Skinless have been through a lot: significant lineup changes and coming back from a lengthy hiatus for their new album, for starters. Several of the members are dads and family men, so there's schedule jugging aplenty going on. And, most intense of all, vocalist Sherwood Webber had to sit through two interviews from this scribe after my recording device failed me the first time. And, as you'd expect from a man who sings for a brutally heavy death metal band, he took it like a pro, and he's just happy to talk about Only The Ruthless Remain, which he says was the most fun album he's recorded with the band.

"Yeah, definitely," he says. "We never considered this would ever happen again; it was never in my mind that we would make another record when we were on hiatus, so to come back and have done it and to hang out with those guys is a... what's the word? Wouldn't say 'blessing' because we're so evil... A privilege."

The album has an energy to it which I mention to Webber was missing in their last couple: those albums beat me up, while this one energizes me. He says it comes from the way it was recorded.

"We recorded it with a much more live drum situation," he says. "And it was recorded, of course editing takes place, but all the guys were in the studio playing along with each other in a big nice drum room. That's what we really wanted to focus on, laying down that foundation. And it was not over-edited to shit, like so many records are sterilized. So that's where I think the energy of the record comes from; a lot of energy gets sucked out of modern recordings. The songwriting has its moments of extreme heaviness, so it all contributes to the final product. But it sounds organic, heavy, and not tiresome, which also has to do with the mix."

Another factor keeping the album, the band's first since 2006's Trample The Weak, Hurdle The Dead and Webber's first with Skinless since 2003's From Sacrifice To Survival, so lively and revitalizing is its brief runtime, something which Webber feels strongly about.

"Some people are like, 'Oh, well, it's only 36 minutes', but you know what? Some of my favourite full-lengths are just EPs," he says. "I think it's plenty long enough; rather than throw some epic long filler song in there or a couple other short ones that don't really mean much, it is what it is and I am very content with that. I'm not a big fan of long records; so few of them keep my attention."

And much like how Webber says recording the album was fun, he describes the atmosphere in the band in general as being a good time now. While extensive touring probably ain't in the cards for these guys due to other life commitments, they'll be playing out when they can, and Webber says they're already starting to talk about the next album. For now, he's excited about playing an overseas metal fest with some big-name bands.

"It's similar to the very beginning but we're all a little older now," he says about the feel in the band. "But I think the infrequency of our ability to play shows leads to even more hunger and desire to really kill it. Those guys rehearse like maniacs in New York. The distance and the age, the maturity of the band, it's awesome. Most of us are dads and family men, so the opportunity to go party in France with Obituary and Judas Priest and Faith No More, why not?"

(Top slider photo by: Shaun MacMahon)