Beforeskin is a trio of degenerate misfit punks from the
beautiful town of Östersund in northern Sweden. True to
their nature they blast some angry-ass punk and they do it damned well. Now, before
we continue I'm going to conduct a crash course in Swedish for those wave
riders who are not familiar in my mother-tongue. Beforeskin is a direct
translation from Swedish to English meaning foreskin. However, in Swedish
foreskin is "förhud" which is made from two words, "för"
and "hud". "För" has different meanings but here it
translates to "before" and "hud" is "skin", hence
Beforeskin. Swedish humour at it's very best, or worst, take your pick.
Personally, I love it!
Unruly, unhinged, deranged and obnoxious, I don't want my
punk any other way. Add humour to the equation, as well as a huge chunk of
tongue-in-cheek “don’t take us too seriously”-approach and you have Beforeskin.
Their debut album ‘Digging In My Backyard’ starts off with the title track
which is one of my favourites. Full tilt from the word go, they slay pure and
simple. ‘Fuck Cancer’ follows in the same vein musically and lyrically it
speaks for itself, pretty damned good song. Even more intense and intensely
funny is the brilliant ‘If Punk Is Dead (You Can Kill Me Right Now). No holds
barred Beforeskin annihilates everything in sight. Rockabilly-ish and boogie
down ‘Girls Night Out’ is like The StrayCats on speed…until halfway through
when the tempo drops only to erupt at the end, fantastic! A pretty badass cover
appears in the shape of GG Allin’s ‘Don’t Talk To Me’ and it kind of sums up
all that Beforeskin are and their whole approach to the music the play. The
shortest song ends this album and at 1:46 ‘Alcohol And Drugs’ is a skullcrusher.
A somewhat slowish start about halfway through they throw down the gauntlet and
tears it up in great style!
There are 10 songs on ‘Digging In My Backyard’ and they are
all good, so listen to the whole thing. I simply mentioned my personal
favourites and as you all know we all like different things. In conclusion,
Beforeskin has unleashed a fabulous slab of punk ditties that you simply need
to have in your collection. Can’t say they break new ground but they have a
blast playing their music and that goes such a long way. So, thank you guys and
more music please!
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