Tag Archives: horns

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FRONT BEAST / MEPHISTO, In League With Evil Metal  (2006, Iron Tyrant)

The skull:
A couple centuries from now, when Big Dumb Skulls – The Big Dumb Coffee Table Book has replaced the Bible as the best-selling book of all time, children will ask their parents and grandparents things like “What was the first big dumb skull ever in the world?,” “Why does Proclamation like horns so much?,” and “What’s your favorite dumb skull, daddy?” It’s likely many of the queried elders will answer of the latter question, “Why, Timmy, I do believe the Front Beast / Mephisto split was the very epitome of the Big Dumb Skull cover: chains, horns, fangs, barbed wire, the Iron Cross. Had it all. Ne’er was a finer one, I’d say.” To which Timmy would reply, “Daddy, what’s a ‘front beast?’”

The music:
Front Beast is terrible. One-man band basement black metal with super-sloppy drumming, crappy riffs, and vocals that make that guy from Switzerland’s Messiah sound like Tony Harnell. This latter element has a weird sort of appeal, but only for a minute or so. They do a cover of Burzum’s “Ea, Lord of the Depths,” which completely lacks the haunting, spectral vibe of the original. It’s obvious this guy took his band’s name from an early, non-album Destruction song because he prefers to think of himself as pretty obscure – I’m also sure this dude is one of those types that thinks Destruction sold out with Infernal Overkill. Mephisto is also terrible. It’s one thing to be raw, feral, primal and all that, but quite another to attempt a spooky melodic intro as in “Fullmoon Damnation” and have the guitars be so wildly out of tune that you’re almost embarrassed for the boys. The drumming is borderline competent, and the vocals are the usual Angelripper-meets-Quorthon sort of deal. It’s all ham-fisted as hell, like early Tiamat playing early Sodom songs while wearing oven mitts. There’s a fine line between audacious primitivism and just plain underwhelming crud like Mephisto.
— Friar Wagner

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CHAINSAW, Permanent Menace (2011, Metalizer)

The skull:
This skull is so fucking tough his lower jaw is a god damned chainsaw! Sure, the background is ghastly and the Photoshop work is abysmal (the horns and the handle of the saw seem to occupy the same space, for instance) but I’m gonna let that all slide, because this artist wasn’t ‘shopping in a snake or some fire – he was ‘shopping in a motherfucking chainsaw. It’s utterly ridiculous, and also implausibly original, as we’ve never seen anything like this here at Skull HQ, which is a higher and higher bar to clear every day. Well played, Chainsaw art dude. Well played.

The music:
I expected bad Russian rethrash, but this is in fact some proper oldschool German thrash. Chainsaw were active in the 80s and released one full length before disbanding, but this disc is apparently an unreleased second album. Maybe these were just demos, but they sound good enough to have been final recordings for an album meant to come out in 1989, although I suspect the source for this was an old cassette of a rough mix or something, as the quality from track to track is not totally consistent. The music is fast and tight, sounding like a cross between Blackfire-era Sodom and Testament, which is a combination I wouldn’t have imagined before but works quite well. It’s neither technical nor barbaric, but something in between, and there’s no denying this was made in the 80s. I like it! This is one of the better lost thrash albums I’ve heard, and it makes me curious about the band’s earlier work, which features awesome cover art of a totally different sort, the kind of drawing that would make Vortex proud.
— Friar Johnsen

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SLAUGHTER LORD, Taste of Blood (1986, demo)

The skull:
“Grrrrr!!! You get me down from this cross right…this…minute!!! God damn you kids! I did not ask for this! What??? … I don’t care if it’s upside down! GRRRRRR… Come back here you rapscallions! What’s that??? This is King Diamond’s microphone holder? Well I still don’t give a shit! I’ve got a pie in the oven! God damn you kids!!! Get back here right now. GRRRRR…………”

The music:
I’ve tried to get into Slaughter Lord several times. They’re at least semi-legendary, Australia’s answer to the most vicious phases of Kreator, Slayer, Sodom and Canada’s Slaughter. But their music leaves me cold. And the guitar solo in “Die by Power” is dippy. Guess there’s a fine line between stupid and awesome Exodus-ish dive-bombing whammy bar destruction solos after all. Oh hell yeah, it’s cult…but how good is it really? I don’t get much out of return visits either. I’ve tried. Kinda the same feeling I have with Canada’s Slaughter – tons of respect, but a sense that both bands are slightly overrated.
— Friar Wagner

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WEAPON, Embers and Revelations (2012, Relapse)

The skull:
Sometimes we at Skull HQ complain about covers jammed up with just too much shit, but here’s a fine example of maximalism done right. Let’s start with the snakes: usually when you see a symmetrical design like this, the snakes are an obvious cut and paste job. But if that’s the case here, the artist at least went to some lengths to make sure each snake looked like his own serpent. For that matter, most artists would have just doubled that wolf, but here the artist wisely went with a tiger/wolf thing. The circle behind the skull is unique the whole way around, the crown is actually lighted, hell even the horns are distinct (and while it looks goofy, I appreciate the more realistically goat-like placement thereof.) The skull looks childish, which is a motif we always appreciate here, and the background is nicely textured and NOT BROWN. Really, there is basically nothing to complain about here, except that what the hell does any of this have to do with embers or revelations?

The music:
If Rebel Extravaganza-era Satyricon and Covenant-era Morbid Angel had a demon skull love child, it might sound like Embers and Revelations. That’s a good thing! This is a rather excellent black/death metal album that might lean a bit more heavily in the black direction, but is still supremely heavy and riffy after the fashion of the best death metal. The songs show variety and even some genuine imagination (the phased-out ending of “Disavowing Each in Aum” is so cool I listened to it three times!); the production is stellar, and the performances all around are top notch. Though it’s rare that I really crave this sort of thing, this is exactly what I’d want to hear when I do (assuming I can’t find my copy of Old Mand’s Child’s In Defiance of Existence, at least). There are a ton of bands on Relapse that I can’t stand, but that’s almost always because I don’t care for the specific type of music. Damned near every band on that label works at the highest levels of its respective subgenre, and Weapon is a sterling example of that. Shame that the band broke up after this, but what an exit!
— Friar Johnsen

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SKINNER, The Enemy Within  (2012, self-released)

The skull:
Is this skull the skinner or the skinnee? If skinner, it’s likely a revenge thing, doing to others what was done to him. If the skinnee, then it must have been difficult for the skinner to work around what look like fancy deer horns growing out of the sides of his head. His turquoiseness, well, that’s just silly. And do I have to point out what a lame, overused title The Enemy Within is? Perhaps they chose that over Nowhere to Run or something even more cliche…

The music:
This is metal that brings in a variety of genres and melds them fairly seamlessly. It’s performed with finesse and delivered with a conviction that you have to respect. You’ll hear shades of Nevermore’s high-octane modern power metal here, elements of Pantera groove, that nebulous but awesome not-quite-thrash area inhabited by bands like Powermad and Metal Church, and references to various Annihilator eras. So, very capable stuff, with a vocalist that recalls the gruff melodicism of Pharaoh’s Tim Aymar. They’ve got it together on this EP, and even though I wasn’t left wanting to check it out again after my two initial listens, whenever the name Skinner comes up I’ll give them some respect, at the very least. Anyone who considers the whole Prog/Power thing (style and festival) their musical bread and butter, you need this. Skinner released a full-length album two months ago called Sleepwalkers, and I haven’t heard it, but it boasts a pretty terrible album cover. They’re following in the footsteps of Metal Church as far as that goes.

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HELL MUÑECO, Doom Core (2009, demo)

The skull:
This guy reminds me of a Japanese Oni, what with his curved horns and fangs, not to mention the salacious look in his hideous peepers. With dentition like that, closing his mouth is probably next to impossible, but I imagine he gets by, mainly by screaming at all times and avoiding labial consonants. Then again, even if he could get his mouth shut, I guess the absence of lips would still make that sort of sound challenging, but other skulls manage to make them somehow. How, I don’t know! It’s times like this that make me wish we had a skull linguist on retainer to answer these burning questions.

The music:
Droopy doom metal with a cheap drum machine. Hell Muñeco are at least doom of the Solstice sort, and not a straight Sabbath knockoff, so you can expect riffing that’s a little more creative, and a little less reliant on the fuzz pedal for impact, than you get with your average weed-obsessed sludge merchant, but at the same time, the terrible vocals and Casio-grade drum samples really make this an unenjoyable listen, which is a pity because the writing and guitarwork are generally pretty solid, and certainly better than most of the doom bands we encounter around these parts. If the band found a stronger singer and a real drummer, they could probably grow into something interesting, but that could be said of an awful lot of bands, so I’m not holding out for a masterpiece from Hell Muñeco.
— Friar Johnsen

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CORROSION OF CONFORMITY, Corrosion of Conformity  (2012, Candlelight)

The skull:
You know a band is scrambling when they bring back a logo or mascot previously left behind in the name of forward evolution. So many bands eventually wander roads less traveled, dropping iconic imagery and the familiar musical style that gained them legendary status, only to return at some future points with more recognizable sounds and symbols. The return to safer environs rarely results in music that measures up to the good old days — it’s usually a case of too little, too late. The return of the classic Megadeth logo and mascot; the return of the classic My Dying Bride logo; the return of the classic Slayer logo; the return of the Destruction logo and skull; the return of the classic Anthrax logo; the return of the classic Celtic Frost logo (I’m not amongst the majority who think Monotheist is good); on and on. So often it just feels like a seductive sham, a pandering to gullible fans after some hurt feelings. What are we to think when Corrosion of Conformity bring back their horned skull? After many dormant years, this highly recognizable bad boy returns, but this time they have added more spikes, tentacle-ish things, an eye of Horus, a sword-like thing under the chin, and a curious and adorable chinchilla-looking creature for its forehead. It’s a great design, except for the chinchilla, and a reasonably acceptable update of the classic skull made famous by zillions of t-shirt wearing fans, bands and quite a few people who don’t even know what COC is but thought the shirt looked totally bad-ass.

The music:
According to this Friar, COC’s Blind is one of the best metal albums released in the ’90s. They were just getting good at a time when most of their older fan base were demanding a name change. And Blind is way better than good. While Animosity and Deliverance have their moments, nothing the band has released before or since has been worthy of Blind‘s majesty. Part of the the problem is this issue of perpetual stylistic crisis. COC never stay in one musical place for very long, yet they continue to try and zero in on what it is that they do exactly. It’s been an interesting run, even if they seem wayward most the time. If the return of the spiky skull symbol wasn’t enough, the band decided to self-title this one, so apparently it’s gonna be the defining COC album. Finally! But with so many stylistic shifts, what should definitive COC sound like? Apparently it sounds like this — an often uncomfortably ambling and sometimes impressively focused mesh of hardcore, Southern rock, sludge, doom, punk, stoner rock, noise rock and thrash. Where “Psychic Vampire” is wholly unappealing in its muddied, muddled thrash-meets-sludge slop, something like “Your Tomorrow” is appealing because it hones in on one direction — that being a Trouble/Black Sabbath-esque slab of smart, emotive doom. Many of the songs here feature impressive riffs or inventive vocal melodies, but also a few too many dead-end riffs and sequences. Reed Mullin is excellent throughout. He remains one of the most underrated and tastiest drummer in the genre(s) — one listen to “The Doom” confirms this. So, Corrosion of Conformity is a likable but hardly lovable hodgepodge, and probably the first one since Deliverance that’s worth more than a cursory glance.
— Friar Wagner

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RAM, Death  (2012, Metal Blade)

The skull:
Friends of the (horned) skull, Ram, return with another album cover featuring a human skull with curly ram horns affixed to it. The look is deliberate ’80s kitsch, and it’s an ugly mess. I think they’re trying to impress us here at BDS, utilizing every single popular feature of your typical skull cover: horns, crosses, ruined city, blood, an ominous winged figure. You can imagine this as a video game. The background is static, except for the upward-moving blood streaks, which pulse with each hit of the player’s fire button. That button allows the player to shoot crosses into the eye sockets of the skull, which moves erratically, gaining speed and intensity as the player progresses to each new level. Once you shoot 1000 crosses into the skull’s eyes, you’re at the 10th level. The skull disappears as the winged figure at the back becomes animated, growing slowly in an attempt to overtake the player. The shooter needs to shoot 100 crosses each into the figures wings or lose the game in defeat. Naturally, Ram music plays in the background. It’s a whole lot better than that Journey video game, right?

The music:
How much you like this depends on how much you like Iron Maiden and don’t mind other bands sounding a lot like Iron Maiden. Since Maiden themselves hardly sound like this anymore, Ram is a sufficient analog for the galloping, energetic, double-guitar attack that the English legends patented and turned into a very profitable industry. Ram is a good band, with good riffs and an earnest approach that’s hard to dislike, but how much you like them will depend on how adventurous a listener you are. Do you go to a restaurant that offers a menu loaded with choices and order the same dish every time? Do you go to the exact same place every single year for vacation? Do you go to Baskin Robbins and order a double scoop of vanilla? Ram isn’t all Iron Maiden worship though. Sometimes you hear traces of Judas Priest.
— Friar Wagner

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NUCLEAR DEATH TERROR, Ceaseless Desolation (2008, self-released)

The skull:
I could be mistaken, but I think this is the first biohazard symbol admitted into the Skullection. At least, I can’t recall another one. Then again, for as cool as that symbol is, it has obviously been poisoned forever by bandana clad jumpmen from Brooklyn, so it’s not too surprising that most of the metal scene has steered wide of that iconography. In this case, you have to actually look pretty hard to even make it out, under the horns, spikes, sword and septagram. What, they couldn’t squeeze in a radiation symbol and a chaos star? It’s especially funny that a band called Nuclear Death Terror would opt for the biohazard symbol over the radiation symbol, but hey, these guys are anarchists and they do what they like!

The music:
This is straight-up Scandinavian d-beat, and while that’s not normally my thing, there’s something weirdly appealing about this. It sounds like Bolt Thrower doing Discharge covers, and the singer bears a more-than-slight vocal resemblance to the mighty Martin van Drunen. Sure, every song is pretty much the same, and that tiring d-beat beat dominates, but the guitar tone is sharp, the songs are intense, and at just over 10 minutes, this EP knows exactly how long it’s welcome. This is a long out of print demo CD, and while I could download the tunes from Bandcamp, I probably won’t, even though I enjoyed listening to them well enough, because I doubt this would have any staying power for me, but just the fact that this assignment wasn’t torture amounts to a ringing endorsement.
— Friar Johnsen

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PROCLAMATION, Execration of Cruel Bestiality  (2009, Nuclear War Now! Productions)

The skull:
Proclamation can’t decide which way they want their skull to point. We’re back to an anterior view now. The skull’s dome looks a little worse for the wear — although sutures (cracks) are a normal part of skull anatomy, these look exaggerated by age or injury. This time the goat beard has spread longer and wider than seen in the Proclamation skull featured yesterday. Both Friars and the Council are very happy that the top horn is curled around the one growing out of the right side of the skull. Gnarly, literally! We love it so much we’re ignoring what appear to be two other skulls growing from the main skull’s cheekbones. They’re not fully formed enough to disqualify the cover under the “no skulls” rule, and they seem more like earrings or some other other adornment than freestanding skulls in their own right. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: this is important!

The music:
Well, Proclamation still sounds like a cross between Blasphemy and Bestial Warlust. And for the first time I hear shades of Beherit, especially in the vocal phrasing. This album, their third, is rawer, bleaker, grimier, and more distant than its predecessor, but geez, how much Proclamation does one need? As a person who owns and worships the entire Nuclear Death discography, I guess I understand, but those guys (and girl) at least, you know, evolved. Perhaps the fourth Proclamation album sounds like a mixture of Blasphemy, Bestial Warlust, Beherit and Queensryche, which would certainly qualify as evolution, but I kinda doubt they’re ever going to do anything new with their sound. Glad I delved into them as much as I have these past few days, though. They’re definitely upholding what Blasphemy started better than any other newer band I’ve heard playing this style. For what that’s worth.
— Friar Wagner