Category Archives: Skull

Skull of the day

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VIKING SKULL, Chapter One  (2003, Grand Union)

The skull:
Generic stoner rock background hosts a skull that could be that of a Viking, but also could not. Who the hell knows? All skulls are created equal…but not all skull album covers are. This one is on the gaudy side of the tracks. Those wings on either side of the head remind me of the Red Wing shoe company logo and look hopelessly out of place floating there like that. What appear to be crossed knives at the bottom I first saw as joints. Which they might as well be, considering the rest of this cover, and the music. And if they are knives, they don’t look all that deadly. Then there’s the skull itself, which is just kind of there, wearing a leering sarcastic smile as if to say “…and I have to float here under THIS ‘logo’? Kill me now…again.” We hail Viking Skull’s commitment to skull covers, but this is the only one we’ll allow into the Skullection.

The music:
Big, bruisin’, burly traditional heavy metal. Maybe. Who knows if it’s 100 genuine, their roots are in a band called Raging Speedhorn, who I remember being really boring noise rock/metal stuff. This first release from Viking Skull, and all others since, seem to be aiming for the hearts of all those folks who like fourth-rate rehashed traditional heavy metal, when we all know that most of the best stuff came out in the ’80s. Besides, this is just crap stoner rock masquerading as heavy metal. “Beers, Drugs and Bitches” and “Crazy Trucker”…junky stuff that I never ever want to hear again. I’d rather listen to White Wizzard…any day.
— Friar Wagner

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NILE, Festivals of Atonement (1995, Anubis Music)

The skull:
Straight outta some book Karl Sanders found at the library, with the yellow cranked to maximum, for some reason. Sure, it’s a nice looking skull, big and dumb, nestled in a cozy niche, but what does it have to do with festivals of atonement? Maybe festivals in ancient Egypt were very different from what I’m imagining.

The music:
This was Nile’s first self-released EP, and as such, they sound even more like Morbid Angel than they did when they became death metal famous. There are some intros with the eastern scales that Karl Sanders later made his stock in trade, but in the main, Morbid Angel + Suffocation more or less sums this up. I dig the dirgey “Wrought”, which features some passably good semi-melodic vocals and a rather ridiculous synth flute solo, and the equally draggy “Extinction” is also pretty cool. The faster numbers don’t interest me as much, but at least Nile at this point in time weren’t obsessed with proving how fast or evil (or whatever) they were, which increasingly became the case with their albums. This is just not my speed when it comes to death metal, but for such an early recording, it’s pretty obvious that this was a band who had their shit together far more than most bands do at that stage. This EP was later reissued with 1997’s Ramses Bringer of War as In the Beginning, and nowadays the band affects (for some reason) to describe their Egyptophile music as “Ithyphallic metal,” which is insanely pretentious (and borderline nonsensical), but if you just read that as “Ichthyphallic metal,” it’s all worth it.
— Friar Johnsen

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OTARGOS, Fuck God – Disease Process  (2009, Rupture Music)

The skull:
This skull, shown in a stark black and white photograph, looks off into the distance as if thinking “Where are my fellows? Why am I not in a pile with them? Am I not a pile-worthy skull?” He’s sitting on a cliff face or some rock formation, embedded just enough to look like he’s hovering, and we’re glad he’s alone, because BDS does not accept skull piles (although there are many such album covers, and we respect that). Or perhaps he rests in a tomb, solitary, and grateful to the person who just opened the vault door, which would explain the light on the skull’s forehead. This photo offers much in the way of contemplation and guesswork. For something not very artistically imaginative, there’s plenty to ponder.

The music:
Technically this is very good stuff. Often lightning-speed, this French band’s black metal buzzes like prime Marduk with a slightly artier twist. They’re not afraid of sounding clean and clinical, and that puts across their coldness probably better than choosing to record “necro”/raw. Although each track offers an interesting riff here or mindblowing drum blast there, there’s not quite enough variation, and they’re going for a particular aesthetic that’s been run into the ground by now. But they do it very well. (The band plays Dark Funeral covers, if that helps tell you where their heads are at.) You need but check out opening track “Dawn of the Ethereal Monolith” to know whether this band is for you or not.
— Friar Wagner

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NIGHTSTALKER, Superfreak (2009, Meteor City)

The skull:
Sepia-toned, a smallish skull in the middle of a some kind of sunburst pattern, set with retro typefaces that scream, “Are you ready to rock… and trip BALLS?” There are all kinds of little embellishments in the margins of the cover that do nothing but muddy the pristine laziness of the design. Who associates skulls with superfreaks, anyway? “Alas, poor Rick James! I knew him, Horatio.” Google “skull album cover” and you’ll be surprised how many are out there, ready to buy, with text like, “BAND LOGO HERE” helpfully set in the mockup. All those covers look basically like this one.

The music:
Stoner rock of the Monster Magnet variety. What’s to add? You can hear it in your head already. Some fuzz bass, some Orange amps, some nasal midrange crooning, some tambourines, some cowbell, some lyrics that include the word “mama”. There’s a stereotype of the stoner who’s just too burned out to know what’s going on around him, or to give a shit. This is the musical expression of that stereotype. “Is this a… what day is this? Is this Nightstalker? Whatever, man.” Yeah.
— Friar Johnsen

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GORGOROTH, Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt  (2009, Regain)

The skull:
My, look at those cavernous eye sockets. This skull manages to look as bleak and grim as the band’s music sounds. It hovers above a black abyss, and the wood-carved design adds a bit of an ancient or medieval vibe to this simplistic yet totally effective album cover. Let’s face it, some of the album covers we treasure here at BDS are a joke, artistically, but this one is truly good.

The music:
Gorgoroth’s eighth album came in the wake of not a little controversy over the band’s name, ex-singer Gaahl’s coming out of the closet, and leader Infernus being accused of all manner of criminal activity, from kidnapping, rape and illegal possession of weapons. Assembling a new band in the form of session drummer Tomas Asklund (also known from Dawn) and bassist Boddel (aka Frank Watkins of Obituary) and welcoming back vocalist Pest, Quantos… manages to be the most interesting Gorgoroth album since 2000’s Incipit Satan and it compares favorably to the band’s classic mid ’90s stuff. But it’s different too. Quantos… sports a clean production and is more melodic than most of their other albums, yet it still does what Gorgoroth does best: cold, epic, ferocious black metal with a few nods to ancient heavy metal traditions (though not quite as overboard as Darkthrone’s last several albums. They ain’t Agent Steel and never will be.) The variety of tempos and textures keeps this album from feeling static, and while Pest’s one-trick pony snarl can get tiring, he puts in a great performance nonetheless. The moments of clean vocal in “Human Sacrifice” are effective in breaking up the monochromatic screeching elsewhere. Infernus offers hypnotic layers and interesting chord choices throughout the album, showing that, despite all the crap he endured and inflicted in the years prior to this recording, he remains a master of black metal guitar. And it’s quite alright if Gorgoroth is taking several years to make records these days, as long as the quality remains on the level displayed here. Quite why Infernus lost his mind and re-recorded 1997’s perfectly-fine-as-it-was Under the Sign of Hell again in 2011, rather than working on new material, remains one of his more questionable moves. Still, Gorgoroth remains king.
— Friar Wagner

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ACHERON, Satanic Supremacy (2008, Frozen Darkness Productions)

The skull:
Just the straight-up Totenkopf insignia of the Nazi SS. As if the association wasn’t obvious enough, the initial “S”es in the title are rendered in the sig runes used by the Schutzstaffel as well. You’d be forgiven for thinking Acheron were some kind of racist NS band, but as far as I know, they’re just ridiculous Satanists trying to make some kind of point.

The music:
Acheron is one of those bands that’s just always been around. I’ve been dutifully passing over their albums in used CD bins for my entire life as a heavy metal enthusiast. They’re hardly the worst band out there, but their no-frills, old school death metal just doesn’t so anything for me. When I tracked down some mp3s of this cassette, I initially assumed it was one of their early demos, maybe from the late 80s, before realizing this is, shockingly, a recording from 2008. It’s a cassette tape for fuck’s sake! From 2008. You’d never know it from the sound, or the music, or the lyrics, which are of high school quality, that this was produced so recently. It cannot be said that Acheron don’t stick to their guns, though, as this demo pushes the same mid-tempo Tampa DM sound the band has been working since the beginning (even if they’re doing it from Ohio, now.) All three of these songs were rerecorded for the band’s next (and to date latest) album, so I guess if you want to hear them with a little more polish, you can listen to them on The Final Conflict: Last Days of God. But, I doubt you do.
— Friar Johnsen

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AMMIT, Hammer of Darkness  (2005, From Beyond Productions)

The skull:
A somewhat forlorn looking skull (but don’t they all look bummed?), encircled in a ring of bombs. Traditional white on black, with the stock Olde English font that black metal bands have favored since the Bathory days. There’s really not much more to say here, the cover is simple, clean and mean. The skull could have been bigger, perhaps. Note that there’s no hammer around whatsoever, of darkness or otherwise. (“The hammer of darkness is in your miiiind, man!”)

The music:
This is the strain of black metal sometimes referred to as “black ‘n’ roll,” but really it’s just the oldest of old-school black metal, clearly influenced by Motorhead, Venom and Bathory, and certainly the German thrash gods of the ’80s and Brazilian bands like Vulcano and Sarcofago. These Chileans keep it real and rockin’, the closest reference point being the first two Bathory albums. Although those can’t ever be bested, Ammit does a fair job of laying it down and keeping pedal to metal for nearly 39 minutes. The music is mid-paced to thrash-speed fast (ie. it never blasts) and while most of it definitely rocks, something like “Black Plagues” gets a bit more murky and chaotic. Highlights are found in the total worship of Bathory’s first album, “Dogs from Hell,” and the ripping “Power Means Death Power.” The vocals snarl and croak like early Quorthon, but you can also hear some Udo Dirkschneider in the phrasing and barking delivery. Which is perfect for the cover of Accept’s “Fast as a Shark.” For what this album is, it’s very good.
— Friar Wagner

 

 

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DR. SKULL, Wory Zover (1990, ADA Müzik)

The skull:
Look at that fuzzy pink mohawk. Just look at it! And the golden snake earing. And the out-of-focus band picture. And the fog. And the FROG. Then look at the mohawk again. If Big Dumb Skulls were a contest, this would probably win. Shit, no “probably” about it. This is the ne plus ultra of BDSery, the pinnacle of the form. Also, the skull’s name is Vehbi.

The music:
Although this came out in 1990 (really!) it sounds like a time capsule buried in 1982. Dr. Skull were Turkish, but they sound most like early Scandinavian bands such as Gotham City or Heavy Load, plus of course those bands’s NWOBHM contemporaries. Dr. Skull are never particularly heavy, exhibiting a strong hard rock undercurrent, but if we admit there’s a fine line between early (sounding) metal and rock, this definitely lands on the right side for us, decked out in singing guitar harmonies and huge vocal choruses with hooks aplenty. The lyrics are in English, and in fact the title of the album is a play on words, a homophone for “War Is Over”. A strong anti-war sentiment permeates the entire album (which actually opens with a metalized take on “When Johnny Comes Marching Back”), and this friar finds the band’s earnestness very endearing. The thin and cheap production perfectly suits the music and further strengthens the illusion of early 80sness that enshrouds the entire project. If you’ve tapped out the NWOBHM and have all the FWOSHM material you can afford, you could do a lot worse than tracking down a copy of this excellent little obscurity.
— Friar Johnsen

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SINNER, Mask of Sanity  (2007, MTM)

The skull:
The very first skull in the Skullection is Krokus’ Headhunter. That cover is a masterpiece of skull-and-crossbones simplicity. Sinner’s Mask of Sanity is a whole lot like that album cover, just on fire. Fire burns in the eyes, on the left cheek, on the head, even on the bones behind it. You might think that the skull, to use a song title on the album, “Can’t Take the Heat.” Neither can the wall of red clay behind it, which apparently is cracked from the heat. So, is this the mask of sanity? It doesn’t look sane. Or has the mask of sanity burned off? Which would make this skull insane. Perplexing.

The music:
This is Sinner’s 14th album. They’ve been around forever. I feel like I’ve been around forever too, but have had very few meetings with the music of bassist Mat Sinner and company. And although I appreciate what they’re doing on this album, it’s a little lackluster. “The Other Side” comes out swinging its cock in an almost glam-metal sort of swagger;  “The Sign” is a dull plod with some strained, off-key vocals. “Thunder Roar” has a bit more depth, with a cool piano theme paired with organ and chugging metal histrionics, its first minute being the most exciting thing on this album. There’s a cover of Thin Lizzy’s “Baby Please Don’t Go” that does no favors to the original, although it’s a damn fine attempt at nailing the killer guitar solos of the original. The vocals throughout are throaty and, uh, manly without being overly gruff. Kinda Blaze Bayley-like, but better than that. The music skirts the line between traditional heavy metal and AOR, which explains MTM’s interest. Ultimately, what’s happening here is territory that Sweden’s Nocturnal Rites have begun to explore and, frankly, they’re better at it than these long-running, hard-working metal vets. But hey, respect…lots of respect.
— Friar Wagner

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FOUL STENCH, The Bone (2007, Ukraugh Productions)

The skull:
A super close-up of a shadowy skull, this BDS begs the question: which bone is the bone? The human skull at adulthood is composed of (roughly) 22 separate bones, although this fellow here, lacking a jaw as he does, would be made up of fewer. So which one is it? The sphenoid? The ethmoid? One of the superior maxillaries? I suppose it could even be the vomer, although I should doubt that even Foul Stench are so gauche. One thing is certain: if this album had been called The Tooth we wouldn’t have nearly so much to speculate about.

The music:
After recording three demos in the late 90s, Foul Stench broke up, but nearly ten dormant years later, they regrouped at last. Demand for the Stench was simply too great to ignore! From every corner of the internet, devoted fans begged, pleaded, for Foul Stench to rise again, and the Stench, beholden as they are to the devotion of their public, put past differences aside and came together anew to deliver unto the world the moderately competent death metal it so sorely lacked. The Bone is the first comeback release from these Dayton stalwarts, featuring such now-classic Stench cuts as “Pack a Bowl,” “Skull Fukd,” and “Singing About Pussy”. Honestly, The Bone is not nearly as bad as I was afraid it would be: imagine a mix of early Obituary and Gorefest with a liberal pinch of D-beat, and you’ve more or less got it. The sound is good and the performances are all around above average for this sort of thing. No, it’s not winning any prizes for originality, but when you’re talking about weed-obsessed midwestern death metal, expectations must be calibrated appropriately.
— Friar Johnsen