{"id":22367,"date":"2014-11-04T00:00:37","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T00:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=22367"},"modified":"2015-01-13T21:49:23","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T21:49:23","slug":"album-review-the-skull-for-those-which-are-asleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-the-skull-for-those-which-are-asleep\/","title":{"rendered":"THE SKULL – For Those Which Are Asleep (2014) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE SKULL
For Those Which Are Asleep<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nTee Pee (2014)<\/span>
Rating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Having only recently succumbed to the autumnal pastures of Blackfinger and their self-titled debut<\/a>, I was once again eager to chill my grey bones to the sound of another act featuring former Trouble frontman Eric Wagner.<\/p>\n

The Skull is about as close to old Trouble as it gets in the name department (The Skull<\/em> being the name of Trouble\u2019s classic 1985 opus). For this project Wagner has drafted in original Trouble member Jeff \u201cOly\u201d Olson on drums, who joins former Trouble member Ron Holzner on bass, Lothar Keller (Sacred Dawn) on guitar and former Pentagram axeman Matt Goldsborough. It also won\u2019t surprise you to learn that For Those Which Are Asleep<\/em> is a fucking great debut record that puts the latest Trouble album The Distortion Field<\/em><\/a> (2013) to shame.<\/p>\n

The immense opener \u2018Trapped Inside My Mind\u2019 is a wondrous trudging monolith carved from the very stone of Mount Doom and evoking echoes of Trouble at its most pensive and moody. In fact, The Skull is clearly \u2013 to me anyway \u2013 a way of showing Trouble what they are missing; Wagner\u2019s lazy drool, and simplistic lyrics exude not just an arrogance but a humility as the singer mourns, \u201cAfter all these years it\u2019s becoming quite clear; for as long we both shall live…\u201d<\/em> as if he\u2019s exorcising demons over a haunting grumble of thundery guitar and booming bass.<\/p>\n

As an opening track, \u2018Trapped Inside My Mind\u2019 is one that instils such a feeling of dread that as it races into Gothic abandonment Wagner pleads for us to \u201chelp me to escape\u201d<\/em> as if a shadowy figure or dark cloud is looming above him; maybe the presence being his former band? But whatever the case, it\u2019s a grief-stricken way to start a record before we move on to \u2018The Touch Of Reality\u2019 with its simmering, tip-toe bass and then that lumbering rhythm. It\u2019s music to perform s\u00e9ances to on a rainy afternoon; Wagner\u2019s mournful wail becoming another instrument of the morose as his colleagues march along like a funeral procession through the avenues of the mind.<\/p>\n

Although I loved the last few albums from Trouble, their cult offerings will always be considered to be those earlier albums culminating in the masterful self-titled composition from 1990. And with The Skull, Wagner and co. have tapped back into that dark, bleak never-ending corridor of depression and anxiety with the likes of the sleepy \u2018Sick Of It All\u2019 and piano-led \u2018The Door\u2019 taking us, and aching with us to the mid-section of the opus but in each case relying on a sombre elegance.<\/p>\n

And the black rain just keeps on pouring. From the twisted riffage of \u2018Send Judas Down\u2019 to the crushing psychedelia of \u2018A New Generation\u2019, there is such a simplistic air of the macabre; maybe it\u2019s in that sorrowful moan of Wagner, or the chemistry between the band members which results in such doleful metal majesty. Trouble was always one of those bands that could assemble every decade or so and churn out such glorious gloom however frustrating they were, and The Skull simply continues that genius showcased with the likes of \u2018Till The Sun Turns Black\u2019, which rolls into Black Sabbath<\/a> territory on black frothing waves sweeping us into the gaping shoreline of the gargantuan title track with its reflective lyrics in which Wagner ponders of mystery and dejected figures. \u201cLet us pray your soul to keep\u201d<\/em> he demands, and we\u2019re with him at that altar of tears as Olson\u2019s drums ripple in the breeze awaiting their moment to cascade.<\/p>\n

The album comes to a close with two monstrosities of doom; the first being \u2018Sometime Yesterday Mourning\u2019 with its slow chug of menace and Olson\u2019s jabbing sombre beat. \u201cSo alone now with no-one to care, nothing left except to say goodbye, when along came some friends of mine that didn\u2019t pass me by\u201d<\/em> Wagner hums as the speakers shake, bringing with his drool another sheet of grey rain. Keller\u2019s guitar continues the mourning process, cavorting with Goldsborough\u2019s equally downcast flirtation, and that\u2019s where The Skull can be found; dwelling not quite in misery but subtly tweaking that stone-faced Trouble sound and making it their own. \u201cSuch a long walk through Hell, think I need to rest just for a while, far as I can tell it\u2019s peaceful here\u201d<\/em> Wagner reflects; possibly happy with his state of mind and the sound he and his band has created.<\/p>\n

And as \u2018The Last Judgement\u2019 (an old Trouble chestnut that appeared on Metal Blade Records\u2019 1983 Metal Massacre IV<\/em> compilation) smothers us with another titanic riff it\u2019s fair to say that The Skull has succeeded in revisiting the Trouble years, but laced such macabre intention with their own dejected class.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE SKULLFor Those Which Are Asleep Tee Pee (2014)Rating: 9\/10 Having only recently succumbed to the autumnal pastures of Blackfinger and their self-titled debut, I was once again eager to chill my grey bones to the sound of another act featuring former Trouble frontman Eric Wagner. The Skull is about as close to old Trouble […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1493],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-the-skull"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22367"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23088,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22367\/revisions\/23088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}