Nine Inch Nails has always been a quite experimental group but the newest release around Trent Reznor might be the cherry atop the cake. Bad Witch completes a trilogy of extended plays that started with Not the Actual Events two years ago and was followed by last year's Add Violence. However, you don't need to be familiar with either release to fully enjoy Bad Witch. The best way to describe this album would be to say it's a mixture of David Lynch's psychedelic jazz solo albums and David Bowie's experimental rock swansong Blackstar. This doesn't come as a surprise as Trent Reznor has collaborated with both artists in the past.

Bad Witch is a record that is based upon a psychedelic industrial rock vibe with distorted guitar sounds, nervously meadering electronic arrangements and occasional free jazz inspirations. The longer the record last, the less accessible it becomes. The first two songs are relatively short and easy to digest which doesn't mean their either catchy or commercial but they are focused psychedelic industrial rock tunes. The next two tracks focus much more on prolonged instrumental sections as vocals are only scarcely used or not at all. The final two tracks are the longest and develop a dystopian atmosphere where prolonged instrumental passages are occasionally interrupted by a few haunting vocals to give the music a conceptual guideline. These three segments complement and elaborate upon one another perfectly.

Bad Witch certainly isn't an easy listening experience. You have to be in the mood for weird dystopian soundscapes that are expressed through menacing electronic arrangement, cacophonic saxophone sounds and almost alien vocals. It's not a coincidence when song titles like ''I'm Not From this World'' are used on this record. The titles are more than they appear to be and actually describe the sounds of each song accurately. The six tracks work together as a whole body of work as the sum is greater than its parts. Bad Witch is an uneasy voyage through strange soundscapes that will evoke images aplenty on your mind. If you're ready for the experiment, then sit down, close your eyes and escape this world for thirty freakish minutes.

Final rating: 90%

Skinflint might be from Botswana but the dynamic trio offers traditional metal somewhere between heavy blues rock, heavy metal and a shot of doom metal on its self-titled effort. Imagine a slightly faster version of Black Sabbath with less melodic and more shouted vocals and you have a pretty good idea what this record sounds like. The album stays faithful to this guiding line and sounds coherent from start to finish as it avoids offerings experiments or fillers. The fact that a few songs might sound too alike shouldn't be ignored but the band avoids this trap by offering just below forty-five minutes of great music.

One thing I really appreciate about this album is the band's great sense for engaging rhythms. The almost danceable and cool rhythms in ''Birds and Milk, Bloody Milk'' explain why this song was used to promote the record with a cool music video. ''Thorns of Fire'' has so much power that it will make your head nod and your feet move very easily. The great diversified closer ''Tokoloshe'' ends in a very rhythmic way as especially the last minute is quite gripping.

From time to time, the band repeats its great rhythmic patterns a little bit too much. It's understandable that the group wants to evoke a hypnotizing atmosphere but the opening two minutes of ''The Prophecy of Nongqawuse'' are rather pointless and sound as if the band didn't know how to actually start the song. Thankfully, such incidents remain exceptional on this album.

If you like hard rock music with great rhythms recalling legendary bands like Black Sabbath in the seventies or early eighties, you will certainly enjoy Skinflint's self-titled record. Put your headphones on, travel back in time and keep your feet, hands and head moving to enjoy properly.

Final rating: 80%