Fearlessly toying with the very fabric of audio creation, alt horrorcore artist Ten-Headed Skeleton kicks off a devotedly specific album, with an indefinable style that’s both unorthodox yet strangely captivating.
Featuring rhythmic rap vocals and retro synths that pierce through, Show Me The Haunted House quickly becomes an unforgettable introduction to the album The Witch That Was Guilty, But Silently Watched your Daughters Burn.
Concept initially takes something of a backseat in favour of abstract presentation and vague references. However, it’s something that lets you dig a little deeper with each new track, and indeed each revisit to any particular example.
Ten-Headed Skeleton ultimately keeps things fairly minimalist throughout this project. The leading voice has character, unmistakable in its nostalgic spoken style and mild theatrics. Alongside this the vintage keys play out a series of chaotic, often circus-like melodies, and somewhat gritty lyrics inject a harshness of reality and contemplation that lures you in further.
Knife is a fine example of this quality in action; as is the inescapably catchy All You Need Is A Push Off A Cliff.
Things continue in this way, but we get subtle shifts to recapture any wandering minds – the heavy pace of Until The Flesh Came Off, the delicacy and hopeful joy of a boldly unjoyful Slaughter Them All. Slowly but surely concept tightens its grip, first intriguing and later unsettling to the point of provoking thoughts unrivaled in both darkness and uncertainty.
The album’s title-track proves an alluring and haunting closer, before another hit of the unexpected wraps things up – a brief and hard-hitting cover of The Isley Brothers’ timeless anthem Shout.
Everything about Ten-Headed Skeleton seems to effectively feed into the mysterious appeal of his name, and this album whole-heartedly encapsulates that approach to creativity. Underneath this dauntless exterior, however, are an equally daring set of deeply reflective ideas, both poetic and personally revealing, and that’s where the true depth of his artistry resides.
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