San Francisco’s SKINLAB have been sticking it out since ’94, knocking around various under-inhabited dark corners of thrash and groovecore, releasing albums sporadically, never really seeing much in the way of reward. Heck, new album The Scars Between Us is on micro label Stand And Deliver Records; it’s the band’s first away from longtime home Century Media. Since its release they’ve already had a member change, the latest in a long line of them, the details of which we’ll get to soon. Still, none of this stops vocalist/bassist Steev Esquivel from being pumped. He’s excited to get back out on the road to show people that the band, who haven’t released a disc since 2002, are indeed alive and well.

“We’re excited to finally release the new album,” he says. “We’re really pleased with the outcome, and the album represents us as a band today perfectly; couldn’t be happier with it. We are really happy with the artwork, too. We’re just getting ready for rehearsals. We’re getting ready for our first tour in support of the release of the album. Lots to do to get ready so that we can leave.”

Given the band’s fighting, scrappy history, which has seen a long list of guitar players come and go, one wonders what that album title refers to, exactly. Could it indeed be a reference to something internally?

“‘Us’ refers to ‘we,’” Esquivel says with a chuckle. “The album has a lot of different elements within the lyrics and themes. As a whole, this album is all about the struggles of life that we all go through; right now a lot of people are feeling the same struggles; it’s all about mending our wounds and moving forward.”

And move forward we all must, something not lost on the band, who lost guitarist Glen Telford after recording the disc. “We’re currently working with a guitarist, which we will unveil this week,” says Esquivel. “As for Glenny, it’s something we knew was coming for quite a while. His dedication to the band wasn’t there.”

And dedicated to this band you have to be. This is serious underdog stuff, more a lifestyle decision than being in a band usually is. Esquivel is the first to admit that being the underdog does bother him. “Yeah, sometimes,” he says. “We definitely feel like some people, and companies, have turned their backs on us, or they are waiting to see how the new album does before they work with us. But that’s all good; we like playing the music we write and getting in front of our fans that have supported us for years; we don’t let nothing get in the way of that.”

And, in a way, being the underdog has fuelled these guys’ fire all these years. Maybe it all makes sense: being the underdog helps create such angry music. Like, maybe if these guys got big, they wouldn’t really be Skinlab anymore. Either way, Esquivel definitely thinks that the band’s position is what keeps their music so angry.

“The fact that we always seem to have to prove ourselves to everyone,” he says when asked about what keeps the tunes so savage. “But we’re good under pressure. Nothing like being the underdog; it keeps you hungry.”