Skunk Anansie: Melody leaves room for energy

On May 23rds Skunk Anansie will publish “The Painful Truth”, The new album, the seventh in the studio and the first in nine years. In this period of time they published a handful of individuals including “An artist is an artist” and the recent “Cheers” released in this 2025.

The custom would like the return to the live (from which they were missing since 2023) to be linked to the release of the new album. But for the Skunk Anansie it is not so, because before the summer tour for the new album, the quartet went to the street for a series of dates in clubs in Europe (between the end of February and mid -April) to resume confidence with the stage and the public.

And to think that all this could not have been there because Skin and members at some point hypothesized, also thanks to Covid and a certain tiredness, to pull down the shutter, close (another time) with the project. Fortunately, a house in the British countryside where they found themselves allowed them to recover stimuli, energy, desire and creativity by throwing the seeds for the new “The Painful Truth“. And the found forces also enter this live.

Among the European dates, one was also in Italy, at the Alcatraz in Milan, which for the occasion, was truly “packed”, a real sold out with people everywhere, compacted but happy to be there.

Being the album still to come the ladder has focused on their discs of the past, giving only an anticipation of the future album by presenting the three singles that will enter into “The Painful Truth“. Among these deserves a “an artist is an artist” mention, powerful, unstoppable while “Cheers” is presented with an initial martial trend that then leaves room for a very engaging crescendo finish.

For the rest of the ladder, it switches through the successes and songs of the past, starting from the debut of 1995 until the last album of 2016. 30 years old, net of the break, in the name of rock that often crosses melodic territories. In reality, for the occasion, the melodic territories seem to be rented because, excluding a hint, the melody really left it closed with a double sent in the discs.

The concert of the Skunk Anansie is the modern testimony of the hard rock, which comes to touch the metal and which without frills, in a direct way it arrives shot in the face of the public. A powerful sound that does not annihilate the viewer who is often called by Skin to participate, to be the protagonist, you want with a simple blink of rhythmic hands with the arms to the sky, you want with a pogo (polite) or want to sing the refrains of their hits.

A physical commitment that on several occasions makes you leave the mobile phone in your pocket to focus on a more direct participation in the show.

To “direct the orchestra”, to give the public to the public: Skin. It is unstoppable, jumps, walk is always at the center of the scene (in a metaphorical sense because physically it is everywhere). Taken from the executive trance, the guitarist gets educated and politely and politely slapped. The unleashed frontwoman incites the audience, all dressed in skin, wrapped in the trousers and a black jacket with the latter which then leaves room for a certainly fresher white shirt. But Skin is a beast, a hungry beast so much to eat the stage and the public.

It is a very physical performance, almost muscle that leads her to get off the stage, walking up to the middle of the audience inviting the audience to lower on the knees and then involve it in a jump and unleash the pogo in which she herself finds herself involved. A tiring curtain that in the end sees her return to the stage with some difficulties.

But Skin’s strength lies not only in these “material” performances, its real strength is the voice. Incredibly crystalline, always on very high shades and volumes, powerful and screamed without being crippled, perfectly the line with the band’s style. Voice and music: a perfect combination that Skin manages with great safety and total mastery.

But this vocal force then marries a music of great sound impact, a guitar wall on which a heavy battery beats and a deep bass. The whole is devastating, cyclonic, the audience is unwanted that is pleasantly crossed by this sound wave that does not stop in front of anything. Only every now and then (perhaps also a non -perfect audio in a certain part of the club) everything seems to flatten horizontally enough to wonder if what you feel is the previous song or a new one. But it’s just an episode, an accidental moment

Some melodic openings, certain softer sounds in this concert are almost banned. There is only a short opening in the first half of the concert and the acoustic caress of a second lot of encore, the one with which they send you home.

Speaking of encore: at some point the riff and the first verse of “Whole Fight Love” make a good appearance.

Powerful, engaging, enthusiasts and enthusiasts in the name of rock, the most granite and concretely spectacular one.

If this concert was not enough for it either if you escaped you or if you want to discover the group, know that Skin and companions will start with the summer tour with which they will present the new album. On this occasion they will also be in Italy with seven dates, scattered a little throughout the country:

July 5 – Benevento, BCT Music Festival, Musa Arena
July 6 – Senigallia (AN), Senigallia Festival, Piazza Garibaldi
July 8 – Rome, Rome Summer Fest, Auditorium Parco della Musica Ennio Morricone Cavea,
July 9 – Bologna, Sequoie Music Park, Park of the Red Barracks
July 11 – Marostica (VI), Marostica Summer Festival Volksbank, Piazza Castello
July 12 – Forte dei Marmi (LU), Villa Bertelli Live, Villa Bertelli
July 13 – Brescia, Brescia Summer Music, Arena Campo Marte