- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
The narrators’ weaknesses become the songs’ weaknesses; Mercer apparently prefers to sustain verisimilitude at the expense of Skin of Evil’s potential. It’s a bold artistic move that lends itself to the page far more convincingly than it does to the ear.
-
Skin of Evil may come off as an unwieldy curio at first pass, but lingering listens will reveal the gripping gothic undertow of Mercer's warts-and-all songwriting, even for newcomers.
-
Skin of Evil is not unlike Mercer himself—prickly, unfriendly, demanding, but fascinating and compelling just the same.
-
With dense puddles of minimalist reverb and feedback, it's experimental and challenging, in that it's sloppy and hard to appreciate.
-
Ironically, the general listening population--if they’re paying attention at all; hey, there’s a chance!--will find this to be Mercer’s most accessible, enjoyable work to date.
-
Under The RadarThe album suffers both a lack of the compromise that comes with collaboration, and an inability to identify then serve the muse that all of his characters are whining about. [Spring 2009, p.70]