The Supreme Ugliness

There is definitely nothing novel to this release. You may find it stale and secondary to some of your favourite bands' stuff if you are a death metal fan. I did not expected anything worth mentioning from this effort. I gave it a listen just because I liked the bandname and the cover. Nevertheless, these hot Finnish guys astonished me. They managed to mold a candy of what had seemed to be a piece of shit.

The songs themselves are, as you can tell from the review's name, dumb and repetitive, but the other things about the release described below make up for this flaw. The album begins with a slowpaced instrumental intro in order to prepare listener's neck for banging and warm it up a little. The next track has the pace closer to a frequency of a swinging head sticking from a thick neck so headbanging begins spontaneously just because it will be in contradiction with laws of nature if it doesn't. Most part of the songs is of the same pace, it gets slower or faster (and somewhere turns into blast-bits) here and there in order to make your head bang with another frequency and not let it get in resonance, take off and fly away. Some solos added to dilute old-school monotony are simple but fit to the atmosphere. Vocals are thick and inarticulate but I don't count it bad, because it erases any of its human features (I distinguished no word while was listening) and it occurs to you that the vocalist must be the one who rapes the skull in the picture. Another important component is the sound. It is raw, heavy and juicy and I believe it beats that of some old bands which deserved a cult status.

Sum up. We have here an old school death release with all necessary to be old school. But the release date deprives this band of a chance to leave a trace in history of metal. However, it's good to be a soundtrack to a mass slaughter that you may decide to commit one day or scare your girlfriend/granny/school teacher/pocket hamster. Give it a try, maybe you will like it.

Total old-school death metal here. Which is, in my opinion, usually automatically better than any of "modern metal" which seems to made just to proof the players skills. Nevetheless, I couldn´t enjoy this Skullfuck´s debyt-album a much.

The album begins with slow introduction which gives the listener a bit wrong idea of what is to follow. As the second track, "We are the Death Cult" begins, you´ll understand were the name of the album comes from. The sound is raw, filthy, ugly and...weak. Don´t get me wrong, I do love raw production, but this is really mediocre stuff here - in the 80´s it could have sounded raw.

The band´s extremity is not to be found from their tempo (mostly mid-tempo songs here - midtempo on death metal scale!), but rather from they way they put their stuff on. Like a old train, not the fasted nor the steadiest around but it goes on in its own sure way. These guys probably have known what this record is going to sound before they have composed any of the tracks.

Skullfuck throws in some good riffs every here and there but mostly they are quite medicre stuff. Simple (nothing wrong with it!) and predictable. Actually I could like them live after having a few beers, but the record just doen´t impress me. What really makes me pissed off is their vocalist, who is just weak. The growling has no power in it, rather sounds like the last words of an old wino. "Oorgh."

None of the songs here goes beyond the five minute limit, but nevertheless I get bored with this. There are a few faster tracks in the middle of the album but everything else sounds too much the same. And then again I have problem with the vocalist - I could imagine myself listening to this more ofter if at least the vocals would kick. But as mentioned above, they´re rather the weakest link.

End-note? Medicre yet supreme ugly produced old-school death metal. Nothing new, not much good to say - for fanatics only.