Church of the Cosmic Skull are a British rock band from
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...
.
Career
The group was formed by guitarist, singer and songwriter Bill Fisher in 2016.
The group members had previously played in various bands in and around Nottingham, and a number of early songs had been written years before while in other bands.
[ Fisher was interested in ]progressive pop
Progressive pop is pop music that attempts to break with the genre's standard formula, or an offshoot of the progressive rock genre that was commonly heard on AM radio in the 1970s and 1980s. It was originally termed for the early progressive ...
as much as progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
, and wanted the band to be primarily about good songwriting rather than technical expertise. His influences include Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
, The Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
, Thin Lizzy
Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or some ...
, Kate Bush
Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights (song), Wuthering Heights", ...
, David Bowie
David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...
and Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and activist. He rose to fame as the original lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched ...
.[ The instrumentation makes prominent use of the ]Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs generated s ...
, piano and strings, and multiple vocal harmonies.
The band released "Evil in your Eye" from their first album ''Is Satan Real?'' on 21 August 2017 to celebrate the solar eclipse on the same day, celebrating the "hallucinatory nature of reality". They have also covered Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...
's "The Trial
''The Trial'' (german: Der Process, link=no, previously , and ) is a novel written by Franz Kafka in 1914 and 1915 and published posthumously on 26 April 1925. One of his best known works, it tells the story of Josef K., a man arrested and pr ...
" on Magnetic Eye Records' tribute album ''The Wall Redux''.
The band released their first album with Bilocation Records,[ the second with Kozmik Artifactz, and the third on their own label, Septaphonic Records. While major record labels have shown interest, the band prefers to release material and promote themselves independently. They are known for their white on-stage attire and their rainbow-themed album artwork. Fisher has described the group as a "twofold entity: a new religious movement ... and a 7-piece supergroup" and believes that music can make people appreciate each other and avoid political propaganda.][
Their 2019 album ''Everybody's Going To Die'' covered themes such as the ]cult of personality
A cult of personality, or a cult of the leader, Mudde, Cas and Kaltwasser, Cristóbal Rovira (2017) ''Populism: A Very Short Introduction''. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 63. is the result of an effort which is made to create an id ...
, wanting fame, echo chambers on social media, and death. It received positive reviews, with ''Mojo
Mojo may refer to:
*Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in voodoo
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* MOJO HD, an American television network
* ''Mojo'' (play), by Jez Butterworth, made into a 1997 film
* '' ...
'' saying "Fans of Queen and Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age (commonly abbreviated QOTSA) is an American rock band formed in 1996 in Palm Desert, California. The band was founded by vocalist and guitarist Josh Homme, who has been the only constant member throughout multiple line- ...
will nod sagely", and Jonathan Ross
Jonathan Stephen Ross (born 17 November 1960) is an English broadcaster, film critic, comedian, actor, writer, and producer. He presented the BBC One chat show ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'' during the 2000s, hosted his own radio show on ...
adding that he was "Enjoying this new band’s take on prog".
In 2022, the band announced that they would be playing in a Nottingham music festival, Beat The Streets.
Personnel
* Bill Fisher - guitar, vocals
* Joanne Joyce - vocals
* Caroline Cawley - vocals
* Michael Wetherburn - keyboards, vocals
* Martyn Fisher - guitar
* Sam Lloyd - bass
* Laurence Stone - drums[
Former members:
* Amy Nicholson - cello, vocals][
* Joe Stone - electric viola
]
Discography
* ''Is Satan Real?'' (2016)[
* ''Science Fiction'' (2018)
* ''Everybody's Going To Die'' (2019)][
]
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Musical groups from Nottingham
English progressive rock groups