Skunk Anansie Stream New Single – “What You Do For Love”


Legendary UK Rock band Skunk Anansie have shared a brand new single! ‘What You Do For Love’ had its world exclusive first play on Jo Whiley’s BBC Radio 2 show last night. The track is heavy, catchy and political, all the things SA have been known for in 25 years. ‘What You Do For Love’ is the first new music from the band since 2016’s Anarchytecture album and comes a week after they started their huge European headline tour accompanied by Queen Zee and Black Orchard Empire on support., which celebrates the release of the 25LIVE@25 album earlier this year.Continue reading


Metallica, Ghost, Bring Me The Horizon, Architects, Idles Win Big at the Annual Kerrang! Awards


Kerrang! Magazine held their annual awards ceremony and party last night Islington Assembly Hall as the world’s biggest rock stars came out in force. Winners and attendees included legendary artists such as Metallica, Motörhead, Jimmy Page, Skunk Anansie, current Kerrang! cover stars Ghost, FEVER 333, Architects, IDLES, Enter Shikari, and Don Broco. Jimmy Page was honored with the Icon Award, while Metallica again won Best International Act. Motörhead won the inspiration award. The Kerrang! Hall of Fame in association with Marshall added Brit Rockers Skunk Anansie The full list of winners can be seen below.Continue reading


Skunk Anansie – 25Live@25


I must confess, writing about Skunk Anansie’s 25Live@25 (Republic of Music) is mega hard. I keep jumping up and dancing about the flat, singing loudly and off-key. I’ve been listening to Skunk Anansie since 1995 with the song ‘Selling Jesus’. They haven’t disappointed. They don’t disappoint with this live retrospective either. If you are a major Skunk-head, you are going to flat-out love this album. If you are a newbie, welcome! You are going to love this album. Continue reading


Northward – Northward


Although Nightwish vocalist Floor Jansen (then still with her previous band, After Forever), and Pagan’s Mind guitarist Jorn Viggo Lofstad had never actually met before, when they played a handful of cover versions during an ‘All-Star Jam’ at Progpower USA in 2007, the two hit it off immediately. Discovering they both shared a fondness for basic, stripped down heavy rock music, the pair sat down the following year and wrote an album’s worth of music quite different to what they were both producing at the time.Continue reading


Skunk Anansie Share New Video From New Live Album


Legendary 1990s UK metallers Skunk Anansie have announced a brand new, career-spanning live album. 25live@25 is due out on January 25th, 2019, via Republic of Music Records. They have also dropped a new live single and performance video for their classic track ‘Weak’, which you can hear below. Continue reading


FESTIVAL REVIEW: NOIZ All-Dayer Live at Rebellion, Manchester UK


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He was so deeply huddled under a blanket that it took a while to locate the source of the voice hollering my name. Eytan Wineapple, curator of the rumbling beast that was the NOIZ All-Dayer, initially celebrated its second incarnation looking like death warmed up. After a long couple of days, with Wineapple escorting eventual headliners Dukatalon to Sheffield and back, they eventually bedded down in today’s venue. “They got here around 3 a.m., and I tucked them all in!” joked Rebellion manager and event collaborator Hayley. Five minutes later, the flat-capped Wineapple was bounding around like a madman: putting to serious shame Ghost Cult’s scribe who, twelve hours later, and still nearly three hours from the denouement, interviewed said host in a rather weary and addled fashion…

NOIZ is not your average festival. Displays of album-style art and guitars in various stages of completion (one of which is raffled off later in the day) stand beside the S.O.P.H.I.E. merch stall in the upper level of the club-style venue. A dedicated handful, meanwhile, witness the pulverising Industria of openers Khost: looking for all the world like a couple of local scallies bumbling about on a stage, yet laying waste with a mystical power which deserved a better slot and much more attention. The Birmingham duo’s ambient, crushing set, its implosive chords and guttural scours blending with a wonderful and passionate line in Middle-Eastern vocal samples, ended bang on time: a courtesy that some of the festival’s other performers could have tried harder to match.

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Skunk Anansie – Anarchytecture


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Skin could sing a Health and Safety policy, replete with appendices, and make it sound heartfelt, deep and relevant, so it’s little surprise that she is, once again, the undoubted star of Skunk Anansie’s new album Anarchytecture (Spinefarm), their third since reforming and sixth overall. Showing a more considered side, though resplendent in the 90’s production tones their angsty rock used to be defined by, this time around Skunk Anansie are dialling back the vitriol.

While it is hard not to compare where they are now with who they were then, surely a band is only judged against who they were if their current output doesn’t stack up? So, while perhaps only Led Zeppelin should expect the song to remain the same (even though theirs weren’t) and repetition leads only to contempt and ever diminishing returns in the world of musical delights, it is a shame that, once again, maturing or developing as songwriters doesn’t actually equate to better song-writing. In fact, maturity, or indeed banality sees a regression as, pleasant and deliberately crafted as the fare on offer is, other than the distinctive and excellent velvet of Skin’s timbre, Anarchytecture is complete wallpaper. And not even the crazy fucked up wallpaper your grandparents had from the 70’s, but magnolia.

Which isn’t to say there is a dearth of decent material, though, it’s just that all through we are greeted by inoffensive, pleasant if entirely competent and decent songs. Electro-tinged pop mingles with alt.rock.lite on ‘Love Someone Else’, a steady stroll that isn’t a million miles from where Madonna was around the turn of the millennium, ‘Beauty Is Your Curse’ jangles as Skin seems to get a little hot under the collar and ‘Death To The Lovers’ is a sparse, and emotive sensitive number, where once again Skin dazzles with delicacy. Yet high spots are scant, as the remainder of the album meanders away, until the excellent ‘Suckers!’ builds over the course of a minute and a half before cruelly, suddenly stopping in its tracks, replaced by close-but-no-cigar plod staccato ‘We Are The Flames’.

‘Little Baby Swastikkka’ turned heads, ‘Weak’ proved that vulnerability and power could dovetail exceptionally, ‘Hedonism’ was poppy-magic, ‘Charlie Big Potato’ shook things up, and Skunk Anansie were proudly, boldly different and defiant. Skunk Anansie used to be about statements. Musical, political, aesthetic, they made an impact. Anarchytecture simply shakes your hand and wishes you a good day. No matter the maturation process, there is no excuse for safe and uninspired songwriting.

 

5.5/10

STEVE TOVEY

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