Imagine that you had a time-machine. Imagine that you went back in time, Bill & Ted style, and shanghaiied The Melvins, circa 'Ozma/Bullhead', Einstürzende Neubauten, circa 'Kollaps', and Swans, circa 'Public Castration Is A Good Idea', gave them all rabies and then made them record two albums.
Now imagine that there was a band back in 1991 that did what Khanate and Gnaw have been doing over the last few years, but BETTER.
Congratulations, you have just imagined Skin Chamber.
Formed in 1991 by Controlled Bleeding members Paul Lemos and Chris Moriarty, Skin Chamber were a literal rendition of the idea of 'Industrial Metal', as opposed to the EBM-with-guitars style that exemplified many of the other bands that were lumped into that bracket. Skin Chamber were a full-on ASSAULT of filthy grinding guitars, lurching, dragging tempos, bestial howling and collapsing scrap metal SCREEEEEEEEE.
Just like every other musical form that Controlled Bleeding members turned their hands to, Skin Chamber totally OWNED Industrial Metal. Next to their apocalyptic sludge, Godflesh sound weak in comparison, and it's a damn shame that they only recorded two albums.
LINK REMOVED BY THE THOUGHT POLICE.....whoops, sorry, THE DMCA.
...and 1993's Trial
Sadly, they never performed live - although Lemos wanted to, talking in interviews about wanting to play behind walls of fire - and any chance of more music from them was scuppered in 2008 by Moriarty's death. Still, better to make two - IMHO - perfect recordings and no more than to carry on and embarass yourself like so many other bands have done, and continue to do, right kids?
Enjoy.
color me impressed
ReplyDeletecan't believe I've never heard of this
It was pretty heavily overlooked at the time, a lot like Controlled Bleeding. The 2 Skin Chamber CD's were just re-released through Metal Mind as a 2-disc set, I believe.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that Chris Moriarty died! Fuck!
ReplyDeleteIf you need something to lift you up, I just put Ramases' Glass Top Coffin up:
http://toppledidols.blogspot.com/2010/11/glass-top-coffin.html
It's a sad thing, there's only Paul left of the 'classic' Controlled Bleeding line-up. He recently regrouped and is performing under the CB name again. He's a hell of a good guy and he deserves all the praise and success in the world.
ReplyDeleteI loved Wound when I was in high school. Sucked Inside was on some otherwise shitty R/C comp or another. Still have it somewhere in the stacks. Didn't know that anyone else gave a shit about this band. Thanks for posting this!
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Like Roger, I can't believe I've never heard of this.
ReplyDeletei used to wake my friends up when they slept over at my house by cranking "swallowing scrap metal 5" at full volume. man i was a jerk. i kick myself for getting rid of trial in a fit of late 90's apathy, so this should tide me over until i find it somewhere. thanks!
ReplyDeletebtw, it says the wound file's been deleted...
Strange. I'll re-up it later. I didn't delete it. I wonder who did?
ReplyDeleteRe-upped! Please let me know if THIS one vanishes too.
ReplyDeleteThese guys are horrible and I remember that picture because I thought it was very gay like a gay godflesh, gayflesh.
ReplyDeleteYup, pics are a wee bit homoerotic, but musically these guys shit all over most Godflesh material, although that comparison isn't really fair as they aren't really the same kind of band as Godflesh. I would put them closer to Khanate.
ReplyDeletewhile i do like this, i still think godflesh is a much better band. much more varied and "spinebender" alone is more crushing than any skin chamber.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I like Godflesh, it's just that they did kinda labour the point at times im the latter days. Skin Chamber never had a chance to bore or let me down. Godflesh, for me, peaked with Pure. After that I was no longer really interested anymore.
ReplyDeleteI hope everyone got 'Wound' as it has been taken down after the DMCA whined about it. Seeing as how the original albums are way out of print, and the limited reissue by Metal Mind won't exactly be easy to find, this strikes me as a waste of time, but what the hey.
ReplyDeleteI hope they appreciate the additional li'l boost in interest that this post gave to Metal Minds cash cow, seeing as how most people had forgotten aaaalll about Skin Chamber up until this was posted, if they ever even heard 'em in the first place. Shouldn't they be, I dunno, castigating one of the bigger blogs that posts major label material that isn't even out yet? Priorities kids.....priorities.
ReplyDelete