GAMMADION, The Fuse is Lit (2005, Strong Survive)

The skull:
Remember all those cool Dave McKean photocollage covers from the 90s, with random neat shit in antique boxes? You know, like the Disincarnate album or the first My Dying Bride full length? Well, this is kind of like that, but with just a single box, and crappy. And also not a collage. The best part is obviously the blocky skull pillow, though. I never thought about the needs of sleepy skulls before, but this cover has really brought the issue to my attention. It’s no wonder so many of the skulls we see look so cranky. Evidently they have to rest their heads on stepstools. I’d be a mess, too, if that was how I had to sleep.

The music:
Nazi true metal from Poland. Musically, it’s not terrible, kind of in the same vein as Atlantean Kodex, minus the doomy parts. Occasionally they drop into a blast beat, but it always feels out of place, as if they know that they’re putting on airs. The Polish-language speak-singing is pretty bad, though, and of course the lyrics are presumably about white supremacy and the master race and whatnot. “Gammadion” is the Greek work for “swastika,” so you know they’ve gone all-in on the NS bullshit. If the lyrics were about something a little less ridiculous, like unicorns or muscle cars, I would be tempted to say that maybe Gammadion are on to something, but I’m not about to endorse the work of racist thugs.
— Friar Johnsen