Release Date: 1996
Genre: Gothic Electronic
Similar Artist(s): Diva Destruction
Band Members: kaRIN, Statik
Instruments Used: Synth, Vocals (female)
The album begins with a powerful, knock you off your ass, wanna play this while drag racing song called Violet’s Dance. I conjure up indescribable images of power and electricity when this song plays upon my ears. “Violet’s Dance is the feeling of my own perspective of life,” says kaRIN, singer/songwriter of Collide. “I have always been able to see my life from the inside as well as objectively from the outside as an observer, so that I am both passenger and driver…ride…restless violet’s dancing.”
This is Collide’s first album, released back in 1996 with an already formed personality, where most bands don’t really find themselves till their second or third album, this California-based dynamic duo come across as if they have been playing for decades.
The most memorable tracks besides Violet’s Dance are Pandora’s Box which kaRIN says “conveys the emotion of knowing something is bad or harmful to you, but wanting it anyway.” and Dreams and Illusions was the first song kaRIN and Statik (who does all the wonderful “noise”) did together “. . . before there was a Collide, or even the thought of starting a band together.” kaRIN explains. “It’s the feeling of wanting something that you can’t attain.”
Beneath the Skin is a nearly flawless album which is a phenomenal achievement for a first release. The song speaks of sorrow, need, passion, enchantment and power. it will pluck at the strings in your heart and will keep your mind scanning images of your own past. “The basic theme of anything I do artistically is a subconscious flow of what’s going on in my life.” kaRIN tells me. “I like to channel through vocals and words… a diary of sorts, pin pointing my thoughts and emotions. A lot of what I was actually going though at the time was the sickness of someone really close to me.”
Be sure and check out Collide’s Official Website and the all new Club Collide now with over 60 members, chat will other fans of Collide and the band members themselves! – Azriel J. Knight
Review Originally Published in 2001
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