Skin on Flesh’s New EP is Anything But “Terrible and Sad”

By Zoe Elerby

Berlin-based punk duo Skin on Flesh has recently released their newest EP titled “Terrible and Sad”. The EP consists of three emotional tracks that each have the theme of rage and despair. The band has released a number of singles over the past few years but this is their first three-song project. And it already has just under 1,000 listens on Spotify. Michiel “Michi” Sybers and Laura Jimenez, are two young ambitious musicians who have a knack for capturing the epic sound of the punk and emo genre.

“Terrible and Sad” was written by the duo during their time in Coyoacán, Ciudad de Mexico. Music has always been a beautiful and cathartic way to express one’s emotions. Skin on Flesh has mentioned when discussing this EP that they had struggled in 2021, and this project reflects that strife. They even had the opportunity to collab with another artist who had similar struggles, Andy Panic. The project originally has 4 songs, the first three released in this EP, and the other will be released during the launch of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty.

The first track has the EP’s namesake, it’s simply titled “Terrible and Sad”. This track starts the EP off on a hardcore note, a slightly muted bass plays in the background as the vocals start with the name of the EP:

“Terrible and sad. Everything is terrible and sad, even your mom and dad look very, terribly, terrible and sad.”

The instrumentals pick up after the last word of these lyrics, and a loud guitar and drums take over the track as the vocalist screams the lyrics louder and louder. This track has the classic punk trope of angry repetition as the song is only slightly longer than one minute. A lot of alternative, emo, and punk bands have 1-minute tracks that are usually at the beginning or end of an album to give the listener a sense of what the vibe is. An example would be My Chemical Romance’s “Blood”.

“Aquí Está Tu Pendeja” is the next track. Despite the Spanish name, the track itself is mostly in English. The title roughly translates to “Here is your bitch”. The song is very clearly about someone being cheated on by their significant other, sparking a rage that makes for an awesome fast-paced punk track:

“You trust me with your heart, so how could you break mine? I won’t go ahead and repeat your mistakes or if I do-do-do at least I won’t lie about it.”

“You said we were perfect but that’s clearly not the case ‘cause you just slept with her.”

This track is riddled with the classic punk rock sound, the drums, and vocals being at the center with a hard guitar in the background. The content of the song is classic as well, with breakups and infidelity bringing up an unexplainable rage that can easily be expressed in a punk song.

The last track is, you guessed it, sad. “Se Perdió Mi Corazón (This Is The Part That We Hate The Most)”. This song is almost the direct opposite of the previous track, it is a song about lost love but the relationship faded rather than ended abruptly. This track features Andy’s Panic, another alternative artist who related to Skin on Flesh’s story in this EP.

This track feels so uniquely Skin on Flesh, with vocalist Laura Jimenez taking over the first half of the song with heart-wrenching Spanish lyrics, followed by the repetition of “This is the part that we hate the most.”. Halfway through the song, it cuts to audio of what sounds like a person running down a street. It then transitions to Andy’s Panic, where they sing their side of the story.

“Happy ending never came, we realized it was too late. Only shame and regret have been dancing through my brain.”

This song has the same tasty guitar as the rest of the track, it’s still more fast-paced than a usual heartache song but that’s what makes it mesmerizing and catchy. I’ve found myself singing the chorus of every song on this EP.

Overall, “Terrible and Sad” is a great EP for those in the alternative punk scene. It has that hard, epic sound that wraps itself around your headphones and completely engulfs you. Despite having only been in the music scene since 2020, Skin on Flesh is relentless in their pursuits and they only plan on continuing to give their all to their music. You can listen to “Terrible and Sad” on Spotify and other music streaming services.