Category Archives: Skull

Skull of the day

SKULL66

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MEGADETH, Killing is My Business…And Business is Good! (reissue)   (2002, Loud)

The skull:
This joins Devastation’s Idolatry as one of few albums to make the Skullection twice. The first goes all the way back to Skull15, where Friar Johnsen took a look at the original cover from 1985. And there’s really no beating the original, but this updated version makes some kind of sense, adding the newer and more popular Megadeth logo to a painted interpretation of the original cover concept. That concept? A metal plate riveted across the skull’s eyes and figure eight-ish hooks in mouth. The chains from the original design are here attached to big earpieces that almost look like headphones. The bones ‘n’ blades behind the skull add some sizzle to the overall design. The skull even has a couple pieces of spinal column attached, but not enough to disqualify it under the “no skeletons” rule. A pretty snazzy looking cover, the added accoutrements are nice, but the original is still where it’s at.

The music:
I guess Loud Records is some short-lived subsidiary of Capitol Records or something. And it was they who put out this reissue of Megadeth’s excellent debut. Friar Johnsen ably spoke to the importance and awesomeness of Killing… in his earlier review, and I concur 100%. Special mention needs to be made of “Looking Down the Cross,” which might be this Friar’s favorite-ever Megadeth song, but there’s a large handful of others contending for that title. This remixed version of Killing… is good, and while I prefer the wiry, thin sound of the original, the beefier, bassier mix here works pretty well too. There are a lot of sonic differences between this and the original, and if you love this album as much as we do, you’ll look for any excuse to have the thrill of buying it again. What’s frustrating is the bleeped-to-shit version of “These Boots,” which might have been better excised entirely. Even more frustrating is how they (“they” being Mustaine?) fucked with the original track order, placing “These Boots” at the end and not in position four as on the original. Extra bonus comes in the first ever official issuing of their three-song 1984 demo, a super-raw, ultra-frantic view into the band’s earliest recorded material. Like the album itself, it totally kills. They don’t make ’em like this anymore, that’s for sure.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL65

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SOUTHERN FLAME, Whiskey Metal  (2007, self-released)

The skull:
Big ol’ skull looms over a rebel flag motif which itself is placed over a more distant photo of the woods. Everything is green (more the color of absinthe than whiskey) and the skull is stretch on the horizontal so that the dome of the skull is square and the eyes are so wide it almost appears as if the skull’s wearing sunglasses. A lame logo is stamped over the forehead. Ugly as hell cover art, but the skull certainly qualifies as “big” AND “dumb.”

The music:
Just looking at the band name, the album title and the cover artwork (and song title “Dang Doe Tango”), I figured this West Virginia band was going to sound a lot like Black Label Society. Sure enough, it does. Take the song “Dixie Metal.” Generic, mid-paced chunka-chunka riffs that have zero personality, with a vocalist that sounds like a totally drunk Phil Anselmo meets Zakk Wylde. It’s like the NOLA sludge sound infused with tons of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Just the kind of junk I will go out of my way to avoid, so…I’m outta here, I cannot take any more Southern Flame. I don’t like whiskey either.
— Friar Wagner

 

SKULL64

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Zandelle, Zandelle (1996, demo)

The skull:
Black cover, logo, skull, deep shadows. Textbook! He’s certainly angry looking, with the faint red glow in his sockets and the blood dripping from his teeth (fangs?) onto his chin. He looks like he was painted without reference material, just from the memory of other big dumb skulls. Seriously tr00. And for as crappy as this skull is, the band actually recycled it for their 2011 release Shadows of the Past, which featured re-recorded versions of songs from this and other early demos. That cover repeats the skull several times, though, disqualifying it for inclusion in the Skullection.

The music:
In the mid 90s, there weren’t many bands in the States playing old fashioned melodic heavy metal. One of those was Gothic Knights, and when their singer (George Tsalikis) left after releasing one album with the band, he jumped into Zandelle. Neither band was ever very good, sounding like bands that weren’t quite good enough to make Metal Massacre 8, but their hearts were in the right place, I guess. The riffing is dull, the drumming bland, and the songs cliche, but at least the singer was actually singing, and not just trying to out-aggro Rob Flynn, as was the fashion in those days. This sort of too-true-for-school stuff is just too backwards looking for me most of the time, and Zandelle is no exception, but this does take me back to those days when any metal song with a melody line was enough to perk the ears.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL63

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L’ACEPHALE, Nothing is True, Everything is Permitted (2009, Radical Matters Editions)

The skull:
Similar to the Witchtrap skull (SKULL54), we have an overhead (no pun intended) view of a skull ridden with writing on its cranium. The scrawl is either Spanish or Portugese, and the book that the skull rests upon is slightly Bible-ish, but more like a hymnal or stanzas of an epic poem. Looks like a photograph, and quite a good one at that. Classy and creepy at once.

The music:
I’m suspicious of seemingly hipster-born black metal from either Portland, Oregon or San Francisco, California. Not without good reason, but some of the bands cropping up in these hotbeds of neo-black metal are actually pretty interesting. This Portland band’s name means “Headless” (totally different than “skulless,” mind you) and their metal is black and epic, having the forest-y vibe of early Ulver and early Fleurety, with some tasteful keyboards providing additional atmosphere and some pitched vocals similar to Garm’s voice in the Bergtatt era. But they do a lot more, too. This particular track was originally on their Malefeasance album, but here it is in an extended remix that’s all kinds of fucked up, although I can’t tell you how it differs from the original, sorry. I do know the original is 23 minutes, whereas this remix? A cozy 93 minutes. And fuck no I didn’t listen to the whole thing. It’s probably not the best representation of the band either, or at least it provides a good view into their more avant-garde tendencies, incorporating folk, ritualistic ambient drone, and noise. Heady stuff.– Friar Wagner

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IRON GIANT, Creator of Scars (2008, Diminished Fifth)

The skull:
Looking like something from the discount wall at the local tattoo parlor, this low-detail skull is wreathed in some kind of smoke. Some specific kind of smoke, I’m thinking. Since the album is called Creator of Scars, I guess we can assume that it’s some sort of chemical weapon or otherwise militarized vapor. Yeah, that’s probably it. The oddest detail of this skull is the lack of shading in the eyesockets. I guess under high light (heh heh, I said “high”) there wouldn’t be a great contrast, but dark sockets are such a deep-rooted convention that its flouting really throws me off here. From the looks of it, though, that decision might have been practical, because as it is, this cover can be printed with only three spot colors. Frugal.

The music:
Iron Giant are the sort of band to affect calling themselves “rock and roll” when they’re pretty obviously a metal band, specifically a stoner metal band. Offering exactly the same mix of Sabbath riffs and super sounds of the seventies that literally 100% of all other stoner metal bands offer, Iron Giant are clearly not out to change the world. I guess they do the style well enough, though, and singer Chris Lewis is better than a lot of his peers, but so what? This is by definition low-ambition music, and unless you already own dozens (or more) albums exactly like this, you probably don’t own a single one, and never will.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL61

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DEADTHORN, Daleko od Boga… (2010, demo)

The skull:
Appropriately grim and straightforward, this cover shows a skull at the forefront with a headstone looming behind it. The design is very traditional black metal, white on black, no fancy shit whatsoever…although they really could have used a crazier logo.

The music:
Formed by members of all your favorite Polish bands like Anathemized, Grin, Mastiphal and Calvaria, this band offers raw, mid-paced black metal, freezing and bleak in the old school way. Can get a bit chaotic and tedious in faster sections, and a bit dull in the slower passages. The snare drum is a thin, wet slap, which pairs well with the buzzing, treble-loaded guitar tone. Vocals are, surprise surprise, somewhat varied, giving a deathly tone to what is basically Dissection-style death/black meets early Gorgoroth style black metal with a sort of Greek twist, if you know what I mean. Not bad, but not offering anything new either. (Get ready…I say that a lot.)
— Friar Wagner

SKULL60

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DEVASTATION, Idolatry (reissue) (2008, Forged in Fire)

The skull:
A first in the skullection, a second entry for a single album (q.v. SKULL14). Why they felt the need to change the cover is beyond me, as the original was more or less the best thing about the album. But, at least they’ve stayed committed to the big dumb skull. Replacing the grim and staid original is a rather cartoonish fellow. The blindfold motif is also maintained (the true trademark of Devastation), although obviously here the cloth is torn, or at least poorly tied, exposing that one glaring peeper. The skull is ringed by some kind of occult-looking circle, chiseled with the various icons of many major religions. Idolatry, man. And some lightning, because lightning is cool.

The music:
Friar Wagner adequately spoke to the adequatulence of this album in his post, so I’ll merely add a few words about the three old tracks, freshly recorded by the reactivated band for this reissue. None of these tunes were originally recorded for Idolatry, so I can’t quite say why they chose these to redo, or why they thought this would be a better reintroduction to the band than some new songs. But, they do play their own songs well, again, so I guess they’ve got that going on. One thing that can be said is that Devastation doesn’t sound at all like the million new thrash bands plying their wares today. Its funny to think that even a third rate band from the original thrash wave has about 100x more originality and personality than the legions of fresh-faced mosh enthusiasts following the dubious lead of Municipal Waste and Toxic Holocaust. Vocalist Rodney Dunsmore is still pretty bad, a charmless barker who’s probably too old to be putting on tough-guy airs, but the band does manage a certain groove and swagger. Is that sufficient to justify their return? Probably not, but I guess they’re not hurting anyone. I will reconsider my opinion, however, if they release a new album with another excellent BDS!
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL59

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THE AGONY SCENE, Get Damned (2007, Century Media)

The skull:
This guy is damned alright: damned to a face full of chopsticks and half a mouth full of summer teeth. He deserves it, too, for the crime of ripping off Pushead. Die young and leave a big dumb skull. Really big, and really dumb. The CD came packaged in a slipcase that was all text, except for a cutout that exposed the coffin graffiti on the skull’s forehead. Amusingly, fans of the band seem to think this was some kind of censorship, and not a commercial compromise with the record label, who weren’t exactly thrilled by the notion of a cover without the band name or title. But, you wouldn’t listen to a band like this if you weren’t so sure that people just don’t get you, man.

The music:
Straight up metalcore, which is to say watered-down post-Machine Head pseudothrash with herniated tough guy bellowing, The Agony Scene are more or less exactly as boring as every other metalcore band. Their slower tunes approach deathrock, another godforsaken subgenre of last resort. To their credit, they don’t generally stoop to crooning sensitive lyrics about their sadness in the choruses, preferring to yell at all times about lord knows what. Probably something about how their shift manager is such a dick.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL58

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MADE OF HATE, Bullet in Your Head (2008, AFM)

The skull:
Welcome, friends, to the album cover motif that never ends. Made of Hate play melodic death metal in the Children of Bodom vein, but this album cover design looks like that popularized by Hatebreed and the like. And we can go back further, sifting through the catalogs of the Victory, Equal Vision and Facebown labels to find more examples of this sort of thing. Very tattoo-y, this particular cover finds a skull comin’ out swingin’, packin’ heat where ears used to be (a bullet hole in the forehead adds insult to injury). Blood spatter forms a background, and the literal interpretation of the album title is duly noted. [Note: the band used to be known as Archeon, whose only album, End of the Weakness, features a skull on the cover that currently resides in BDS’s Honorary Mentions wing. We hail these Poles for their commitment to the skull.]

The music:
Man, from the album artwork right down to the band name itself, these guys are sending all kinds of mixed signals. As noted above, they present themselves as a straight up traditional hardcore band but sound a lot like Children of Bodom, complete with flashy lead guitar work. Were I an enthusiast of modern melodic death metal, I’d be scared away by their imagery. But what about the music itself? It’s more than competent in the area of performance, and well-written enough too. The vocals are scathing in the textbook melo-death mold, the melodies are Iron Maiden on amphetamine, the drums are robotic but with nimble fills…par for the course and as generic as most other bands of this type. They’ll be loved by fans who dig this style and don’t demand any sort of originality.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL57

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ARMAGEDDON, The Money Mask (1989, Talkingtown)

The skull:
You have to admire the literality of this cover: the money mask is a decoupage skull made of five dollar bills. Is that supposed to make a statement about Lincoln or something? After all, Armageddon were from Civil War battleground town Falls Church, VA, and one of their guitarists was named Robby Lee. Hmm. Assuming there’s no confederate meaning intended by the cover, if this had been a real arts-and-crafts project (which might have made it the greatest big dumb skull of all time), the decision to use fivers would have made some economic sense, but if you’re commissioning a painting of a money mask, why not go all in? I have it on good authority that it’s all about the Benjamins, baby Jesus.

The music:
Is there a more effective and immediate descriptor to temper expectations than the words, “Christian metal”? Even when it’s good, it’s rarely great, and the good stuff isn’t exactly plentiful. Not unlike contemporaries Saint, Armageddon play a glossy take on mid 80s’ Accept and Priest: generally midpaced and ham-fisted to an Xtreme (the “X” is for Christ). Mike Vance’s melodic voice appealingly recalls Jon Oliva, but his low-end, Dirkschneiderian croak is tough to bear. The playing, songwriting, and production are all eminently professional, but there’s hardly a spark of passion (no pun intended) in this music. The faster numbers work best for me, and “We’re Outa Here” is the album-closing highlight, but all in all, The Money Mask sounds calculated to appeal to “the kids” who weren’t otherwise open to The Good News. I doubt that’s exactly how it happened, but that’s the vibe anyway. As an amusing aside, Joe Hasselvander, of Pentagram and Raven, played in Armageddon for a while, although I’m not sure if he’s on this album. You’ve got to love a guy working both sides of the aisle like that. No matter where he ends up when he dies, he’ll have an album on hand to put him in good graces with the new boss.
— Friar Johnsen