KROKUS, Headhunter (1983, Arista)

The skull:
Totally bare bones (no pun intended): a skull and bones made of steel. That’s it. Black background with a Krokus logo and album title flying at top. Big, dumb and boring, but kind of attractive in its straightforward generic metal-ness. Probably took them 4 seconds to conceptualize it and 5 second to shoot the picture.

The music:
Not really a Krokus fan, they were always too AC/DC-ish for me (not a fan of AC/DC). Mark Storace is especially reminiscent of Bon Scott, although huskier and not as annoying. But Headhunter is the most individualistic thing they did in the ’80s, and remains the only Krokus album I would ever own if I decided I needed to own a Krokus album. I’ve heard this one a lot, as I had a bunch of friends back in the day way into it, and in 1983 it sounded like pretty bad-ass stuff to some people. But a Bachman-Turner Overdrive cover song? Pleeease. Songs I have to recommended, even to Krokus-sceptics, include “Headhunter” (a metal anthem, no doubt), the emotive, textured “Screaming in the Night,” and the album-ending two-fold jab of relatively experimental instrumental “White Din” and majestic “Russian Winter.”
— Friar Wagner