- Hello, Noah! To start this interview, first of all, tell us how you decided to bring Skinless back? - Our vocalist Sherwood was putting together a metal festival in Denver called "Denver Black Sky". He called me up and asked me what I thought about Skinless playing. I said that if we're going to do all the work of getting the band back together and rehearse that we should do a new album too. So, we decided to reunite and keep writing music and playing some fests. - What is the current line-up? All together, when you are rehearsing or playing live, do you feel like being just one killing machine? - Sherwood Webber-vocals, Noah Carpenter-guitar, Dave Matthews-guitar, Joe Keyser-bass, Bob Beaulac-drums. We've been mostly busy writing and recording the new album, we've only played a handful of shows since getting back together but they're always fun. - The new album, "Only the Ruthless Remain", will be released on the 2nd of June. How do you feel about it? With every new release, does that feeling always stay the same? - It's always very exciting to release a new album to the world. A lot of effort goes into the writing process and in the studio and we look forward to hearing what Skinless fans think of it. I think there's some extra hype behind this album because we have our old lineup back with Sherwood on vocals. It' also been 9 years since the last release and we broke up and reunited in that span. We are very proud of "Ruthless", I think it's the most well rounded Skinless record so far. The production is very good, the artwork is awesome, and I think the songwriting is solid, and with guitar solos. - How would you comment on the title? Among the new songs there is one, called "Skinless". Did you consider this album to be a selftitled? Or maybe did you have any other versions on the list to choose from? - We did consider a self titled album but ultimately decided against it. Personally I only like self titled albums as a band's very first full length release. I came up with the idea for the title, it's something that I've had in mind for many years. I told the guys and everyone liked it. It wasn't a hard process, it just fell into place. - How do you like the new artwork? Does it fully represent the whole brutality that happens on the new album? - I love the new artwork. Ken Sarafin did an amazing job and we'll be working with him again. I had a vision in my head for the cover art and I described it to Ken and he brought it to life. We couldn't be happier with this art. He also did a few additional works for the interior of the cd layout. I think the art and the music match up nicely. - Considering the band's consistent evolution and improvement of the play-style, how would you describe your new album? - I'd say that it's old school brutal death metal. We're not the fastest, we're not the most technical, and we don't give a shit about that stuff. We try to produce quality death metal songs that are heavy as fuck but still tastefully written. We added a second guitarist Dave to do some solos and to fill that void. I think "Ruthless" is the culmination of everything that we have learned about writing and recording throughout the years. There's no doubt it's a skinless album, it has our sound, and we haven't done anything drastic. It doesn't sound just like any particular Skinless album from the past, but rather a mixture of them. - What was the biggest challenge for you while composing new tracks? Did you manage to achieve your goals with that CD? - The band lives in New York and our vocalist Sherwood lives in Colorado. So we had to write the music and send the files out to him so he could lay down the vocals. It would have been nice to have him there while writing the songs but that was the challenge we faced and it turned out well. We just kept sharing the files back and forth and I don't think the album sounds disjointed as a result, not at all. - How long did it take you to write and finalize all the songs? Are there any specific tracks you would like to mention? - I was just starting a new death metal band "Serpenticide" when Skinless got back together in 2013. I had written one song for that band and decided to use it for Skinless. So, the song ended up being named "Serpenticide". The rest of the songs were written in spring/summer 2014 and finalized just before we hit the studio in fall 2014. - Where did you record this album? Who was the producer? Did you have any guest-musicians? - The album was recorded by Tom Case at Edie Road Studio and Doomsday Bunker Studio, both in upstate New York, with vocals tracked by Dave Otero at Flatline Audio in Denver, Colorado, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, Oregon. Produced by Satan himself. Guest vocals by Antti Boman from Demilich and the dude from Dragged Into Sunlight. Tom Case also recorded the first few Skinless demos in the early 1990's. - You've already played live new song, "Serpenticide". How did people take it? Was the reaction as good as you expected it to be? - The reaction was great, people seem to really like it. It'll be our first single released from the album. - Noah, you are on the stage since 1992, could you comment on the metal fans across all this time? Did metal community change anyhow over 2 last decades? Do you still like playing live? - There aren't as many long haired metal fans as there used to be but there is still a large and loyal metal following globally and I think most of our fans have stuck with us. I hate some of the subgenres of metal that have popped up like the metalcore bands with sentences for band names. I think most of this 'music' lacks soul, and people have to dig a little deeper to find the real metal. - How do you plan to support the new full-length? Will you have any European tour? - Skinless doesn't tour anymore. We'll play some scattered shows and festivals. Hellfest 2015 in France, Maryland Deathfest etc - Alright, that's it, Noah. Thank you for this interview. Would you like to add anything in the end? - Thanks for the interview. Keep up with the latest Skinless news on Facebook |