Shed the Skin are a satanic old-school death metal band created by the minds of Kyle Severn (drummer from death metal legends Incantation, Acheron) and Matt Sorg (guitarist for Ringworm, Blood Of Christ).
These two disciples decided to create Shed the Skin after playing together recently in a tribute to the old-school Cleveland band Blood Of Christ at a memorial show for their friend Tom Rojack, who passed away in 1997, never forgetting his amazing talent and the musicianship he contributed to the satanic metal of the early '90s.
Matt was fortunate to have joined Blood Of Christ after the 1991 demo and contributed to the band's recordings and live shows for the duration of its existence, including the four-song Promo 1993 EP featuring the track "Shed the Skin".
After the success of that tribute show to the late Tom Rojack, the members felt very comfortable together.
Matt and Kyle decided to continue the Blood Of Christ style of Satanic brutality and recruited Blood Of Christ tribute members Duane Morris (Embalmer, Decrepit, Kurnugia) and Ed Stephens (Civil Disobedience, Ringworm, and Beyond Fear) to join their new creation.
Due to scheduling conflicts, Duane would not be able to add his sick vocals to the project.
So taking command over vocal duty would be veteran death metal singer Ash Thomas (Vladimirs, Estuary, Faithxtractor), who is no stranger to this style of death metal and has been a longtime friend and fan of Blood Of Christ, as well.
Brian Boston (From the Depths) was also recruited for his eerie, satanic keyboard accents and intros.
With the line up secured, Shed the Skin recorded two new tracks in Cleveland at Bad Back Studios with Dave Johnson engineering and had them mixed by the legendary Dan Swano at Unisound studios. Entitled "Rebirth Through Brimstone", the two-song 7" EP was released by none other than fellow Cleveland institution Hells Headbangers.
With the 7" EP excitement from both band and fans still fresh, Matt and Kyle immediately starting working on new material, creating 10 brand-new songs and choosing to record an old Blood Of Christ track that Matt originally helped Tom create and which was lost till now. Together, it became Shed the Skin's debut album, "Harrowing Faith", holding the same aggressive death metal style as the 7" - and as in 1990, all over again!
Supported by an intro created by Brian Boston and the help of Chuck Sherwood again writing lyrics, "Harrowing Faith" sees Ash Thomas belting vokills and crushing solos, the mighty Ed Stephens on bass, and lastly, Matt blazing out rhythm and leads that that old metal feeling!
The whole album was tracked in Ohio and was again mixed/mastered by the legendary Dan Swano at Unisound Studios, Sweden.
The cover artwork was created James "Human Furnace" Bulloch of Ringworm fame, who has outdone himself with a black & white satanic masterpiece that puts him up there with the greatest of greats!
This year they come back with the new full lenght album "The Forbidden Arts".