Category Archives: Skull

Skull of the day

SKULL26

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OERJGRINDER, Skull Head (2005, demo)

The skull:
And thus, with this Belgian band, the Skullection begins delving into the depths of obscurity for worthy skull covers. This one’s big and dumb mos’ def’! Plain white skull over a combat-green background, and the demo’s called Skull Head, which makes us wonder: what other kind of head is there? The band’s completely unmemorable name is written in terrifically unreadable death metal graffiti that we wish wasn’t obscuring the skull so much, but the unimaginative concept here is one we cherish.

The music:
At least this band knows it: the slogan over the top of the skull reads: “Creator of Stupido Grinding Stonecore.” As death/grind goes it’s as competently played as it is white-label generic. The kind of stuff that’s fun and funny for about 30 seconds, then you move on and remember there’s more to life than this sort of time-wasting superficiality. They may have grown up a little since this early demo, I don’t know. They’ve released six albums since this demo came out, in addition to the almost mandatory splits and EPs favored by bands of this sort. They’ve even recorded some “acoustic grindcore” material. It all makes me want to scream “grow up!!!,” but then again I’m a grown man writing about skull album covers, so what do I know?
— Friar Wagner

SKULL25

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RAGE, Reflections of a Shadow (1990, Noise)

The skull:
Although it looks like it was painted in fifth period art class by a junior class goth, this is a nice, simple skull that works despite an amateur execution. The left-to-right dome-to-teeth orientation is an unusual one in the skullection, as well. It is not clear that we’re seeing any reflections, but at least the shadow of the skull is there, so: points for thematic unity. This is notably one of the few Rage covers that don’t feature the band’s mascot Soundchaser, who is himself fairly skully. Band leader Peavey Wagner, it should also be noted, is a literal collector of skulls, albeit primarily of the inferior animal kind, but his personal collection of hundreds of skulls is nonetheless regarded with admiration by the Council.

The music:
While it was a widely known fact that my love of Rage knows almost no bounds, even I can admit that this is a spotty album. Situated between the awesome Secrets in a Weird World and the monumental Trapped!, Reflections rarely convinces on the merits. While “True Face In Everyone,” and “Flowers That Fade In My Hand” are among Peavey’s best (and most progressive) tunes, the awkward clunk of “That’s Human Bondage” and the corny stutter of “Can’t Get Out” drag the album down to middling in this band’s astoundingly large discography. This was also the last album where Peavey thought he had any business trying to hit the stratospheric high notes, which even he admitted sounded a bit like Mickey Mouse, although the final screams in “Flowers” are a spine-tingling highlight of a poignant and personal song. Compared to their last few albums, this is still a very good disc, and if it had come before, or after, their prime period (instead of smack in the middle) I think it would be held in much higher esteem by me, by the fans, and by the band.
– Friar Johnsen

SKULL24

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SEVERED HEAD, Heavy Metal / Killing the Kids (1983, Plastic Canvas)

The skull:
This is easily one of the finest skulls in the BDSkullection. This skull kept its eyes, eyes that have lasers or some other kind of light ray scanning out into the void, the top of its head a spaghetti-like mess of patch cords both coiled and straight. Considering there are female band members, is it an intentional nod to Medusa and her head of snakes? The logo is simple but bleeding. Looks like we’re gonna have to strap ourselves in for a very heavy experience. But, nope, not really.

The music:
This 7″ single is the only official release from this short-lived U.K. band, coming in at the tail end of the NWOBHM surge. The Head features two female vocalists in their ranks, but the girls seem more like curbside appeal than crucial elements of the band’s sound, as they perform only background vocals. Girlfriends of a couple of the guys? At least give them tambourines, for shit’s sake. It’s fairly competent stuff, even something that might have landed a deal with a major label subsidiary in the late ’70s, but by 1983 this already sounds dated and not as dark or vicious as the best NWOBHM. The “good time heavy metal rock!” refrain in “Heavy Metal” is Helix-level retardation. The skull artwork is about 4,000 times better than the music, but in their defense, any band would have a hard time measuring the expectations set by the name/logo and brilliant cover art.
— Friar Wagner

 

SKULL23

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SAINT VITUS, C.O.D. (1992, Hellhound)

The skull:
A classic in terms of bigness and dumbness. Very much looks like a last-minute “Album cover? Uh…I don’t know. How about a skull?” sort of decision. We’re on a roll here with skulls missing the lower mandible: SKULLs 22, 21, 19, 17, 14, 11 and 3 are all incomplete yet are super-skully skulls. What happens to a skull’s lower jaw, anyway? Many are lacking the power to chew even the most tender of flesh, which is a damn shame. So, the C.O.D. skull looks kind of holy with that celestial light beaming from its noggin. Incidentally, this is possibly the most bucktoothed skull in the Skullection. Not that there’s anything wrong with the bucktoothed. Don’t be hatin’.

The music:
I love that this forever born-too-late band named their album after a now completely obsolete form of package delivery. Actually, it’s short for Children of Doom, and in the title track’s chorus Saint Vitus rhymes that with “give us some room.” Sure, you got it guys. This Don Dokken produced album is, unfortunately, the band’s most underwhelming album. It’s fine, it just doesn’t offer much in the way of freshness. It’s all rather redundant, despite new blood in vocalist Christian Linderson (ex-Count Raven). The extra tracks on the CD version make the album better, adding some variety to the otherwise repetitive eight main tracks on the vinyl version. It’s not a terrible album at all; Vitus have a tough time doing any real wrong, sez me…it’s just not comparable to their best stuff. Skull-worthy for so many reasons…
— Friar Wagner

SKULL22

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Krux, Krux (2002, Mascot)

The skull:
Sweden’s Krux have been firmly committed to the skull, and this same image appears on their Live DVD of 2003. This skull has lost his lower jaw, and sits amongst a psychedelic wash of green with yellow edges. Comfy in its plainness, it’s just a skull. A big dumb skull.

The music:
I am a huge fan of Candlemass, but never got totally into Krux. They’re good, I like the vocals and keyboards especially, both of which set this apart a little from Leif Edling’s main band. (Although Krux does bear a lot of resemblance to Candlemass’s Dactylis Glomerata era.) Krux is built on what sound like stripped down Candlemass riffs, which are usually pretty simplistic to begin with. Minimalist doom, maybe. This is also reflected in their consistently unimaginative album titling and totally simple artwork concept (but we love it!). There’s also some Candlemass crossover here: the song “Nimis” was first recorded by Candlemass in 2001 and it appears again here. Heck, this might as well have been called Candlemass. Best thing about Krux is we get to hear Mats Leven at the mic, a guy who never got to sing on a truly classic metal album, but should have been on tons of them. An amazing set of pipes, this guy. I’ll listen to Krux just for his work alone.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL21

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IRON MONKEY, Ruined By Idiots: Live and Unleashed (2002, Maniac Beast)

The skull:
A closeup of a skull in a light box. As cheap and bland as possible. Maximum stupidity from a band that specialized in the same.

The music:
By the time Iron Monkey’s debut was released on Earache, it was clear that the label was ruined forever. Sure, in the early days there were Sore Throat and Fudge Tunnel albums to contend with, but at least there were Bolt Throwers, Carcasses, Nocturni, and so on to keep the average high. When Iron Monkey dropped, they shared roster space with Ultraviolence, Dub War, and Pulkas. Truly a dark time. At least Iron Monkey were undeniably a metal band, even if they were just a shitty British take on Helmet and Clutch. Ruined By Idiots collects all the live and radio sessions (plus a few studio cuts) that you labored so diligently to avoid in the first place.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL20

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DORSAL ATLANTICA, Antes Do Fim (1986, Lunário Perpétuo)

The skull:
The skull is hammered full of nails and staples, but it’s the eyes that draw you in! The eyes say it all, or at least all that needs to be said: “This is the worst.”

The music:
Typical, if not prototypical, of early Brazilian thrash, Antes do Fim serves up a sloppy mix of Slayer and the German three. Unpleasant production and incredibly boring drumming dominate. While this Friar can certainly appreciate the historical significance of Dorsal Atlantica (and has always loved their name), he cannot admit to actually liking them. The band reconvened in the mid aughts to re-record this album, and that version is certainly a more enjoyable listening experience, but even so, it’s hard to call this an essential album in any form.
– Friar Johnsen

SKULL19

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THE MANDRAKE, The Burning Horizon at the End of Dawn (2004, Crash)

The skull:
The skull looks down in an apparently forlorn gaze, contemplating the blood-red ocean to his left and the holocaust skies on the horizon. Faintly we see a poorly Photoshopped mushroom cloud woven into the sky, and you don’t have to use much imagination to envision a skull face in that fiery cloud. Or maybe it’s a head of cauliflower.

The music:
The Mandrake are one of few bands I’ve heard from the Crash stable that are actually competent. (One of the worst labels ever, for a few different reasons.) The Colorado natives play melodic death metal before it lost the “death” and amped up the “melodic.” Think The Everdawn and Gates of Ishtar. Good. Now throw capable but generic low death metal vocals on top. It’s another of hundreds of examples of capable, even talented U.S. bands looking overseas for inspiration and coming back home with nothing but a postcard of the real scenery. Later material traded some of their semi-esoteric riffs for a bunch of chunka-chunka ones. Active since 2001, The Mandrake should be finding their own artistic voice any decade now.
— Friar Wagner

 

SKULL18

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CRADLE TO GRAVE, CTG (2004, Year of the Sun)

The skull:
Fire and ice, baby! Fire and ice! The purity of vision here is to be commended: black background, skull, illegible logo on forehead, nothing else. The flames look they were created by following the instructions in the first link returned by Googling, “photoshop fire”, but otherwise, this is a finely crafted BDS.

The music:
Filed under “groove metal” in Metal Archives, this is one of those bands who sound immediately familiar, yet it’s impossible to say who they sound like. I think this is because people of taste generally don’t listen to any bands like this on purpose, and yet we encounter them all the time, as the first opening band of a six band touring package, or drifting out of Hot Topic as we walk past on our way to the food court while Christmas shopping. Terrible tough-guy vocals distract from some occasionally decent riffing, but the grey, midpaced monotony of the songwriting makes it rather hard to sit through more than a track or two before the mind starts to wander. I am not inspired to pursue their discography any further, and if they produce another big dumb skull as choice as CTG‘s, I’ll give Friar Wagner a chance to cut his teeth on Cradle to Grave.
– Friar Johnsen

SKULL17

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MOONSPELL, The Antidote (2003, Century Media)

The skull:
While we prefer our skulls front and center, this skull art is dull enough to warrant inclusion. There’s not a whole lot to look at: a photograph of a skull, half hidden and crammed into the left side of the frame, with some gray fog or smoke in the background. And, although it’s hard to see, there seems to be something resembling thick rope to the left of the skull’s jaw. Perhaps this is the rope that the hangman makes his noose with?

The music:
Never got much into Moonspell, but they’re good at what they do (epic gothic/doom metal?) and their longevity has to be respected. The vocalist sounds uncannily close to what a mixture of clean Mikael Akerfeldt and David Sylvian would sound like. Good use of space in the title track, a world-building, atmosphere-generating sort of song. The first half of “Lunar Still” is a chilling, minimal soundscape, and then pounding doom crashes the gate. The sorta hilariously titled “As We Eternally Sleep on It” (sleep on what?) closes the album in epic style, although by the end Fernando Ribeiro’s vocals feel like a put-on (and his accent, which you can’t fault him for, gets annoying). Still, The Antidote gave this Friar an appreciation for Moonspell that wasn’t there before. Well done mood metal, although the album cover “concept” is hardly representative of the ornate, exotic music inside.
— Friar Wagner