SKULL161

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

NOCTURNAL DEPRESSION, The Cult of Negation (2010, Avantgarde Music)

The skull:
Very bummed, this skull: he’s so sad. You can tell because he’s pointed down in 3/4 view. He’s probably upset to find himself hovering in such a shitty part of town. Look at this dump! Rubble and weeds everywhere, and an obviously empty parking garage in the background. Even the logo, set in some font which must come standard with French versions of Windows, is weepy. I guess we can assume the setting is “nocturnal”, but it’s so hard to tell with this crappy black and white cover, and let’s face it, this neighborhood would be depressing in broad daylight.

The music:
Evidently there’s a branch of black metal called “Depressive Black Metal,” or at least so says Metal Archives. If Nocturnal Depression is a representative sample, then DBM is basically just doom metal with terrible production and raspy vocals, and I guess that’s as good a delineating feature set as any. Historically, black metal was defined by the three ‘S’es: speed, satan, and six/eight, but Nocturnal Depression mostly gets by without any of them, although they do occasionally dial up the tempo. The songs are dull, but what really rankles is the feeling that these guys are trying just SO hard to come off as the saddest sacks in the land, which always rubs me the wrong way. If you’re gonna be black as in evil and darkness, at least sound like you MIGHT shoot a motherfucker.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL160

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Friar Wagner

IN BATTLE, In Battle (1997, Napalm)

The skull:
A skull floats through a cemetery, possibly haunting the burial grounds and its groundkeepers who could not actually bury him because his entire body was so damn big. Unless this skull somehow grew to become as wildly out of proportion as pictured. The ghost-skull is so laughably big, I picture him clumsily knocking around from headstone to headstone like a pinball slamming into bumpers. “Oops, sorry!” “Excuse me!” Or maybe he’s not haunting at all, but instead trying to eat that big headstone. Why the carved sliver of bone lodged vertically through the nose and coming out the roof of the mouth? Might be a toothpick and, lacking hands or pockets, this is where he has to put it. What a totally great album cover.

The music:
On their first album, Marduk were apparently quite a big influence on these Swedes, as this 12-song album blazes by in a flurry of hyperspeed drum beats, blurry guitar hurricanes and seething vocal screeching. Prototypical pure Swedish black metal. Marduk, Setherial, Blodsrit, Dark Funeral…you know the deal. But In Battle does have some differences. A song such as “Ruler of the Northern Sphere” features an almost folk-like melody, giving the material a sliver of depth, and “Doom of the Unbeloved” revolves around slightly slower (or, less fast) and more hypnotic spaces that recall the sound of classic Norwegian black metal. Overall it’s well-played and genuine, yet despite the attempts to inject some variety, it gets pretty boring after a couple songs.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL159

Posted on June 8, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

PERSECUTOR, Wings of Death (2008, Rawblackult Productions)

The skull:
You’d be forgiven for thinking this demo was released in 1985, but no, it came out in 2008. There was a time when covers this bad were obviously the product of overeager teenagers doing their best to bring their evil visions to life, but in this late and derivative age, men probably in their late 20s or older are making covers like this to conjure a false nostalgia for an era they were born too late to know firsthand. You almost have to wonder if the job of drawing the skull went not to the guy in the band with the most artistic skill, but to the guy with the least, just for the sake of some misunderstood authenticity. You also have to wonder, “Where are the fucking wings?”

The music:
Unsurprisingly, it’s throwback thrash with a black metal twist, but it’s played with more verve than you might expect, and with no small amount of actual musical skill. I’m especially impressed by the rubber snake bass that burbles throughout with an almost spastic business. It’s excessively overplayed, in the best way. The riffing is also fairly clever at times, although this is one of those reverse synergy situations where putting everything together smooths over the most interesting elements to create an overall atmosphere of familiarity. I’ve been exposed to a lot of music like this since BigDumbSkulls.com came online, and this is one of the better examples, but I still probably wouldn’t listen to it unbidden by duty. But, if raw throwback German style thrash with nods to first wave black metal if your kind of thing, then you’d probably love Persecutor.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL158

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Friar Wagner

FACESHIFT, Chokehold (2007, Black Lodge)

The skull:
Classy cover. Logo and artwork bordered in rectangle and square, it’s all about an
orderly aesthetic. The skull hangs in a mist of various shades of gray, wearing an afro of dead trees. Sorta like a Chia Pet skull for the goth metal set. It’s an interesting and somewhat creative piece of art. A different sort of image from the norm we usually see ’round these parts.

The music:
From looking at the artwork, the band name, the label and the members’ origins, I assumed this would be melodic death metal. And it sorta is, just minus the death. Faceshift plays melodic metal that sounds like a mixture of latter-day Sentenced and newer Nocturnal Rites, only not as good, and with a vocalist that has absolutely no edge whatsoever. This is a single, so the only song it offers is “Chokehold.” It’s a polite stab at accessible, infectious melodic metal, but far too nice and harmless, lacking any kind of depth. Very “assembly line” in its approach and dull mid-paced momentum. This song is, in fact, so incredibly squeaky clean it’s barely metal. The dudes come from a heavier and longer-running band called Eternal Oath, so we’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and allow them into the hallowed halls of Big Dumb Skulls. The ultimate verdict: cool artwork for a pretty weak song. Incidentally, this song also appears on their Reconcile album, which features two skulls joined by the same sort of dead trees seen on the cover of this single. Continuity, man, continuity.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL157

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

SCUM, Voyage into Depth of Insanity / Macabre Moors of Morgoth (1993, Sickness)

The skull:
Lit from above and deeply shadowed, this stark skull drawing is a nearly perfect example of black and white BDSery. No jaw, no logo, no title. The essence of Big Dumb Skull.

The music:
Original entry:
Friar Wagner collected this skull, but he failed to adequately record its provenance, so its identity remains unknown even to The Council. For close to two years, Friar Johnsen has labored to uncover the identity of the band, scouring the obscurest of mp3 blogs and frequently entreating Tineye.com for assistance, but he has so far failed in his epic quest. Friar Wagner has all along insisted that the band is a metal band, and supposing that’s true, the likelihood of it being a black metal band is close to 100%. The Council welcomes any and all information about SKULL157, the only mystery skull in the entire Skullection.

Update 2013-08-10:
It was only a matter of time, but finally the mystery skull has been identified! Thanks to Sami at Bestial Burst Records we now know that SKULL157 is actually a 7″ by the Finnish death metal band Scum. Like early Sentenced, Scum takes the Stockholm formula and adds a weird twist, producing something that’s mostly familiar without sounding entirely derivative. Both songs are excellent (and both appear on the band’s full-length debut, Mother Nature), particularly the slinky plodding bits of “Voyage”. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much from the mystery skull when it was identified, but I’m pleasantly surprised by this discovery. Thanks again to Sami!
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL156

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

DIVINE HERESY, Bleed the Fifth (2007, Roadrunner)

The skull:
In a squalid restroom, a skull is jammed full of wires and gauges and shit, while he chomps down toothlessly on a grenade. There’s no bleeding going on, but presumably that grenade is ensuring the skull’s right to remain silent. Score another victory for the rights of the accused! This is not a very pretty cover, but it looks like someone went to the trouble of finding a good replica skull and going to town on it with rusty ric-a-brac and the hot glue gun, which is an artistic process The Council fully endorses. The arts-and-crafts method of cover creation is a sadly fading tradition, especially in the BDS realm, where handmade skulls once ruled the roost.

The music:
After he quit Fear Factory, Dino Cazares assembled Divine Heresy to play exactly the same kind of music he was making before. The differences are minor: Tim Yeung’s drumming is slightly less quantized than Raymond Herrera’s. Dino’s riffs are (very) occasionally a little noodlier. Tommy Vext’s (aka Cummings) death vocals are notably crappier than Burton Bell’s, while his clean vocals are at least a little more consistent. Other than that, if you’ve heard Fear Factory, you can easily imagine what Divine Heresy sounds like. I really enjoyed the first three Fear Factory albums (although they haven’t aged especially well) but the band lost me with the flaccid Digimortal, and while the post-Dino band put out some competent albums, the real Fear Factory magic (such as it is) is clearly in Dino’s hands, and this first Divine Heresy disc is probably the best of the post-Obsolote offerings from the FF camp. Hardly essential, but if you’re in the mood for Dino’s unique sound, this is a fine offering.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL155

Posted on June 4, 2013 by Friar Wagner

CONQUEROR, War Cult Supremacy (2011, Nuclear War Now!)

The skull:
This album was originally released in 1999 with a different, non-skull cover. The one pictured here is from the Nuclear War Now box set reissue, and we like it a lot. Yet, as feral as Conqueror’s music is, it’s sort of a dopey looking cover…the single strand of barbed wire is not very threatening, and the skull itself is an oblong, flattened dome, looking kinda sad plopped on top of bones; appears to have belonged to a midget or dwarf. Even their logo is kinda lame. But still this cover — resplendent in fire engine red — somehow works well to communicate this band is no-bullshit death noise; you get that they’re not doing any Motley Crue covers or something equally as silly.

The music:
I have a deep love for primitive noise from late ’80s/early ’90s bands like Nuclear Death, Sarcofago, and Order From Chaos (their forebears being stuff like Voivod’s second album, early Sodom and Bathory’s second and third), so I really should be flipping out over Canada’s Conqueror. They attempted to carry on deathly metal noise in a similar vein, and while I respect what they’re doing, it’s so sharp and scathing and utterly monotonous that it ends up sounding like Sadistik Exekution and less like the more organic mess of the aforementioned earlier bands. But I can hang, and actually get more out of this album now than when it was originally released. It’s a blinding smear of piercing treble-drenched guitar and well-played drum blasts, with completely unhinged vocals that spit pure venom. The fact that Conqueror featured a member of the mighty Blasphemy provides a link between the earlier primitives and this newer strain of ridiculous intensity. The slightly more popular Revenge is essentially the successor band to Conqueror, but they’re even less interesting than Conqueror. Best song? “Kingdom Against Kingdom,” as it’s the most over-the-top, which is saying something on an album like this. They also do Slaughter and Sarcofago covers on this album, so you know they’re pretty damn committed to this insanity. By the end of its 46 minutes you’re completely fatigued and want to just sit in silence for a while.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL154

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Friar Wagner

PAGANIZER, Carve: Stillborn Revelations and Revel in Filth (Vic, 2012)

The skull:
Another Photoshop clutter of a skull embedded in all kinds of weird amorphous junk. This skull — a jolly happy one! — sits high amid weird black twisted tentacles or gooey strands of black licorice, while the red stuff around him looks like innards/guts/flesh. The floating eyeball is very Travis Smith-ish, and there is no reasonable explanation for the two human figures flanking this silly random mess. But just look at the boyish grin on that skull. He’s stoked!

The music:
Cruel, raw, brutal Swedish death metal with a mournful edge thanks to some somber melodies and slower tempos. There’s absolutely nothing here that could be considered essential, but like a lot of third-tier brutal SDM, this works well enough as supplement to the better bands of this ilk. This music was originally recorded under the band name Carve in ’02 and ’04 when two dudes from the long-running and prolific Paganizer were on hiatus from that band. And it pretty much sounds just like Paganizer. 20 songs, 76 minutes, blows by without much to remember it by, but if you like this style (I do) it works on some level. Well crafted? For sure. Pointless? Maybe. Totally lacking in variety? Absolutely!
— Friar Wagner

SKULL153

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

PHONOMIK, Soul Creeper (2010, Nightmare)

The skull:
If I’m mistaken, this is a first for Big Dumb Skulls: an underwater skull. Yes, I joked that SKULL38 might be peering out of a submarine, but there’s no denying that this fella here is hanging out under the sea. Probably somewhere in the Caribbean, considering the clear turquoise water and white sands. Then again, I guess this might not even be a real skull, but one of those ceramic ones sold at pet shops to decorate your aquarium. It’s a niche accessory catering to the thin sliver of overlap in the Venn diagram of tropical fish and vampire enthusiasts.

The music:
I was really expecting shitty death metal when I started spinning Phonomik, so it was quite a surprise to find that they’re a quirky, kind of funky progressive metal band with a unique sound, good vocals, and catchy songs. Wonders never cease! Their sound is very modern, with downtuned guitar and a distinctly nu cadence to the vocals, inviting comparisons to both Evergrey and Fair to Midland. The singing is a bit nasal, but it still works for me, and with songs built around strong vocal hooks and an almost playful bouyancy from the keys, Phonomik have a winning formula on their hands. I would like a little more activity in the guitar riffing, but that risks looking the gift horse in the mouth, so I’ll just content myself with the unexpected small pleasures afforded me.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL152

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Friar Wagner

DEBRIS INC., Debris Inc. (2005, Rise Above)

The skull:
A cracked skull lays in the abyss, surrounded for some unknown reason by a chaos symbol (a cluster of eight arrows pointing all directions). Why? We can have no idea. The band name, which is also the album title, gives no good indication for presenting the skull to us in this way. Maybe it’s because, you know, it’s a skullll, maaaan.

The music:
“Masterminded” by Trouble bassist Ron Holzner and Saint Vitus guitarist Dave Chandler, this might have been a good idea if the dudes stuck to doing the kind of doom they do best. But they didn’t. They decided Chandler could sing (he can’t, not even close), Ron also gets in on the act, and they thought playing “drunken doom punk” was a really good idea. It’s horrible. Every last second of this 14-song disaster is horrible. Sounds like 12-year-olds trying their hand at Eyehategod tunes. The worst record ever released on Rise Above, and the worst thing Ron and Dave have ever been involved with. A total disgrace. Zero out of 10 fucking skulls!
— Friar Wagner