The Skull “The Endless Road Turns Dark” 2018. Tee Pee Records, limited edition grey with black splatter vinyl. One of the unexpected side benefits of teaching yoga has been meeting fellow music-minded folks who occasionally gift me with records. This record is one of those gifts: The Skull is a doom metal band from Chicago with a psychedelic edge. They formed in 2012, founded by former Trouble members Eric Wagner, Ron Holzner and Jeff Olson, and were joined by Sacred Dawn’s Lothar Keller and Michael Carpenter. According to their bio on Discogs, “The band’s original purpose was to perform Trouble’s early material (they took their moniker from the name of Trouble’s second LP) but eventually decided to moved forward with original material.” They released two LP’s, their first For Those Which Are Asleep (2014) and The Endless Road Turns Dark. Singer Eric Wagner died in 2021 from Covid at the age of 62. My friend/student gave me this LP because of a chat we had about a local darkly post punk band (Convert) that integrates elements of metal, doom and otherwise.

I have very little knowledge about the doom metal genre so I’m pretty much listening to and commenting on this LP in a vacuum. That said, I think I like it! Lots and lots of Black Sabbath sounds: pretty much the riff from “Iron Man” tweaked into different melodies. Not tempos – it’s all sludge. I’d say elements of grunge as well but I have a feeling the doom metal folks might come after me with that comparison (though I did just do a Wiki search on Eric Wagner and he did collaborate with Dave Grohl in 2004 on the song “My Tortured Soul“). I hear lots of 80’s era Soundgarden, especially on tracks like “The Longing.”  My top tracks, besides “The Longing” are the title track “The Endless Road Turns Dark” and “Breathing Underwater” – both are very Sabbath-esque.