If you were to ask people to pick a style of music that most fits MMA, metal would be one of the top responses.
The hard driving rhythms and aggression of metal seem to suit the hard-hitting action of MMA effortlessly. So it is no surprise that when re-emerging San Francisco metal act Skinlab were choosing a visual style to go along with the promo video for lead single for their upcoming album they picked MMA.
Last May when the band decided to shoot the video for the song "In for the Kill" off their first new album of original material in over six years, they invited Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight contender Nate Quarry and Sportfight veteran Greg Thompson to the Bay Area to beat up on each other in a cage to add intensity to the band's already frenetic live performance.
"The song kind of suggests our return and not taking no for an answer and going straight for the throat, so we decided to utilize MMA parts in the video," explained Skinlab vocalist/bassist Steev Esquivel.
"We set up a cage for them -- it was a really cool set -- and made a nice couple days of it. They're really cool to work with, and they came down and threw some blows in the crazy-ass medieval cage we made. It was an awesome experience."
As for how Quarry ended up in the video, the credit can go to its up and coming director.
"He was a friend of our director, Jourdan McClure, and it just made sense," said Esquivel. "It proved to be (the right decision); the guy's just a top class dude, both him and Greg."
The video shoot was not the first time Skinlab and Esquivel in particular have run across the MMA world.
"Our songs were featured in a documentary produced by Bobby Razak," he told MMAWeekly.com. "He actually used a few of our songs in his first documentary, Rite of Passage, and I was actually in a movie he did called Pitfight Redux."
The band, which is rounded out by drummer Paul Hopkins and guitarists Glen Telford and Steve "Snake" Green, is known for their no frills heavy-hitting style, to which Esquivel equates to one of the original bad boys of the sport.
"My kids would kill me, because we're a huge Urijah Faber family -- we just love him and what he does for the sport -- but I'd have to say Tank Abbott (is most like Skinlab)," he said. "We're the Tank Abbott of metal."
After taking a few years off to focus on other projects and deal with legal issues surrounding a former record company, the band is currently in the recording studio putting finishing touches on their upcoming album, The Scars Between Us, to be released by Stand and Deliver Records in July.
"All I can say, this is the heaviest record we've every written without compromising for anything," exclaimed Equivel. "We've kept true to what Skinlab is known for, dirty metal with a groove.
"No selling out, no metalcore, we're going straight for the throat. ‘In for the Kill' will definitely give you an idea where we're going without giving away too much."
After performing their record release show as part of the Rockstar Mayhem Fest on July 10 at the Sleep Train Amphitheater in Sacramento with headliners Slayer and a dozen other acts, Skinlab will follow up with a full scale tour in support of the new album.
"Skinlab is not a shoe-gazing band; we definitely like to bring a lot of ruckus to the stage," stated Esquivel. "Not too many bands can match our live stage show -- just pure energy, breaking bones if we have to, shedding blood if we have to, whatever."
In closing, he wanted to send the band's heartfelt wishes out for the recent passing of one of MMA's most unique and recognizable personalities, Charles "Mask" Lewis Jr. of Tapout.
"I want to give our sincere condolences to the Tapout crew, Mask's family and the MMA community," said Esquivel. "I had the chance to work with him while we were filming Pitfight Redux and he's definitely a guy who is going to be missed. See you on the other side, buddy."
Checkout Skinlab's official MySpace page.
Promo video clip for "In for the Kill":
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