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Released on January 22, 2016 via Tee Pee Records
The Skull – Purveyors of Sabbathian doom laden style heaviness with former members of doom pioneers Trouble (vocalist Eric Wagner and bassist Ron Holzner) follow up 2014’s slow burning masterful début For Those Which Are Asleep – a platter which crept into my top 10 albums of that year – with a 5 track self titled EP again on the consistently worth exploring Tee Pee Records. Like the above aforementioned duo’s previous band I never tire of their melodic infectious doom manifestations. With a slight adjustment to line up proceedings, now on board is guitarist Rob Wrong (Witch Mountain) in for the departed Matt Gainsborough. So will it have any impact on their sound?
Thankfully, no, the doom remains the same. The only brand new song is the lead track ‘The Longing’ and my, what a glorious teaser for what is to come on the horizon or should that be… dark-corridors. It not only continues where For Those Which Are Asleep left off, with a ginormous big riff but oh! The melody. There has always been for me anyway, a hook you in speciality about Eric’s vocals, but what elevates this above anything else they have so far produced and so fills me with glowing future expectation, is the nifty classic rock guitar solo assault. It’s a mighty introduction to a new guitar partnership, the duo express an extroverted outpouring of classic face grimacing, string bending, Judas Priest influenced soloing. The song is as catchy as head lice in a primary school doom will ever get (although Ghost and Avatarium are pushing those boundaries further into new territory).
The second track ‘A New Generation’ is a reminder of the quality from their début. While they look back to the future for the third track as they re-record the Trouble track ‘The Skull’ from their 1985 record. It is a faithful interpretation, the only overt difference is a modern production gloss and dense heaviness, but I prefer the darker, less polished atmospheric production of the original. The EP is completed by two live tracks ‘Assassin’ (pulled from Trouble’s 1984 Psalm 9 album) and ‘Till The Sun Turns Black’ (For Those Which Are Asleep).
The main interest of this self-titled EP is the new track while the rest is a reminder that doom has always been in safe hands while Eric and Ron are around. They provide a reassuringly old style product of doom, but deliver it with glorious perfection. The Skull has already announced a substantial tour of Europe and hopefully British dates will be announced soon.
