a nod at fellow Irishmen Stand-Up Guy).
That's not to say that STP are mere copycat artists. The influences are mixed well into their attempt at their own sound and are probably only so noticeable due to the bands early years. A few years and more tracks should allow Skin the Pig to develop their own identity whilst tidying up its execution, which in this field should be watertight.

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Metal observer
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Skin The Pig - It's Not The Truth, It's What You Believe (7/10) - Great Britain - 2003
Genre: Hardcore
Label: Demo
Playing time: 17:20
Band-Homepage: Skin The Pig

Tracklist:
Wraith
Exponential
Dau Tranh

This is actually quite a bit more enjoyable music wise than the average Hardcore release as I'm sure by now you have realised how much I despise the genre. Musically there is definitely some good riffage going on here which is reminiscent of some beefed up 80's Thrash Metal at times and diverges into some clean guitar passages and the standard heavy Hardcore riffs. Vocally however is where I dislike much of this album as Hardcore screams are to my ears like scraping a blackboard. The dual vocal approach is actually pretty good though as although I don't like the style it does make you think "my name is legion" and the vocal diversity doesn't end there. There is also the occasional Death Metal grunt to further enhance things.
Overall although this is not my personal cut of tea it does show that these guys certainly have talent if they can make a Hardcore record that doesn't make me cover my ears once for its entire, although short, duration.

(Online September 11, 2003)

First things first, love the name. Really invokes a sense of safety!

Disc Opener Wraith is a 6min+ monster. Starting off with a sludgy, but penetrating riff. Kinda the musical equivalent of a mallet to the temples. After not too long, the vocals kick off and all hell breaks loose, in a good way, picking up speed and aggression along the way. Wraith has several speed and mood changes and it is during these slower moments that we at last get a glimpse of Skin the Pigs potential.

Exponential however is a huge step backwards. Messy and confusing at the best of times, which is a real shame because there is something here that threatens to get under the skin, but is then beaten to death by another bad rhythm change.

Closer Drav Tranh (don’t ask, no idea) manages to claw back some respectability. An exercise in how to write a storming angry sounding rock song, everything here meshes well, creating a much better sound. A straight up stormer, it’s real proof that the potential is here somewhere.

So, to sum up. What we have here is a real missed opportunity. Wraith and Drav Tranh show that there is a really good band here. Unfortunately, the band don’t seem to realise that you don’t have to be clever to be good on occasion just trying to be too clever for their own good just doesn’t leave too good a taste.

Review by Nat Whitham

Rating :: 3/5

Skin the Pig are emerging from the depths of the Belfast metal scene as one of the freshest and hardest bands in a long time. Over their three years in existence their lineup and sound has slowly been carved and etched into their current hardcore line up, which can range from gut wrenching shits inducing screams to some quite melodic guitar and vocal lines.

Track one, WRAITH, opens with the drums and guitar building up a march beat which crashes into a super fast guitar riff, then all lets loose as John Hughes lets loose one of his trademark squealing, screaming, vocal melodies. A strong start to the demo which drops into a much softer melody slowly building up to a ball crushing chorus. The track starts to finish up with a very emotional softer vocal melody with hard guitars, and an angry burst from all to kill the track.

Track two, EXPONENTIAL, begins with a sort of start, stop, with the drums and vocals, and then fires into the most disorientating barrage of drums, super fat guitars and vocals. John goes into a vocal chant/talk which reminded me of Eddie Vedder on Vitology, but of course John does it with just that bit more of a threatening tone in his voice. The track runs to the finish with more mind blurring antics from the guitars and drums and of course anger fueled vocals.

Track three, DAV TRANH, see a return of the Vedder style voice-over, put to good effect wit the undistorted guitars, which would occasionally crash into more gut wrenching noise level violations. A more subdued track, if this is possible with STP, but is none-the-less rocking and ends on a usual full-on, leave-your-ears-bleeding finish, STP never fail to pull off.

Not my usual choice of afternoon listening, so it helps confirm to me these guys talents. These guys have pulled of a great first demo, and it shows they are good musicians as well as interesting songwriters. G on drums is extremely powerful and tight for the speed he drums at, the two guitarists Matt and Dave have a good range of styles and abilities, not just stamp the BOSS pedal and wank. John's voice is super strong, and he has shown he can handle softer melodies as well, although at times does sound like he has graduated from the School of Sonic Arts of Dani Filth. But its all good.

As far as metal bands in NI go, these guys are mere toddlers, and it looks like they are learning to run very quickly.