I feel very lucky that my favorite music, hard rock of the 70’s and 80’s classic metal are going through a second phase of growth. Bands from all over the world are inspired by and play Rock and Classic Metal, moving away from music trends and marketing. The proper audience is there, older and newer, so with the correct promotion a band can reach really high. A typical example is that of Ghost, who have become enormous in just around 10 years, at a time which does not favor jumps of this scale.
Church of the Cosmic Skull, with that wonderful name, are British and are the vision of Bill Fisher (Brother Bill: voice, guitar) who writes music and lyrics, accompanied by the white dressed Church of the band. With a very careful musical proposal, almost silently, they have released “Science Fiction”, their second album. From the cover you understand that you will hear something light years away from the Sabbath-Zeppelin revival of the 70’s. The bases here are bands such as Meat Loaf, Supertramp, Boston, Beatles, Kansas and others. Keyboard melodies, beautiful guitar solos, as well as Bill Fisher’s vocals reminiscent of Ian Anderson’s and even more of Phil Lynott’s, are starring. The songs are not what you would call heavy, but they combine prog and pop and they have something you do not find easily nowadays. They are fun, amusing. The bass is also omnipresent (constantly warm) and the backing vocals are quite marking the songs.
“Cold Sweat” is the hit that combines them all. Prog, pop, blues with an uplifting repetitive chorus. “Timehole” is fast and complex, while “The cards you’re playing” with a simple bluesy riff is the only one in which the same lyrics are repeated, with the cello (Sister Mary) adding points to the song.
There is no filler in “Science Fiction” and the rest of the songs are the joy of the specific 70’s sound. The closing is also excellent with Lucifer present on “The devil again”.
Luminous and occult (without shrouds and witches), with their own clear sound (as in their debut “Is Satan Real?”); Church of the Cosmic Skull are here to stay.
