Skullflower

Formed in 1987, Skullflower emerged as a British noise rock group that anchored the Broken Flag collective, an association of U.K. experimental noise rock acts such as Ramleh, Total, and Sunroof! whose participants regularly exchanged concepts and personnel. Guitarist Matthew Bower directed the ensemble, which cultivated the most devoted cult audience among its peers through a style built on sludgy, stomping doom-garage riffs layered with hallucinatory feedback, fuzzed-out guitar noise, dark ambience, and monolithic drones drawn from power electronics alongside throttling rhythms, all delivered at extreme volume. Themes of death, violence, misanthropy, and sexual deviancy dominate the lyrics. An inherently improvisational unit, the band’s textured noise freakouts grew progressively open-ended across its history, distancing themselves further from conventional rock frameworks. Early recordings like the 1989 release Form Destroyer and the 1995 album Transformer displayed a clear post-punk engagement with rock structures, whereas subsequent works such as 2008’s Taste the Blood of the Deceiver and 2010’s Strange Keys to Untune Gods’ Firmament demonstrated a shift toward sonic deconstruction and spontaneous improvisation over structured methods.

Skullflower originated in London during 1987 from the remnants of Matthew Bower’s earlier project Total, which later became his solo endeavor. Core members at the outset comprised Bower, drummer Stuart Dennison—the sole other consistent presence besides Bower—and bassist/guitarist Stefan Jaworzyn. Lineups remained changeable, particularly in the beginning, with additional participants including guitarist Gary Mundy, also frontman of Ramleh, bassist Alex Binnie, bassist/drummer Stephen Thrower, known for his work with Coil, and auxiliary bassist/guitarist/drummer Anthony DiFranco, who performed under the name JFK. The group first issued material on the Broken Flag label, a shared venture that also supported Ramleh and Total, beginning with the 1988 EP Birthdeath and continuing with the full-length Form Destroyer in 1989. Both appeared in severely restricted pressings, a pattern that persisted through much of the catalog. Selections from these were compiled on the 1990 album Ruins, Skullflower’s initial outing on Jaworzyn’s Shock imprint, with several tracks presented in remixed versions.

Disagreements over the mixing of the subsequent 1990 release Xaman concluded Jaworzyn’s tenure with the group. Bower then brought Anthony DiFranco aboard for permanent bass responsibilities, and this trio produced 1992’s IIIrd Gatekeeper for Godflesh guitarist Justin Broadrick’s HeadDirt label while also supporting Godflesh on tour that autumn. Two further albums arrived in 1993: Last Shot at Heaven via Noiseville and Obsidian Shaking Codex on RRR. DiFranco’s participation had already begun to wane by then and eventually ceased when he departed to record as Ax; Russell Smith, previously of Terminal Cheesecake, assumed the role of official second guitarist.

Thereafter the band emphasized free-form noise improvisation more than before. Issued by VHF in 1994, Carved Into Roses incorporated guest vocals from Philip Best, also associated with Ramleh and Whitehouse, along with Casio contributions from Simon Wickham-Smith. The year 1995 proved especially active: Argon, released on Freek, incorporated horn players John Godbert and Tim Hodgkinson into the sound, while Infinityland, another HeadDirt effort, again featured Best and Wickham-Smith, and the live set Adieu, All You Judges, returned to Broken Flag to document a joint appearance with Ramleh. Transformer, issued in 1996 on the garage-oriented independent label Sympathy for the Record Industry, signaled a quieter, more ambient trajectory that included strings. Later the same year the comparable This Is Skullflower appeared on VHF with Godbert on piano and third guitarist Richard Youngs. Following that album Matthew Bower chose to focus on his other projects, the even more improvisational Sunroof! and Total, and placed the Skullflower name on hold.

Bower and Dennison revived the group in 2003, recording Exquisite Fucking Boredom for the tUMULt label together with guitarist Mark Burns and bassist Steve Martin; Neil Campbell of Vibracathedral Orchestra and formerly of Total, along with Colin Potter of Nurse with Wound, served as co-producers. Orange Canyon Mind and Tribulation emerged on Crucial Blast in 2005 and 2006, respectively, each recorded primarily by Bower alone. From that point Skullflower grew more active and drone-oriented than at any prior stage, issuing material across many labels from limited self-released CD-Rs to expansive box sets. During 2008 alone the band placed releases on Utech with Desire for a Holy War, Not Not Fun with the Taste the Blood of the Deceiver LP and a split 7" alongside Axolotl, and Turgid Animal with Pure Imperial Reform plus the three-CD box Circulos Vitiosus Deus. Noiseville issued Vile Veil in 2009 while Malediction came out on Second Layer Records; Posh Isolation released a Skullflower/Limepit split LP.

Neurot Recordings opened 2010 with the double-CD Strange Keys to Untune Gods’ Firmament. The group made its first appearance on the power electronics label Cold Spring with 2011’s Fucked on a Pile of Corpses, which drew contributions from Samantha Davies, George Proctor, and Lee Stokoe. Split albums with Mastery and Utarm surfaced in 2013, while Shock/Dirter Promotions issued Kino I-IV, a box set containing early material. Bower and Davies recorded the double-CD Draconis, released by Cold Spring in 2014. Beginning in 2015 Skullflower issued numerous digital recordings via its Bandcamp page. Apart from the limited CD-R Military Temples (For Coil) and a collaborative cassette with Der Blutharsch, the next substantial physical release after Draconis arrived in 2017 as The Spirals of Great Harm, another double CD on Cold Spring. Shortly afterward the Egyptian label Nashazphone issued the LP The Black Iron That Fell from the Sky, To Dwell Within (Bear It or Be It).