Tag Archives: worms

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MURK, Drifting Mine (2009, Bylec-Tum)

The skull:
Looking at this cover is like staring into the open casket at Chris Holmes’s funeral.

The music:
Murk sound like a souped-up Venom, playing proto-black metal that’s still 75% Motorhead. Raunchy and rudimentary, Murk are still kind of fun, if maybe not for the entire duration of this compilation. Drifting Mine collects a few EPs, some cover songs, and some rehearsal room demos, so the quality from track to track can vary quite a bit, and not just in the production department. “To Build A Wall” is almost unbelievably stupid, but “Perverted Behavior” is goofy fun. “Human Disaster” sounds like Obituary doing d-beat, while “Damage” sounds like a collection of the riffs Coroner would pack between the noodly bits. The whole thing has a deep underground feel without being unlistenably shitty sounding, although after a while, it all becomes a bit too much, and though it’s kind of impressive that a single guy handles all of the instruments and vocals (and we’re talking real drums here, not a machine), he’s not particularly great in any position. I’m not about to say that anyone needs to be listening to Murk, because even though I basically didn’t mind listening to Drifting Mine, I’m certain I’ll never be hankering for this again, but at the same time, if you like crusty, pseduo-black metal, then maybe there’s a place in your cassette deck for this.
— Friar Johnsen

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SUCKING VOID, The Scavenger (2012, demo)

The skull:
The stupid logo is a dead giveaway that this is a modern release, but this art could otherwise totally have fronted some cult death metal demo from the late 80s, passed from trader to trader in increasingly rotten-sounding dubs, the cover getting more and more washed out as the Xerox generations pile up. Scratched, cracked, dripping, and covered in crawly things, not to mention stretched like a necro El Greco, this skull looks to be having an absolutely shitty afterlife, and we’re actually seeing him here in the prime of his digitally distributed glory. Sucking Void Skull, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!

The music:
The Scavenger sounds like Earache Records 1990, an even mix of Harmony Corruption, Symphonies of Sickness, and the faster moments on Warmaster, but with a modern production that surprisingly doesn’t deflate the oldschool vibe. The riffing is a little basic at times, and the vocals less than charismatic, but this kind of oldschool stuff really gets me off, and Sucking Void remain committed throughout to songcraft in a way that modern death metal rarely does. The playing is sharp and everything sounds really great here, much better than most death metal, in fact. I didn’t expect much from this short demo with a silly cover, but Sucking Void are surprisingly not to be fucked with. Highly recommended if you enjoy the aforementioned oldies.
— Friar Johnsen

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MALFEITOR, To Hell, Farewell (2011, Till You Fukkin Bleed)

The skull:
This guy barely qualifies for inclusion into the Skullection, as he’s not quite transformed from flesh to bone, but we’re giving him a pass. He’s clearly going through something pretty uncomfortable and his plight deserves recognition. We empathize with the fact that he’s dying from an overdose of moldy Ramen, which surge from his eye sockets and mouth. Probably a college kid whose wild night went a little too wild. He stumbled back to his dorm, warmed up the hot pot, and that’s when all hell broke loose. (The impaling stake probably hurts a little bit too.) Those circling vultures can’t wait to get a piece of this delicacy.

The music:
Consisting of members of Blood Mortized, Godhate and Excruciate, one can expect exactly what such a pedrigree portends: adequate but hardly innovative Swedish death metal. It is, in fact, too many generations removed from the original root to be all that impressive. Each of the demo’s six songs serve up typical Swedish brutality, complete with super-fat guitar tone, forbidding vocal bellows and a variety of tempo shifts. The solo/musical section before the last verse/chorus of “Beyond the Horrorizon” is seriously impressive, but other than that it’s pretty much par for the course. And, despite the obvious talents of each member, “adequate” or “par for the course” won’t be good enough to leap over the very high bar death metal’s best have set for the genre. Maybe a Tribulation or Morbus Chron-esque evolution is in their future, but I doubt it.
— Friar Wagner

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SHACKLES, Orgy of Corpses (2005, Beer In Your Ear)

The skull:
A skull with a toupée! Brilliant! Although his flesh is long since decayed, this guy’s polyester rug remains, and he’s become a hopping vermicular hangout. The only orgy happening here strictly involves hot worm-on-worm action, and look at those little nas-tay nematodes go! So many Big Dumb Skulls dwell to excess on the maudlin, but here’s a celebration of life and good times, if only for the wrigglier of God’s creations. Good on Shackles for believing the skull’s half-full.

The music:
With a cover and logo like this, you can be pretty sure that Shackles are gonna play throwback death/thrash, and sure enough, that’s what they do. You know all the usual influences, we’ve listed them here for dozens of other skulls, but since Shackles is Australian, we can throw in Armoured Angel, Slaughter Lord, and Destroyer 666. This is just a shitty rehearsal demo, so if you want to check out Shackles, you’re going to want to look to either their studio demo or debut album. Neither is what I would call “polished” but they’re listenably produced and the latter even includes a few unexpected flourishes, like the church organ in “Orgy of Corpses.” For black and white retro death, I prefer Bones from the US, but Shackles are perfectly fine for when you’re feeling ’86. Were perfectly fine, I should say. They released that one album in 2009 and then broke up. You can’t keep a good band down, I guess.
— Friar Johnsen