Dead Skeletons at the Mercury Lounge

Dead Skeletons formed in Iceland in 2008 as an accompaniment to an installation for a show at the Reykjavik art museum by artist Jón Sæmundur Audarson. Looking for a spiritual battle hymn for the show, Sæmundur recorded a song, “Dead Mantra,” with Henrik Björnsson and Ryan Carlson Van Kriedt. The song became an underground hit, and led to the trio of musicians becoming the core of Dead Skeletons, resulting in the 2011 Dead Magick album.

Dead Skeletons continues to be an innovative visual art project set to accompanying music. As the performance was about to begin at the Mercury Lounge tonight, Sæmundur Audarson set a four-foot blank canvas center stage. As the six-piece band eased into a dark gothic-sounding groove, he lit six incense punks to create a spiritual mood. (Security promptly disposed of them in accordance with local fire codes, much to the chagrin of Sæmundur Audarson, who initially threatened to end the show if the punks were not returned to him.) As the trippy music punched in, Sæmundur Audarson crouched before the white canvas and with a brush and black paint quickly created what seemed to be a skull image, then sprayed it with water to make the paint drip and run. For the next 50 minutes, he sang inaudible mantras bathed in echo and reverb, while the band played hypnotic, monotonous droning songs. What language were they in? Maybe a few languages. It was hard to decipher. Meanwhile, many of the songs were driven by one musical chord played with different strums. What if Iggy Pop and Rob Zombie dedicated themselves to building an experimental psychedelic zombie rock experience? It would probably sound like Dead Skeletons.