Today we return to the majestic land of Finland to discover a band who has been around since 2004, Napolean Skullfukk. The album I’ve been presented with for review is a remastered work of two previously released albums; Swollen from 2010 and Torture Metal from 2008. Earlier this year, Napolean Skullfukk signed to Dynamic Arts Records and decided to combine both MCD’s into one crisp album. According to their bio, their lyrics are filled violence, maggots and torture and the band draw their influences from such bands as Cannibal Corpse, Autopsy and Obituary. Personally, I’ve ever heard them before but
I am a fan of their influences, so let’s check them out.
Swollen – The album starts out with some sawing guitar rhythms and deathly vocals. The vocals sound almost pig squeal like but with a very deep or muffled tone. I can’t understand a word, that’s for sure. Nor do I have any lyrics here to interpret with, so I am not sure if this is sung in Finnish or English. Going by the title I will opt for English. The music remains consistent in its melody and rhythms throughout the track with no leads or dramatic changes of any kind. How best can I put this? Imagine a monstrous Lord of the pigs amidst a death metal reign upon Earth and you might have it.
Inside Journey – This next track is a tad faster in pace than its predecessor. Musically, it’s quite standard with its rhythms and does grow in intensity on the odd occasion which incites you to get into it more. Vocally, the pig Lord is rather dominating the track for me and making me giggle. It’s not a bad thing, but it does make me laugh. The vocalist, Risto, is perhaps cupping the microphone to create that muffled effect on the vocal. It’s a fairly heavy track and has some similarities to early Cannibal Corpse vocally with a musical sense of perhaps something like Obituary’s ‘Killing Time’.
Living With The Dead – This next track is again quite heavy in its overall sound. The drums are standing out a bit more in this as I’ve noticed some double kick drumming come in soon after the start. The guitar parts aren’t very diverse in their efforts thus far, but they are a tad more in this song. Vocally, it doesn’t vary in pitch or tone at all as they do remain consistent in sound throughout this. Basically, to me if it wasn’t for a few slight changes in the overall structure, it could get quite boring pretty easily. It just seems to be one of those bands where it’s perfectly fine if you hear one song here and there but to play a full album in its entirety can be quite mind numbing. In that respect, I think the original form of a four track CD was a good idea.
One Glorious Human Massacre – The drums are straight into the double kicks in this next track. It helps to keep the albums vibe upbeat. I appreciate the music in this album, but the vocals monotony thus far is putting me off. In some respects this is ok, especially if you are in the mood to just phase out and go hard. They sound pretty tight and the recording is good. The guitar rhythms and vocals seem to be the main element being presented. At 02:36 is the sound of a gun being reloaded. Overall, it’s a decent death track to aggress and de-stress to.
Facefuck With A Hammer – Here we have the second half of this two CD combined album and the vocals have changed their tone. They have become more of a regular death metal style vocal and the pig Lord has seemingly been dethroned. It is a lot more tolerable and blends a lot better with the music in the respect of listener endurance. The music is heavy and remains fairly consistent rhythmically throughout. I think this one is being sung in English as I can actually hear the words “Facefuck with a hammer”. The rest however, is not so decipherable.
Code Napoleon Skullfukk – This next track starts out with an enticing metal rhythm and death roar. I seem to prefer this half of the album. The vocals are more on the manly side of things as opposed to the demonic pig sounding side of things. The drum beat in this one is also very catchy as basic as it is. The music is still fairly easy to phase out to but it’s simply more tolerable overall. I could fall asleep quite happily to this and I don’t mean to say that it’s boring or quiet, but I do like a consistent level of noise to relax to. To iterate a bit more on that, there are no random guitar tweaks, extra loud spurts of vocals or effects to alter the sound level. It’s simply consistent with a balanced recording.
Samantha, You’re Alive For A Reason – The introduction to this next song is nice and heavy. The vocals are quite deep in their deathliness. The music is at times beguiling in pace. It definitely has a rhythm you can lose yourself in and thoroughly enjoy the moshpit with. I can manage to decipher the chorus but the rest of the lyrics remain cryptic. Overall, it’s a good metal track.
Human Flavour – The drums hammer out the kicks in this beefy introduction to create somewhat of a musical storm. The pace drops from the first verse to what I would describe as a more standard pace for this band, as they seem to have a preferred speed or pace to their tracks. It is only during the interlude that the pace picks up again and they truly prove their passion. There is a guitar lead in here which is a welcome addition, though it is on the more atmospheric side of things. Overall, it’s a good, solid metal track.
In essence, Napoleon Skullfukk have re-released a good example of their works thus far. I would recommend having a listen to discover them for yourself, especially if you are into death metal. The CD I received is a promotional one so I cannot comment on what you would purchase from in-store. There are no lyrics nor graphics to browse either. Basically, I recommend anyone into the older death metal bands like Obituary, Cannibal Corpse and Morbid Angel etc check out this band as I’m pretty sure you’ll like what’s on offer. Check them out on the links below.
LINKS
Napoleon Skullfukk Website
Napoleon Skullfukk Myspace
Napoleon Skullfukk Last FM
Napoleon Skullfukk Facebook
Dynamic Arts Records
Review by Déa di Morté © 29 July 2011
All pictures courtesy of Napoleon Skullfukk and Dynamic Arts Records