SKULL550

SCAR TISSUE, D.S.B.M.  (demo, 2012)

The skull:
This is why you never let your cover subject choose your album title (in this case, demo title). The sole dude in Scar Tissue (friends call him “Scar-T” for short) allowed the skull to give a title to his time in the spotlight. Since Scar-T didn’t bothter to do shit in terms of concept, setting or even lame Photoshoppery, doing nothing but placing the skull on a pedestal and having a reasonably talented medical school pal pencil-draw him, our hero didn’t have much to work with. Including brains. He spit out, in a barely audible, creaky, , wheezing croak, “Dumb…Skull…Big…Metal.” D.S.B.M. That’s good enough for us here at B.D.S.

The music:
Okay, so in real life, D.S.B.M. stands for Depressive Swedish Black Metal. Guess what kind of music Scar Tissue plays? Have you connected the dots yet? Good. But don’t waste too much time on it. Scar Tissue released this one-song demo, then another one song demo in 2013 (also featuring a skull on the cover, a more deteriorated version of this one), and then broke up. Depressing, eh? Not really. “Drained of All Life” delivers exactly what’s advertised. It’s okay if you dig this sort of thing, but it’s got about as much appeal to me as some third-tier Russian funeral doom band. Sort of a bastard child of early Katatonia and Thergothon, but not even as cool as that sounds. A+ for buzzing, creepy, dank, suffocating, cobweb-smothered atmosphere, C- for durability and appeal.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL377

BARE BONES, Defleshed (2008, self-released)

The skull:
To me, the best thing about this cover is how the font of the title is so similar to the logo of the band Defleshed. I wonder if Bare Bones even realizes they did that? They probably just subconsiously associate that typeface with the word, without questioning why. “We should call it ‘Defleshed.'” “Woah, yeah, like a bare bone man!” “Exactly.” Anyway, this is just a one color, photocopied skull, way short on teeth. It’s nice and big, unadorned and unobscured by text. I wonder if they were able to save money by using the same screen for the CD booklet and the shirt?

The music:
It seems like only yesterday, but in fact it was 290 days ago (to be exact) that I was last required to listen to this boring, entry-level Polish death metal band. Then, I was reviewing their first demo; now, I’m reviewing their second and last demo. To be brief: they didn’t get any better.
— Friar Johnsen