Skintrade
Scarred For Life

Swedes trading in skin, scarred for life through a career that begun in 1992 and offered two albums before they fell of the wheel after the album in 1995. Now they return with a third album that they probably hope will rekindle the success (with awards and stuff) of the past as they seem to have gotten together because of demand from fans and when the return rehearsal in 2011 felt good they decided to go for it. 2012 they released a best of album with four new tracks and now in 2015 they are releasing a new album called Scarred For Life that has a pretty plain looking cover art and their logo looks pretty boring as well.

Having never heard Skintrade ahead of this album I cannot say that they sound like they did in the past. Their style is instantly recognisable as classic hardrock with strong melodies and choruses, decent singer and good production. I don’t think they offer anything we haven’t heard before and many songs (not just the cover song) sounds very familiar, not really like an album one hears for the first time. They do keep it straight and to the point with a short playing time and good enough variation of the ten tracks. Overall I would describe this as a very solid production, albeit not a production that will get them noticed in a genre that is getting increasingly more crowded for each day that passes.

It is a pretty good album, the production is really solid and they do everything perfectly by the book. The problem is that they just follow the book, the rulebook, without taking any creative liberties or giving birth to fresh ideas. It feels like they mainly aim this album at an audience that are hostile towards change and fresh thinking within the realm of music, it sounds like something from [insert your band of choice here] and as a critic that is always something of a let-down for a band. It may not be something that stand out and captivate the critics but it is still a very solid album that is fairly enjoyable to listen to.

The opening title track is very solid and very good but maybe not that much of a standout track but it stands out compared with the rest of the tracks on this album. There are some other really solid tracks on the album but as much as it is a good listen, as much is it a typical album of the genre and as little as I have given any other similar bands more than four points, as little does these guys deserve a higher rating. When listening to these kinds of album I tend to wonder where the music is going, so many great musician creates the same albums over and over again – musicians rarely seems to be artists and this is another great example of a quartet of excellent craftsmen rather than great artists.

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