Description
Of Monsters And Men – Beneath The Skin – Double Clear Vinyl Records
Of Monsters and Men’s Beneath the Skin, released on June 8, 2015, is a dark, brooding, and emotionally expansive second album that marked a significant evolution from the Icelandic band’s 2011 breakout debut My Head Is an Animal. While that first record was defined by its bright, anthemic folk-pop hits like “Little Talks” and “Mountain Sound,” Beneath the Skin turns inward—trading bombast for introspection, acoustic cheer for atmospheric tension, and celebratory choruses for haunting emotional depth. It is an album that explores themes of identity, fragility, isolation, inner turmoil, and the search for connection, all through a lens of mythic imagery and poetic lyricism.
From the opening moments of “Crystals,” the album signals a new direction. With its pulsing drums, icy synth textures, and layered vocals, it presents a mood that is far more aggressive and textured than anything on their debut. The lyrics—“Lose your mind and let your heart be free”—speak to a recurring theme throughout the record: a struggle between surrender and control, the rational and the instinctual. Frontwoman Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and co-vocalist Ragnar Þórhallsson still share vocal duties, but Beneath the Skin sees Nanna take more of a central role, deepening the emotional resonance of many of the songs.
The production—helmed by Rich Costey (known for his work with Muse, Interpol, and Sigur Rós)—is rich and layered, blending tribal drums, ghostly synths, glacial guitar textures, and cinematic crescendos. The sonic landscape evokes Iceland’s geography: vast, cold, and beautiful, with moments of explosive natural force. Yet this time, the grandeur feels more inward than epic—less like shouting into a canyon, more like navigating a blizzard of emotion.
Tracks like “Empire” and “Hunger” are emblematic of the album’s tension and melancholy. “Empire” unfolds slowly, building into a tidal wave of sound, while “Hunger” deals with the gnawing emotional void left by broken connection and disillusionment. In “Hunger,” Nanna sings with almost desperate fragility—“I hunger for you, love / Hunger for you”—creating one of the album’s most intimate and vulnerable moments.
One of the emotional and artistic highlights of Beneath the Skin is “I of the Storm.” The song strips back the band’s usual density to leave a stark, haunting arrangement of piano, atmospheric electronics, and Nanna’s trembling voice. It’s a chilling meditation on internal struggle and self-identity, with the lyrics “Let the night come with all its pain” serving as a quiet declaration of strength through surrender. It’s not just a sonic departure from the folk-pop of their debut—it’s a spiritual one, revealing an emotional rawness and honesty that had only been hinted at before.
Other tracks like “Wolves Without Teeth” and “Black Water” explore themes of danger and transformation using elemental metaphors—wolves, ice, shadows, and rivers—as vehicles for emotional storytelling. These songs blur the lines between myth and psychology, personal trauma and mythical trials. Beneath the Skin excels in this liminal space, crafting narratives that feel ancient and contemporary at once.
The album’s title, Beneath the Skin, is no accident. It reflects the band’s artistic pivot toward deeper vulnerability, a desire to uncover what lies below the surface gloss of their debut’s folk-pop accessibility. Lyrically and musically, this is a record of inner exploration—a shedding of masks, a confrontation with pain, and a subtle hope for transformation.
The album was praised for its ambition and emotional depth, though some early fans missed the rousing immediacy of their earlier work. Beneath the Skin may not deliver radio-friendly hooks in abundance, but it offers something more enduring: a complex, emotionally rich landscape that rewards repeat listens. It debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 in the U.S., a testament to the band’s continued popularity and to their willingness to take risks artistically rather than replicate past success.
In the broader arc of Of Monsters and Men’s discography, Beneath the Skin is the bridge between the folk-influenced exuberance of their debut and the synth-heavy, moody alt-pop of their third album, Fever Dream (2019). It’s an album that documents a band evolving—not just sonically, but philosophically—willing to go deeper, speak softer, and expose more of their humanity beneath the skin.
Brand new, never played and still in the factory plastic
Track Listing
Crystals
Human
Hunger
Wolves Without Teeth
Empire
Slow Life
Organs
Black Water
Thousand Eyes
I Of The Storm
We Sink
