Tag Archives: blood

SKULL92

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PENDULUM, Skull Fuck  (1989, Euthanasia)

The skull:
Oh my. This is one of the greatest skulls we have ever curated in the Big Dumb Skullection. While we disqualify any cover featuring multiple skulls, this one skirts around that rule by featuring a skull that is simply made of smaller skulls…it’s just part of its genetic makeup, it can’t help it. And it’s in grave danger of losing all those little skulls, with that half-moon blade swinging pendulum-style right into the skull’s forehead, spraying blood and tiny skulls everywhere. And the skull looks immensely happy about this! Perhaps the blade is firing neurons in the skull-brain that produce a feeling of total elation or something. Two hooded figures flank the scene, looking on as if this was some sort of medieval sporting event. We believe these two are ancestors of a couple members of the Council of the Skull. This cover is almost too good to be believed.

The music:
This long-dead Texas band are aiming for a kind of wiry, buzzing technical speed metal sort of thing, probably influenced in part by fellow Texans Watchtower, who were in their prime the year Pendulum released this 4-song EP. It’s interesting music, possibly fusion-influenced, but the vocals are horrible. The vocalist is what your mom means when she says “How can you listen to all that yelling?” And this guy isn’t even doing a threatening sort of yell; he sounds like a petulant child who just discovered D.R.I. and is trying his best to whine like Kurt Brecht but ends up sounding like an entirely powerless and way less squeaky Jason McMaster (ex-Watchtower).  You have to admire Pendulum’s forward-thinking approach, but the vocals kill it, and the arrangements are a total mess too, so unless later demos are better, it would seem their finest contribution to metal is that amazing cover artwork.
— 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

SKULL7

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OZ, Fire in the Brain (1984, Combat)

The skull:
Top-notch skulliness here: the skull is on fire, held in an outstretched hand whose arm is wrapped in a big studded armband, while blood drips from the fingers. And this is a photograph to boot! The skull is on the cheapo side, looks like like a wax Halloween decoration or candle, but it’s passable. And the best thing: the hand/arm belongs to none other than Bathory mastermind Quorthon. It does NOT get more metal than that.

The music:
Of all the albums Oz have recorded (there are sixth full-lengths to date, and they’re threatening more), this is definitely the best and only mandatory one. It’s traditional heavy metal, not black or death or thrash, but still very much on the sinister side, both in lyrical focus, the nature of the riffs, and the dirty, murky recording. Vocalist Ape DeMartini chortles in an Udo Dirkschneider sort of way, while bassist Jay C. Blade proved himself a songwriter of uncommon skill. His strongest songs are stacked on the first side of the album, a near-perfect set of dark metal burners, while the second side’s “Gambler” and “Fire in the Brain” measure up nicely with the first four classics. The other two are great too. Too bad the quality didn’t carry much steam past this album, as follow-up III Warning bordered on forgettable.
— Friar Wagner