Title: Kill The Power
Format Reviewed: CD
Format Release: 24th January 2014
Reviewed By: Dan Stoten
There is no easy way to say this, but it must be said. Kill The Power, Skindred's fifth studio album, is by far and away their worst release of a stunning career thus far.
This review starts with me at the Newport five piece's London gig on the 1st February this year. It was a hugely disgruntling and unsettling experience, in that the band seemed to be led by their DJ, who spun music from all genres (not necessarily a problem), and even went as diverse as Macklemore's recent hit, Thrift Shop (a problem). Obviously Skindred have always spliced together various genres, but it has been seemless and essentially led by the guitar, bass and drums of Mikeydemus, Anya and Dan. Something felt very wrong at the gig, which I hoped would be resolved on listening to Kill The Power.
My unsettled feeling was not calmed by what can only be described as a confused mess of an album. As stated earlier, the band have repeatedly combined various music genres perfectly to create a fusion of beautifully judged ragga-punk-metal; yet, in Kill The Power, it seems this deft touch has completely deserted them. What we have here is a noisy, messy album which sounds more like a car crash than a fusion.
Opener Kill The Power is arguably the strongest song on the album and closer to Skindred's roots than many of the other eleven songs on the record. Starting on a solid beat, it develops nicely into a more raucous, edgy track with a simple chorus and just enough aggression. It's far from a classic Skindred track and would qualify as roughly the same as one of the weaker songs on, for example, Roots Rock Riot.
There are two more tracks which particularly stand out, one being Ninja. Again, it's a decent enough song but when considering what Skindred are capable of, it's a disappointment. It stands out on the album again for having a catchy enough, simple chorus which grabs the listener; but it's not on a par with classic tracks from the band. The final track which really stands out here is We Live, which is a truly bizarre thing to find on a Skindred album. We Live is essentially a ballad, a track which aims to pull at the heart strings and bring some emotional depth into what are usually a fairly upbeat (if protesting) band. It's actually a really decent song, a fairly generic emo-punk type track, which shows Benji's voice in a new light. Bizarrely out of place on the record, though.
Other than those three tracks, the rest of the record is a confused noise of a band who seem to be a little unsure where to take their sound next. There are moments on the album in which I actually shook my head and had to move tracks. It's gutting: Skindred historically have been one of my favourite bands. I can only hope that this is an extremely slow-burner of an album that you begin to appreciate once you've listened to it many times.
It could be argued that their style was always going to become slightly outdated, but for me, it would have been a lot better for them to stick to what they know and continue to deliver their cheeky, metal tinged ragga-punk rock. They're a band everyone who heard them had a soft spot for, and a band whom people always knew would give their all and deliver either onstage or off it. I have no doubt that live, they're a band who still put 110% into their performances, but for me, this record represents a major loss of sparkle from a band who will always be high in my admirations for their first four records.
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