SKULL368

TREPANADOR, Trepanador  (1994, demo)

The skull:
This artwork metal enough for ya? Holy crap. His flesh may be gone, but he’s still got eyes, fangs and tongue. This guy’s night of mischevious hella-fun is just gettin’ started! So, technically, yes, this is a form of trepanation, a drill with a humongous bit slammed into the uppermost part of the skullcap. Perhaps not one of the most subtle ways to achieve the pressure relief or increased blood brain flow that the procedure’s adherents are looking for, but it’s not the most subtle of surgical interventions in the first place. Then, plug that shit into a Marshall amp with the cord provided and you have the sound of METAAAAALLLLL!!!!

The music:
If you couldn’t have guessed from the cover art, this is a thrash metal demo. These Argentinians entered the game pretty late, so it’s not surprising that theirs is a completely redundant form of thrash metal. The vocalist’s guttural bark is a complete turn-off, too. To be fair, he mixes things up by employing a hysterical high-pitched wail that sounds appropriately panicky, if also lacking any real control. Musically it’s very fast and aggressive, not unlike Schizophrenia-era Sepultura, but not so like it that you should seek it out. It’s all quite dull, unfortunately. A variety of tempos are mixed up nicely, and the ability is here, it’s just that Trepanador lack the ability to compose anything approaching a memorable song.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL90

NECROPSYA, Skullcrusher  (2006, self-released EP)

The skull: As with the good Friar Johnsen’s complaints regarding the lack of crushing going on with skull81 (a band named Skullcrusher), this cover also promises skull crushing without actually delivering it. As is, this cover is absolutely great. The skull looks quite happy for what is about to happen to him, which seems to be more of a drilling than a crushing. While it seems measures have been taken to either prevent a crushing, or repairs were made from a previous crushing attempt (the bolted-on metal plates), both are moot points: this skull’s about to get a lower parietal trepanation on the left and right side, and real quick, dawg. We’ll have to wait even longer to get a truly skullcrushed skull added to the Skullection. For now, this beauty will do just fine.

The music:
This is one Brazilian thrash/death type band that Nuclear War Now! will probably NOT be reissuing on vinyl anytime soon. It’s lame, pedestrian, boring, and without any reason to exist whatsoever. They’ve self-released two full-length albums since, and I hope there’s some measure of improvement on those. How to describe this level of lameness? Maybe the most generic of early ’90s British thrash,  with an attempt at death metal in the vocals, but these are un-threatening, non-guttural, and unconvincing in their delivery. Tame and utterly fourth rate. I guarantee that if Wild Rags Records was around in 2013, they’d be the only label to consider signing them (there were a handful of good albums that came out on W.R., but you know what I mean). I’ll bet the newly-revived Pavement label and its A&R genius is gonna be all over Brazil’s Necropsya any day now…
— Friar Wagner