Church Of The Cosmic Skull Discography Review

Church of the Cosmic Skull Discography

I’ve been tripping all the way back to the 70’s this week. No, I didn’t drop acid and find a time machine, but I might as well have. I was a bit of a latecomer in joining Rev. Bill Fisher’s Church of the Cosmic Skull, but this week I have been attending prayer service about three times a day, blasting through the lysergic acid diethylamide drenched discography time and again.

I was first baptized in the rainbow waters of the Cosmic Skull in 2018 upon the release and subsequent buzz surrounding Science Fiction, the (inter)stellar sophomore release from the seven-piece band with that oh-so-70’s sound. Inspired by the likes of Queen, Thin Lizzy, Fleetwood Mac, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Rainbow, Dio, Elf, Judas Priest, Bowie, Ozzy’s solo work, early Genesis, Slade, ABBA, Hendrix, Heart, Mahavishnu Orchestra, ELO, The Beach Boys, etc., the group has issued four independent releases, shunning all major labels to maintain complete creative control of the Church’s ministries.

The 2016 release Is Satan Real? launched the group’s career. However, a copy of that album didn’t grace my eardrums until AFTER the 2018 release. But the first time I dropped the needle on Is Satan Real?, sadly a third pressing and not a limited first, and heard the opening track “Mountain Heart” with that soaring Magic Guitar, the unique timbre of the Hammond Organ accompanied by the beautiful harmonies of Michael Wetherburn (organ, piano, vocals), Sam Lloyd (bass, vocals) Jo Joyce (vocals), Amy Nicholson (cello, vocals), and Caroline Cawley (vocals), alongside Fisher’s trademark Rainbow colored Flying V, dubbed The Magic Guitar, and the the textured drumming of Brother Laurence Stone, the hook was set. That is most assuredly a track that makes my playlist, right at the top. Another tune that really grabbed me on the debut is the sparse acoustic ballad “Answers in your Soul.” Bill Fisher’s vocal along with his minimalist guitar work on this song, reached right into MY soul and spoke volumes to me.

Then there’s the album’s centerpiece, the title cut, which features an outstanding, pulsing bass line by Brother Samuel and some fancy guitar work from Brother Bill, that caught my ear.

Even though it was 2018 by this point and I already had a familiarity with the band, it wasn’t until hearing that particular track that I visited the Church’s website, cosmicskull.org, and began my path to enlightenment. The Church and Fisher (guitars, lead vocals) became my bodhisattvas. I wasn’t aware of the mystical power of seven until coming before the altar that is the Cosmic Skull.

The rainbow has seven colors, the Church seven members, the Chestahedron (conceived by Frank Chester) seven sides, and there are seven “objects” the Church of the Cosmic Skull preaches:

1.   Recognize the Hallucinatory nature of reality

2.   Investigate all aspects of the reality – hallucination

3.   Receive all phenomenon and equanimity

4.   Celebrate and uphold the freedom of art, science, and thought

5.   Meet mistakes with forgiveness and determination

6.   Do what you want, with love in your heart

7.   Maintain focus on the unity of all living beings

Indeed, a philosophy to live by. Who says hippies are a thing of the past? Peace, love, harmony, quick, get these guys in H.G. Well’s most famous fictional creation and port them back to Woodstock.

Appropriately, considering how big a fan of Wells, Jules Verne, and H.P. Lovecraft I am, it was the title Science Fiction that lured me in. That album, start to finish, is a masterpiece of melodic doom, prog rock. There is not a single lax moment on this record, which had me on the edge of my pew for its entire 40:43 sermon. I cannot identify a standout track, because all ten tunes are of stereophonic superior quality. Songs to meditate upon, draw inspiration from, and maybe alter your state of consciousness to. To call listening to Science Fiction a religious experience for me is not much of an exaggeration.

The track and video that truly broke the band was this record’s “Cold Sweat.” Check out the trippy, hooky, video for the song below.

Science Fiction topped many 2018 end-of-the-year best of lists, including mine, as at the time I was contributing to Doom Charts.

The group followed up with another stunner the next year, Everybody’s Going to Die. The lyrics to the title track were a gut punch the first time I heard them, but I have come to comprehend them in a more transcendental manner. Consider the second verse, “some of us will live like there is no tomorrow / some of us will fight until the end / some of us will struggle through the pain and sorrow / some of us will choose to make it stop…”

The third verse is just as devastating, or beautiful, depending upon your mindset, “some of us will be taken long before we should be / some of us will go before we’re born / some of us will do the things we want to do here / some of us will not…”

The first time I spun my Exploding Crystal Edition of the vinyl and heard that track my psyche was both shattered and illuminated. I honestly had been a live-for-the-day kind a guy, just rolling with everything as it came. But that song gave me pause, I had never really taken the time to reflect upon my own demise, or that of my wife, or daughter, or that of relatives who had passed and the legacies we all leave behind. I knew it was inevitable everyone must meet that destiny one day but had never let that influence my decisions or reach me on a deeper level.

Becoming a disciple of the Church of the Cosmic Skull actually made me a better, more thoughtful person. How many bands can you say that about?

There are a number of other outstanding songs on Everybody’s Going to Die, lifting this to my number two slot of albums released by the Church to date, key among those being the opening, bouncy, piano-driven track “Fantasy,” the questioning “Do You Believe in Magic?,” the gospelesque title cut, the frantic, time signature changing “Do What You Want (With Love in Your Heart)” and… then there’s the final message from this record, “we’re living in a bubble / won’t you come join the family,” from “Living in a Bubble.” It is damn near a second perfect record.

In 2022 the Church delivered a new sermon and made a stunning proclamation. There is No Time, the fourth LP release, was announced as the centerpiece of a seven-album cycle for the group. Of the four albums issued by the band thus far, it is the one I have the least familiarity with, though I do own a copy or two.

The track “Now’s the Time” preaches a vital message, “There is no time / no time / like tonight… Seasons come and the seasons they go again / but the moment now is right…”

Another of my favorites from There is No Time is “Last Words of a Dying God,” which delivers this essence, important especially now, “we are humanity” and “we are reality.”

The band has been on a brief respite as Fisher explored a bit heavier take on doom with three solo records, but now features a twin guitar attack, originally made famous by Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing of Judas Priest, with the subtraction of Brother Joseph and the addition of a second guitarist, Brother Martyn. The band is at work on its fifth installment of the planned septology at present.

The Church of the Cosmic Skull fills a singular rainbow-colored hole in doom metal, once upon a time occupied by Ritchie Blackmore’s early Rainbow albums with Ronnie James Dio at the helm, and Tony Carey on the keys. Taste the rainbow, motherfuckers.

~Mike