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Skin On Flesh – ‘Terrible and Sad’ [EP] [Album Review]

Skin On Flesh’s new EP ‘Terrible and Sad’ is monstrously good, surging with visceral energy, hammering percussion, and the compelling voice of Laura Jiménez Alvarez.

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Skin On Flesh ‘Terrible and Sad’ [EP] album artwork

Terrible and Sad, the recent three-song EP from alt-punk/alt-rock duo Skin On Flesh, pivots on frustration – intense frustration with life on both personal and societal levels. Bristling with anarchist fury, Terrible and Sad is the sound of a band having a great time expressing their exasperation.

Skin On Flesh explains, “Terrible and Sad is a compilation of three songs talking about terrible and sad events. ‘Aquí Está Tu Pendeja’ talks about a terrible scene inside a relationship, and ‘Se Perdió Mi Corazón’ talks about how sad it is to fall out of love. The music is inspired by mid-2000s emo punk rock with a mix of Spanish and English lyrics.”

Recorded in Coyoacán, Ciudad de Mexico, Skin On Flesh cooked up four songs for the EP. Only three made it onto the EP.  The fourth track, “El Tiempo,” will be featured in the new expansion of the video game: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.

Based in Berlin and made up of Laura Jiménez Alvarez (vocals) and Michiel Sybers (bass, guitars), Skin On Flesh plans to release an acoustic EP by the end of the year, as well as recording their debut album, slated for release in 2024.

The EP begins with the title track, short, edgy, and dripping with grimy guitars atop a swashbuckling punk rhythm as Alvarez’s riot grrrl vocals inject the lyrics with boisterous tones.

“Aquí Está Tu Pendeja,” which translates to ‘Here is Your Asshole,’ opens with Alvarez’s vocals narrating the collapse of a relationship because of infidelity. After the intro, the tune flows into rumbling percussion and a fat, throbbing bassline. Half punk and half alt-rock, this is the kind of song Hole and L7 wish they could have written – dark, dirty, and full of grimacing guitars.

Skin On Flesh, photo by Max.B Photography

Skin On Flesh, photo by Max.B Photography

“Se Perdió Mi Corazón,” or ‘My Heart Was Lost,’ rolls out on stripped-down harmonics, akin to the White Stripes, while Alvarez sings in Spanish, imbuing the lyrics with forlorn timbres. A breakdown composed of tires swooshing on pavement enters, shifting the music into a pushing rhythm, raw and thrumming with pressing gloomy vocals.

Terrible and Sad is monstrously good, surging with visceral energy, hammering percussion, and the compelling voice of Laura Jiménez Alvarez.

Terrible and Sad Track Listing:

1. Terrible And Sad
2. Aquí Está Tu Pendeja
3. Se Perdió Mi Corazón (This Is The Part That We Hate The Most)

Run Time: 8:24
Release Date: April 28, 2023
Record Label: Independent

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