Feb 102013
 

This may be a Sunday, but it’s not a sleepy one here on our metallic island. I have many new musics to spread around — so many that I’m dividing this round-up into 3 parts, this being the first. So as not to get too bogged down in rolling these out, I will attempt to minimize the verbiage, which of course goes against every fiber of my being. Ready, set, GO!

BILL SKINS FIFTH

Let’s start with metal from Finland. I’ve been following this band (whose name will be recognized by sharp-eyed fans of the movie Silence of the Lambs) since 2010, and have reviewed both of their EPs, which I recommend. For background, and a link for free download of their last EP (which we hosted), see all my previous blather here.

Bill Skins Fifth have now completed work on yet another EP, this one with the title For the Threat, and on Friday they premiered a lyric video for one of the new tracks, “Spotlight Junkie”. As I’ve come to expect from this band, “Spotlight Junkie” is a hook-filled slice of galloping/jabbing melodic death metal, with skull-scouring vocals, tasty dual-guitar dueling, a catchy chorus, and high energy. Check it out next (the EP can be pre-ordered here): Continue reading »

Apr 242011
 

Our focus today is on an unsigned Finnish band named Bill Skins Fifth, whose debut EP caught our attention late last year, and who have just released a new one that’s outstanding. For a band that’s only two EPs into their recording career, they’re way up the learning curve and making a very strong statement that they’re a band to watch.

Bill Skins Fifth (whose name will be recognized by sharp-eyed fans of the movie Silence of the Lambs) was formed in Salo, Finland, in 2008 and in 2010 they released their first work, a four-song EP called Act One. We featured that EP in a post last December as part of our Finland Tribute Week (here), and what we said then bears repeating: “They’re technically capable and they have that special talent that separates bands who have a future from those who don’t: They know how to write songs. To be more precise, they create music that has distinctive melodies and a recognizable structure. They establish themes, they explore variations on those themes, and they return to those introductory themes again.”

Yesterday, the band self-released their second EP, From What Lies Beneath — five songs with a total run-time of just over 19 minutes. It accomplishes what you like to hear from a new band whose music you like: It shows progress. Don’t get me wrong — Act One was damned good — but the new EP shows increasing sophistication in the songwriting and increasing assurance in the execution. (more after the jump, including a link for download of the new EP . . .) Continue reading »

Dec 072010
 

Thanks again to all the commenters who’ve sent us band suggestions for our ongoing tribute to Finnish metal — and by all means, keep those suggestions coming. We’re still calling this thing a “Tribute Week”, but we’re being really flexible in how we define “week”.

For today’s installment, we decided to focus on relative newcomers. We picked one band off the suggestion list in fairly random fashion — Medicated. And for our lead item, we’re focusing on a band with the attention-grabbing name of Bill Skins Fifth, who contacted us about their first EP in September. We listened to the EP’s opening song back then and got immediately addicted. But we still put the EP aside because of something else we were in the middle of, and our attention wandered, as it often does.

We’ve kept that EP on our list of music to check out more thoroughly, and now maybe it’s just as well we didn’t write about it earlier, because it’s a natural fit in this Tribute Week series.

If you like music that sticks in your brain and rattles the fuck out of it at the same time, we think you’re going to dig both of these outfits. So stay with us after the post to learn more and hear some tracks.

Continue reading »