Things Outside The Skin is an aggro-tech industrial band (at least that is what they call themselves) from Brooklyn, NY. You knew it all along is the third full-length release from the gentlemen. As I’m not aquainted with the old material, I can’t compare to that.
Though the band itself says there is only a distinct dash of hip hop influence, I can’t help the first band that comes to my mind when listening to this record is Body Count (the metal-project of Ice-T). Though Body Count had a much fatter (and better) sound. Not much other bands/acts pop up in my head while listening to this record really.
Where it was promissed to be agro-tech industrial, this is more hiphop mixed with some punk and a bit of electronics. Some scary effects are used, but don’t have the effect of scaring me, it’s much closer to making me laugh.
The lyrics are mostly political oriented, asking to burn down the White House and Bush with it. They are one of the stronger points of TOTS, one of the very few I must say. This is one of the very few acts that is able to make me long for the original recording of “Spice Up Your Life”, as their version is so much worse.
Just one more negative remark to make before I stop complaining about this cd: it just goes on and on and on and on… though the cd builds up from the worst to the best (those are the remixes) it just is way too long with 22 tracks and over 70 minutes.