Category Archives: Skull

Skull of the day

SKULL206

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DEFTONES, Deftones  (2003, Maverick)

The skull:
Patriotic colors here, probably not intentional though. Red and blue roses flank each side of the skullface, his head slightly upward with an attitude that says “I don’t care about no stupid flowers, I am a bad ass skull!” No doubt he was pretty upset when the holder of this image folded it up nice and square and stuck it into the pocket that eventually produced the wear-lines you see on this image. Man, this skull is ready to fucking rock, and it’s surrounded by flowers and treated like a damn breakup note passed in 7th grade homeroom class? Skull says, “Bullshit, man…this is such bullshit.”

The music:
Are Deftones metal or not? Does it matter? The only reason it matters here at Big Dumb Skulls is because the Council requires that all entries be metal bands. And the Deftones are metal, they’re just other things too. I’m a huge fan, and the Council approved, so we’ll go with it. There are two main Deftones eras, to my ears: there’s the first two
albums, which skirts a nu-metal line without ever totally falling into it (they were more
often called “alternative metal” back then) and then the game-changing White Pony
and everything that came after. This is the band’s fourth album, self-titled for no good reason, and although it’s got some amazing moments, it’s the least-awesome album from Deftones Era 2. Coincidence that it’s got a skull on the cover? The only reason this album pales in any way to those around it is that a handful of songs, while very good as they’re rolling, don’t stick (such as “Battle-Axe” and “Bloody Cape”). But Deftones greatness is heard in the weirdly twisted “Hexagram,” and more viciousness (especially the seething vocals) in “When Girls Telephone Boys,” and the sumptuous atmospheric layers of “Moana” and “Deathblow.” It’s impossible not to feel moved by the somatic drift of “Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event.” And an all-time career highlight comes in the emotive “Minerva” while the weird experimentalism of “Lucky You” finds the band moving into new areas. Yeah, Deftones are way better than any nu metal band you care to name. The production is totally spot-on — colorful, thick, vibrant, earthy. It’s Terry Date, who has helmed some great records in and outside the metal realm. I just started liking this album even more with this listen, so go ahead, surprise yourself. I did when I first heard White Pony, and I will never call them a nu metal band again.
— Friar Wagner

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ENTOMBED, Entombed (1997, Earache)

The skull:
What we have here is a properly cranky looking skull-and-crossbones stamped into some olde-tyme pirate-booty coin. And then the coin is sorta hazily floating over a peeling coat of lead paint, or something? This is a pretty dashed-off affair that actually recycles the coin image from the band’s earlier Stranger Aeons EP, but in much greater detail. I wonder if this coin is an actual thing that was photographed, or if there’s just a single master image that was manipulated to a greater degree to produce the starker EP image? Who knows. It’s a pretty nice skull, but a pretty hacky recycling.

The music:
Collecting a bunch of EPs, singles, and other ephemera, Entombed is certainly one of the better such compilations in metal history. You’ll get your money’s worth just in the Crawl EP tracks, possibly the three greatest recordings in the band’s history and the reasons for the Council allowing such a dubiously unique cover into the Skullection. On that one EP, recorded after LG Petrov left but before Johnny Dordevic was (nominally) recruited to replace him, Crawl is graced with the awesome guest vocals of Nirvana 2002’s Orvar Säfström. He only did these three songs with the band, but he left his mark as their best vocalist, hands down. The title track would appear later on Clandestine, and “Bitter Loss” originally appeared on “Left Hand Path”, but the versions here are fairly different than their earlier and later counterparts, demonstrating the extent to which Entombed refined their songs through time. A third track, “Forsaken,” is also great. In addition to that EP, this comp also includes the aforementioned Stranger Aeons, which is also quite good, and the Out of Hand and Full of Hell EPs from their deathrock phase, which both feature some fairly good cover songs. A couple other single tracks round out the tracklist. All in all, taken on the strength of the individual songs, this is the last essential Entombed release.
— Friar Johnsen

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HELSTAR, Glory of Chaos  (2010, AFM)

The skull:
2010 was an amazingly prolific year for the big dumb skull. Scan through previous BDS reviews and you’ll see what I mean. It might just have been the best-ever year for skulls and, not coincidentally, was the year this friar’s collection of skull album covers grew exponentially. What does Helstar’s glorious chaos skull offer the Skullection? Not much, although it’s slightly worthy for the ominous, fiery glow that lights that sucker up like a Christmas tree. And then there’s the eight-pointed chaos symbol, its arrow tips sporting all kinds of symbols that probably amount to a lot of mystical malarky when you get right down to it (the RX sign for prescription medicine? Huh?). Anyway, I’m not sure where the glory is, and chaos is only implied by the symbol. Just another half-assed cover idea, I say.

The music:
Whoever thinks Helstar is better as a beefier, thicker, chunkier, faster, more modernized version of its old self is certifiably insane. They’re still “true” metal, and there’s still some great stuff to get out of this album and its predecessor, The King of Hell. James Rivera remains a vocalist of power, control and personality. And Helstar remains one of the best live bands going. I’ve seen them twice and was completely speechless afterwards. But here’s my problem with their new stuff: Glory of Chaos is to old Helstar what Painkiller is to ’70s era Priest. It’s good, but they’ve traded something precious away in dialing down their youthful naivete (Burning Star) and their sense of innovation and discovery (Nosferatu). There are no high or low points on Glory of Chaos, just one sturdy red line of near-thrash metal. “Trinity of Heresy” and “Deathtrap” could have been on A Distant Thunder, but they’re too bloated with down-tuned guitars, while “Monarch of Bloodshed” sounds like old men trying to be way heavier than what comes natural for them. Think Jugulator this time. But the production is throwing me off some. Everything’s way too up front, no real dynamics. It lacks the earthiness of their early stuff…then again I’m not going to sit here and tell you the guitar sound on Burning Star was great, because it wasn’t. You could do worse than listen to this album while the first four Helstar albums are also on your shelf, but for me, I’ll always choose any of those over this. Good luck to ’em, though, because in a perfect world they’d be as popular as Amon Amarth.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL203

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GANGRENATOR, Imminent Gangrene (2008, demo)

The skull:
Blotchy and slimy, this skull is unduly pleased with himself. “Hey ladies?! Who wants a taste of this?” he beckons, resolutely sure of his game. I especially love how he’s able to cock an eyebrow of pure skull. Evidently a bad case of gangrene will really make your bones mushy.

The music:
Pure 80s-style grindcore a la Napalm Death and Carcass. The drum machine doesn’t much rankle because the sound is authentically bad all around. Reek of Putrefaction is not my go-to Carcass album, but if that’s the one you listen to the most, then you might love Gangrenator, but for sure you own worse. And though it was released in 2008, Imminent Gangrene was pressed only on cassette, so basically, all the work to decide if this is a thing you need has been handily encoded in signifiers for you.
— Friar Johnsen

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WHITE SKULL, The Ring of the Ancients  (2006, Frontiers)

The skull:
Standard issue stuff here, nothing to get excited about — not even enough here to make jokes about. Just a skull poised at the center of a forged-in-iron sigil that seems to mix elements of Irish and Norwegian folklore/mythology. The skull is just barely big enough to make it into these hallowed halls. Naturally we wish the skull were a lot bigger, but we’ll give it a pass. Probably one of the least remarkable skulls in the BDS Skullection…but wait till you see skull #203 — it’s one of the finest. If you want to, go ahead and use your imagination regarding a ring and the ancients who possess it, but you probably have better things to do.

The music:
The long-suffering White Skull (this is their seventh of nine albums so far) have never quite managed to rise above the morass of middling power metal bands that litter the European landscape. That’s because they’re mediocre. Musically, this album is full of decent performances, anthemic melodies, the requisite amount of Euro power metal speed, and a vocalist whose accent totally betrays their Italian origin. I certainly have nothing against Italian musicians, it’s just that their vocalists often sound a bit silly when grappling with English lyrics. What’s more, the riffs are totally assembly-line “true metal,” ones you’ve heard a zillion times already, unless you’re new to this stuff. And if that’s the case you could probably get something out of White Skull. The strongest element of The Ring of the Ancients are the several AOR-leaning moments. It’s not exactly in line with, say, the last couple Nocturnal Rites albums, but you can hear it occasionally, as in the pre-chorus break of “Ninth Night” and the subtlest corners of “From the Mist.” This partly answers why the album ended up on the Frontiers label. Oh, and they do a pretty decent cover of Black Sabbath’s “Valhalla.” Bonus points to them for choosing a song from Tony Martin-era Black Sabbath but, no real surprise, it’s ruined by the vocals.
— Friar Wagner

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PSYOPUS, Odd Senses (2009, Metal Blade)

The skull:
Another sideways skull, this time an x-ray of a skull being drained by humungous mosquitoes. Plus some crazy, pointless psychedelic background, added as always in a lame attempt to hide the shame of a big dumb skull. When will these bands learn, though, that there is no shame in a BDS! Wear it like a badge of honor, the visible proof that you don’t care if anyone knows how uncreative you are. You can pretend all you want that you have better ideas, but you’re fooling no one, and now you can’t even claim to be operating ironically. Say it loud, “I’m a hack and I’m proud!”

The music:
It’s sort of astounding, the number of bands spawned by Dillinger Escape Plan’s Calculating Infinity. Of course, it’s a staggeringly original album, but it was also so singularly odd and musically daunting that when it came out, I doubt anyone would have guessed it would birth an entire cottage industry of wannabes. In an alternate universe, it would be like hundreds of bands blatantly rehashing Control and Resistance in 1991. Anyway, of the legion of DEP knockoffs, Psyopus are one of the better ones, but as with Meshuggah clones, no one ever really comes too close to capturing the magic of the original. Psyopus are on the branch of winking-ironist-DEP-lovers, with a high degree of silliness in their music (and probably lyrics, but I can’t be bothered to find out.) On Odd Senses this manifests in lots of goofy samples and the comic overuse of a whammy pedal. All the blasting and screaming gets old really fast, though, and while the patient scrutiny/endurance of Calculating Inifinity bears the sort of hard-won intellectual rewards you can also expect from, say, Obscura, Psyopus, like all their ilk, offer only the surface details, with none of the hidden depth. You’ll have to work just as hard to make it through their albums in a single sitting, but you’ll find no catharsis at the end. Just a minor headache and the resolve to not do this again any time soon.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL200

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MORDARK, Fuerza de la Oscuridad  (2000, self-released)

The skull:
This guy is ready for war. His eyes are piercing and alight with murderous intent. His grin is not one of happiness but of maniacal bloodthirst. (It’s a mouthful of choppers that any dentist would give their lateral incisor to work on.) How can we tell this skull’s up to no good? That ancient battle helmet! We’ll assume the horns are attached to the headpiece, because if they were actually part of his skull, it would be impossible to get that war-cap on his head.

The music:
I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but these Spaniards sound a lot like Tiamat in the Astral Sleep era. Descriptions of them as “black heavy metal” are accurate. The stuff is as angular and poorly recorded as Tiamat’s material from that era, but lacks all the eccentricity and ingenuity. Mordark gets a little more “true metal” sounding at times (the middle of “Almas Negras,” which is like early Slayer meets Iron Maiden, but played very very poorly). This album is generally too clunky and derivative for its own good, but they give it the old college try. They’re onto something, I’m just not sure it would be all that interesting even if it was better written and performed. This recording is from the earlier part of their career, and apparently they’re still around so let’s assume they’ve improved by now…
— Friar Wagner

SKULL199

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CHRISTBAIT, Truckin’ (1994, Death Valley)

The skull:
It’s like The Exploited’s skully dude, except his mohawk is a spine. Or a bony Wendy O (there’s probably another joke to be had there, but I’ll leave it to the reader’s imagination). Usually we at Skull HQ prefer our skulls head-on (as it were), but this from-the-side skull is so proudly big and dumb that we’re happy to welcome him to the Skullection.

The music:
Based on this single song from a split with Dirt Clod Fight (whom I will not review), Christbait seem to have started as an industrial-inspired crust metal band, but they gradually took on some “southern” elements. They don’t seem to have gone full Eyehategod, but of course, the less New Orleans in your sound, the better. The industrial bit, at least, is of course not surprising, since they almost certainly took their name from Godflesh. The drums are live, which is a nice surprise (I expected programmed beats), and the playing is solid, sometimes even inventive. Think early Pitchshifter mixed with late 80s Amebix and a hint of southern-fried stoner bullshit (mainly in the form of some bluesy fills) and you’re in the right neighborhood. The singing is not great, mainly just yelling, but that’s typical for the crustier genres, and I can live with it, because the song is more or less okay. I might go back and check out their earlier stuff, because minus the swampy shit, this is pretty good.
— Friar Johnsen

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INTERMENT, Where Death Will Increase 1991-1994  (2010, Necroharmonic)

The skull:
Where will death increase? Where will it decrease? Where does it stay the same? These are burning questions in Interment’s world, a world where skulls scream the question into the void rather than discussing the matter in a more civil manner. This skull, however, screams not, nor does he even talk, as he is gagged with a ring and primed for use as a totally bad-ass door knocker.

The music:
I don’t know about death itself, but death metal certainly increased between 1991 and 1994, especially if you’re talking about the number of shitty bands around in 1994 compared to 1991. Doubtless many of us into the first and best wave of Swedish death metal discovered a few previously overlooked gems since revival in interest found tons of second- and third-tier bands from the first era having their demos and albums reissued in more recent years. My most satisfying discovery of  an old band like that was Toxaemia, but Interment don’t spark the interest the way that band does. If you’d never heard brutal Swedish death metal before, Interment would definitely impress, but listeners who missed them the first time will likely acknowledge their competence and quickly move onto something a little fresher. Their sound recalls Dismember most, which means it also sounds a lot like early Entombed, but it’s got the thickness and tempo variety of early Therion and a bit of an early Unleashed thing going on too. This release compiles their three demos dating between 1991 and 1994; note that the first demo not only bore the same name as this comp, but featured the very same door knocker. In 2010 they released their very first full-length album, Into the Crypts of Blasphemy (as opposed to the crypts of rays), and they sound exactly the same there as on these early recordings. They’re consistent, that’s for sure.
— Friar Wagner

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SAVAGE, Holy Wars (1995, Neat)

The skull:
See, these guys did it right. They decided they wanted a big dumb skull cover, so they hired a great artist to paint something awesome. The artist asked, “So, you want some kinda background? Like, maybe I could paint some teepees or Monument Valley or something…” and Savage said, “No, no. Just the skull, with the headdress, on black. That would look best, mate!” And they were so right! This has to be one of the finest skulls in the entire Skullection.

The music:
Savage’s first album, Loose ‘N’ Lethal is a minor NWOBHM classic, a fuzzy, proto-thrash romp that was evidently a formative influence on Metallica. Savage released one more album in the 80s before vanishing, only to reappear for the first wave of new wave nostaligia in the mid 90s. I used to see this album week after week in my favorite metal shop back then, and I always SO wanted to buy it, even listening to it on the store’s CD player many times in a vain attempt to learn to like it, but Holy Wars never won me over. It has the bluesy swing of classic NWOBHM (which is also to say, it doesn’t really sound like old Savage) but it comes with the glossy sheen of a band that hasn’t realized that hair metal isn’t so popular anymore. Nowadays, my standards lowered by maturity or senescence, I find this fairly enjoyable, if still totally inessential. If I saw this for sale, I’d totally buy it, though, then listen to it once and shelve it forever.
— Friar Johnsen