SKULL316

Posted on November 12, 2013 by Friar Wagner

UNDERGANG, Indhentet Af Doden (2011, Xtreem Music)

The skull:
He so horny! Of all the horned skulls in the Skullection — perhaps our largest subset — Mr. Undergang here is the horniest of them all. I count 12 horns protruding from this guy’s noggin. There’s nearly one horn for every spear plunging into the guy’s head space, 11 spears in fact, and while balance would have been nice at an even 12, they’re doing the job and keeping this gnarly bastard from getting into any more trouble. All manner of wraith-like visages look on, either in amusement or mocking grins, as if to say “not so fast, Horndog!” You get the feeling this guy’s seen better days, falling from grace as a Prince of Hell or a Lord of the Underworld or some such distinction. Here, he’s met his match. Still, one sharp snap of the head to the left or right, you’d think maybe those toothpick-thin spears would be rendered useless. I’d like to imagine Undergang’s next album shows us the next panel in this saga, with Horny breaking free of his bonds and kicking unholy ass on all those wise-ass specters. (It doesn’t, but it does feature about 30 non-horned skulls impaled on spears, so there’s at least some kind of thematic continuity.)

The music:
This album kinda caught fire. It was originally released in 2010 as a promo cassette in a mere 100 copies, but in short order got scooped up by two different labels and, by the next year, was pressed onto vinyl and CD. It seems to have been deserving of all that attention. Undergang have quietly been banging away with some of the most distinctive old-school-esque death metal while everyone else rips off Entombed/Dismember ad nauseam. They take the heavier road, always, mixing the aesthetics of early Napalm Death with the ridiculously bloated churning of bands like Rottrevore and Mortician, all played with the skill of any halfway decent Swedeath practitioner you care to name. Everything is lllooowww as fuck: gruff vocals from way deep down in a pit and an incredibly fat guitar sound like the roar of 15 tractor engines. If you ever wondered what it would sound like if Incantation recorded Bolt Thrower songs in Sunlight Studio with the guy from Pan-Thy-Monium on vocals, here you go.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL315

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

TRANSMETAL, Indestructible (2012, La Mazakuata)

The skull:
Crowned in lightning and wreathed in black clouds, this massive sky-skull is not fucking around. And while the figure at the center of the Aztec calendar stone adorning the skull’s forehead is widely believed by scholars to depict the sun god, this interpretation is not universal, and clearly Transmetal are throwing their hat behind an unorthodox theory that it’s none other than Mictlantecuhtli: god of death, and, by extension, death metal. He’s out for blood and will be taking no shit. And don’t even think you can destroy him. Have you not noticed the title?

The music:
Looking at that name, and that logo, you’d surely assume that this was some super-corny true metal band, but you’d be wrong, because Transmetal are basically the wise old men of the Mexican death metal scene. Since forming in the mid 80s, they’ve released over 20 full length studio albums, and their meat-and-potatoes DM sound hasn’t changed much in all that time. There really isn’t a comparable band in the States, although Cannibal Corpse or Immolation might fit the bill. And while most DM bands who have held on that long are down to a couple original members, at least, three of the four original Transmetal dudes are still in the band. So, color me impressed by the dedication and longevity. If only their music was better! Their early stuff sounds like pretty much any other class of 87 death metal band, and over they years they’ve only modernized in the sense that they’ve incorporated some European influences (especially Scandinavian), and they’ve resisted the temptations to go melodic or technical. They’re a perfectly fine act, and if Indestructible isn’t one of their best albums (and it isn’t, especially considering the terrible, tinny production), it’s hardly a bad disc. It’s just maddeninly generic, and samey from song-to-song as well. But if mid-tempo death metal a la Asphyx is your thing, if what you want is tank-like consistency, then Transmetal might just do it for you.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL314

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Friar Wagner

PARAXISM, Paraxism (1992, demo)

The skull:
With this skull, Paraxism have allowed us to confidently draw a new subset branch on the Skull Cover Motif tree. And this guy, he isn’t too happy about this fate. He looks downright traumatized. This is one of a handful of skulls now officially “Embedded in Rock Wall [popular skull cover motif no. 36].” Nile is one of the memorable ones (Skull75) and we’ve got a couple more coming up soon! So for those rabid Big Dumb Skulls fans who particularly love skulls embedded in rock walls, hang onto the edge of your seats.

The music:
Forever underrated and overlooked, Paraxism is probably one of the most interesting bands to come from Finland’s early ’90s death metal wave. And, as many of their countrymen would, the band evolved from cruel brutality to something more rocking by the end of their evolution (a la Xysma, Disgrace and Convulse), all of these bands wisely avoiding sounding too obviously “death ‘n’ roll.” Thank fuck. While Paraxism’s synth-heavy 1995 demo (Selected Works) remains the apex of their output, and their final recording, a demo from 1998, is nearly unlistenable in its angular, dissonant, and cold alt-rock delivery, this first demo finds the band treading more orthodox boards. It’s not totally far away from most other Finnish death metal bands of the time, but there’s something inherently catchy and even semi-melodic in tunes like “Benefical Interdependence” and “The Breath of Plague” that sets it apart. Ultimately this is more than a mere curiosity from a band I’ve always championed (to mostly deaf ears, except for a couple guys in Agalloch who I turned onto this band a long time ago). But it’s not mandatory either, unless you’re a Finnophile looking for another cool tape to set next to your Funebre, Pakeni and Nekro-Torso cassettes. All two of you.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL313

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

VARG, Wolfskult (2011, NoiseArt)

The skull:
“Wolfskult” is German for “wolf skullet” and you can see here a majestic specimen of this incredibly rare coif. Typically, the wolves emerge from the back of a balding man’s head but here they are attached to a literal skull, for added authenticity. The wolves are being blown up somewhat by a black wind, I assume, as they would ordinarily hang down in the back. This somewhat spoils the effect of the “Austrian passport” as the doo is sometimes called, but I will admit that it does make for a striking composition. The skull, as you can imagine, is most pleased with his snarling wolvenlocks, and is probably off to pick up chicks. What woman could say no?

The music:
I was expecting black metal, that being the typical style of bands named after wolves (especially in Swedish), but actually this is some kind of pagan death metal. Unlike, say, Ensiferum, however, Varg are actually a death metal band, and not some trumped-up power metal band with a growler. I’m reminded more of turn-of-the-century Hypocrisy than anything else, with maybe a hint of Amon Amarth in the cheesier moments. There are no nasal clean vocals attempting to summon the spirit of the meadhall; there are no flutes or bagpipes, no folk. And unlike Turisas, Varg does not wear comical barbarian furs. But, exactly like Turisas, they paint their bodies in red and black stripes (and no doubt causing Glenn Tipton to wonder why he didn’t think of it.) I’m not about to research this, but I assume there’s some quasi-historical theme at work here, a la Braveheart, although really, it’s a stupid practice no matter the provenance. I generally find the whole “pagan” scene to be ridiculous and lame, but Varg are at least better than most of their pipe-tooting, horn-hoisting, jig-dancing cohort, and if painting yourself like a circus tent and paling around with Eluveitie is what you have to do to make a buck in this business, well, there are worse ways to debase yourself — you could always play in Trollfest.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL312

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

AGABUS, Mitakuye (2008, self-released)

The skull:
Though there are about 75 Photoshop layers on display here, the entire cover basically boils down to a Big Dumb Skull and some feathers. At least, those are the elements that catch my eye. It’s not clear how one relates to the other, but considering the origins of the title as half of the Lakotan phrase “Mitakuye Oyasin,” probably some cliched Native American theme was intended. In any case, the core idea is so lacking that it’s easy to see why the artist decided to just pile on with the other shit, like the glowing spots (with lens flare!) for eyes, the streaky background that looks like the cover of a speculative book on string theory, a phases of the moon calendar, etc. It’s not clear why he stopped where he did, but this was made in 2008, so maybe his Mac was just running out of memory.

The music:
If we take it as axiomatic that “crossover” was (roughly speaking) a hybrid of thrash metal and hardcore punk circa 1987, then Agabus can be viewed as “crossover ’08”, a horrible Frankenstein of late aughts thrash and millennial hardcore that perversely selects the worst elements of each style for inclusion: go-nowhere riffs, threadbare breakdowns, and vocals like the hoarse, cracking shrieks of an adult throwing a tantrum. About the best that can be said for Agabus is that their album sounds pretty good, and it’s novel to hear toughguy sprechgesang in Italian, instead of Spanish (Ill Niño, I’m looking at you, but there are no shortage of West Coast metalcore bands who employ the device.) Especially infuriating is the sheer length of most of these songs, which all sound like shorter songs played twice in a row. But hey, at least they trimmed the titles down: while their debut was littered with such turgid gems as “Void, Predicant of Nothing,” Mitakuye‘s titles are all single words like “Numby” and “Fiux.” So at least they’ve got that going on.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL311

Posted on November 7, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

NUNSLAUGHTER, SathaSlaughter (2009, Universal Tongue)

The skull:
This poor guy’s eye is falling out, which is really not that surprising because he’s grotesquely deformed and nothing seems to fit together right. But, you’d think the other eye would be the first to go, considering how small it is compared to its socket. And while I know the thing surrounding the skull is probably supposed to be a cowl, it looks an awful lot to me like Jaws from the movie poster, so I imagine this guy thinking, “Aw shit! My eye just fell out! How could this day get any worse?” right before the Great White bites him in half.

The music:
Nunslaughter play time-capsule death metal, sounding perpetually like a Morbid Angel demo from 1987. Rude and crude death metal about how Jesus is a square. They’re the masters of the cult-of-limited-edition, releasing dozens on dozens on dozens of incredibly limited cassettes, 7″s, splits, EPs, live albums, etc. Someone once told me that the main Nunslaughter dude worked at a music repro plant, which is how he could afford to do all that shit. Probably they have more Big Dumb Skull covers, but we don’t have the patience to look for a better one than this, and this one is more than good enough. I don’t know how a person gets hooked on Nunslaughter in the first place, but once it happens, that person is in for a world of frustrating collection. Personally, I find their music to be unimaginative and dull, but for the style, it’s perfectly fine. If you want caveman death metal, they’re as good as anything, I suppose. This EP starts with a bunch of covers (all of them curated for maximum underground cred, of course, and including a version of “Jaws of Satan” by Sathanas, whose demo was, coincidentally, SKULL211) before wrapping up with a few songs they probably recorded seven or eight times elsewhere, like for some Romanian Tour EP limited to 27 cassettes. Somewhere out there is some insane superfan with every one of this band’s intentionally obscure releases, and that person must have the worst taste/judgment ever. I’d kind of like to meet him. How could he not be fascinating, on an anthropological level? And I wonder how long you could pronounce the band like “Nun’s Laughter” before he lost his shit?
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL310

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

LEPER, Laz (1992, demo)

The skull:
An angry skull with fangs, beady eyes and a biomechanical mane of horns and spikes and pipes, this skull isn’t much to look at, but he has a serious attitude. He’s probably furious that someone drew an “L” on his forehead while he was passed out. “You assholes! That’s permanent marker! I don’t care how wasted I was, this isn’t fucking funny. I have a big interview with the Voivod tomorrow and if I can’t get this washed off by then, I’m seriously gonna kill you guys. I don’t even LIKE Leper!”

The music:
I haven’t heard Laz. Seemingly no one has. There are no YouTube videos, no mp3s on Russian metal forums, no torrents, nothing. As far as I can tell, there are exactly two references to this demo on the entire internet. One is the entry on Metal Archives, from which we cribbed this fine skull. The second, bizarrely, is an Amazon listing. A single seller lists a sealed copy of Laz (complete with price sticker residue), and although the artwork is different, the tracklist agrees with the one on Metal Archives. On the original full scan of the skull-fronted cover which can be seen on Metal Archives, a note on the second panel of the J-card reads, “For full color sleeve send $1.00 check or money order made payable to Rick Bettencourt. This sleeve must accompany payment.” The color cover shown on Amazon is so singularly uninteresting that anyone who might have entered into that transaction with Mr. Bettencourt surely wound up disappointed and angry, and might perhaps have sent the color cover back, requesting a refund of the dollar and a return of the original, skull-emblazoned insert. Given that this cassette is sealed, though, it’s possible that there existed a pressing which never included the skull cover, deepening the mystery and no doubt enhancing the collectability of the skully original. And now, dear reader, let me attempt to illustrate the insanity that occasionally grips this friar, by saying that I briefly had that $16.45 cassette (plus $3.99 shipping) in my Amazon shopping cart, such is my zeal to bring you the most accurate information possible about even the obscurest Big Dumb Skull. In the end, or at least for the moment, common sense prevailed, and I removed the cassette from my cart. Common sense, that is, and the fear that expedited shipping would be required to make deadline, as we at Skull HQ don’t shuffle skulls once they’re set in their order. Leper’s Laz, in its full-color, skulless, high-bias glory, remains for sale on Amazon, waiting to be bought, the last earthly proof that this “Heavy Metal” band from New Bedford, MA ever existed. Perhaps it is a lost classic, a demo of unrivaled excellence, a release that could have changed the direction of metal forever. Perhaps it is shitty funk thrash. I would love to know, but even I have my limits. Those limits evidently amount to $20.44.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL309

Posted on November 5, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

BLOODRIDE, Crowned in Hell (2011, Violent Journey)

The skull:
Fuck it. Why even bother making it look like the candlestick exists in the same space as the floor and the skull. It’s pasted in there, isn’t that enough? So what if it looks like it’s floating. That’s black magic or something! And what kind of lighting could possibly illuminate a scene in this fashion? The raw ingredients of this Photoshop nightmare are of a far higher caliber than what you normally see, and the hack that assembled it has a certain measure of skill with the software, but basically no attention has been paid here to the most obvious details that would make the image look realistic. The designer was so pleased with himself at having given the skull horns in the shadow that he basically whiffed every other aspect of the piece. “Check out the awesome shadow illusion on this gnarly skull, dudes! It’s like, even in death he’s totally fucking evil. Also, I added some nails, a candlestick, cobwebs, bloodstains, two textures of wood, and your shiny logo. Pay up!” And then Bloodride handed over a six pack of whatever’s the Finnish equivalent of Old Milwaukee. Paid in full.

The music:
It used to be, in the long ago, that metalheads grew out of thrash and into death metal, but these days, you’re as likely to see that evolution in reverse. Before this recent thrash revival, it was totally possible to skip thrash as a developmental stage altogether, excepting an obligatory exposure to Metallica and Slayer. The sound of thrash that’s been reverse-engineered by death metal kids after they hear Bonded by Blood the first time is a very specific, and generally unappealing thing. Witness Bloodride, who surely, as young men, grew up on Children of Bodom and In Flames and Napalm Death before they heard of the Bay Area and had to apply the lessons of their Eurodeath heroes to the creation of thrash. The result is unnecessarily heavy and insufficiently buoyant, wanting desperately to sound evil and forgetting entirely to sound pissed. The music is plodding and the vocals uncharismatic. As with all Finnish bands, Bloodride are perfectly capable on their instruments, and their album sounds impeccably fine, but there’s no energy and none of the manic, careening, thrilling vitality that animates the best thrash bands. Or even the lesser, but still good revivalists. If you’re too young to remember when Rob Flynn wore cornrows, then maybe this passes as thrash, but to me, it’s just half-assed junk.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL308

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

LUCTUS/ARGHARUS, Sonitus Caeli Ardentis (2007, Ledo Takas)

The skull:
I think the title is Latin for, “The brown skull in the sky is ours.” Or something like that. The forecast is “cloudy with a 100% chance of skull.” The weird mismatched textures are either the result of inept Photoshoppery, or a concept a little higher than I’m willing to investigate right now. Maybe the skull is etched into the moon, which is crashing into the Earth and causing extreme weather. This is just too much for me to think about right now. I need to lie down.

The music:
Luctus are Marduky black metal. Argharus are a little more modern sounding, with a kind of industrial precision, but still fairly generic. And slower. Both bands are Lituanian and neither are particularly interesting, but it would take basically the best shit ever to interest me here. I really just don’t have a great tolerance for bandwagon black metal, so if a band isn’t going full-tilt avant-garde in their service to Satan, I’m just not their target audience. But hey, maybe you have a few dozen black and white albums with songs about war and snow and satan, and you’re thinking about branching out into browns and sepias. If so, well, this is definitely your jam. Get on it.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL307

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Friar Johnsen

TARTHARIA, Abstract Nation (2004, Crash)

The skull:
This looks like maybe some kind of ancient brooch or decorative bit of metalwork, but after it’s been placed in a grave and crushed by a few thousand years of dirt. The photo the band found of this artifact also looks fairly old, as if someone in the band ripped it out of a history book in high school and had it folded up in his back pocket for a couple years, just waiting for the moment he could use it for his important debut album.

The music:
I dunno, there’s something about that logo that just screams, “Inoffensive death/black metal with some melodic vocals and bad groove parts.” It could also easily signal that the band is “pagan” somehow, with all the pipes and accordions that implies, but thankfully that seems not to be the case. Tartharia are the sort of band that might say, “Our influences are Pantera and Dimmu Borgir” and expect you to nod in agreement and say, “Sounds brutal.” They’re not an awful band, just dull. Also, they’re Russian. That alone is usually sufficient reason to steer clear, unless you have really good intel to the contrary. This album can be had for literally pennies on Amazon, though, so if you’re in the mood for a bargain, well, I guess you could do worse.
— Friar Johnsen