Live Review: Skynd - Academy, Manchester
30th November 2023
Words: Dan Barnes
Photos: Scott Clarke
It’s been a massive year for this Australian industrial duo. No, scratch that, it’s been a massive six months for the act. This is my third show from Skynd since they played here – well, next door to be precise - back in June as main tour support for Ice Nine Kills. Got to be honest, my main interest in Skynd that night was their upcoming Bloodstock Thursday headline appearance and wanting to get an idea of how they might go down. The answer was very well and to have them back on a headline tour in the UK so soon and, it has to be remembered, still without a full-length record to their name, is impressive to say the least.
The room is filled with snippet of a news broadcast relating to the Night Stalker, otherwise known as Richard Ramirez, and the beginning of the song of the same name. It’s a relatively minimalist stage, just a drum kit and a synth, staffed by Skynd’s partner in crime, Father, and another musician.
By now we all should know the script: Skynd’s preoccupation with the crimes of real killers and the dark and disturbing events surrounding a person or place should make for grim listening, but it doesn’t, well not always.
The talent of those involved turn the sickening actions of the protagonists into palatable subject matter for songs. Unlike touring partners, Ice Nine Kills, who focus on fictional horrors, or Macabre, who also deal with true crime, Skynd seems non-judgemental about the content of the material.
Her vocal range is huge, hitting the orchestral moments within the opening tune, turning in a schizophrenic performance for the tragedy that is Elisa Lam and finding the impossible hook in the story of the despicable Michelle Carter.
Although the well from which to draw is limited – yet the subject matter is vast and growing all the time – Skynd are constantly creating. New tracks for this trek include the danceable Bianca Devins, the militaristic beats of Aileen Wuornos and a heavy industrial sound for the story of German cannibal and his voluntary victim on Armin Meiwes.
Skynd’s performance is less concert and more theatrics, with her adopting roles within each song, She recreates the bullet-ridden bodies at Columbine in the song of the same name, a tune that resembles late-Nineties-era Marilyn Manson for obvious reasons. The tribal drums of Jim Jones channelling the Guyana jungles around the Jonestown compound can be heard quietly in the mix and Pogo the Clown’s rampage is spelled out on John Wayne Gacy.
Even though tonight is my third evening with Ms Skynd it’s still as enthralling as the first. The use of samples and loops make the music enticing; the vocals range from operatic to fearsome at the flick of a switch and the performance is constantly engrossing. The songs are the kind of things Art is about in that they make you want to go out and discover more about the subject matter. I knew nothing about Michelle Carter or Bianca Devin before Skynd immortalised them; Edmund Kemper and Robert Hansen were familiar to me.
As was the subject of the last of the newer songs, Marshall Applewhite. Head of the Heaven’s Gate cult and wide-eyed – well, nutter for want of a better word – this tune goes for a more simplistic approach, focusing not on the outcome of Applewhite’s crimes, but on the attraction to him as a leader and exploiter of lost souls.
The show ended with the established grinding of Gary Heidnik and the soaring finale of Tyler Hadley and shows Skynd to be a constantly entertaining and thought-provoking use of your time. She might
be missing the overt show of some artists, but a less is more approach looks to put the onus on the listener to join the dots. Hopefully, Manchester is now on Skynd’s regular tour itinerary.
All photo credits: Scott Clarke Photography
