Doomed Confessionary: Jesse, Rob & Sean (Skin Thief)
Melbourne, Australia based heavy instrumental trio Skin Thief play a progressive style of post-metal. Featuring grinding bass heavy riffs with chopped rhythms that drop into brooding hypnotic atmospherics. The songs twist through introspective soundscapes that often coalesce into explosive crescendos.
Skin Thief’s second album »Frozen In The Act Of Breaking« was released in April 16th, 2025 via Full Contact Safari Records. Available now on vinyl and all major streaming platforms.
Can you please say a few words about your band?
Hey we’re Skin Thief, we’re a heavy instrumental three piece from Melbourne, Australia. Our music sits somewhere in the post/prog metal realm. We’re always chasing big riffs and choppy grooves. We like to throw some chill ambient stuff in as well to balance things out.
What was the biggest challenge for the band?
Rob: Probably when we started out. I was in another band at the time and wasn’t sure if I could fully commit to the band. But the music came quite easily from the band dynamic in Skin Thief, and I made the decision to be a permanent fixture.
Aside from that, the biggest challenges came from the Covid lockdowns in Melbourne. That was a hindrance during the initial inception of the band.
What can you be most proud of so far?
Rob: I would say that I’m most proud of the music that we have created and that our label, Full Contact Safari Records, had the belief to take us on board and assist with our latest release, »Frozen In The Act Of Breaking«.
Jesse: I’m proud that we’ve managed to put together a live show that people get a kick out of. I love going to see bands, I find it quite cathartic so to be able to create a good experience for people with our music is pretty cool.
Also I’m pretty stoked we’ve got our stuff on vinyl, that’s a bit of a milestone for me.
What was your biggest regret?
Rob: Not sure if we have any regrets at the moment.
What was the best concert/tour so far and why?
Rob: Probably the last show we played, our album launch. With the help of the label, we were really able to play what felt like a high energy spectacle of a show.
Definitely proud of that show and full of gratitude to everyone that came together to make that an incredible night
Jesse: Our latest album launch show was unreal, we had Myriad Drone, Bear The Mammoth and SANDS supporting us, it was a really cool night with a great crowd.
Playing with Dr Colossus in a burger restaurant was a highlight too even though it was 40 degrees that day.
What was the biggest surprise on the music scene for you?
Sean: Biggest suprise on the music scene for me was just the wide array of different people who enjoy this type of music, being my first band I had a pretty naive view that we’d just be playing to somewhat stereotypical post-rock/metal dudes but we actually have a really diverse crowd with all different kinds of people and that’s super cool to see.
What is currently in your heavy musical rotation?
Sean: I’ve been getting into death metal lately, so I’ve been listening to Cattle Decapitation, Death, Cannibal Corpse, Defeated Sanity, Nile and stuff like that.
Jesse: A lot of ISIS, Pelican, God Is An Astronaut, Crowbar, Meshuggah, Night Verses and some early Mastodon.
What was the best advice you’ve ever been given as a musician?
Rob: Practice. Be open. Don’t be precious. The more you play, the more ideas you have, the more skills you acquire, the more comfortable you grow on your instrument. It all helps to make live performances more exciting for the audience.
Be open to the ideas that your band members bring to the table. Work together and see where it goes, and that leads to not being precious.
You might write a riff that you think is brilliant, but the rest of the band may have a lack luster reception. Don’t get bogged down by that.
What are your guilty pleasures?
Jesse: Ween and Nickelback.
Can you say something more about the current music scene in Melbourne?
Sean: The current music scene for post-rock, post-metal, sludge and stoner stuff in Melbourne is super strong in my opinion, there’s so many sick bands that play regularly and we are super lucky to have so many venues that you can catch them at. I’d highly recommend going out and seeing some bands, which is hypocritical given how much of a homebody I am. But the scene is really good.
Where can we see you live this year (concerts/tours)?
Jesse: This year might be a bit lighter on the gigs as we’ve just launched our new album »Frozen In The Act Of Breaking« and we’re pretty eager to get straight into writing for the next one.
That said we are supporting Transience on June 20 at Bergy Bandroom in Brunswick.
We’ve also got plans to hit some other Australian cities later in the year.
What are your plans for the future as a band?
Sean: The plan hasn’t really changed, I think we just want to keep writing music that is fun to play and enjoyable to listen to. We just try and write and record better stuff each time round. Hopefully, if we keep doing that, we’ll continue to have opportunities where we can share that with more and more people.
How can people best support your band?
Jesse: Best way to support us is by coming to a show and grabbing some merch at the desk. We also have merch and vinyl available on the Full Contact Safari Records website with international shipping available. If you’re unable to do that though then just streaming our music and sharing it with people who you think might digg it is a great way to support the band too!
Do you have any message for your listeners?
Sean: I just want to say thank you really, we have put so much work into writing and practising and it’s just so cool to see people enjoying our stuff either at shows or when listening to our recordings. Literally nothing we’ve achieved would have been possible without people listening to us and supporting us.
Jesse: Yeah just a massive thank you to everyone who has supported us so far.
Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well