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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

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MURK, Drifting Mine (2009, Bylec-Tum)

The skull:
Looking at this cover is like staring into the open casket at Chris Holmes’s funeral.

The music:
Murk sound like a souped-up Venom, playing proto-black metal that’s still 75% Motorhead. Raunchy and rudimentary, Murk are still kind of fun, if maybe not for the entire duration of this compilation. Drifting Mine collects a few EPs, some cover songs, and some rehearsal room demos, so the quality from track to track can vary quite a bit, and not just in the production department. “To Build A Wall” is almost unbelievably stupid, but “Perverted Behavior” is goofy fun. “Human Disaster” sounds like Obituary doing d-beat, while “Damage” sounds like a collection of the riffs Coroner would pack between the noodly bits. The whole thing has a deep underground feel without being unlistenably shitty sounding, although after a while, it all becomes a bit too much, and though it’s kind of impressive that a single guy handles all of the instruments and vocals (and we’re talking real drums here, not a machine), he’s not particularly great in any position. I’m not about to say that anyone needs to be listening to Murk, because even though I basically didn’t mind listening to Drifting Mine, I’m certain I’ll never be hankering for this again, but at the same time, if you like crusty, pseduo-black metal, then maybe there’s a place in your cassette deck for this.
— Friar Johnsen

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ANGELCRUSHER, Under the Iron Graves  (2011, self-released)

The skull:
Under the iron logo, we could believe that one, right? But I don’t see any sign of an iron grave, and not sure what an iron grave even is. Do they mean casket, or vault? Perhaps “graves” is pronounced grah’-vez and means “vault” in the indigenous tongue of Mapudungun spoken in certain parts of Chile. Then it would totally make sense. Wouldn’t explain the skull at all, most especially its wild horns, but holy god those are some sweet horns.

The music:
Dirty black/thrash inspired by the earliest works of Sodom, Vulcano, Bathory and Sarcofago, one would guess. And really not amongst the most remarkable of the more recent followers in that vein (there really aren’t any leaders in that new-school of the old-school vein, are there)? This forgettable little nugget o’ metal is short,  raw, and originally came out on cassette.
— Friar Wagner

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LATHSPELL, Reborn in Retaliation (2009, Excesor Christianorum)

The skull:
“Okay, the album we’re shooting is called Reborn in Retaliation, so gimme your most retaliatory look!” “Huh? What do you mean? Like, am I the one who is being reborn? And my rebirth is in some way a retaliation for some wrongdoing?” “Yeah, I guess!” “That doesn’t even make sense! How would that even work?” “I dunno man. They hired me to do the cover photo, and I hired you, so let’s just run with it.” “Okay, but it’s stupid. And anyway, I can’t really give you one look or another. I’m a skull. I can point myself this way or that way, and I can open and close my jaw, and that’s about it.” “Fine! Just look down, like you’re sad or something.” “Retaliating makes me sad? So sad I’m gonna… rebirth myself?” “Christ, man! You’re overthinking this! You’re a skull! A badass skull! Just fucking… do something skully! Like maybe your soul is departing to be reborn, and that kind of bums you out or whatever. This isn’t rocket science! Hell, it’s not even really art! This is for some Finnish black metal band!” “Alright. I mean, I appreciate the work and all, and I’m not trying to give you a hard time. It’s just stupid, this title. But okay, how’s this? Like, I’m thinking maybe I’m actually being reborn right now, so like my head is moving down the birth canal…” “Ugh! That’s fucking gross! Don’t you think you’ll have, you know, flesh and all that when you’re reborn?” “Well, it would sure be more retaliatory to come out just a skull, don’t you think?” “Sure, but then wouldn’t you be a baby skull? Those things look totally different from, uh, adult skulls like you.” “How do you even know how old I am? What does that have to do with anything?” “Man, nevermind. I just took a picture. It’s good e-fucking-nough. Here’s your fifty bucks. Thanks for coming in.”

The music:
The first several minutes of music on Reborn in Retaliation are rather slow and moody, and though it’s immediately recognizable as black metal, it comes loaded with atmosphere and mystery. And then the blasting starts, and for a while, it’s as generic as you expect black metal to be. Then they slow down, and things get interesting again. And then they start blasting, and all craftsmanship goes out the window. So it goes with Lathspell. They should really be a doom metal band, because they do downtempo much, much better than they do full-tilt northern aggression. In the end, there were just too many uninteresting fast sections to really hold my interest, and that’s too bad, because there’s a core of a great band here. They just need to slow the fuck down, and stay down.
— Friar Johnsen

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LOTRIFY, Demo  (2011, demo)

The skull:
Demo. This is the album cover for this demo, the Lotrify demo. The one called Demo. The one with the skull on it. The one in which the skull cries tears of blood because he’s been relegated to a demo called Demo. From a Swiss band nobody really cares about. But he’s got a massive fucking canine and he’s gonna bite down on that logo for all its worth, to show his fellow skull pals, the ones from the Krokus, Overkill and Saint Vitus covers, that he, too, is to be feared!!!

The music:
Demo. This is music from the demo, the Lotrify demo. The one called Demo. And not only does it sounds like a demo, but the composition and delivery is clearly coming from kids who have just started trying to figure out how to write a song. They’re probably influenced by Metallica, Megadeth, Evergrey and Sanctuary, from the sound of it. They clearly have a long way to go before they can match the achievements of those bands, but they’re clearly capable, from a pure performance level, except for the vocalist. Each instrument-wielder seems pretty capable, the drums and bass sometimes outclassing the occasional ham-fisted guitar part, but for overall it’s a laudable effort. The vocalist, well, he’s pretty much crap. Not only does he warble weakly in his semi-melodic, semi-Hetfield-ian delivery, but the lyrics are laughable. And the songs themselves, these are not great, and are sometimes a hell of a mess (“Shadow of the Unknown”). And guess what “Sahara” does? It features mystical Eastern melodies. Bet you didn’t see that coming. The vocals in “Sahara” are amongst the poorest I’ve heard since starting this blog and these lyrics show that there is not even the slightest attempt at metaphor. This is what’s happening, right here! “I’m walking through Sahara without water in my bag /
The heat is smashing me down and my sight is turning red/ I trip over my own feet and my body hits the sandy floor.” But okay, they’re young. I’d say the cover of Demo advertises exactly what you get when the music starts playing. It’s time to get lotrified people! Lotrify it up! Omednikcufecin!
— Friar Wagner

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CHEMIKILLER, Evilspeak (2006, Autopsy Kitchen)

The skull:
What’s more evil than a collection of ghastly free fonts and a cheap-looking skull bleached to near-glowing by a succession of ineptly applied Photoshop filters? All that and a pentagram. The logo here looks like it took someone days to create while the rest of the art was seemingly dashed out in the 15 minutes somebody had left before he had to get down to the stop to catch the bus. The Antichrist’s passion is clearly not for the graphic arts.

The music:
This reminds me of some of the early Noise Records bands who teetered briefly on the fence separating power metal from early thrash. Think Running Wild’s earliest material, or the first couple Rage discs. The music is simple and largely derived from Judas Priest and Accept, but it’s played fast and with a grimy intensity and topped with vocals that aren’t exactly melodic, but aren’t atonal, either, and recall Wargasm’s Bob Mayo and another early Noise hero, Tom G. Warrior. Yes, Evilspeak is unabashedly retro, but it harkens back to a time and sound that no one else seems particularly interested in revisiting, at least not yet. Sadly, the primary mover in the band, guitarist/vocalist Ramrod, died in 2010 and this album is the last full length release from ChemiKiller. They were even from my neck of the woods and I never caught them live (although maybe because they were a studio project – I can’t really say for sure) but there’s enough good material here to suggest that better things were to come from this band.
— Friar Johnsen

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CHRISTER PETTERSSON, Play Fast (2012, demo)

The skull:
This probably would have looked pretty cool drawn on the underside of a skateboard in sharpie in 1986. As big dumb skulls go, well, he’s big and he’s incredibly, almost impossibly dumb, but it’s hard to get too worked up about something obviously drawn by a kid. We can be mean here at Skull HQ, but it’s not our intention to make children cry. Usually.

The music:
This is blazing fast grind that sounds like it was derived from punk and not death metal, which is to say it doesn’t take itself too seriously and isn’t too good. But grind is never my thing, no matter the minor variations. The film samples they include are fairly amusing at least. The historical Christer Pettersson was a a suspect in the killing of Sweden’s prime minister in the mid 80s, but his conviction was later overturned. I have no idea what are the politics inherent in naming your band after this guy, but I’m sure it all means more to a Swede than to me. Anyway, if you love both grind and crust, then maybe you’ll like this. It doesn’t sound horrible as these things go. But I’ll never be able to say anything too intelligent about this style of music, because I just can’t bring myself to care.
— Friar Johnsen

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IGNIVOMOUS, Path of Attrition  (2007, Nuclear War Now! Productions)

The skull:
Although this cover is obscured in tarry black and sanguine rust red shades, one thing is clear: this skull is being used for some kind of nasty spell-casting. Or perhaps to help light up catacombs that reveal far grimmer things than we’re allowed to see on this cover. Or, hopefully, both. So we’ve got the book and candle, but no bell. We’ve come across this issue before, and we understand bell-makers the world over are feeling rather overlooked in the world of skull album covers, and are forming a committee to address the problem. Also, I’m pretty sure the book the skull is propped upon isn’t a first edition hardcover copy of Bridges of Madison County.

The music:
About as mired in filth, darkness and indistinct-but-probably-very-evil-things as the album cover itself, the music of Ignivomous is exactly what can be expected from various vets of the Australian death/black metal scene. Obvious inspiration comes from the rawer, earlier work of Incantation, Immolation, Rottrevore and even hints of Suffocation without the technicality. Heavy-as-fuck death metal, basically, with a decidedly dark orientation. This could have been released in 1990 on Relapse or Roadrunner and it would have fit right in.  They’re very good at their chosen craft, and if you can’t get enough of this kind of thing, there are about 200 less convincing death metal revivalists making the rounds right now. Ignivomous appear to be one of the best of this breed, for what it’s worth.
— Friar Wagner

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SOCIAL DESPAIR, Social Despair (2007, demo)

The skull:
I don’t recall seeing another skull with only half a jaw. For all the violence we’ve seen visited on skulls here at Skull HQ, this seems the most brutal. What holds the thing on, I can’t say, but I bet it hurts like all hell. Fortunately, this guy looks to be riding out his Hellraiser-esque eternity in style, what with that kickin’ mullet and badass fangs. He’s probably like, “Yeah, I’m all chained up through a hole in my top, and my bottom jaw is fucking busted in half, but they didn’t even ding the fangs! Suckers!” That’s some Myth of Sisyphus-level existentialism right there, folks.

The music:
Obviously, this is a thrash band. Obviously. The name, the logo, and of course the cover all give it away. But, they don’t have the sound of a trendhopping rethrash act. Instead, they sound like a bunch of meatheads who wanted to play death metal but found it was just too hard, so they dumbed it down and arrived at some kind of remedial thrash, the sort played by high school bands in 1991 who mostly decorated their denim vests with Metallica patches but who just discovered Deicide. The sound is awful, the playing sloppy, the riffs dull, and the vocals unlistenable. At least the songs are short. Interestingly, Social Despair appear to have released an album only last year — there’s proof of it on their Facebook page — but despite an even more awesome BDS cover, the album doesn’t appear on Metal Archives and I can’t find sound samples for it. So, maybe Social Despair got their act together and turned into a good band, although I can’t say I have particularly high hopes for a record called Refusal for Abreaction.
— Friar Johnsen