Skold - Anomie

For most people, Skold made a more public name for himself after joining up with Marilyn Manson a couple of years ago, followers of KMFDM is bound to know him for his participation and also the release 'KMFDM vs Skold' from 2009. Some might even know him for the excellent guitar player he is and if you have not heard of Skold ever before, you need to go back to school and score some points in Great Swedish Exports, because there's more coming from up north than ABBA and f*cking IKEA.

With Marilyn Manson, Tim Skold co-produced 'The Golden Age of Grotesque', 'Lest We Forget' and 'Eat Me, Drink Me' and even though there's no obvious similarities between any of those albums and Skold's third solo album 'Anomie', there are a few subtle sounds and structural parts that might catch your eye (ear). The opening track "(This is my) elephant" is one of them and is also the best track of the album. The female backup vocals on "Satellite" might also appeal to your memory as well as the beautiful ballad "The Hunger" that could easily fit in together with some of the great tracks of 'Eat Me, Drink Me'.

However, Skold is a big boy and with over 20 years of experience, he is well equipped for delivering a great album and he does it well with 'Anomie'. Though somewhat varied, harder industrial with sometimes a pop influenced structure are the key words here. I think he takes it one step too far with the third track "Black Out" and especially "Angel of Noise" which has a really dirty and noisy metalesque tone to it, but when he keeps some boundaries on himself and uses a more easy going sound, Skold reaches industrial rock climax. If I were to namedrop a few tracks that floats my boat, I would highlight "(This is my) elephant", "Sattelite", "Becoming", "The Hunger", "And Then We Die", "Miserably Never Ever" and "Tonight". Oct 28 2011