SKULL407

Posted on February 11, 2014 by Friar Wagner

HATESPHERE, The Killing EP (2005, Steamhammer)

The skull:
“That logo look tasteeee, me want to eeeeat!!!” says Cookie Monster-inspired skull Logo Monster. He eats nothing but logos, and finds the Danish ones especially delicious. “Chomp chomp chomp, nom nom nom,” he grunts as he eats. [Observant readers will note that yesterday’s skull, and, incidentally, a Hatesphere-related band, also features a cover with rays emanating from the skull. Apparently Danish metal bands are into rays emanating from skulls. We can offer no reasonable explanation for this.]

The music:
I had very little liking for groove/macho/aggro metal before starting Big Dumb Skulls, and have even less tolerance for it now. Seems these sorts of bands default to the skull more often than most other metal sub-genres. Not surprising, given that its founded on unoriginality and junior high-level subject matter. Oh, “Murderous Intent” is about “revenge” and “vengeance” you remind me?! I see, yes. And “You’re the Enemy” is about retribution. Okay. And I see “The Will of God” is about corrupt priests. So perhaps I’ve been too harsh on Hatesphere, who are clearly treading original ground here. Except for the cover song, “Trip at the Brain” (Suicidal Tendencies), but hey, great choice, that’s a classic.

Come on, I’m being sarcastic. This is lame metal for dumb jocks. They may call it “death/thrash,” but it’s just as easily categorized in the groove/macho/aggro slot. While it’s delivered quite competently, it’s about as exciting as any given Carnal Forge album. Seriously, does anyone really like this kind of sub-sub-sub Pantera-meets-The Haunted-meets-metalcore kinda stuff? There’s a copy on Amazon for one dollar and 35 cents, but even that is way too much to pay.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL406

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Friar Wagner

THE KANDIDATE, Facing the Imminent Prospect of Death (2012, Napalm)

The skull:
There’s a kind of alchemical transformation happening in this scene. The skull was laid to rest in a casket he could barely fit into, but that’s incidental to what then occurred: the wood of the coffin disintegrated into negative space, a kind of black hole right here on Earth, and the bone of the skull transformed to wood. It all went down for reasons only a wizard of alchemy can explain. The beams seen emanating from the casket are the alchemical forces at work. In this bizarre phenomenon they are always invisible, like radio waves, but rendered visibile here for artistic purposes. It’s hard to tell by his expression if the skull is slap-happy about all of this or scared right down to the tits.

The music:
Heavily tattooed bands with short hair wearing baseball caps and metal t-shirts don’t necessarily sound like Pantera and other jump-metal superstars. But usually that’s the case. I’m already concerned — before even listening to this album — that I’m not very qualified to review thug/aggro/jump metal, mallcore and other associated lunacy. But let’s start with the t-shirts, because there’s some hope here: they like Slayer, Disfear and Trap Them. Once I finally got around to listening to this album I understand that they’re very good at what they’re doing. Maybe even excellent. I’m being totally objective here — it’s not my thing at all, but maybe it’s yours? This is modern metal that’s not quite thrash and not quite death and while it could appeal to the Pantera crowd, it doesn’t totally pander to that audience. If you can imagine Konkhra jamming with Desultory when both bands were deeply embedded in their groove phases, you’d have The Kandidate. If you’re a huge Hatesphere fan, it might cause you spasms of joy to know that Jacob Bredahl is singing here, but is anybody really a huge Hatesphere fan? Nah, not for me, but considering they also boast members of Thorium and Withering Surface, I guess I kinda have to admire their work in the Danish brown metal trenches all these years. [To the observant Big Dumb Skulls reader: you might note we reviewed Trap Them yesterday and Hatesphere is coming tomorrow, and that both are mentioned above. Total coincidence. Thank you for your patronage.]
— Friar Wagner

SKULL321

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

SICKBAG, Shades Among Shades (2010, Destructure)

The skull:
Although there are too many textures going on here, this is a pretty nice cover. Classy, even. Which seems inappropriate for a band called Sickbag. The skull is artfully rendered, looking a little like an engraving at first glance, but made up of much curvier lines on close inspection. The third eye is a nice touch, too. And while it’s a little hard to say for sure, I guess that fluff near the bottom could be skullvomit. There’s no sickbag to be seen, but I guess you gotta start with the puke, right?

The music:
Sickbag sound like maybe they started out playing modern Napalm Death style grind before calming down a little and settling into abrasive midpaced death metal. Dissonant chording and some angular plodding also call to mind Gojira at their least accessible (so, around From Mars to Sirius). There’s a thick grime of fuzz over everything here, from the guitars to the vocals, that I find very unpleasant, and even minus this effect the vocals would be generic and offputting, but the songwriting, for this style, is reasonably solid. The occasional ambitious reach (for instance, the increasingly messy drum intro to “…for the weak”) generally falls flat, but I do like the creativity at least hinted by those attempts. Sickbag need to tighten everything up a bit, and change their name, but they at least have some potential.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL24

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Friar Wagner

SEVERED HEAD, Heavy Metal / Killing the Kids (1983, Plastic Canvas)

The skull:
This is easily one of the finest skulls in the BDSkullection. This skull kept its eyes, eyes that have lasers or some other kind of light ray scanning out into the void, the top of its head a spaghetti-like mess of patch cords both coiled and straight. Considering there are female band members, is it an intentional nod to Medusa and her head of snakes? The logo is simple but bleeding. Looks like we’re gonna have to strap ourselves in for a very heavy experience. But, nope, not really.

The music:
This 7″ single is the only official release from this short-lived U.K. band, coming in at the tail end of the NWOBHM surge. The Head features two female vocalists in their ranks, but the girls seem more like curbside appeal than crucial elements of the band’s sound, as they perform only background vocals. Girlfriends of a couple of the guys? At least give them tambourines, for shit’s sake. It’s fairly competent stuff, even something that might have landed a deal with a major label subsidiary in the late ’70s, but by 1983 this already sounds dated and not as dark or vicious as the best NWOBHM. The “good time heavy metal rock!” refrain in “Heavy Metal” is Helix-level retardation. The skull artwork is about 4,000 times better than the music, but in their defense, any band would have a hard time measuring the expectations set by the name/logo and brilliant cover art.
— Friar Wagner