Sound Serration: Volatile Idea // Skinners.
Volatile Idea // Skinners – Bath/Bristol, England, United Kingdom.
Photography credit – Meg Manley Photography – Click Here.
Both Skinners and Volatile Idea have been busy since the last time we saw them, further entrenching and carving out their respective positions as two of loudest and most abrasive bands in the Bath and Bristol Punk music scenes, with more and more house shows and festivals under their (probably studded) belts.
The bands often share and cover member absences between them and have both released new material over the course of 2016. Now if you’re one of those who has been lucky to see either band live and lived to tell the tale, albeit with a sometimes severe loss of hearing – you’ll know what that signifies.
And if you’re new to either, I can truthfully say that they are not for the faint of heart.
For our previous work on Skinners – Click Here.
Skinners are truly something behold live. Not only are they approachable and genuinely adore what they do but the sheer energy from each band member and from Skinners as a collective is incredible.
Not only does their particular brash form of crusty Hardcore Punk at least half the time lean towards Powerviolence and even Grindcore but the nature of the entire performance is often utterly perplexing. So much in fact that in a thirty second song, because your poor brain is completely dumfounded and almost shot, you find your self re-evaluating the best way to cook cabbage every ten seconds, forgetting all the crucial progress you’ve just made as soon as the feedback subsides.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t prefer Skinners live to on recording but unlike many bands, Skinners’ earlier recordings are still available to audibly digest and download from their bandcamp page, with an increase in intensity and sheer rage evident as the band progress chronologically.
There is also a cover of ‘Suburban Home’ by the Descendents tucked way in the deep dark reaches and it sounds nothing like you’d expect from the above and is well worth checking out.
While Skinners may not be perfect and are still piecing it together, they have undoubtedly come long way from the band I saw in the ‘crypt’ of my local pub two years ago. Oh and one more thing gents, you should definitely re-record the Ritalin EP.
For our previous work on Volatile Idea – Click Here.
On the other side of the extreme end of the Punk-Rock underground that these two bands inhabit stands Volatile Idea. It would be unfair to say that the band fail to reach the sheer magnitude of intensity that Skinners do, as they reach it through their own means and very thickly riffed means at that.
2016 saw Demo II with two new tracks as well as a cover of ‘Hard Times’ by veterans Cro-Mags.
Volatile Idea’s sound is for the most part either thick, slow and borderline Sludge Metal or with equally thick build ups and drawn out sections found more commonly in the post-D-Beat world, before the band’s tenacious pace carves the pit in two before completely losing its order and becoming one with the crowd.
The aforementioned occurrence being something that for VI, isn’t entirely uncommon.
I was in conversation with the bands lead guitarist Jon Bryan recently and he informed me the band have now taken on a second guitarist in order to broaden their sound. On the whole in fact, both live and in original composition VI have improved ten-fold and the the inclusion of another guitar opens up many more possibilities.
Find find both bands and their music below:
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