Charting July 30’s Under The Skin livestream event from the Theatre Factory in their home town of Pittsburgh, PA, this ethereal “live” album finds the quintet stripping some of the most monstrous slabs of sound in their back-catalogue to their skeletal essence. Songwriting previously lost beneath the avalanche of metal, industrial and hardcore influence is allowed to come to the fore. More than ever, their vision works its way under our skin.
Appropriating the classic MTV Unplugged set-up on the night, they made the format their own with a Mud-TV logo cheekily emblazoned in the bottom corner of our screens and a performance that harked back to grunge’s glory-days while loading on electronic motifs to live in the here and now. Stripped of the evocative visuals, the performance feels even more powerful.
Bleeding In The Blur – already one of CO’s softest compositions – is an easy way in, but the wheezing electronics and weeping strings on Who I Am hooks us properly. Autumn And Carbine becomes a twangy electro-country nightmare. Guitarist Reba Meyers’ rich voice is an obvious fit, but as Jami barks up on Ugly and a weirdly distended version of Only One Way it adds yet another abrasively haunting dimension.