DECLAMATORY, Mental Explosion (2003, demo)

The skull:
This is quite the action shot! A skull swept up in mid-explosion. Wow! It’s very exciting, isn’t it? We can’t be certain if this is a skull made from and because of the explosion, or if it was a skull already buried in the ground recently blasted to shit by a mining company in the mountains of West Virginia, or something like that. Whatever the case may be, the cover artist seemed only talented enough to convey the “explosion” part of the album title. “Mental”? This looks more like a physical explosion, if we’re splitting hairs. The artist didn’t try hard enough to get that “mental” part going. But hey, one look at this baby and you know the band were stoked enough to float it as a demo cover. “Good enough,” they said, with something approaching enthusiasm. I wonder if the music will convey similar half-assedness? We’ve seen that happen a time or two here at Big Dumb Skulls.

The music:
Well, no luck finding the music of this one, likely because it’s an earlier demo by a German band who have been pumping out demos the way Warsteiner pumps out beer. (Their fourth of five, in as many years, before they started releasing more official-ish self-released EPs and albums.) The later material is modern thrash leaning dangerously close to the metalcore precipice. Not very interesting. At all. As for Mental Explosion, it features a song called “Diary of a Swordsman,” and that falls into the “you learn something new every day” category … I wasn’t aware swordsmen kept diaries, were you? The song prior to that is called “Medial Disaster.” “Would you like that disaster in small, medium, or large?” “Medium, please.” I know it’s unkind to pick on a band who aren’t native English speakers, but lacking the actual music, it’s easy to do, and fun too! You should try it some time.
— Friar Wagner