Tag Archives: eye

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ATTAXE, Displaced (1989, demo)

The skull:
It’s the sleepy eye that makes this cover, as if the skull were thinking to himself, “I got out of bed for this?” Attaxe’s demo before this one also features a less big, but possibly more stupid stull, and I like to think that this guy was the model for that as well. He moved out to California to star in horror movies, but the only work he could find besides waiting tables was appearing on three track cassettes from bands who would never amount to much. It’s no wonder he wasn’t able to muster any more enthusiasm, especially when for this shoot he had a big-ass logo dropped on his head, and those swords were sharp! If the rent hadn’t been due in a couple days, he might not have showed up, but as it was, he didn’t have much choice.

The music:
Attaxe were yet another thrash band who were born too late; though their demos were pretty good, they were only just hitting their stride when the metal scene collapsed in the early 90s. This 1989 demo is a nice piece of Bay Area-style thrash (although Attaxe were from Southern California) that reminds me of a lesser Vio-lence. Though well played and unusually well produced for a demo, Displaced is not exactly brimming with original ideas, and Tim Carson’s unnuanced, bellowing vocals (which are clearly modeled after Chuck Billy’s) sell the music a bit short. Still, there’s a lot more going on here than you’ll hear from most new thrash bands, and while (to my knowledge) the Attaxe discography has never been reissued, the band maintains a nice historical webpage where you can hear most, if not all, of their recorded output. If you’re seriously into thrash, you’re sure to get something out of the experience of digging through their archives (and as they went through a lot of singers, some of the demos feature better vocals than the ones here), but if your relationship with thrash is more casual, then it’s unlikely that Attaxe is going to make you fall in love with the genre at last.
— Friar Johnsen

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E.S.T., Live in the Outskirts of Moscow (1993, Mausoluem)

The skull:
Da, comrade, we are having knife. Yes, and gun. You need gun? Take gun, take! Is lightning you need? Also we are having lightning, and star too, yes. Is warm hat you need? Take hat, is bearing leaf of marijuana plant, is very cool. We are having everything you need comrade, and hard rocking, also. E.S.T. has eye out for you! Ha, comrade! You like joke? We are having good humor, for spirit of worker is in us. E.S.T. have many things, have all things, provided by party, for glory of Russia. Go, comrade, and fight, and rock for Russia!

The music:
I’d never heard of E.S.T. (which stands for Electro Shock Therapy) before, but that’s no great surprise, as my awareness of Russian metal is pretty scant. Then again, if I had ever encountered this band before, I would have quickly beat feet in the other direction, as they sound like the non-union Russian equivalent of Razor’s Edge-era AC/DC, with a bit of late The Cult thrown in for good measure (and okay, a little of the more rockin’ Aria sounds of the late 80s, which is really the best thing about E.S.T.) The first half of this compilation is their performance at the 1991 Monsters of Rock festival in Russia (supposedly, although rumors of live-in-the-studio abound), so clearly they were a band of some stature in their homeland, and their music is well played and well put together (even if the vocals are rather shitty, in a Chris Boltendahl way), so I guess if you like that kind of not-quite metal and you don’t mind (mostly) Russian lyrics, then you’d probably love this like I love Aspid and Valkyria, but if you already think one AC/DC was one too many, then you’ll find them twice as bad as their dull inspirations.
— Friar Johnsen

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SUCKING VOID, The Scavenger (2012, demo)

The skull:
The stupid logo is a dead giveaway that this is a modern release, but this art could otherwise totally have fronted some cult death metal demo from the late 80s, passed from trader to trader in increasingly rotten-sounding dubs, the cover getting more and more washed out as the Xerox generations pile up. Scratched, cracked, dripping, and covered in crawly things, not to mention stretched like a necro El Greco, this skull looks to be having an absolutely shitty afterlife, and we’re actually seeing him here in the prime of his digitally distributed glory. Sucking Void Skull, you don’t know how good you’ve got it!

The music:
The Scavenger sounds like Earache Records 1990, an even mix of Harmony Corruption, Symphonies of Sickness, and the faster moments on Warmaster, but with a modern production that surprisingly doesn’t deflate the oldschool vibe. The riffing is a little basic at times, and the vocals less than charismatic, but this kind of oldschool stuff really gets me off, and Sucking Void remain committed throughout to songcraft in a way that modern death metal rarely does. The playing is sharp and everything sounds really great here, much better than most death metal, in fact. I didn’t expect much from this short demo with a silly cover, but Sucking Void are surprisingly not to be fucked with. Highly recommended if you enjoy the aforementioned oldies.
— Friar Johnsen

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KICKHUNTER, Hearts & Bones

The skull:
It’s possible that this cover was constructed in Photoshop, but I’ll be damned if this doesn’t look like a photo of a real tattoo, and what a doozy it is. I desperately hope that the guitarist got this tattoo explicitly for his album cover. That would be some real dedication. It’s not quite as good as three guys getting the Exhorder logo tattooed on their arms, but it’s still pretty serious. I especially hope that he did this to surprise his bandmates. He shows up one day at rehearsal, a couple weeks before the band is scheduled to hit the studio, and he dramatically pulls off his leather jacket to reveal his new ink. “Behold! The cover of our debut album!” “But, dude, the album is gonna be called Hearts & Bones. Like, more than one heart,” the singer immediately notes. “God damn it, you’re such a fucking dick. I did this for you fucking guys! Can’t you for once be happy?” “No, man, it’s not like that! It’s cool! But like, don’t you think it would be cooler if you added like another couple hearts or something? There’s still room…” “GOD DAMN IT JIMMY! I’M NOT ADDING MORE HEARTS!” “Jeez, dude, calm down, I’m just saying. I mean, no one asked you to get a fucking tattoo for the band! Like, maybe I was already planning on getting my denim jacket airbrushed with the cover art? Did you ever think of that?” And so on. But, happy ending: they worked it out and made like three or four totally shitty albums together.

The music:
Is there anything worse than new hair metal? At least in the 80s, when such crap was popular, you could imagine some percentage of the assholes engaged in this sort of behavior were doing it cynically to get laid, or were just going with the flow, having no sense of good or bad. But in the 00s? You’d have to fucking love hair metal to make an album sounding like this, which is tantamount to getting a tattoo on your forehead that proclaims, “I have shitty taste in music!” I mean, the skull tattoo already implies as much, but I’m talking about making it explicit. Anyway, I’m not going to be able to make much in the way of concrete comparisons to describe this awful band, because I hate this shit with the energy of a thousand suns, but in broad strokes, Kickhunter falls on the bluesier, less glammy side of the hair metal spectrum. More like Tora Tora than Sleez Beez. Or maybe like Kingdom Come with a much crappier singer. Fuck, I hate myself for even knowing these bands exist, but Kickhunter, they’re trying to SOUND like them. I’m ashamed for them, and sad for the world.
— Friar Johnsen

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ILSA, The Maggots are Hungry (2009, Odium Generis Humani)

The skull:
This amazing skull combines three of my favorite things: flowing tresses, berets, and potato masher grenades. The single, glaring eye is just icing on the cake. For some reason, this skull immediately made me think of Chainsaw Caine, the idiot frontman of the godawful Slave Raider, but Caine wore his eyepatch over his right eye, so this clearly couldn’t be him. Also, Caine wishes he had hair this lovely. Really, I don’t know how or why I made the connection, but it came to me instantly and powerfully, and in this line of work, one comes to trust those instincts. Call them the providence of The Skull.

The music:
I’m not a huge fan of crust (I like Amebix and Hellbastard and not much else) but Ilsa are pretty good as crust goes. While a lot of crust leans punk, this is definitely metal, and in their slower moments Ilsa could even make for a convincing doom metal band. The raspy, grindy vocals suck pretty bad, and it’s not like any of these riffs are gonna knock your socks off, but The Maggots are Hungry is slathered in grimy atmosphere and a palpable indignation, which is really the most you can ask of crust. The production is analog and murky, but it’s not anarcho-squatter lo-fi, as a lot of this sort of thing tends to be, and clocking in at under a half-hour, this at least doesn’t leave you wanting less.
— Friar Johnsen

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GANG, V (2010, Emanes Metal)

The skull:
Well, it’s big, that’s for sure. And the single eye is pretty awesome, despite the absolutely terrible Photoshop paste job. This is an ugly, lazy cover, make no mistake! The candles at least sort of set the scene, but the pentagram logo is a little distracting (it could certainly be better integrated) and the standard-issue brown wash that swamps the entire cover is a drag. Plus, it’s Christmas morning, and the Council gifted me a one-of-a-kind LP pressed in sterling silver of Megadeth’s Killing Is My Business… and I’d much rather be listening to that than critiquing this crappy French skull. Of course, the Council and we friars acknowledge no God but The Skull, but we all enjoy the gift-giving and camaraderie of the holiday season, not to mention the heavily boozed dairy beverages.

The music:
This totally un-Googlable album is a nice slice of melodic trad metal that nevertheless sounds more or less modern and not at all retro. Listening to V, the bands that immediately spring to mind are Artch and Hell (the new lineup, with Andy Sneap), although I offer these only as points of comparison, not to suggest that Gang were influenced by either band. Mercyful Fate are probably the common ancestor, although Gang doesn’t make a great effort to establish any occult vibe. The singer has a nasal delivery and a narrow range, but he puts his voice to good and dramatic use, and the riffing is solid and largely catchy. The drums sound programmed to me, but they’re basically alright sounding, and the rest of the production is perfectly fine. Gang aren’t about to become my new favorite band, but they’re pretty decent, and certainly good enough to get me to check out the rest of their fairly significant discography.
— Friar Johnsen

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SHAH, P.S.I.H.O.  (1994, Moroz Records)

The skull:
Shah is one of the most celebrated Russian thrash bands ever (not that there are that many noteworthy ones to begin with), and they sure love heads and skulls. All four of their albums feature just that, and this, their fourth and final album, sports a cover we were more than happy to add to the Skullection. We look at skulls a lot here at BDS but never really wonder how the skull came to be. We’re always so in-the-moment. Shah’s skull shows the transition to skulliness in all its gory motion: the flesh, including a nose and an eyeball, are being blown clean off the bone by what we’ll assume is a very, very strong wind. But this reveals that all is not bone! The skull is apparently made of steel or some kind of other metallic material. And its left eyeball refuses to leave home. Glorious!

The music:
I have not had the pleasure of hearing Shah’s three albums prior to this one. But I’ve heard they’re a little more straight-forward and aggressive than P.S.I.H.O., which is like a poor man’s Countdown to Extinction; it has a similarly razor-sharp riffing approach, its smooth complexity resembles that album’s refined posture, and the vocalist emits Mustaine-esque whines ‘n’ snarls. It’s more ramshackle than Countdown…, however. P.S.I.H.O. has some genuinely great moments (the cool riffs and harmony vocals within “Turn of the Changes”; the hypnotic pace and acoustic guitar layered throughout “Open”), but just ask yourself: “Do I love early/mid ’90s Megadeth enough to seek out a Russian analog of the same?” Having been released in the waning years of thrash metal’s finest era, this could probably be called “semi-thrash” or “post-thrash” while escaping any alignment to the likes of Machine Head or Pantera. I’m also reminded of forgotten midwestern semi-thrashers Coup De Grace, Heathen’s most melodic moments, and shades of Metal Church.
— Friar Wagner

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ELWING, War  (2005, Black Lotus)

The skull:
Assuming that this one-eyed skull is looking at a scene of war, he looks blank and unimpressed. The artwork is all scratchy and organic-ish, just some fun with Photoshop to help dress up an otherwise drab cover idea. Mission not accomplished. There are a whole subset of skull covers out there featuring one-eyed skulls, and this is one of the least remarkable. Just another band that’s got nothin’ in the way of cover ideas. (Their first album featured artwork depicting a helmeted, shielded, and sworded warrior standing atop a pile of skulls. Also none too original.)

The music:
Whole lotta gallop goin’ on, and quite a few Celtic/folk flavored rhythms and melodies. This Greek metal band worships at the altar of Blind Guardian and other such fantasy-laden, epic sorts of power metal bands. If you have any recollection at all of the Greek band Nemesis (I don’t), one of their members ended up in Elwing, and he brings their “Lost Humanity” song with him, which appears on this album. Highlight tracks? They’re all kind of similar in quality and structure. The vocals are mid-ranged and decent enough, and when he goes high he sounds strained. Or with tons of effects piled on. He’s gruff and forceful enough and has an okay range. Musically it’s solid and tight, nothing to sniff at, and the whole band perform with an earnestness that at least makes you appreciate their conviction. But Elwing isn’t offering anything that other, better bands haven’t, so there you go. Elwing gave it their best shot in the early and mid 2000s and died a pretty quick death. A casualty of the power metal war…
— Friar Wagner

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TORMENTED/BOMBS OF HADES, split (2011 War Anthem)

The skull:
Designed like a slasher movie poster from the 80s, this is a very classy cover. The massive, monocular, slightly bloody skull glares evilly, no doubt irritated by the tiny cobweb affixed to his slimy peeper. He’s got no jaw, but that just leaves more room for the songtitles, without creating a need to obscure skullparts. Basically, everything about this cover works as an homage, while still succeeding brilliantly as a big dumb skull. An unmitigated triumph of BDSery! Bravo!

The music:
Tormented are more or less straight-up Earache 1990: Entombed’s Left Hand Path with a faint but present trace of Hellbastard’s Natural Order, at least on their original track here, “Repulsion Fix”. This song is less ambitious than really anything Entombed was doing back in the day, but Tormented do their work briskly and professionally and “Repulsion Fix” is a very fun tune. Their second track is a straightfoward and fairly pointless cover of Kreator’s “Tormentor”. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of the first couple Kreator albums in any case, but I think the appeal is inextricably bound up in the energy and naivety that only earnest young men can deliver. Bombs of Hades are a grimier, grittier band although the basic template is still late 80s Stockholm. More Unleashed than Entombed, perhaps. I find this willful primitivism unappealing in the main, but BoH aren’t a bad band at all. Their original tune, in addition to the obvious Stockholm nods, also strongly reminds me of several songs on Sodom’s overlooked Tapping the Vein album. Maybe this is a coincidence, but if it’s not, I at least salute the band for that. They round out the split with a cover of Loud Pipe’s “Clean Your Head.” I’ve never heard of that band, but from the sounds of it, they were just some kind of D-beat band, making this cover even less essential and interesting than “Tormentor”.
— Friar Johnsen