DIGGING STUFF UP: Skaven - 'Skaven' / 'Flowers Of Flesh And Blood'
An EP and two splits are the only recorded legacy of Skaven, but there's more festering bile on them than most bands muster up in decades.
SKAVEN
’Skaven’ / ’Flowers Of Flesh And Blood’
Misanthropic Records
Originally released as ‘Skaven’ in 1996 (the first two tracks), later given a third track and known as ‘Flowers Of Flesh And Blood’ upon the release of the ‘Discography’ compilation in 2014
Right, as you might have noticed by the two titles and the note in italics up here, this sounds like a complicated release, but it’s really not, especially as Skaven have such a short discography that everything can be explained really quickly. It goes like this - band gets together with fellow ne’er-do-wells Dystopia and records (with Neurosis’ Noah Landis, at Polymorph Studios, mind you) half of a 12” split, five songs collectively - and suggestively - titled ‘Blessed Are The Worms…For They Shall Inherit This Barren Dirt!’; consumption of many drinks ensues, a reportedly significant quantity of hell is raised during shows and in other assorted types of shenanigans, band records three more songs with Noah, two of them (‘Severed’ and ‘Flowers Of Flesh And Blood’) end up on what turned out to be their only standalone release, a short MLP/EP, at the time self-titled; band splits up and that third song, ‘The Swarm’, appears over a decade later on a split with Stormcrow. So, a grand total of eight songs and less than 40 minutes, all of them compiled on ‘Discography’ (remastered by the great Brad Boatright), put out by Skuld Releases in 2014, where the self-titled was referred to as ‘Flowers Of Flesh And Blood’ .
So why the hell are we discussing a 25 year old short blip on the underground radar who wrote less than an hour of music during its existence? Well, first of all because those eight songs are fucking awesome, and what other reason do you really need, right? It’s that slimy, fuck-you-and-then-some kind of confrontational, bruising crust, comparable to the sort-of-genre that would become widely known as stenchcore (based on Deviated Instinct’s 1987 demo), metallic and armed with razor-sharp riffs, as much Hellhammer or Bathory as it is Discharge, Rudimentary Peni or Amebix. However, Skaven aren’t as sloppy as that description might make it sound, and the simplicity of their songs is only apparent. Incredible dynamics, effortlessly going from a pachydermic, doom-laden stomp to blistering d-beat charges, and above all featuring one guitar and two basses (you read that right) in the line-up, so turn up those low frequencies and prepare for some royal rumbling. Meanwhile, vocalist Zebediah Gammack, apart from having a fantastic name, shouts with enough bitterness and rasp to become a highlight in his own right, heightening the face-peeling effect of the music.
Skaven’s songwriting excellency and instrumental innovation results in the unusual shelf life these songs have proven to have - Carbonized Records have actually reissued ‘Flowers Of Flesh And Blood’ - all three songs of the session, so including ‘The Swarm’ - in May, which was in fact the reminder that prompted me to dig all that old material from the vaults and talk about it here. It’s a luxurious limited-edition, single-sided 12″ with an etched B-side housed in a gatefold jacket featuring previously unreleased artwork by the band, so that should tell you something about how relevant Skaven still are.
Unfortunately, no great follow-up ensued after the band called it quits in 1997, which seems a waste. A couple of them were in Medication Time, who put out one record (‘One Free Miracle Ticket’) in 2000 before disappearing, while guitarist Geoff Evans was a part of super heavy funeral doom-mongers Asunder during their eight year existence (also a band we miss, while we’re at it). But hey, if some rando across the ocean like me is still raving about those 40 minutes of music you did as a band over a quarter of a century later, you know you did something really right.
Oh! Final bit of trivia, if you’re not enough of a nerd to know this: “Skaven” comes from the name of a race of ratmen in the Warhammer universe, “a cruel, treacherous, and highly numerous species that have since spread their loathsome corruption to the farthest corners of the Known World.” So there.
Tracklist:
(Carbonized Records 2022 reissue)
01. Severed – 7:02
02. Flowers Of Flesh And Blood – 6:40
03. The Swarm – 4:24