Skynd - Demonic entity unleashed in London?

February 18th 2022

London, Islington, o2 Academy, UK

*****

Murderous and lethal, Skynd slay London

WARNING: This Review contains graphic information about Murders and Murderers

Skynd ***** are a really interesting band that grabbed my attention, after I saw them supporting Rob Zombie at his Download Festival warm-up show in Glasgow, Scotland. Skynd have been taking YouTube by storm with their Industrial / Dance / Pop sound, and songs about murders and muderers. You should see how many hits these songs have got, they are in the millions. Tonight's crime scene is the London, Islington o2 Academy, UK, and as you walk into the venue you can see Crime scene photo's and reports all around. From all the famous crimes, that are used as inspiration for Skynd's songs.

The wind and weather is repant and dangerous outside, with a lot of people not being able to make the show due to transport problems. And yes we had them too, it was an absolute nightmare to get to the London venue. But we were determined to get there, because after not being able to see the show because of it being postponed because of Lockdown and Covid-19 problems. We were not going to miss Skynd's show, that we had been looking forward to for so long. The band were asked if they wanted to postpone again, but with the fact they had already postponed this show before... I don't think anyone could afford to not let the event go ahead as planned. With the cost of time out for bands during Covid, has left a two year gap in most people's life and finances.

Opening up with a couple of songs about people the vaquented one of the most infamous hotels in America, The Cecil. First being the Nightstalker 'Richard Ramirez'... who terrorised LA and other cities in America and the haunting 'Elisa Lam'. Elisa Lam is the story of a Chinese / Canadian girl who ended up in the water tank of the Cecil Hotel, the most shocking thing about Skynd songs... is that all these murders and murderers actually existed. What I love about the track 'Elisa Lam' is that she even get's into the song, the buttons Elisa pressed when she was in the provoking elevator footage. "4, 2, 6, 2, 10, 5, 1 - I told you not to play my game - 4 2, 6, 2, 10, 5, 1". The funny thing about the whole Elisa Lam death, is that the same thing happened in a Hollywood movie 'Dark Water'. Was this a copycat, had Elisa Lam seen this movie. Or was this something supernatural, or was this a murder... I guess none of us well ever know for sure.

In parts of her performance, you see her shaking like she is being taken over by a Demon or a spirit. Until she comes alive to sing tracks, such as one of my personal favourite from the set 'Columbine'. I really love the rhymic vibrations of the track.""Ra-ta-ta-ta - Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta - Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta - Ra-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta" (like the sound of one of the guns in the Columbine shooting), And you know if you have seen the video, what this song is all about. The Columbine massacre, where two pupils Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold on April 20th, 1999 went into Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States and shot dead and murdered twelve students and one teacher.

One of the crowds favourites, and one of the bands biggest songs to date Jim Jones which is about James Warren Jones who was an American cult leader, political activist, preacher, and faith healer who led the Peoples Temple, a new religious organization which existed between 1955 - 1978. Jones and his inner circle orchestrated a mass murder / suicide in his remote jungle comune at Jonestown, Guyana on November 18th 1978. This furious song, that has a haunting ending is quite a moment in the bands set and adds to the atmosphere the band wanted to crate with the film they showed before their performance.

The beautiful new single 'Chris Watts' is simply mesmorising, and gives a nice contrast to the bands performance. Amazing how a ghastly song about Christopher Lee Watts murdering his pregnant wife Shanann Cathryn Watts by strangulation... could be so beautiful. 'Tyler Hadley' a song about a guy who murdered two people, at a party... is the bands most popular song. "Hammer in the game, Hammer in a brain,Hammer in a head, I hit it... Hammer all the same". The song is so Poppy and catchy with it's chorus of "Bang bang, boogie boogie bang bang, Boogie boogie bang bang, bang!!!", you just can't believe what she is actually singing about.

They end the set with the song they did with Jonathan Davis singer of the band Korn 'Gary Heidnik', which is very striking. Of course Jonathan Davis can't be in London tonight, but Skynd have played with him when supporting Korn on tours... so I think this is why this song has such strange feelings, is creepy, dark, menacing and is one of the bands biggest impact tracks. Gary Heidnik was an American murderer who kidnapped, tortured, and raped six women, killing two of them, while holding them captive in a pit in his basement in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Heidnik was sentenced to death and executed by lethal injection in July 1999.

Skynd performed a haunting performance, which I really enjoyed. I think in the future their stage show will get bigger and bigger, and even more interesting. The one thing I have always wondered is, with singing about such horrific events. Does Skynd get any attachement from any of the the spirits of the dead, or is she protected as social figure. Because I am sure there are some kind of ghostly spirits, that haunt around these subjects. I know a lot of people must think so, because people break in or sneak in to these murder sites and places and strange occurrences happen. I do wonder these things, because Skynd has a special ora around her as she performs... that in places seems Demonic. There are so many interesting topics in Skynd's songs, that I couldn't possibly talk about them all... but I hope I got the ones that are most relevant to this review covered.