That title is misleading as it's really just half of an album that's new. Live Skull were a tremendously underrated act in the late Eighties, and one which lots of people (unfortunately) only know these days as the band that Thalia Zedek was once in. Still, Live Skull worked up a real racket and nearly everything I heard from them then was invigorating. So I'm excited to report that the band's back with a new record called Dangerous Visions. However, the release, out on Friday via Bronson Recordings, is half new songs and half Peel Sessions from the old days. The idea of mixing things up like this is a strange one, and I simply see little logic in this because I think fans like myself would be better served having the sessions released seprately from new stuff, and the new stuff could make up an EP if the band wasn't ready to release a full album. As it is, Dangerous Visions presents a current band being upstaged by itself, albeit a past version of itself.
Regardless of whatever confusion this release causes, it's a decent one, with the new half being fairly strong stuff. The current line-up of Mark C., Rich Hutchins, Kent Heine, and Dave Hollinghurst creates a decent noise on this clutch of new compositions. "In a Perfect World" has a nice, melodic hook that's as catchy as the rest of the cut is bracing, while "Twin Towers" lumbers with a real sense of morbid power. Those are the highlights here, while the second half offers up Peel Sessions versions of "Someone Else's Sweat" and "Amputease". It is "Alive Again" that sounds like the Live Skull I loved in the Eighties.
My criticisms of the format here are unnecessary because the fans of this band are likely to be happy to have Live Skull back. And the prospect of a few new ones and a bunch of rarities should be enough to send folks to Bandcamp to buy this. Dangerous Visions works best for me as either an indication of future, new Live Skull recordings, or a taster of a possible rarities set.
Dangerous Visions is out on Friday via Bronson Recordings.
More details on Live Skull via the official Facebook page.
[Photo: Live Skull Facebook page]