SKULL546

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Friar Johnsen

DEFLESHUARY, From Feast to Filth (2012, Sevared)

The skull:
Though the title might be making some sly comment on the value of bourgeois comestibles, which end up as shit no matter how fancy they begin on the plate, that point is somewhat undermined by the depiction of a feast that starts as filth. And honestly, who’s going to take seriously the social critique of a maggot muncher? Then again, it’s hard to guess if, in the death metal community, “maggot muncher” would be hurled as an insult, or lofted as a compliment.

The music:
With a name like Defleshuary, you’d expect some kind of gurgling goregrind, and not quirky, light prog metal with an emphasis on tricky drumming and acrobatic falsetto vocals. And of course you’d be right to expect that, because this is fucking Defleshuary. Goregrind is totally useless to me, a style that, when executed at the very highest level, merely elevates a band to “heard one, heard ’em all” status. By my reckoning, Defleshuary are, at their best, a reasonably good example of the form, but it’s a form I don’t need, and you probably don’t either. But, if you do, here’s your chance to own literally everything this band ever recorded, in one convenient package, including their contributions to the split CD Fermenting in Five-Way Filth, which I will admit is an excellent title. Those tracks are the latest on this comp, and definitely the best. Go back to their first demo, and you’re in for some really stupid mushmouthed nonsense, but if your in for a penny of goregrind, you’re in for a pound, I suppose.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL545

Posted on June 29, 2014 by Friar Wagner

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.

SKULL544

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Friar Wagner

SATAN’S SATYRS, Die Screaming (2014, Bad Omen)

The skull:
Here we see something not meant for the public’s eyes. Lacking anything but a bony head to work with, a skull needs to get his sexual kicks in ways we fleshy folk might find bizarre. A skull positions himself under any kind of signage dripping blood (you know the signage), causing an agonizing sort of orgasm, all that hot blood splashing onto his face and into his mouth. Hot hot hot! Now, look away. You have seen too much already.

The music:
Duty and obsession lead me immediately to song number 5, “Show Me Your Skull,” and what it offers is kind of interesting. I’m highly suspicious of most of these retro-rock/retro-heavy metal bands, who offer absolutely nothing new and usually can’t write songs that measure up with the old masters (Witchcraft being a major exception). But Satan’s Satyrs are interesting. Their guitar tone is jangly and clean, reminding a bit of old ’70s band Dust. The energy is equally jumpy, raucous and kinetic, and the song structures and melodies are redolent of some weird fusion of ’70s-era Pentagram, early Cirith Ungol and classic Kiss. There are whiffs of punk and surf music here too. The ghosts of MC5 and Stooges lurk not very far under the surface. Sorta like if Venom was actually a punk rock band. And that’s just “Show Me Your Skull.” And that’s just the music. The vocals are hugely appealing, partly because they sound like no one else that I can recall. Bassist Claythanas, as he’s known, delivers these tales of pulp novel satanism with a bratty, whiny, fragile, sneering delivery. While that sounds horrible on paper, it actually works to give these songs additional color and intrigue. The rest of the songs are good, with a consistency that offers no standouts but no real duds either. I can’t believe I’m enjoying this retro-steeped album, but then I like a lot of the original bands this is based on, so perhaps it was time that a totally worthwhile band like this came along. Much better than Graveyard, trust me.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL543

Posted on June 27, 2014 by Friar Johnsen

ANTROPOID, Danger (2007, self-released)

The skull:
“Antropoid” is actually the Slovak word for “pirate,” and this is just one of the many signs you’ll see to alert you to freebooter crossings while motoring down the picturesque highways of this landlocked central European nation. Over the years, many of these signs have been stolen by Running Wild fans, and as a result, the crushed corpses of patch-eyed, hook-handed, peg-legged seamen litter the shoulders of many rural roads. Conservationists consider this part of the world ground zero in the effort to preserve wild pirates from extinction, but privately, most would express deep reservations about the possibility of protecting the remaining stock of buccaneers.

The music:
Sounding like a mix of early 90s Anthrax (at the dire end of the first Joey Belladonna era) and recent Metallica (trying very hard to be heavy, but sucking fairly badly), Antropoid are rather hard to explain. Why would a band try to sound this way, in 2007, especially? Maybe the better albums were too hard to come by in Slovakia, or maybe Antropia were just a bunch of kids who didn’t know what the hell they were doing. That said, though their songs are not very good, they play them with a commendable enthusiasm that I find unavoidably appealing. Antropoid might actually have fared very well in today’s flaccid rethrash scene, although they’d have to bone up on their Exodus and Slayer, but they appear to already have passed into the great moshpit beyond.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL542

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Friar Wagner

DESTROYER 666, See You in Hell (2010, Invictus Productions)

The skull:
If we are indeed doomed to Hell and find ourselves in the presence of skulls barfing up wolves, I’ll take a one-way ticket as soon as one becomes available, please.

The music:
I have a very good friend who counts Destroyer 666 amongst his absolute all-time favorite metal bands. He has, time and time again, exposed me to their supposed awesomeness, and while I admit their mastery, the connection is always an arm’s length away. I just can’t fully get into the D666 thing. Despite some great riffs and obvious mastery of their chosen craft, they leave me cold. But, as said, I can respect them. This two-song 7″ features the title track, which is not a cover of the Grim Reaper title track. It is, rather, a mid-paced, martial, fairly hypnotic affair, led by militaristic snare drum, blurry layers of guitar and caustic vocals. The second side is more interesting, as “Through the Broken Pentagram” finds all kinds of wicked guitar melodies, quality riffs, propulsive drumming and heavily layered vocals woven together to create quite the malevolent 4 minutes and 42 seconds. The layering of harsh vocals atop other vocals that aren’t exactly melodic but aren’t harsh either, but rather despondently spat out, reminds of Algaion’s General Enmity album somewhat. The song cruises along in a kind of organized calamity, like the final moments of Slayer’s “Mandatory Suicide” expanded into an entire song; it captures that frightening, world-collapsing sort of vibe. “Through the Broken Pentagram” might be the most interesting song I’ve heard by these dudes yet.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL541

Posted on June 25, 2014 by Friar Johnsen

SCAVANGER, Scavanger (2005, demo)

The skull:
I bet there’s another band out there called Scavenger whose album cover is this exact, blurry, angry, red skull, and when this band stole it, they changed the spelling of the band name to Scavanger (note the extra A) to avoid being caught. So far, they’ve gotten away with it, but how long can they keep running?

The music:
I imagine there are thousands of bands like this in Germany. Basically competent, totally boring trad metal bands knocking out chintsy-sounding demos in their bedrooms. They’re the first of four local openers tacked onto the UDO show. They play Sunday nights at their local bar, to a crowd they know personally to a man (and woman, since the bassist’s mom usually goes to their gigs.) They’re not horrible, but even on the ranked list of “Bands Who Aren’t Horrible,” they fall somewhere in the high 6000s. Weirdly, two of the three songs on their Reverbnation page are from this demo, even though they’ve released two albums since. I’m not about to look further into their discography, but that’s a bad sign right there, as these old tunes (the 2005 demo is their first recording) are not so hot. The newer track sounds more or less the same, although I think those drums are real. Back in the 90s, when I was writing a zine, if I got a demo like this from an American band, I might have ginned up some enthusiasm for them, as they’re at least melodic and more or less able to play, but in 2005? In 2014? Not a chance. AND they’re from Germany, where the bar for this sort of thing really should be higher.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL540

Posted on June 24, 2014 by Friar Wagner

HOUR OF 13, 333 (2012, Earache)

The skull:
We know…this should have been SKULL333 in the Skullection. You smart ass, lot, you. But the skulldiggers in the employ of the Council hadn’t unearthed this gem in time. Once found, the prickly hair-on-end feeling that our archaeologists usually get upon uncovering a skull was only half as creepy as usual. And the skull was missing half its teeth. And the nine-pointed star that emanated from its being was only half as evil-seeming as some 18-pointed star that our head archaeologist saw once. Still, we take all comers, as long as its a skull with lineage to heavy metal. We had to wonder if the music it represented was going to be half as good as all the best doom metal bands? Our research was only half concluded (or half begun, if you’re an optimist).

The music:
In their short career (2006-2014), North Carolina’s Hour of 13 made some pretty sizable waves in the doom metal community. And weirdly enough, I hadn’t taken the time to listen to them until duty called here at Big Dumb Skulls. Opener “Deny the Cross” is not only not an Overkill song, it’s not half-bad. The rhythms, melodies, guitar tones and vocals are all appropriately macabre-sounding, akin to the more straightforward lurch of classic Candlemass and the lightly abstract surrealism of that same band’s Dactylis Glomerata. Phil Swanson’s vocals possess the kind of character you’d hope for, neither being too overtly close in style to Ozzy Osbourne or Messiah Marcolin, or any of the other vocalists that doom copyists favor (and, every now and then, he recalls Alan Averill in Primordial’s A Journey’s End era). I know some others have charged Swanson with being too Ozzy-like, but he’s no Dan Fondelius (Count Raven) in that category, and I suspect those “critics” have very narrow reference points when it comes to doom (like, Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath and Black Sabbath. And solo Ozzy). There are even quite a few killer riffs here. Ultimately I find most newer doom bands charged with the impossible task of impressing beyond the godfathers of the genre, who laid down an nearly impossible-to-match blueprint. But Hour of 13 does a pretty damn good job of it, and the fact that they’re relatively original for a band of this style speaks volumes for their integrity. One of their main strengths is their incorporation of true/dark/traditional heavy metal elements, so that fans of Dio, Slough Feg, Manilla Road and Judas Priest could get into this. Not bad at all, and recommended to discerning doom fans who haven’t yet checked it out.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL539

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Friar Johnsen

MORBID SLAUGHTER, Wicca (2014, Boris)

The skull:
This valiant skull tried to take a bite (literally!) out of whatever occult, Illuminati organization bears this particular emblem, and look what it got him: a head full of fire. These are powerful people, and not to be trifled with! They install their toothless cronies in the USDA. They set the prices of goat futures with impunity. They cannot be stopped! They condemn lesser skulls than this to be ground into dust and dumped into the sewer. Some forces are simply too vast, too sinister for even the biggest, dumbest skulls, no matter how righteous, but this martyred skull, this crusader for good governance and transparency, shall not be forgotten so long as the name of “Morbid Slaughter” is on the tongues of good people everywhere.

The music:
The first song on this 7″ has three riffs. Three! One is the solo riff, played once, and the other is like a bridge or something, and it comes up a few times, but at least 80% of this song is a single riff, and not a good one at that, but rather some rudimentary take on Venom, played slightly faster than Venom’s default tempo. The vocals are a corny black metal whisper/snarl, and are awful. The second song has slightly more riffs than the first song (like, maybe it has four), but none of them are any better, or more original, then the other three. What a stupid fucking band. Morbid Slaughter are from Peru, where this kind of oldschool garbage never really went out of style, but these guys operate with all the conviction and vitality of a hipster throwback band from Brooklyn. Screw this noise.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL538

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Friar Wagner

DEF CON ONE, Warface (2012, Scarlet)

The skull:
Where have we seen this before? It’s almost guaranteed just from the artwork alone that we’re in for some shitty metal. But first, the cover: gasmask and fallout symbol. What are we supposed to feel? What is this trying to say? Why did the band think this was such a stunning piece or art that they went and reproduced it almost exactly for their next album? (The imaginatively titled II.) If I didn’t know any better I’d guess this was some not-really-supergroup formed by members of Skinlab, Sacrilege B.C. and some drummer that lasted about four minutes with Laaz Rockit.

The music:
Funny, I was just thinking how I needed more cruddy modern British metal in my life and Def-Con-One delivered!!! Def Con One (stupidest name ever) are the perfect illustration of what we’re trying to figure out here at Big Dumb Skulls, whether shitty/stupid/uncreative album covers are a reflection of the music inside. Warface seems to proudly answer that question with a resounding “you betcha!” This is music that would only sound right pumping out of the shitty earbuds of power-lifting gym-rat jarheads, lots of ranting about psychos, strength, bullets, and “not listening to a single word I say.” The double bass drumming is super-solid, but recorded way too clicky. The singer is yet another dude that looks like Phil Anselmo yelping like Phil Anselmo. And the riffs sound like ones Pro-Pain threw out for not being good enough. They make reasonable attempts to inject some melody into their aggro anthems (“Hold On”, “March of the Dead”), but even these fall flat in a post-grunge kind of heap. This band features some Venom drummer named Antton, who is technically way better than Abaddon, but still, if he’s not Abaddon, and the music is this stupid, Def Con One is a limply hanging branch of the Venom family tree, at best.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL537

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Friar Johnsen

GODAWFULNOISE, No Escape (2011, self-released)

The skull:
Godawfulnoise hail from the urban dystopia of Glendale, Arizona, and its to their credit that they’re making a direct statement on their hometown with their cover art. I always assumed that getting out of Arizona was an easy and natural thing to do, but maybe I’m mistaken. I don’t know who invented this black, white, and stenciled motif, but I assume they sit at the head of some sinister grind cabal that enforces the norms of the genre, as pretty much every underground band dresses their releases this way. Usually the look is quite dour, but Godawfulnoise leaven the scene greatly with their widely grinning Big Dumb Skull, who is just beaming positivity, and that despite having a pentagram chiselled into this forehead. It’s a nice/ridiculous touch that the skull is actually a pencil or charcoal sketch, and not a photo, flying in the face of standard practice. The Council of Grind is no doubt displeased. Maybe I can get a member of The Council (of the Elders of the Skull, aka, the one true Council) to ask about it at the next intramural Council Volleyball picnic.

The music:
With a cover like this, you know you’re in for some crusty grind, and Godawfulnoise deliver according to expectations. Actually, there’s more grind than crust, as Godawfulnoise crib about 95% of their sound from Napalm Death, but I’m sure there’s some Discharge somewhere in their collections. While I was recently impressed with the grind of Jesus Ain’t In Poland, Godawfulnoise are utterly unnecessary, offering absolutely nothing that you’re not already getting from Napalm Death, and if you don’t like Napalm Death, you’re definitely not going to like this band. If you’re the sort of person who’s watching blastbeats on the fourth stage at Maryland Death Fest at 11:00am, then by all means, track down this EP (10 songs, 13 minutes) but otherwise, steer clear.
— Friar Johnsen