Search - Bride :: Skin for Skin

Bride knocks this one out of the ballpark

H. Mullins | OKC, OK USA | 01/04/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For those of you who've not enjoyed the albums released by these classic rockers during the latter half of the 90's well listen up. Bride is BACK and back harder than ever.



Bride goes back to their roots and early days with their hard driving drums, hard hitting bass groves, blistering guitar work from Troy and Dale's classic vocals.



This new album is a mix of 'Silence is Madness' and 'Snakes in the playground' and 'Jesus Experience' and some of 'This is It'



The title track kicks off into an aggressive pounding of the double bass line and machine gun style guitar work. Dale's vocal work really sets the tone for the whole album from this one song.



'End of Days' takes the album into a direction that mixes modern style a la Marilyn Manson's 'Beautiful People' Dale shifts from his traditional growling vocals in the verses to a semi-high falsetto for the chorus. Driving pounding drums and a tight bass rhythm dominate this song.



'Inside Ourselves' deals with the subject of how we only live to please ourselves (feeding our lust, etc) but points to a Way out of that deception. This is one of the 'themes' of the album name 'Skin for Skin'



'Fuel and Fire' is reminiscent of the Red Hot Chili Peppers song (you know the one where you see people bouncing up and down during that song in concert footage). Again, Bride goes back to the 'Silence is Madness' days and combines a hard hitting, pounding drum rhythm mixed with rhythm guitar that sets the pace for the entire song. Dale pulls the same low, almost mumbly vocal section towards the end of this track like he did with 'Everybody Knows My Name' (Kinetic Faith).



'Breathless' has that 'radio friendly' feel to it - long droning guitars for most of the verse with barely a change in notes, simple sounding drumming and straight forward vocals. However, when it gets to

the chorus, the tempo is kicked up some notches and the drums and guitars show their stuff. Think of some of Skillet or Kutless style radio friendly songs. Dale should make this either the 2nd or 3rd

radio release. I think this one will catch quite a few people by surprise and make people notice.



This album is just chock full of Bride goodness I can't cover all the songs in this review.



Lyric wise, they are very bold in some of the songs, others you have to dig just a little deeper. But that has always been one of the trademarks about Bride. At least they don't make you have to dig so deep that you loose your way around the lyrics.



My Favs: End of Days, Inside Ourselves, Breathless, The Government."

WOW! The Thompson Brothers are Still kicking Metal bands

D. Leiva | Harrogate TN | 09/02/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I honestly do not understand why this Metal Band have not recieved the support of the Media ( both Christian and Non-Christian), Bride has Thousands of Fans around the World!. I keep seeing people comparing their last albums to their Award Winning "Snakes in the Playground". But we all need to understand that Music Evolves and Bands as well. It is unfair for us to Critize this Album comparing it to an album made 15 yrs ago!!!



Dale has Killer Vocals!, this is such a awesome CD, So powerful in Lyrics. Good Screams! and Awesome Bass/guitar solos! ( I havent seen a lot of bands and artists that rock the walls as good as Bride).This is one of the best Christian Metal CDs released in my opinion. You will love it! buy it! and Always remeber... It is Christ whom they glorify, not themselves!"

Bride still strong

Símon Hjaltason | Reykjavik, Iceland | 08/27/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I got this album in the mail and put it on, not knowing what to expect. A band that goes from gothic metal to blues rock, from there to classic rock, from there to post-grunge and from there to nu-metal... let's just say that that's a band that keeps you guessing.

After a confusing, but suspenseful, intro, I find myself yet again surprised by this band. A double-bassdrum power surge of the kind that you'd expect from Slipknot but not from Bride. The song goes on to reveal itself to be a gothic tune in the spirit of Bruce Dickinson and all of a sudden the album cover's similarity with that of Dickinson's Chemical Wedding makes sense. The next two songs take things down a notch but retain a sense of doom and gloom which I've not heard on a Bride-album since 1987's Show No Mercy. After that, the band lightens up and stops flirting with it's dark gothic roots, with the exception of one track.

Don't get me wrong, the rest of the album is not all sunflowers and poppy-seeds. But the band steps out of the gothic murk and takes it's stand in a powerful way (both musically and lyrically) and shows me why I have been listening to it since my pre-teens. As always Dale speaks his mind without reservation and doesn't hesitate to play devil's advocate to get his point across. Remember that line from "Beast" where he says: "Let's go into the poor neighborhoods and machine-gun them all!" Well, on track number 6 (Hard To Kick) he takes on the rhetoric of white-supremacists before shattering it in the final verse. No one acquainted with the band's ideology (best summed up in Kinetic Faith's opening track, Troubled Times) would ever have doubted them, but I think many who listened to this track may have been worried for a while. And I also think Bride will make a few enemies in the christian community with their visceral attack on the amoral policies of the Bush-administration in track 12, but by God, this stuff needed to be said!

As on virtually every Bride-album the closer is a ballad. And even though Hang On falls a bit short of Sweet Louise or Goodbye it's still a memorable, albeit melodramatic, power-ballad. Dale and Troy have come out with yet another great christian metal album and here's hoping that they'll continue to do so for many years to come."