Category Archives: Skull

Skull of the day

SKULL326

Posted on by
Reply

PENTAGRAM (CHILE), Demo #2 (1987, demo)

The skull:
A grisly subject, this skull is cracked and bloodied no doubt from being run through a photocopier a couple dozen times, the hard way. He’s managed to keep his shit together, but only barely, and you can see in his gritted smile that he can’t put up with too much more of this. A skull has his limits!

The music:
Pentagram are minor legends based on, really, just a couple of demos from the mid 80s. They played thrash bordering on death metal that you could place somewhere between Kreator and Possessed, and while they never do anything especially original, they were certainly among the first bands in Chile to be playing this sort of thing, and it can’t be denied that they do it well. On this second demo, they even somehow approximate the fabled Sunlight Studios guitar tone a year before Nihilist’s first demo, and I wouldn’t be surprised if those Swedish lads took direct inspiration from their South American contemporaries. You can’t come to Pentagram looking for sophistication or technicality, but if you have a fondness for this sort of raw proto-death metal, then you should certainly check them out. Both demos from 1987 were released on CD a few years ago, although I believe that compilation is itself out of print and hard to come by, but the band is back together with a new album, and I imagine it’s just a matter of time before their classic material is available again.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL325

Posted on by
Reply

MINECREEP, The London Sessions (2008, demo)

The skull:
I think the logo and the skull were some kind of papercraft art project. Like, the bassist sat hunched over a table with a piece of construction paper and a pair of safety scissors for the entire weekend while the other guys got high and made fun of him, but when he opened that folded piece of paper and revealed a logo and a skull cut neatly out of the middle, they changed their tune right quick. Of course, it would have been better if he hadn’t used light blue paper, so in the end they had to scan it for their demo. And since they were already in the computer, they pasted the silhouette over some orangey-brown background, because deep in their hearts they understood that skulls like earthtones best.

The music:
You wouldn’t think groove metal, Therapy?, and mid-90s Megadeth would work together, and you’d be right, but listening to Minecreep, you might occasionally think that maybe there could be a chance you were wrong. This is a clunky demo with bad singing and an unenviable set of influences, but Minecreep almost make it work, sometimes, because although it’s pretty easy to hear where a lot of these ideas came from, they’re sufficiently warped to end up sounding at least somewhat new. Then again, there are moments of pure groove metal hell, and on top of it all, the miserable yelping vocals, so it’s not like this ever really rises above, but when they band locks in on a cool riff, it suggests at least some possibility. But they’ve had 5 years to make something of that, and so far, this remains the sole offering of Minecreep, so I’m not gonna hold my breath
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL324

Posted on by
Reply

OF THE GODS, And So It Begins (2010, self-released)

The skull:
I can pretty much guarantee that whatever detail we’re not seeing in this Mesoamerican carving is more evil and more metal than the dimestore skull that’s been plopped on top. Even if it’s just a portrait of some ancient king, there’s a 90% chance he’s depicted wearing a mask of human skin, or at least a jaguar pelt. The Aztecs were incredible, unbelievable badasses, and when they wanted a decorative skull, they fucking murdered somebody and drank his blood first. Of the Gods found some royalty-free photos on the internet, made only the barest attempts at color-matching in Photoshop, and called it a day. The titular “It” is clearly a short and undistinguished career. And as always (though it usually falls on Friar Wagner to mention it), the self-applied Parental Advisory warning is a baffling addition. Were Of the Gods so sure of their success that they imagined their DIY disc would end up on the shelves at Best Buy? They are from Las Vegas, a city of big dreamers, so maybe they were.

The music:
This is like a cross between barroom groove metal and the sad stale thrash of early aughts Overkill. It’s fairly riffy and played reasonably well, and there are some good ideas, but rotten vocals and a pervasive shit-kicking stupidity easily crush whatever good things the band otherwise brings to the table. I think the vocals (and lyrics) are really the worst part, for me. I’ve heard vocals like this a hundred times before, the singing of a man who has absolutely no business singing, but maybe had enough money for a PA. They’re semi-melodic (in the sense that they strain for melody) but also totally invested in sounding tough, and the result is less Phil Anselmo than, well, terrible. There’s no one to compare this kind of singing to, because although it is incredibly common in the underground, no metal band has achieved even a tiny modicum of success with singing like this. Really, the only performance that I think I can recall that compares is Kelly Shaefer’s work in Neurotica, and on the off chance you’ve heard that, I can say safely that Of the Gods’ Landon is even worse, as hard as that is to imagine. It’s a shame, too, because with a good frontman, maybe Of the Gods could muster the enthusiasm and energy to push themselves beyond this half-assed powergroove into something at least sort of interesting. And so it ends.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL323

Posted on by
Reply

KILLING CHAPEL, High on Homicide (2007, self-released)

The skull:
It’s hard to see in this small image, but this skull is ornately labelled for the benefit of 19th century anatomy students, which suggests that some knife wielding maniac was so high on homicide that he didn’t realize he was stabbing a long dead teaching skull and wasn’t adding to his bodycount. He must have murdered a whole lot of people before he got to this skull, though, to be that wasted. Also, homicide must make you freakishly strong (like pcp!), because imagine how hard it is to drive a knife straight through a skull like that!

The music:
This is blue collar death/thrash made by guys who probably don’t realize those are two different things. They’re from Mifflinville, PA, though, so I gotta shout out to my bruthas from anotha county. Anyway, Killing Chapel are garden variety angry music played with a ton of energy and almost no precision. The drumming is spectacularly sloppy in that push-em-down-the-stairs kind of way, which is always at least a little amusing. The four originals fail to impress, and then they wheel out a couple of not-so-awesome covers (“Dead Skin Mask” by Slayer and “Shredded Humans” by Cannibal Corpse), and a re-recording of the Killing Chapel classic “Lord of the New Faith,” from the band’s 2005 demo. Some songs are just too good to stay buried on an obscure demo, but not so good as to find any wider release than an obscure self-released EP (aka: a demo.) Put that in your murderpipe and smoke it!
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL322

Posted on by
Reply

HELSTAR, Rising From the Grave  (2010, Metal Blade)

The skull:
This bad boy is pretty stock: a horned skull apparently taken from a 9th grader’s notebook cover, its horns wrapped around a five-pointed star. There isn’t much to say about it. Best thing about the cover is it invokes a bit of Texas metal history (“Texas Metal, Est. 1982”) and exalts the fact that Helstar have been at this forever. Which is why they deserve a better album cover than this. It’s not even a real Helstar album, it’s a boxed set, but considering it holds two of their all-time classics…can we get a better cover design for this one please? Dang it. Even as a patch or tshirt or tattoo, I wouldn’t stich it, wear it or have its ink shot into my flesh with a needle. I’m glad I own the two studio albums in question, that way I don’t have to have this low-rent box set artwork littering my racks. Enough of that already.

The music:
This is a box set collecting two Helstar studio albums and a live one: 1988’s A Distant Thunder, 1989’s Nosferatu, and later live album, the clumsily-titled ‘Twas the Night of a Helish X-mas, originally released in 2000 but recorded in the earlier Nosferatu era. Let’s work backwards. With ‘Twas the Night blah blah blah, you can clearly hear that Helstar was an amazing live band back then (as they are now), but you wouldn’t believe it if this was your only evidence. Great performance but a shitty recording and equally disadvantageous mix. It’s far less worthy of being in this box set than Multiples of Black would have been (talk about “rising from the grave”) or of being released as a stand-alone album, as it was in 2000. Ahh, wait…I think I just discovered how Metal Blade solved the problem of getting rid of the last couple thousand they had in their warehouse…clever, guys, very clever.

Nosferatu is an album people have mistaken as a speed/thrash album, and even as a tech/prog album. It doesn’t exactly sit perfectly in those classifications, but they did ramp up the intensity and technicality for Nosferatu, so it certainly touches on those areas. It’s really just a more hi-octane Helstar than what came before, but so fussily questing for perfection that it feels a bit stiff ‘n’ cold in certain moments. That said, some of the band’s most engaging material is here (“Baptized in Blood,” “Harker’s Tale”), and any fan of, you know, metal, should really check it out.

Finally, if you purchase this box set because you love that cover art so much, you better be prepared to spin A Distant Thunder at least 100 times. The first 10 will help you acclimate to it. And least, that’s what I needed, as I found it to have much less instant appeal than their easy-to-get-into first couple albums. It’s not overly complex, certainly not on the Nosferatu level, it’s just not overly direct. It might grab you right away, but it took me years to realize its greatness. Once it took hold, though, it had to share space with Burning Star when considering which Helstar album is best. Stuff like “The King is Dead,” “Abandon Ship” and “Winds of War” are stellar examples of primo Texas epic/power/heavy metal, with the distinctive James Rivera ripping it up on vocals. Unfortunately they chose the wrong song to cover from Scorpions’ Taken By Force. “He’s a Woman (She’s a Man)” is totally out of place on A Distant Thunder; the clear winner would have been “The Sails of Charon,” but they did ask me, did they?
— Friar Wagner

SKULL321

Posted on by
Reply

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

SKULL320

Posted on by
Reply

HELLEMENTS, Time Machine  (2010, demo)

The skull:
Two dudes walk into a Spencer’s in some Italian mall. They see a wall clock with a skull and crossbones on the clock face. One guy says “Rad! Maybe I’ll buy that.” The other guy responds: [and, get ready, this is the punchline] “Yeah…we can use it for our album cover.”

The music:
Clearly it’s a dodgy album cover. And the album title is a lame pun on the lame album cover. And if “Hellements” is some sort of play on the word “elements,” its cleverness is lost on us. And geezus, did they really have to give the capital “H” a devil tail and Cheshire Cat smile? Doesn’t exactly get you all psyched to hear what this band has to offer. Luckily it’s a mercilessly short three song demo and not a double concept album manifesto. What we have here is traditional heavy metal crossing over to German-sounding power metal, with some Metallica-circa-1986 riffing minus the innovation and a heavily-accented vocalist who possesses an unlistenable warble. This warble ranges from completely unremarkable talk-singing (because he has trouble reaching most notes) and cringeworthy attempts to occasionallly introduce a Michael Kiske squeakiness on top of all this. There are some ham-fisted attempts at Iron Maiden-esque dual leads, and yet some solo leads fly out with laudable precision, but this is nothing you need, even for those of you with a taste for the most execrable of power metal bands. This is metal for little kids…and even some of those would find this intolerable.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL319

Posted on by
Reply

DYNABYTE, 2KX (2010, self-released)

The skull:
This might have been a cool cover if someone had actually set out a skull and then projected their stupid blue gears-and-pipes collage onto it. Instead, probably a skull photo was poached from the internet and the industrial cliches were just Photoshopped in. I do like the attention paid to the teeth, though. They look nice.

The music:
Obviously, Dynabyte are industrial metal. The cover gives that away immediately. They’re like a slightly heavier KMFDM, with a little Pslam 69-era Ministry thrown in. Nothing too special, I’d say, although at their best (“Normal”, for instance) they almost approach early Pitch Shifter in quality. The female vocals, courtesy of Cadaveria, remind me a bit of early Genitorturers, although the cleaner singing is more nasal and less appealing. The growling is okay, though. Industrial metal, overall, should be a lot better than it is, but the truth is, for as simple as the ingredients are, almost no one does it properly, or at least to my tastes. It’s a genre of near-misses, of bands that never quite put the pieces together. For every Pitch Shifter, a dozen Drowns. For every Swamp Terrorists, a hundred Dynabytes. And that’s before you even start looking for the bands that out-and-out suck. But if that sort of thing appeals to you, like if you think Circle of Dust are awesome, and you own an Ugly Mustard album, then probably you’ll think Dynabyte are okay.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL318

Posted on by
1

WARPATH, Malevolent Reprisal  (2010, Underground Movement)

The skull:
A scowling skull decked out for war, backed up by quite the arsenal: all manner of gun, knife, blade and, uh, bear trap. It looks incredibly imposing, but maybe what we’re really dealing with is comparable to those guys that drive huge monster trucks because they have a small penis. That’s the psychological theory, anyway, and I’ll bet something like that is going on with this guy.

The music:
Here’s another metal moratorium worth proposing: no more using the Gladiator sample “at my signal, unleash hell.” It’s been done probably a hundred times. I know it must have seemed like a great a idea the first time (it was), but by now, using this sample is totally beat. Now, to the music: Warpath play Brutal Blasting Irish Death Metal exclusively! It’s like Dying Fetus meets Malevolent Creation meets Bolt Thrower stripped of any distinguishing personality. Technically they’re proficient, and they’re extremely heavy, but as well-performed as it is, Warpath cannot save themselves from slotting in shoulder-to-shoulder with the many vanilla-flavored brutal death hordes out there. You have to admire the conviction and ability, but that’s about all you have to do before forgetting this ever happened and moving onto something actually worth spending time with. Definitely gonna dock a point or two for their decision to cover Hatebreed. Ugh.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL317

Posted on by
Reply

PISTÖNS/BESTHÖVEN, Pistöns/Besthöven (2010, Suffering Jesus Productions)

The skull:
Just your basic skull-in-deep-shadows here. We’ve seen better, and we’ve seen worse, but really, if you’re gonna go with a Big Dumb Skull, it’s best to avoid that middle ground. You want to totally rule, or completely suck. The top of the BDS bell curve is a sad place to be.

The music:
Pistöns are basically 70% Motörhead and 30% Venom, which I guess really means they’re 90% Motörhead and 10% Cronos’s barfy voice. They’re pretty good for the style, with solid riffs and convincing delivery, but they would really benefit from better vocals. Even Lemmy’s barely melodic delivery goes a long way toward differentiating what are, in the end, pretty similar songs, and Pistöns don’t even have that much going on. Still, if you like those bands, Pistöns are as good as any other knockoff I’ve heard, and they don’t come off as jokey, which is a nice change of pace. Besthöven, as you can tell by the logo, are a Discharge clone, and while those are typically useless and bad, Besthöven are awful even by comparison to their barrel bottom peers. Really sloppy low-fi shit. They only waste about 7 minutes of this split’s 22 minute running time, which I guess is the brightside, but it really makes me wonder why Pistöns would agree to share the space with them? Maybe a bet was involved. Or blackmail.
— Friar Johnsen