Tag Archives: upside down cross

SKULL642

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SLAUGHTER LORD, Taste of Blood (1986, demo)

The skull:
“Grrrrr!!! You get me down from this cross right…this…minute!!! God damn you kids! I did not ask for this! What??? … I don’t care if it’s upside down! GRRRRRR… Come back here you rapscallions! What’s that??? This is King Diamond’s microphone holder? Well I still don’t give a shit! I’ve got a pie in the oven! God damn you kids!!! Get back here right now. GRRRRR…………”

The music:
I’ve tried to get into Slaughter Lord several times. They’re at least semi-legendary, Australia’s answer to the most vicious phases of Kreator, Slayer, Sodom and Canada’s Slaughter. But their music leaves me cold. And the guitar solo in “Die by Power” is dippy. Guess there’s a fine line between stupid and awesome Exodus-ish dive-bombing whammy bar destruction solos after all. Oh hell yeah, it’s cult…but how good is it really? I don’t get much out of return visits either. I’ve tried. Kinda the same feeling I have with Canada’s Slaughter – tons of respect, but a sense that both bands are slightly overrated.
— Friar Wagner

SKULL570

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NECROCURSE, Shape of Death (2012, Aftermath Music)

The skull:
I’m certain we’ve seen this exact skull before, ‘shopped into some other dull cover, but I’m not about to look it up. Here he is, tinted pink, smiling atop some very fascist-looking lightning bolts and an upside-down cross. It’s all impossibly dull, but the saving grace is that this was released as that rarest of novelties, the shaped CD. In 2012, no less. In fact, I’m not sure there’s even a printed-on-paper cover, just this disc in a clear case. That’s kind of cool, as a physical artifact, but it doesn’t excuse the total dullness of the design. Necrocurse has done other good work in the medium of Big Dumb Skulls, for which The Council is grateful, but if they keep up this kind of shoddy work, they might find themselves without the friendship of some very important, hooded figures.

The music:
Necrocurse are a bunch of old dudes from medium-famous underground bands (Runemagick, Swordmaster, and the biggest, Nifelheim) united in their common love of Swedish death metal demos of the late 80s. If you like Carnage, Merciless, Nihilist, Grave, or Nirvana 2002, or modern knock-offs like Entrails or Repugnant, then you’ll probably like Necrocurse. I know I should like all these Stockholm syndrome bands about as much as I like the 10,000 new thrash bands who aren’t as good as Havok (which is to say: not much), but I really haven’t been exposed to too many Retombeds to be totally annoyed, and anyway this particular bunch of dudes have at least some claim to the sound. Shape of Death is a compilation of a couple EPs with a few bonus tracks tacked on, and it’s solid, but probably not the best introduction to the band. Then again, their lone EP is ever-so-slightly less derivative, and that could be a good or bad thing depending on your disposition.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL555

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SODOR, Evil Thrash Metal (2014, demo)

The skull:
Shit got really dark on the Island of Sodor after the pirates landed. The grainhouses were quickly emptied and of course the mansions and pleasure gardens of the island’s corrupt oligarchs were looted and burned immediately. The de facto governor and the wealthiest man on the island, Sir Topham Hatt, came in for particularly brutal treatment. After being stripped naked and whipped in the street, he was dragged in chains before a largely celebratory populace gathered in the central square of Tidmouth. There he was castigated, stoned, then drawn, hanged, and quartered. His head was impaled on a cross taken from one of the many looted churches on the island, and left out to rot and bleach as reminder of the merciless power of the pirates. His signature hat, once the very symbol of his power, was cast into the crowd where it was torn to shreds. Several farmers added scythes to the grim display as a token reminder of the especial suffering of the agricultural class under Hatt’s rule. The islanders quickly found that even without their rail system (which was plundered or simply destroyed by the invaders) and despite having to pay a fairly heavy tax of farmed goods to the brigands, their real incomes actually increased under the pseudo-rule of the pirates, who, after all, were not nearly as rapacious as the island’s former kleptocratic regime.

The music:
Even by the standards of Brazilian rethrash, this is pretty weak, with dull songs, poor playing, and tinny sound. Sodor borrows as heavily from crappy crossover (of the Cryptic Slaughter variety) as from the German stuff usually aped by South American thrashers. The rubbery bass and high pitched, rasping vocals recall Sadus somewhat, but only their earliest demos, as they were far more advanced even by Illusions than Sodor are here. Then again, these dudes probably average 19 years old, so maybe I should cut them some slack. No one starts great, right? Still, they’re gonna need to get a LOT better to satisfy just the least discriminating of modern thrash hounds, and I think there’s no chance at all that they’ll ever improve so much that I’d like them.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL257

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UNDERLORD, Rise of the Ancient Kings (2003, Rage of Achilles)

The skull:
I do love these covers that feature literally every evil metal signifier possible, crammed into one disjointed composition. A pentagram, upside down crosses (on fire, naturally), crazy swords, occult symbols, and of course a seriously regal skull in the midst of it all. As with the nouveau riche, this nouveau mal skull is just a bit too ostentatious in his displays of malevolence. You just know he drives some fancy luxury hearse with the vanity plate, “EVLSKLL”, and he just never takes that fucking crown off. How else would you know how royally sinister he is?

The music:
An even mix of first and second wave black metal, Underlord offer no surprises and nothing new. The playing is remarkably crisp, considering how shitty the recording is, but the riffs are dime-a-dozen Venom, Bathory and Mayhem knockoffs, with the obligatory croaking vocals and lyrics about war, Satan, and ancient wisdom and what have you. If you think of Hellhammer as more than just the shitty band that eventually became Celtic Frost, or you think Sodom peaked with In the Sign of Evil, then maybe Underlord will tweak your nipples just right.
— Friar Johnsen

SKULL147

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RECIPIENTS OF DEATH, Recipients of Death (1988, Wild Rags)

The skull:
A standard issue horny skull impaled on an upside down cross. This whole thing screams “1988!” One thing that I do like about hand-drawn covers like this is how the logo and the title are worked in as components of the art. No Photoshop layers here: you get it all in one glorious shot. I wonder, was this photocopied straight off someone’s textbook wrapper (do kids still wrap their books?), or was it redrawn from that original and inked in sharpie for the final art? The skull-cross, evidently the band’s totem or mascot, would make a second appearance on the band’s next, and last release, this time in a much finer, painted form, but where’s the charm in that?

The music:
As goes the cover, so too, the music: this is as generic a slab of late 80s Angelino thrash as you could imagine. Dark Angel is a good starting point, with a little Slayer thrown in for good measure, although I do detect a tiny hint of the groove that would creep into thrash as the 90s approached, especially from up the coast, and more than a hint of California hardcore. The playing is decent and the production is more than good enough, especially for a Wild Rags release. The vocals are the weak link, naturally, delivered with a crossover sneer obviously modeled after Kurt Brecht. When the basketball beat goes full-court-press, these overly wordy, barked vocals really underscore the monotony of the material. There’s a reason why this band only managed to eke out a couple EPs, but I’d still rather listen to this than Municipal Waste or Toxic Holocaust.
— Friar Johnsen