I guarantee there is not going to be an album this year or for the foreseeable future that will have more of a profound effect on me then Legions Of Doom’s The Skull 3. Eric Wagner’s passing in 2021 took a huge toll on me, given when and how and what we all were experiencing in 2021, and just how much he had been a part of my musical life for so long. Trouble’s Manic Frustration is not only my number two album of all time but is also one of the most important records in shaping what my musical taste is today.
That love of Trouble extended to all of his projects, be it LID, Blackfinger, or what we will be focusing on for this review, The Skull. At the time of his passing, Eric was on tour with The Skull and was starting to put together the material for the next and third record from the band. This material was unearthed from his laptop by former Trouble and at the time of passing current bandmate Ron Holzner and along with The Skull guitarist Lothar Keller shaped what would have been The Skull’s third album but is now the debut from Legions Of Doom. There is more to this story, but rather than give you the history here, let’s talk about how killer the eight tracks on The Skull 3 are and how awesome it is to get one last contribution to our musical lives from the lost legend.
Legions Of Doom is a supergroup for sure, and that status is confirmed on the first track, Beyond The Shadow Of Doubt, with the legend himself Karl Agell (check out the Lie Heavy record) on vocals, along with the trademark sound and riff of The Skull. Karl’s vocals are amazing and he stays with his style rather than trying to fit what Wagner’s performance may have been, not that anyone could. This is pure Skull goodness, as the riffs and rhythm section pick up where the last record left off and elicits all sorts of emotions in me. The guitar work of Keller and Scott Little is pretty much perfect here.
Legions Of Doom is a supergroup for sure, and that status is confirmed on the first track, Beyond The Shadow Of Doubt, with the legend himself Karl Agell (check out the Lie Heavy record) on vocals, along with the trademark sound and riff of The Skull. Karl’s vocals are amazing and he stays with his style rather than trying to fit what Wagner’s performance may have been, not that anyone could. This is pure Skull goodness, as the riffs and rhythm section pick up where the last record left off and elicits all sorts of emotions in me. The guitar work of Keller and Scott Little is pretty much perfect here.
Same goes for the second track, All Good Things, also with Agell on vocals. This one is more up-tempo at times and has an amazing hook to it. The riffs, again, are killer, and Agell does his job like no one else could on a song like this. Amazing stuff. This is a song of the year candidate for sure. I may be a broken record mentioning the riffs, but I mean the riff on Lost Soul is something else. How about reaffirming supergroup status on this one with Saint Vitus vocalist Scott Reagers taking the leader here, delivering a different yet still killer interpretation of the vocals to Wagner’s lyrics. I love when the pace picks up on this one and the guitars just shred it up.
A Voice Of Reason is what would be a ripper from The Skull’s point of view, as this one chugs along quickly and highlights the guitar work once again. Between Darkness And Dawn just rules, with Agell back on vocals, and sweet classic doom bassline to lead the way. This one of my favourite traditional doom tracks this year. I love the soft part during the first solo as well as Agell’s extremely heartfelt vocal performance. Agell gets his chance to rip it up on Insectiside, which reminds me of something on his Lie Heavy record, and is the most up-tempo rocker on The Skull 3. The solo reminds me of Manic era Trouble. The most obviously heart-breaking song is Heaven, the acoustic driven track with Eric Wagner’s own vocals. Just listen to it, I am not going to describe it. The Skull once again looms large on Hallow By All Means, where Reagers adds his trademark voice to the doomiest and low end heaviest song on here. A great way to close it out.
The Skull 3 is the absolute perfect way to celebrate Eric Wagner’s legacy and ensure that it lives on, finishing these eight tracks in the most respectful, realized, and straight up awesome way. Musically, taken all of the other stuff out of it, this is the traditional doom record of the year. Adding all of the other stuff around it makes it even more special. Legions Of Doom did this right, thank you, boys. 10/10
A Killer’s Confession - Victim 1 (MNRK Heavy) [Liam Williams]
This album by modern metalcore outfit A Killer’s Confession is nothing short of a masterpiece! The album is made up of 10 absolute certified bangers which will have you moshing and dancing from start to finish. They have effortlessly created a very unique blend of metalcore and nu-metal. Each member contributes a spectacular performance with the epic guitar riffs, groovy basslines and powerful drums. But I have to say the vocals from frontman Waylon Reavis are absolutely phenomenal and really stand out as the best part of the album for me, from his melodic clean vocals which at times remind me of Maynard from Tool, to his gnarly screams.
The first track Tongue kicks off the album with a fast tempo and ferocious energy which is followed by 2nd track Sun, which is more of an “arena anthem” with a slower tempo but very powerful choruses. Greed has to be my favourite track, from the sick metalcore riff in the intro and the massive breakdown halfway through with a very catchy chorus making this one which will surely get stuck in your head as it did for me. The album closes with the track Wasteland which I can only describe as being the result of sticking Tool and Rammstein into a blender and making a tasty smoothy. It shouldn’t work, but it does, and it works well. Overall, there is not one bad track. This album is an absolute blast to listen to and it’s definitely one I will find myself coming back to regularly, and I hope the same goes for some of you too! 10/10
Zetra - Zetra (Nuclear Blast) [Mark Young]
Zetra landed on my radar late last year, providing quality support to Svalbard on their national tour. Armed with corpse paint and some quality songs, the duo announced themselves as someone who could offer something different. Effectively, they consist of a guitar and synth to deliver (in their words) ‘Gothic heavy shoegaze’ but what they fail to mention is that:
A, it is chock full of riffs.
B, it makes you want to dance.
And yet I’ve genuinely found it difficult to write this review, in that I’m struggling to articulate why I like it. They don’t sound like anything I normally listen to and yet growing up in the 1980s, especially the early to mid-80s, there was a ton of synth-driven music in the charts, where guitars took a back seat. Vocals were delivered in soft and subtle ways, sometimes barely above a whisper. That approach carried over into the indie/alternative scene, often offset against a loud chorus, forming a template that exists today. Zetra use the softly driven vocals as a way of disarming whilst they deploy weapons of sonic destruction to get their hooks into you.
Suffer Eternally phrasing like it’s the 90’s, with vocals that are delivered so softly by Adam, and an incredibly joyous riff that makes this low-key opener come in, gently preparing us for Sacrifice, a strong, stabbing riff that forms a more balanced partnership with the synths. The way they stretch out their sound in the latter half whilst those vulnerable vocal lines are delivered over a hard-edged guitar is a prime example of how to write brilliant songs. Starfall (ft. Serena Cherry of Svalbard) starts with a piano line that is straight from the classic synth-driven pop of the 80s, with overdriven guitar rolling over the top and it’s a perfect arrangement.
As they open up Serena’s extreme vocals come in and suddenly the balance is shifted, the light versus the dark. It’s refreshing that they don’t go heavy with the arrangement at this point as others would ramp up the sound as those vocals come in. They maintain that steady course and let Serena’s vocals do the heavy lifting. It’s simple but devastatingly effective at the same time. There is an excellent guitar line on The Mirror, it’s a brilliant riff on this one and is probably the most ‘gazed’ track here in the way they drop those chords during the middle section, and it moves like it wants you to get up and dance.
Shatter The Mountain (ft. Sólveig Matthildur of Kælan Mikla) makes great use of the additional vocals from Sólveig on another banger, as they explode out of the blocks with an immediate arrangement that steps back to an extent to provide that quiet/loud dynamic. The guest vocals are superb, providing an ethereal feel that is just fabulous. Their choice of guests (like Serena) bring another dimension to their songs and improves them.
Shatter The Mountain (ft. Sólveig Matthildur of Kælan Mikla) makes great use of the additional vocals from Sólveig on another banger, as they explode out of the blocks with an immediate arrangement that steps back to an extent to provide that quiet/loud dynamic. The guest vocals are superb, providing an ethereal feel that is just fabulous. Their choice of guests (like Serena) bring another dimension to their songs and improves them.
What you find is that with or without guests their songs have a quality to them, it Is the way they put them together in how they consider both the synths and guitar as equal parts, for example on Holy Malice it’s a slow burner, one that knows its pace and stays true to it. In other hands, it might have come across as dull, but they do enough with the arrangement so that trap is avoided. Inseparable occupies that same space, a sprawling piece that enjoys a synth-driven approach. It’s lush and has an almost hypnotic effect and leads us into Gaia which comes at us with their gaze shoes on.
Moonfall (ft. Gabriel Franco of Unto Others) then decides it wants to shake things up, as if they have been saving themselves for it. There is a harder edge to the guitars on this one, more of an aggressive tilt to it that is almost hidden. The arrangement is just class, and if I said that one of the reasons, I found it difficult to get my thoughts down was that the three songs – Holy Malice through to Gaia were quite similar in execution, albeit to a good standard.
Moonfall (ft. Gabriel Franco of Unto Others) then decides it wants to shake things up, as if they have been saving themselves for it. There is a harder edge to the guitars on this one, more of an aggressive tilt to it that is almost hidden. The arrangement is just class, and if I said that one of the reasons, I found it difficult to get my thoughts down was that the three songs – Holy Malice through to Gaia were quite similar in execution, albeit to a good standard.
Moonfall is just light-years ahead of those songs. Once you hear it, you will know EXACTLY what I mean. It is in the vocals, the way it is phrased, the emotion within it, and the keys from Jordan come together to drop one of the songs of the year. After that soon to be classic, Miracle brings the album to a close. Running with the same energy as Moonfall, there is a triumphant feeling running through it, one that must come from putting together an album as strong as this.
I don’t think I have had this amount of trouble with a review like I did with this one. I liked every song on it, and wanted to get that across but even though realised that there was a lag in some ways before we got to the final pair of belters. Taken as a whole, it is a fantastic experience and one that I would recommend sharing with you. 9
Bones UK - Soft (Sumerian Records) [James Jackson]
There are a ton of genre tags attached to this band; Punk, Industrial, Blues, Electro Pop and the self proclaimed “Future Rock”, from my perspective the band, vocalist Rosie Bones and guitarist Carmen Vanderburg have created an album that at times sounds very personal, the desperation in the vocals of Knee Deep combined with a guitar solo that seems to carry just as much raw emotion, is a stand out track for me; other tracks upon the album are more vibrant, some more so than others, the lyrically intimate Teeth has quite a pulse to it, opener Bikinis is sultry yet full of swagger, so this turn of mood comes as a surprise.
I don’t think I have had this amount of trouble with a review like I did with this one. I liked every song on it, and wanted to get that across but even though realised that there was a lag in some ways before we got to the final pair of belters. Taken as a whole, it is a fantastic experience and one that I would recommend sharing with you. 9
Bones UK - Soft (Sumerian Records) [James Jackson]
There are a ton of genre tags attached to this band; Punk, Industrial, Blues, Electro Pop and the self proclaimed “Future Rock”, from my perspective the band, vocalist Rosie Bones and guitarist Carmen Vanderburg have created an album that at times sounds very personal, the desperation in the vocals of Knee Deep combined with a guitar solo that seems to carry just as much raw emotion, is a stand out track for me; other tracks upon the album are more vibrant, some more so than others, the lyrically intimate Teeth has quite a pulse to it, opener Bikinis is sultry yet full of swagger, so this turn of mood comes as a surprise.
Whilst there are elements of those genre tags I previously mentioned within the album, Soft is in my opinion more of a Dark Pop album with touches of Punk attitude and Industrial nuances that add emphasis to the already pulsing beats. This is Bones UK’s second album, their self titled debut album was released in 2019, five years after the band initially formed and whilst I’ve not heard the album, after listening to Soft I intend to give the debut a listen. Much better than anything I could have anticipated. 8/10
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