Reviews: Skirmish - The Crooked And The Cavalier
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Underground Review (http://www.undergroundreview.net)
Skirmish is an interesting and a very good band; mostly because of the well-varied styles they play and how their music just sounds fresh, but also because of how creative and in control they can be when playing their music. They're based in the UK and are here with their new 5 song EP, entitled, "The Crooked and the Cavalier".
First of all, to put it simple Skirmish plays just catchy Hardcore/Punk, but deep inside there are many more styles that come into place with this album. Right away, with the first song "Fading Pace", you'll know that this album is gonna turn out to be a total mosh fest; fast guitar riffs, catchy, sing-along choruses, aggressive and violent vocals, topped off with, altogether, superb musicianship. But each song keeps on getting better and better as the songs go by; a lot of parts remind me of Miami, Florida's politically infused, Against All Authority, and other times they remind me more so of Bane, or I even hear hints of UK's own Five Knuckle. They definitely carry their own distinctive sound as well on this EP, but I hear a lot of those influences intertwined. Like on track 4, "Therapist", they add some Ska/Reggae rhythms that'll have you getting your dancing shoes on, and that's what reminds me of AAA; it's a super fast, super catchy, and super fun song.
Other parts are more Hardcore oriented; Like on track 2, "Waste of Space", they show how powerful they can be with some heavy breakdowns, fierce screams and shouts, and straight forward and pissed lyricism.
I don't know how else to put it other then this is a sweet little EP from a surprisingly good band. It's really short and only clocks in just over 13 minutes, but I'd say it's definitely worth getting if you're into bands like Against All Authority, Bane, Five Knuckle, or El Nada. Good band, good message, and all around great music.
Ratings: Music: 7/10, Vocals: 7/10, Creativity: 8/10, Message: 7/10, Sound Quality: 8/10, Overall: 7.5/10
Jersey Beat (http://www.JerseyBeat.com)
The Crooked and the Cavalier begins in a bit of an unsettled manner, but quickly finds its rhythm, as Skirmish churn out an empowered slice of guitar force on the opening "Fading Pace". This was only the start of a stellar five-song EP. What most impressed me was the fact that this disc became stronger with each passing song. "Waste of Space" and the supremely performed "Thick as Thieves" were brilliant; each song brimming with blazing emotion and technical precision. The song structures also varied, as the band alternated tempos, while interjecting moments of chaos into their otherwise highly structured pieces. If these guys were from America, everyone you know would have heard of them by now. However, as the band does enjoy success in their native England, Skirmish should be a name more familiar on this side of the pond very shortly. The concluding "Efrafa" was especially impressive, blending political concerns with roaring guitar rage. This must be heard.
Rock Radio (http://www.rock3.co.uk/rock3radio)
Skirmish hail from Watford and started forming their punk ethos in 1998. Their current EP release is an anarchistic 5 track 'The crooked and the cavalier' expressing punk rock with a definite confrontational attitude, Skirmish kick off the EP with 'fading pace' an adrenalin fuelled 4 minutes of finger pointing punk, followed by the contemptuous 'waste of space', track 3 'thick as thieves' states the bands stance in a song thick with belief and attitude. 'The Therapist' digs deep into your psyche, finishing off with a 'spewing rant' at the forces of division with possibly the best song of the EP. Skirmish sound like a band who would fight you for the right to be the first 'over the top', a band to stand with.
Rock Midgets (http://www.rockmidgets.com)
Hailing from Watford town, Skirmish sound like they have more in common with American hardcore bands such as Poison The Well than they do with any of the their UK counterparts. The Crooked And The Cavelier is their first release on split label Last Chance and Engineer Records.
Like many other UK bands at the moment they are obviously very heavily influenced by American bands such is the chaotic melody of songs such as 'Fading Pace' and 'Thick As Thieves'. It sounds crisp and well-produced, but still maintaining the raw brutal edge that makes them exciting to listen to and fascinating to watch live. Expect this band to be labelled as 'Ones To Watch' very shortly.
Scanner (http://www.scannerzine.com)
Debut 5-tracker from this UK 5-piece. It's interesting stuff too, taking the HC styling of BOYSETSFIRE, infusing a distinctly British FIVE KNUCKLE feel and adding a topping of apocalyptic JANE'S ADDICTION-style histrionics. Odd moments did grate a little to these Punk-attuned ears, such as the wah-wah guitars and funky bridge of 'Therapist', but those moments were few and far between. The EP opens with the monster that is 'Finding Pace' which carries more weight than Pig Champion's bar stool while careering along at an unstoppable pace. Disc highlight is the impassioned 'Thick As Thieves'; 'Efrafa' sees the band tackle politics head-on also. For a debut, this is a hugely competent release and I shall be keeping an eye on the band's progress from here. I just hope they follow the dominant HC vein of the band's sounds - it's certainly their strongest facet and one they approach with a stylish new dynamic.
Metal Pigeon (http://www.metalpigeon.com)
I'll admit I've never, even heard of this band. They manage to mix up within this release 15 minutes of screamy PMFS elements with funkier choruses and more back to basics, moshworthy chugg parts. There's even some more old school Black Flag sounding bits in there too ( the first couple of minutes of track number 5-'Efrafa' being a prime example.) On paper all these elements seem to add up to create something that could sound potentially brilliant, or if done wrong, extremely bad. It's hard to tell which end of the spectrum Skirmish are when viewed in such a way because the music on this cd is...average. That's the best word I could find to describe this record. They don't do anything wrong as such throughout the cds short span, but they don't do anything much to write home about either.
The cd itself sounds much like something a band that's only just starting to find their identity would work with- songs dart vividly from idea to idea, with rough sounding guitar parts and sketchy sounding vocals. However this is also where alot of people who are curious about this band could find something to like about this cd- whilst the music may not be overly original, or played perfectly, it does come off sounding extremely passionate and very, very punk rock. There's a constant dual vocal attack running through alot of the songs that when paired up with the caustic, scratchy drum sound and seething guitars does occasionally bring up a gem. A good example would be track number two 'waste of space' (especially towards the end.)
Some people may be very into this record, and I can imagine live this band could destroy- typically in a grotty, darkened corner of any local claustrophobic venue across the UK. However I'll need to hear future releases from these guys to truly make my mind up as to whether I'm a fan or not.
purerock.de (http://www.purerock.de)
Skirmish is called its new EP in German as much as "Geplaenkel" and as a short Geplaenkel also comes along: briefly, as everything began violently and as fast past. , then Skirmish me begin a short sounding out of the situation the fight. On quite punkige of reef oldschool sing A Longs are rausgerotzt and discharged steam.
The first three TRACKS are quite similar itself, spray however before play joke and temper. The voice of the Shouters has a nearly German sounding accent to do the volume to more with underground than with overproduced Metalcore. Particularly Thick As Thieves, oldschool a Song succeeded as it in picture beech stands. "emergency in Our Name" sing A Longs line up and one keeps in track when hearing formally the feeling in the Moshpit to stand and finger-tapping also roar.
With Therapist Skirmish show, what they have still so drauf: the Song reminded of the wild Stakkatocrossover of system OF A down and culminates in chaos core trips of tarpaulin the Mistaken For of star to remind leaves. Something similar comes one also with the last Song Efrafa into the sense.
Unfortunately the EP is then already after 13 minutes again past - short, violent and convincing minutes the fans of rauem oldschool hard core will inspire.
Kink Records (http://www.kink-records.de)
Over the volume I cannot write unfortunately much, since I did not know the volume up to this disk. The volume comes in any case from GB and does not exist my knowledge yet so for a long time. Skirmish in music play a mixture from Punk skirt and hard core with much melody and stamping seed Refrains. Here parts alternate slow Punk skirt parts with hard core. The plate in any case does not become boring. In addition partly personal, partly political texts come. Altogether thus a quite nice publication, more however in any case not. Average hard core, which clean-goes quite well, but just as again with the other ear rauskommt without that really much to hang remains. Opening that CD goes so far actually also into order. In the Booklet one finds the complete texts to that volume.
Altogether thus a quite nice publication, more however in any case not. Average hard core, which clean-goes quite well, but just as again with the other ear rauskommt without that really much to hang remains. Opening that CD goes so far actually also into order. In the Booklet one finds the complete texts to that volume.
Punk For Fun (http://www.punkforfun.it)
This new English HC band delivers us a short mini cd of almost 15 minutes but really powerfull and direct. They play old-school and they do it with personality introducing some melodies, guitars with a particular sound and really frenetic drums.
As we can imagine the lyrics are about both socio-political(above all "thick as thieves" with his final singalong)and personal matters.
Lots of influences can be found in this record and they surely come from the good old days NYHC and from today's Bane, Skirmish remind them in particular for the almost talked voice as well as for the kind of voice.
Personally, Skirmish sounded really strange to me because they immediately made me think to the old band of a friend of mine, they were called fury kill' sadness and the similarity of the voice is incredible!
