Skinbound - Media Heavy in FILM / THEATRE / VIDEO WORK & CORPSE NATION

In honor of Throwback Thursday, I decided to post about some of the best years of my life. I was in college at the time, in remission from ulcerative colitis (which is currently beating me mercilessly) - https://www.gofundme.com/JayeEryk
- and in a metal band: Skinbound.
Interspersed throughout I’ll post some video’s (which really are just mp3’s) not video, but it’s the only way I knew how to share some songs on here. They won’t be for everyone. ;) And we never really toured north of Orlando, so chances are you never heard of us (even if you’re a fan of the genre).

We formed in 1998 and disbanded in 2002 /2003. In 2006 some other group (not related in any way, took our name) so if you do a search you’ll likely find them, not us.

(Pics etc… will be poor). I do not have decent copies of anything, so I had to rip images from mini dv backed up onto svhs, but they’ll help tell the story. We didn’t have a label or anything, and recorded a demo in 2000… please don’t expect anything professional. We actually had a 2nd demo done with some of my favorite songs and a better recording, but unfortunately I don’t have a copy of it and couldn’t find them online anywhere. :/

I will say this, the songs sound much, much better on a decent pair of headphones than laptop speakers, it’s really horrible on mine. At the time we had our music up on an online music site where songs/artists etc… could be rated and downloaded. I was surprised it was still up; I just found our page so I’ll put our statistics after each song, we did ok for just being an unsigned local band.

Skinbound “Slave”
Charts position
» highest in charts: # 83 (106,847 songs currently listed in Metal)
» highest in sub-genre: # 7 (4,784 songs currently listed in Metal > Industrial Metal)

Prior to Skinbound, we were another band for a few years; our best show we had about 80 people, our worst, I think nobody. Seriously, just bartenders and girlfriends, lol.

When we evolved, everything centered around an elaborate stage show and things took off to where our smallest show was about 80 people and largest was a couple of festivals over 5000.

The lead singer and one of my best friends at the time.

Skinbound “Invisible”
Charts position
» highest in charts: # 64 (106,847 songs currently listed in Metal)
» highest in sub-genre: # 6 (4,784 songs currently listed in Metal > Industrial Metal)

We regularly played a local venue a few times a month called “The Culture Room”. They’re still going strong in south Florida with many national acts coming through there. One thing that I’m particularly proud of is that we haven’t played there since 2002 and throughout the entire place there isn’t a single poster or band name anywhere except ours. They kept our poster up on their wall and in 2017 it’s still there!

I think that’s pretty fucking cool.

Some of the reasons these were the best years of my life.

1. I was in better health and it was before my back injuries as well.
2. It helped tremendously with my depression
3. It was fun being a part of something greater than the sum of its parts
4. Creative people need a creative outlet and this fed that beast
5. Despite the music being dark / heavy, it was something really positive in my life

Me, in the warehouse during rehearsal. I always liked to costume up, but it was stupid. In South Florida, it was hot and humid… I have a nice sheen on me as you can see. And yes, that is a crushed velvet poet shirt… I don’t know what I was thinking… lol.

This is the song we started every show off with.

Skinbound “Scream Like You Want to”
Charts position
» highest in charts: # 136 (106,847 songs currently listed in Metal)
» highest in sub-genre: # 7 (4,784 songs currently listed in Metal > Industrial Metal)

The story of the show was the birth of the Antichrist. On stage we had two 8ft black crosses (one right side up and one upside down on either side of the stage). On the normal one we had an angel (a girl dressed in white at first, then topless and body painted) and on the other, a demon (a guy dressed in black leather s&m style, mask etc…).

We had a cage built that took center stage. At the start of the show we would wrap it in Saran wrap and flood it with fog.

I know I’m going backwards here a little bit, but every band has a specific song or track they play just prior to them taking stage. We wrote a lil electronic piece that played for about 2 minutes as we helped our alien get hooked up in the cage. People loved the anticipation of what we were doing. No one else was doing a stage show locally. Here’s what you would have seen before we flooded it with fog.

I’m not sure what show this is, but that might be me in there hooking him up, I did that often, then I’d slide out from underneath and hit the fog at the last second.

Inside the cage of course was our alien, painted blue with white exoskeleton and tubes hanging down.

The alien was chained and hanging upside down, you couldn’t really see him at the start of the show, but by the 3rd song, he would get himself down, tear open the wrapping and the fog would ooze out onto the stage.


His purpose… he was the architect behind the consummation of the angel and demon.

Skinbound “Alien World”
Charts position
» highest in charts: # 377 (106,847 songs currently listed in Metal)
» highest in sub-genre: # 33 (4,784 songs currently listed in Metal > Industrial Metal)

So the alien would unchain the angel and tie her up in the cage, then he would kill her, and do the same with the demon. Next, he would climb the cage and use them as marionettes, simulating sex with a dead angel and dead demon on stage, thus creating the Antichrist. It really wasn’t all that graphic, but conceptually it was fun to play out theatrically on stage.



The crowd was totally into it!

Skinbound “Stain”
Charts position
» highest in charts: # 429 (106,847 songs currently listed in Metal)
» highest in sub-genre: # 31 (4,784 songs currently listed in Metal > Industrial Metal)

Sadly the era has ended, but I look upon those days with a warm embrace. I miss them terribly!

Skinbound “This is your Life”
Charts position
» highest in charts: # 314 (106,847 songs currently listed in Metal)
» highest in sub-genre: # 23 (4,784 songs currently listed in Metal > Industrial Metal)

Although I may not be in a band now, I will definitely rock out on some playstation or xbox Rockband! When my brother and I lived together, we would often have parties or a get together with a friend or two and just rock out, it was fun. My brother didn’t actually play the drums, but he could and he should because he was amazing in the game and the Rockband drumming is much more realistic than the guitar work.

Good times.

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Last updated May 30, 2023