The ‘00s were strong years for Skinless, as this upstate New York band released a triumvirate of well-received records in ‘01’s Foreshadowing Your Demise, ‘03’s From Sacrifice to Survival and ‘06’s Trample The Weak, Hurdle The Dead, and then toured substantially to promote them. While the group broke up in 2011, it has since reformed and written Only The Ruthless Remain, its fifth full length. In that span, it’s also reunited with longtime vocalist Sherwood Webber.

Given the extended absence of recorded Skinless output, one imagines that two likely scenarios could have played out for a new album: (i) that the band, after several years away from the studio, was eager to get back into high gear and would emerge, literally, axes grinding; or, (ii) the group would fall prey to some of the accumulated rust, sort of like the athlete who’s been out with that upper body injury for five weeks and is now back in the lineup, hoping to help the team. In Only The Ruthless Remain’s case, the answer is found somewhere in the middle, Skinless at times stacking the odds (and how) in its favour like it did with Trample The Weak, and at others feeling a lot like that newly-returned-from-injury NHL left winger who’s going to give a quote like, “you can practice all you want while battling the shoulder problem, but practice isn’t as fast as games in this league” to the press after it ends 2-1, not in his team’s favour,
in overtime.

But let’s not forget these metal guys are humans too, and it can’t be easy trying to live down the pressures of expectation. This scribe wouldn’t have wanted to be Nevermore trying to follow-up Dead Heart In A Dead World, or Kvelertak writing its second full-length, or At The Gates pie(r)cing together a reunion album. Which is not to say that Skinless was in the same predicament as those groups. But still. You release your first album in nine years and people’s expectations are going to be elevated, especially for those who saw you on those never-ending tours between ’02 and ’07. And, as a band, that can’t be easy to deal with. That said, a response closer to the aptly titled “The Beast Smells Blood” and less like the also aptly titled “Serpenticide” would have made things easier for the members of Skinless. They may have even scored an overtime goal in the process.