Tag Archives: eyeballs

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DEJA VU, Decibel Disease  (2008, Karthago)

The skull:
Apparently this is what happens to a skull when it’s blasted with high decibel heavy metal: it grows tentacles under its jaw, spider-like legs on its head, and some kind of crank or nutcracker on one side of the noggin. That, and the bone is overtaken by a Michael Whelan-esque series of veins and eyeballs. The red glow emanating from eye and nasal holes lets us know that the decibel disease is peaking and continuing to spread. This is not good news for the skull. Probably should have worn earplugs, dude.

The music:
Great band name, considering you’ve totally heard this before. The music of Germany’s Deja Vu can be summed up easily: Painkiller-era Judas Priest with a healthy dose of the post-Painkiller sort of thing Halford did in his solo band (Halford, not Two). This includes some pretty impressive high-pitched screeching from guitarist Werner Kerscher, who probably would have been a better choice for Priest than Ripper. Unfortunately, there’s more “Metal Meltdown”-level dumbness here than “A Touch of Evil”-esque majesty. If they found their own sound, Deja Vu might be something really special, but too many times they just rip off songs from the Priest/Halford catalog, and so many of them are almost exact analogs of the originals — “Children of the Eighties” is a lot like Halford’s “Made in Hell.” And then “Die for the Tyrant” is indeed sort of like Judas Priest’s “Tyrant,” with its unpredictable twists and regal atmosphere but shot straight into the Painkiller-era, amped up, modernized and musclebound.”You Know My Name” puts Deja Vu on the right track, a powerful slice of dynamic power metal punctuated with some exciting rhythmic accents and punches. And then we get into knuckleheaded crud like “Metalhead” once again that isn’t so much Priest as it is Helix or Jackyl. Deja Vu was going pretty strong there for a few years, releasing a debut in 2006 and this one in 2008, so it’s been awhile and I wouldn’t hold out much hope that they’ll shed their weaknesses and work on their strengths. Or maybe it’s taking them that long to improve. Or maybe they’re working on their own version of Nostradamus, a triple album called The Greek about the predictions of NFL football commentator Jimmy the Greek.
— Friar Wagner

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NECROCURSE, Chaos Carnage Cataclysm  (2011, Aftermath Music)

The skull:
If you’re familiar with Marvel Comics circa the 1960s/’70s, you might remember an artist named Gene Colan. And if you do, you’ll understand why I look at the Necrocurse artwork for Chaos Carnage Cataclysm and see his style all over it. In his most macabre moments, Colan drew like he was tripping on acid with each stroke, the features of his characters eerily rendered and just slightly out of proportion. And then some of his stuff looked like quick sketches, as if he was pressed for time. Whatever the case, his is an instantly recognizable style and one relegated to comics’ old school. I’d be surprised if whoever drew this cover for Necrocurse wasn’t influenced by Gene Colan. It’s got that trippy phantasmagoria he was so good at capturing. And look at the disaster that the skull’s eyeballs have endured! (Don’t worry about the fact that there are three eyeballs pictured — a minor detail, move along, nothing to see here.) Despite the cobweb (another incidental detail — work with me here), you get the sense we’re witnessing this skull’s first moments of actually being a skull, his living human features (skin, blood, eyeballs) having been melted off just minutes before this particular frame, probably thanks to some kind of satanic curse. Like, a necro curse.

The music:
Add Necrocurse to the long resume of one Nicklas Rudolfsson (Runemagick, Deathwitch, Swordmaster, amongst others). He plays drums here, and it’s no huge surprise (or leap) that Necrocurse plays brutal Swedish death metal akin to early Runemagick. You might have guessed it already, but lemme spell it out for you: there’s not one iota of originality
here. There’s another Swedish metal luminary present, one Hellbutcher, from the much-lauded Nifelheim. You have to wonder what Mr. Butcher is getting out of this experience that he doesn’t out of Nifelheim. Fatter guitar sound? The fairly regular release schedule of a more prolific band than Nifelheim? Whatever it is, it reminds of when Glen Benton of Satanic death metallers Deicide briefly joined Satanic death metallers Vital Remains because he wanted to, you know, spread his wings. There are two songs on this 7″, the band’s debut, and they have offered a handful of other releases since, a frequency which must have Hellbutcher’s head spinning. Personally, I’d rather see a new Nifelheim album than another Necrocurse release. This band is fine, but recommended only to the anal-retentive SDM completist who cannot get enough.
— Friar Wagner

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MANDATORY, Exiled in Pain (2008, Obliteration)

The skull:
This skull was walloped so hard that he flew right out of somebody’s face and somehow ejected his eye at an even greater velocity. This is pretty funny on its own, but you can see lots of other eyes in the background, suggesting that wherever this guy has been exiled, this sort of thing happens all the time. I imagine some infinite dimension of high velocity skulls (and their attendant eyes), all of them shrieking some variation on, “This is the worst!” But unless the skull launching happens from a single, central point, some of these skulls are going to start colliding, and then they’re going to learn the real meaning of pain!

The music:
Exiled in Pain collects all of Mandatory’s demos, which date from the early 00s but sound like relics of early 90s. Entombed are the primary influence, but the many slower sections sound like remedial Bolt Thrower riffs, and occasionally the band throws in some nods to primeval Florida death metal like Massacre. The production is more or less uniformly boxy and cheap, but that was probably by design, as Mandatory are clearly a nostalgia act. They’re not bad, but there were SO many Entombed knockoffs kicking around when that band was still great (which was a really long time ago), and pretty much all of of them are better on average than Mandatory, but if you’ve collected it all and you still need more Scandinavian death metal (even if it’s made by a German band) then Mandatory might be… something something… trying so hard not to make a joke about the band’s name… must… be… strong…
— Friar Johnsen

…an option. God damn it.

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ANGUISH FORCE, RRR 1988-1997  (2009, My Graveyard Productions)

The skull:
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again:  give us something we can use!!! This is about as basic as it gets, and we’ve seen it many times: white skull ‘n’ crossbones on a black background. But that’s the business we’re in here at BDS, and if it gets too fancy the Council gets cranky, so we’ll take it! Notable is the sinister grin and leering eyes looking downward at the clunky album title. This skull looks like he’s up to absolutely no good. Please note that if you’re going to use the word “Force” in your band name, it seems ridiculous to the outside world to have the word “force” in such a small font. Not very forceful.

The music:
I can only find evidence of this Italian band releasing material since 1998, and in those early days as Anguish (they added the tiny “Force” later). But if they’re telling us they’ve been around since 1988, I guess we have to believe them. The stuff all sounds very modern in production, so I’m guessing some of these songs were conceived by one of the guys back when we was 13 years old and they finally recorded them once they had a few official albums under their belt. No idea why this collection’s title is preceded by “RRR.” Nevertheless, there are 12 songs here, including Uriah Heep and Grave Digger covers (“Sympathy” and “Heavy Metal Breakdown,” respectively, although you could probably guess that Uriah Heep never wrote a song called “Heavy Metal Breakdown”). Their originals are pedestrian speed/power metal, in the vein of, but less than the German bands who popularized this approach — you can hear Helloween in here, and even a more obscure band like Attack. It’s okay, very well-played, just not conceived by visionaries or anything. As with many Italian metal bands, the vocals suffer due to a strong and not particularly attractive accent. And, yet again, we have an example of the album cover reflecting the band’s own musical laziness. With titles like “Fire From Hell,” “Death in Hell,” “Priest of War,” “The Witch of the Castle” and “Heroes of Metal,” you probably won’t be surprised to know that much of their material is interchangeable. Stock, stocky and stockiest riffs galore. You have to appreciate the longevity, though, whether they got their start in 1995 or way back in 1988. (You know, Voivod put out Dimension Hatross in 1988, which is apropos of nothing, I just wanted to write about a great band on this site for a second…)
— Friar Wagner