I made a post a while back extolling the magnificence of the skullet, the most metal hairstyle in all of existence. Unfortunately, I missed a few opportunities to post photos of musicians (or audience members) I had seen myself, so I vowed not to make that mistake again.
That’s why I have been at work collecting photos of the best metal musician skullets I have seen for your viewing pleasure. I may not be much of a photographer, but even the lousiest comb-over skullet can shine through crappy photography with its undeniable brilliance. Here are the top 7 skullets I’ve had the privilege of seeing live:
7. Terry Butler of Obituary
Maybe not a full skullet as of yet, but the legendary death metal bassist’s part seems to get wider every time I see him. Fitting for such a legacy, I eagerly look forward to seeing how it progresses in the years to come!
6. Ian Chains of Cauldron
I want to start off by apologizing for the graininess of this photo. I took it from across a packed venue (everyone wanted to see Ian’s skullet) and had to max out the zoom feature on my phone’s camera, but I assure you those white pixels on the top of his head are not a hat, skullcap, or any other sort of headwear. That’s nothing but the stage lights reflecting off of Ian’s resplendent dome!
5. Raymond MacDonald of 200 Stab Wounds
At the concert where I took these pictures, someone pointed out to me how the band member photographed above hadn’t been in the band the last time 200 Stab Wounds had played in Austin. I realized he must have been correct, because I was at that concert as well, and would have remembered seeing such an amazing skullet before.
Raymond’s skullet may not be the longest on this list, but what it lacks in length it makes up for in girth. Look at how chonky that thing is! It looks like he’s wearing a travel neck pillow on his head. It commands respect!
4. This Hell’s Heroes Festival attendee
Normally tying one’s hair back would mark you down in my skullet ranking, since it allows you to cover the bald spot with the hair from the front of your hairline. But this doesn’t apply to this individual…because he doesn’t have any hair on the front of his hairline to cover it anyway.
Also, that Type O Negative jacket is to die for.
3. Nisse Karlén of Sacramentum
I’m not sure which is more formidable: Karlén’s skullet or his performance as a frontman.
2. Paul Riedl and Morris Kolontyrsky of Blood Incantation
Even though both band members are in both shots, I wasn’t able to get one shot that did both their skullets justice thanks to that stupid mic stand.
Although Kolontyrsky (on the right in both photos) is doing a bang-up job with the yin-yang of hair and baldness appearing on his scalp, Riedl (on the left) takes the cake with his clear-cut line from long, full locks of hair to nothing. It’s like the opposite of the Skrillex haircut. Truly remarkable. However, the next entry still has him beat…
1. This other Hell’s Heroes attendee
This one takes the cake. This guy actually went to a barber and asked for a skullet fade cut. He had the opportunity to bail. At any time during the haircut, he could have chickened out and said “You know what? Just shave the whole thing.” But no! He looked at himself in the mirror once the barber had finished and said “Great, thanks!”
Is that not metal as FUCK?!
And don’t try to tell me he went to the barber hoping for something else, but settled for this as damage control when the barber messed up. What normal person would call this haircut damage control? This was the goal going in.
I will concede that since he didn’t have any stubble on the top of his head, he probably wouldn’t have chosen this cut if he hadn’t been going bald already. But come on! It would have been so easy for him to throw in the towel at that point and shave what was left, but he didn’t! He owned that shit and got a badass haircut to accentuate its gloriousness.
Honorable Mention: Uada
I have no idea if Jake Superchi is going bald because of the hoods the band wears, but he was at least a little balder after this concert.
Thanks to Uada’s use of fog machines and stage lights it was hard for me to get a good photo, but during their set a lock of Jake’s hair got caught in the head of his guitar. Since he was in the middle of playing, he didn’t have many other options other than to yank the hair out. Which is exactly what he did. He played the rest of his set with the hair hanging from the head of his guitar.
Not exactly the most graphic show of self-harm that’s happened at a black metal concert, but still pretty brutal nonetheless.