{"id":99590,"date":"2023-04-21T00:00:40","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T23:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=99590"},"modified":"2023-04-26T15:31:03","modified_gmt":"2023-04-26T14:31:03","slug":"album-review-skinher-heartstruck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-skinher-heartstruck\/","title":{"rendered":"SKINHER – Heartstruck (2023) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

SKINHER
Heartstruck<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nAural Music (2023)<\/span>
Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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This is a wonderfully evocative, infectious and nostalgic slab of Greek metal with one foot pressed firmly into the 80s. Gloriously melodic, Skinher \u2013 the metal project of Hail Spirit Noir keyboard player Haris (aka Kyle Skinher) \u2013 comes armed with a retro piece of cover artwork and a fiery sound that is wonderfully produced and admirably crisp.<\/p>\n

If you like 80s metal, particularly acts such as Dokken, then you\u2019re gonna love this AOR-tinged heap. This is mesmeric metal from the off, but the real joy is its horror-themed creepiness which comes to the fore by the smooth vocal tones of Cons Marg, who comes into his own on the sinister vibes of \u2018The Maniac Is Back\u2019 which is not a world away from Alice Cooper\u2019s \u2018He\u2019s Back (The Man Behind The Mask)\u2019.<\/p>\n

This is arguably one of the most fluid albums I\u2019ve heard in a while. I tend to slot this alongside the likes of the recent Wanted opus Chain Reaction<\/em><\/a>, except this has a beautiful, heart-warming feel even with its spooky themes. The tremendous axe work on opener \u2018You Are Next!\u2019 enables the cut to become an immediate late night radio hit, in my mind anyway. I could easily imagine such a song appearing on the soundtrack of an 80s horror movie. And the gems just keep on coming as the combo fires up nostalgic hit after nostalgic hit.<\/p>\n

The synth-led \u2018Interstellar Love Hysteria\u2019 taps into that Stranger Things<\/em> vibe with its eerie tinkles and big melodies, \u2018Night Cull\u2019 darkens the atmosphere again as those synths echo amidst the swirls of luminous fog before the guitars, bass and drums come together and result in a driving melody blessed by a soaring chorus.<\/p>\n

The axe-work throughout this dynamic opus is also to be applauded. \u2018He Sees You\u2019 is a riveting instrumental that leads us into the twilight pleasures of the galloping \u2018Self-Eating Creatures\u2019 and the equally mesmeric magic of \u2018Dance With The Dead\u2019. Meanwhile, closer \u2018Josephine\u2019 just gets me reaching for the horror VHS tapes even more with its snaking soloing and half-hinted demonic frazzles.<\/p>\n

Heartstruck<\/em> is a spell-binding debut opus that sounds incredibly fresh even with its claws embedded in the classic era of shock metal. Grab this and make every day Halloween.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SKINHERHeartstruck Aural Music (2023)Rating: 9\/10 This is a wonderfully evocative, infectious and nostalgic slab of Greek metal with one foot pressed firmly into the 80s. Gloriously melodic, Skinher \u2013 the metal project of Hail Spirit Noir keyboard player Haris (aka Kyle Skinher) \u2013 comes armed with a retro piece of cover artwork and a fiery […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,5327],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-skinher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99590"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99594,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99590\/revisions\/99594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}