[Live Report] Skin Erased, Ribbons Of Euphoria @ Athens, 14/05/11

Last Saturday I had the chance to be in a show of two new and upcoming Greek bands, Skin Erased and Ribbons of Euphoria. Skin Erased play heavy metal in the 90’s way. Clear sound, catchy melodies, nice riffs that brought memories of Pantera, Metallica and CoC. I heard some thrash influences, some southern and some stoner ones but mostly fat, heavy metal. Achilles who also appears on Madleaf was the man behind the microphone and that’s guarantee of solid vocs with southern flavor. He must have felt a bit trapped with the small stage of Bat City club.

I had the chance to talk briefly with John (Bass) the mind behind Skin Erased. Below is a translated/adopted version of some of the things we discussed.

On the background of the band: “Most of us are already members of bands of different styles. I am a member of Dirty Fuse a surf/garage band (Dr.Doom: Fans of Yawning Man might like their tunes). Our drummer plays guitar for a hard core band D-Human, Achilles does also vocals on Madleaf. We all played music before we get into Skin Erased.”

On influences: “I grew up listening to disco stuff. Then got my first AC/DC album. I bought it because the cover was all black. Back then all covers were colorful and happy, so I found it weird. I heard it and it was like nothing else. Right then I knew: this is what I wanna do. Most of us are open to all musical styles. The only person that is stuck to one style only is our guitar player. He is more doom/stoner oriented (Dr.Doom: hail brother!). I for example listen even to classic music. Achilles likes Paradise Lost but also digs black metal lately (Dr.Doom: !!!!). Somehow we manage to keep the chemistry. I think that this is the advantage of this band: every member contributes his own style.”

On a studio album: “We constantly write new stuff. We are talking with various labels but we don’t wanna rush things up. We are focusing on giving more live shows for the moment. We play down-tuned music so it’s hard to make covers. The focus is to play our music on stage. Given the economic situation the whole country is in, it’s not the easiest thing to get funds to go into studio. We want to be 100% sure.”

On working with Achilles: “He joined forces later on. I write the lyrics and when he gets them he is able to write the vocal melodies in no time. That kind of chemistry is rare!”

I also said a few words with Achilles about his other band, Madleaf, for a possible new album: “There were some thoughts on going on studio but right now we are on a creative elation. Every day, we go for reharshal with the rest of the crew but we end up writing something new. You don’t wanna go into studio when you are in that kind of state.”

Ribbons of Euphoria had a totally different style. The singer was wearing a Beatles t-shirt and I could swear the drummer was one of them. As you can imagine late 60’s early 70’s rock and Hendrix worshiping among others (no their name wasn’t random) is their thing. Some problems with broken guitar strings weren’t enough to put them down as they were getting better song after song. In the first part of their appearance they played their own stuff and in the second part lots of covers of rock legends. Obviously the scale was set really high but they managed to deliver! Most of all they had fun and the crowd enjoyed too! Among their covers was “In a Gadda Da Vida” which was done very respectfully! Kudos!

This is some Ribbons of Euphoria from that live:


Review, photo and audio by Dr.Doom