Babylon (Skindred album)

History

Singer Benji Webbe formed Skindred in 1998 with bassist Daniel Pugsley, guitarist Jeff Rose and drummer Martyn "Ginge" Ford after Webbe was unable to put together a new project featuring other members of his former band, Dub War. Skindred recorded their debut album, Babylon with producer Howard Benson. The album was first released in 2002 by RCA Records, and reissued in 2003 with an altered track listing, achieving some success in Europe and amongst fans of heavy metal in the underground music scene in the United States. Band members Martyn "Ginge" Ford and Jeff Rose left the band following the release of the album, citing poor treatment by RCA. The band left RCA to sign with Bieler Bros. Records, who released the album internationally in association with Lava Records in 2004. This version featured different artwork, removed the songs "Falling Down," "Kiss and Make Up," and "Together", and included new interludes featuring dancehall musicians Jatoman Busha and Herbius Darussalam, and four new songs: "Start First", "We Want", "Tears" and "The "Beginning of Sorrows".

Music

Babylon features a style which the band refers to as "Ragga metal", fusing heavy metal, punk rock and reggae influences. Benji Webbe has also jokingly referred to the band's musical style as "nu-reggae", in reference to the term nu metal. In his review of the album, Allmusic critic Johnny Loftus wrote that Babylon brought a new edge to the "blasé world" of rap rock, writing that "Emerging from the ashes of Dub War, Benji Webbe and company eschew that band's fetish for freely shifting sounds, in favor of a more focused ragga-rap-metal attack. It's not merely a facsimile of last year's money-making metal model. No, what little repetition does exist here comes from the dancehall influence, the harping and chatting over a nonstop groove."

IGN reviewer Justin Falzon compares Webbe to "a flexible mesh of Jonathan Davis and Beenie Man", writing that "comparing his apparent vocal mastery to any one (or two) artists is nigh impossible. He screams, he wails, he growls, he rolls, and he jumps all over the register at will; it's an altogether astounding virtuoso performance. Unfortunately the music itself - slightly less funk than 311, slightly more punk than Limp Bizkit, and much more reggae than both - can't possibly keep up with Webbe's vocal apocalypse."

Release

Skindred toured in promotion of the album alongside Breaking Benjamin, Chevelle and Instruction, in a tour led by Korn. The band also performed on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The first single from the album, "Nobody", was released on October 3, 2005. A second edition of the single was released the same day, containing a remix of the song. A music video for "Nobody" was produced, and appeared in solid rotation on Fuse TV and MTV2.

The second single from the album, "Pressure", was released as a 7" on February 6, 2006. It contained the album version of the song and the "Happy Roses Baggy Mix" of "World Domination". A CD single of "Pressure" was released on February 6, 2006. It contained the album version of the song, the "Drum N Bass Fix Pressure" remix, and the non-album track "Rude Boy 4 Life", as well as an Enhanced CD feature containing the song's music video.

In the United States, the album charted at #1 on the Billboard Top Reggae Albums chart, #5 on the Top Heatseekers chart and at #189 on the Billboard 200, and the single "Nobody" peaked at #14 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and at #23 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart in 2004. In 2005, the single "Pressure" peaked at #30 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. In 2006, Babylon once again charted at #1 on the Top Reggae Albums chart.

Reception

Critical response to the album was positive. Allmusic critic Johnny Loftus wrote that "Skindred doesn't seem to consciously want the reinvention tag; it has simply tapped into the same lack of pretension that fueled Korn and Living Colour's Vivid -- records that were made visionary by an unadulterated honesty in both delivery and craft. [...] highly recommended for fans of literate genre jumpers like Soulfly and System of a Down, or any heshers looking for some heavy-hitting firepower that hasn't fallen victim to the anvil of corporate assimilation." IGN reviewer Justin Falzon called the album "a welcome attempt to innovate today's mainstream metal", writing that it "can be decidedly erratic, but nonetheless fascinating and difficult to dismiss" and concludes that "Skindred manages to place themselves outside the cookie-cutter conventions, nearly pulling off something fresh in the process."

Audio Video Revolution reviewer Paul Lingas wrote that "most of the tracks are somewhat short, but too many of them blend one right into the other and end up sounding like noise [...] look for Skindred to plant themselves firmly on the map with this debut album." TuneLab reviewer Jay described Babylon as "Party beach-type music for metalheads", and Eagle Eye reviewer Edward Savoy called Skindred "the musically enlightened head-bangers dream".

Track listing

Three editions of the album were released, each with a different track listing.

Personnel

Information taken from Allmusic.

Musicians

Additional personnel