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EXHUMED TORCHE NOISEM LORD DYING FULGORA ARMAGEDDON WRETCH ALSO
MAR 2015 // No. 125
E XT R E M E LY E XT R E M E
LIVING COLOUR
EXTREMELY EXTREME
March 2015 [T125] decibelmagazine.com
64 LEVIATHAN COVER STORY
The damage undone
features
reviews
20 heiress Entitlement has its privileges
36 wretch The gates of slumber awaken and reopen
75 lead review SoCal’s Night Demon do the NWOBHM proud
22 fulgora Super grind freaks
38 call and response:
76 album reviews Artists who ain’t bad, despite having their albums unceremoniously dumped in the dead of winter, including Marduk, Blacklisted, Ghoulgotha and Hateful Abandon
upfront 10 metal muthas:
noisem
Let’s hear it for the boys 11 set fire Inside a Carcass comeback set list 12 low culture There’s no social justice, there’s just us 13 brewtal truth Thrash Zone’s extreme mandate 14 cry now Just in case—this is satire 16 live review From the Mandylion’s den 18 studio report:
paradise lost
What’s plaguing them lately
24 lord dying Wiping off the grime 26 armageddon > the Michael Bay version 28 sannhet Undefined variables 30 generation of vipers Cobra commanders refuse to retreat 32 lotus thief Comprehensive strategies 34 mors principium est Pouring out a fifth
exhumed
Inside Death Metal with Matt Harvey 40 torche Restart with heart 42 q&a: cronos Sweat like a pig, die like a fox 44 special feature
the top 20 almost decibel hall of fames Our hall of fails
54 the decibel hall of fame From clothes to chops, Living Colour were a Vivid force in ’80s metal
sub:culture 92 horrorscope Spin the blackest circles 96 south pole dispatch Applied sciences
COVER AND CONTENTS PHOTO BY SHIMON KARMEL Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $29.95. Periodical postage, Philadelphia, PA, and other mailing offices. Submission of manuscripts, illustrations and/or photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Postmaster send changes of address for Decibel to Red Flag Media, 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia PA 19107. Copyright© 2015 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All ISSN 1557-2137 | USPS 023142 rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. 2 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
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“I’m not interested in being
in your magazine. At all.” Leviathan’s Jef Whitehead from the editor provided this response to Decibel’s first interview request back in late 2005. To be fair, the appeal came from our J. Bennett, who has a long, hilarious history of poking the often-humorless bear that is underground black metal. And considering that Decibel had only been around a little over a year—and had recently run a cover story on a Christian metalcore band—I don’t know how we could have expected any other kind of reply. Fast forward nine years, and a lot of things have changed (Hey, our last truly regrettable cover is now seven years ago!) More importantly, that same J. Bennett is now a welcome guest in the home Jef shares with his girlfriend Stevie Floyd and their six-month-old daughter Grail. The reason for the visit: Jef’s first in-depth interview about his life; the musical movement he helped birth and legitimatize as an artistic force in the U.S. over the last two decades; and the ridiculously awesome new Leviathan LP, Scar Sighted. If that wasn’t shocking enough, Jef actually proposed the idea to pose with Grail in our photo shoot, and was even kind enough to tattoo our intrepid reporter after their interview (I think you can spot the work in the photo above). The result is one of my favorite experiences ever working with an artist on a Decibel cover story, and one I would have never imagined possible all those years ago. Today, Jef Whitehead is nurturing a healthy family, while the singer of that Christian metalcore band we naively awarded a cover is currently serving a six-year sentence for a murder-for-hire plot to kill his wife. Maybe the “dark side” isn’t so bad after all.
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fanbase READER OF THE MONTH shows are happening. The trick is to find the guy standing outside with a Cannibal Corpse shirt. That guy is always there like a heavy metal beacon. Club FF, DGBD and V-Hall usually have something good happening once or twice a month. The shows are really intense. Cover is usually $20 for five bands, and you get free beer. There are hardcore, thrash, death, doom and black metal bands. Lately, it’s lots of death metal and metalcore. Korean bands put everything they’ve got into their music. Also, with Korea being a homogenous society that stresses conformity, nobody in the scene is just casually into metal. They are die-hard metalheads.
Andrew Whitmore Culpeper, VA
You spent over three years living in South Korea. Did you get a sense that any kind of extreme music was happening there?
It’s really easy to dismiss South Korean music as nothing more than “Gangnam Style” and nine-member girl groups, but there is an exciting extreme music scene happening. You just have to do the legwork (literally and figuratively) to find it. After you’ve spent hours translating fan blogs and message boards to find bands and shows, you then have to walk around the nightlife districts of Seoul trying to find the underground clubs where the
6 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
We understand that you had metal in the household from a young age. What got you interested in metal, and what was the first metal album you owned?
My parents didn’t believe in censorship, so they let me and my brother listen to whatever we wanted as long as we didn’t repeat the bad words. My dad was really into metal when I was growing up, and was a huge influence. In ’88, he went to the Monsters of Rock tour and came home talking about this band that he saw called Metallica. At the ripe age of six, when he played …And Justice for All and I first heard the opening of “Blackened,” I was hooked on the heavier stuff. I have fond memories riding around with my dad, airdrumming to the breakdown in “One,” yelling, “Darkness! Imprisoning me!” I kept asking my dad to make me copies of his tapes, and before long I had an extensive
collection of ’80s and ’90s bands like D.R.I, Slayer, Sepultura and Entombed. The first album that I bought with my own money was a cassette of Schizophrenia by Sepultura. I wanted to buy Beneath the Remains, but it was out of stock at the time. You currently work for the Library of Congress. How does your job influence your music listening habits?
I’m a Film Archivist, and have a variety of different duties that require different listening. The vaults are dark and cold, especially if I’m working back there for a couple hours. If I’m working in the vaults, I usually listen to black metal. While I’m inspecting film, I have to be really focused and gentle. Some of the films are very old and delicate, and that requires finesse while working with them to prevent damage. For some reason, death metal helps me to focus and notice every detail. If I have to do a lot of heavy lifting and transporting of collection items, straight-edge hardcore with lots of jud-jud breakdowns does the trick. Thrash and crust help me to get through the hours of data entry and cataloging of collection items. Jef Whitehead of Leviathan is on the cover of this issue. If you had the chance, what would you ask Jef to tattoo on you?
Most of the tattoos I have are Asian or Irezumi-styled. I would ask for something with that aesthetic. I’ve wanted to get a halfsleeve of an Oni doing battle with a giant squid for a while.
Chuck BB is the illustrator of the graphic novels Black Metal, Vol. 1. and Black Metal, Vol. 2 For more info and art, head over to chuckbb.com
Taake Striden Hus
“Taake’s album’s range in quality from excellent to absolutely essential.” - Stereogum
VOICES london the new album featuring the songs “Hourglass” & “Last Train Victoria Line” “dizzying and jaw dropping” - Ave Noctum
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The Candlelight Years
INSOMNIUM
The Candlelight Years
HATEFUL ABANDON Liars Bastards
“adventurous & ambitious” - Cvlt Nation
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FALLOCH
This Island, Our Funeral
“haunting & evocative.” - Terrorizer
candlelight
web gems presents:
f Suckness o s o ie n h Symp In which we recount the most the insane and inspired posts of g blo month from our comrades in
SUMAC’S NEW TRACK IS ALL YOU HOPED IT WOULD BE
FORTY-ONE METAL AND HARD ROCK ALBUMS THAT WILL BE 10 YEARS OLD IN 2015 Who doesn’t love a good round number, specifically the number 10? You know Decibel does, as we just celebrated our 10-year anniversary last year, so this compendium of 41 album covers takes us way back to the glorious, metalcoredriven days of 2005. What up, Chimaira? Como esta, Trivium? How’s it hangin’, pre-incarceration As I Lay Dying? Mind you, some good records came out that year as well. The Red Chord’s Clients was our first perfect-10 review, and Gojira, High on Fire and Napalm Death put out some killer records as well. Anyway, you should own, uh, I don’t know, a third of this stuff?
Flip forward a few pages and you’ll see Kevin Stewart-Panko’s so-so review of this new Profound Lore supergroup, featuring members of Isis, Botch/Russian Circles and Baptists. But since KSP can not be trusted to speak authoritatively about anything, here’s what Vince has to say about “Thorn in the Lion’s Paw” (spoiler alert: it’s pretty much exactly what KSP thinks): “It’s a ripper from start to finish, all eight minutes of it. Unsurprisingly, Sumac sounds much like the sum of their parts, but there are no specific elements you can point to and say, for example, ‘that’s the Isis-like part,’ which is a good thing—Sumac are entirely their own beast. What I’m drawn to most about the track on first listen is the dynamic—‘Thorn’ has all sorts of peaks and valleys, all in the name of moving the song forward without getting too dramatic for drama’s sake. For example, the song proper doesn’t start until more than a minute in, but the intro sets the tone perfectly and feels integral to the story.”
MONSTER MAGNET The Duke
MACHINE HEAD Now We Die
TAGS: SUMAC, ISIS, BOTCH, RUSSIAN CIRCLES,
TAGS: AS I LAY DYING, THE RED CHORD
IRIS DIVINE RELEASE NEW SONG, HAVE RECORD LABEL INTEREST! Go, extreme metal synergy! MS have been championing Virginia-based prog/djent heroes Iris Divine for years, and in late December, our own Dan Lake posted an interview and track premiere on the Deciblog. Everyone wants to see them get signed, and evidently they’re in the red zone. Vince echoes our positive vibes on “A Suicide Aware,” gushing, “It’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from this band—super proggy musicianship wrapped up in a catchy, hooky shell (think: Dream Theater’s more poporiented songs)—only even more refined than ever before. Cannot wait to hear this full album on whatever label will have Iris Divine.”
There’s not really much to add to this 43-second video of a housecat more or less doing what the headline suggests other than the post’s first comment: “If I wanted to watch a pussy sing deathcore, I’d watch Emmure videos.”
TAGS: IRIS DIVINE
TAGS: LORNA SHORE
DESIRE FOR SORROW
Revelation Through Affliction
DEATH METAL KITTY LIP SYNCS TO LORNA SHORE’S “LIFE OF FEAR,” MELTS HEARTS
Visit www.metalsucks.net 8 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
LIVING COLOUR
Cult of Personality Visit the official Decibel channel at Metal Injection http://www.metalinjection.tv/decibel
EPIC PUISSANCE & WORSHIPPING RIFFS!
OUT
A PERFECT SOUNDTRACK ON THE ROAD TO THE ENDLESS APOCALYPSE!
FEB 10 !
Available as LTD First Edition 6 Page Digipak & 4 Bonus Tracks, LTD Vinyl and Download!
A DRAMATIC DEATH/BLACK METAL SOUNDSCAPE! OUT
DARK, ATMOSPHERIC & MAJESTIC!
FEB 10 !
A MONUMENT FULL OF NATURE ROMANTICISM -
OUT
A CINEMATIC & EPIC JOURNEY!
FEB 10 !
Available LTD First Edition 4 Page Digipak and Download!
Available as Limited Edition 4 Page Digipak & Bonus Trackand Download!
family values
now slaying Wonder what Decibel world HQ has been rocking for the past month? Well, here are the records we listened to most when we weren’t trying to squeeze into our old Body Glove wetsuits.
Metal
Muthas Because not all of us were spawned in the darkest recesses of hell
This Month's Mutha: Wendy Phillips Mutha of Sebastian and Harley Phillips of Noisem
Can you tell us more about yourself?
I am 37 years old. I was a teenage parent. I graduated high school while working to support myself and Sebastian, along with my husband, Sebastian and Harley’s dad Tony. I have dedicated most of my time to being a stay-at-home mom until the boys were older.
sports until he was about seven. He has always liked punk music. One of the first bands he loved was the Misfits, and Black Flag has always been one of his favorites. What did you think when your sons went on the Decibel tour last year?
I raised my boys to be themselves. Sebastian always wanted to be in the spotlight and was very active. At times he could be a handful. Harley has always been very laid back and observant.
I could not have been more proud—or scared. My boys were doing what they have always wanted to do: play music. They are my babies and it’s hard to just let them go. They are both still so young. But they have done things and seen places that I haven’t had the opportunity to do or see.
Where in Baltimore did the boys grow up? Do they come from a big family?
Did you give them any tips on taking care of themselves on the road?
The boys were raised in Dundalk [Baltimore County]. At holiday get-togethers, there are about 30 of us.
I told them to eat properly, stay hydrated and take their vitamins—not that they took my advice. I told them to look out for each other. No drinking and driving, and no girls in the van!
How did you raise your sons? Were they easy to parent or a handful?
When did the boys start developing an interest in music?
Sebastian was a musician right out of the womb. He was in his first band at four years old. He played drums and his dad played guitar and sang. They played together until Sebastian was about 13. Harley was more interested in cars and 1 0 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
Jeff Walker of Carcass says your sons might have tried to sneak a few beers during the tour. Thoughts?
They are very honest with us. They have shared many stories from the road with us… and about you, Mr. Walker. —JUSTIN M. NORTON
Albert Mudrian : E D I T O R I N C H I E F Krieg, Transient Living Colour, Vivid Leviathan, Scar Sighted Monster Magnet, Spine of God Invincible Force, Satan, Rebellion, Metal ---------------------------------Andrew Bonazelli : M A N A G I N G E D I T O R Helmet, Strap It On Deftones, Around the Fur Katatonia, Discouraged Ones Krallice, Dimensional Bleedthrough YOB, Clearing the Path to Ascend ---------------------------------Patty Moran : C U S T O M E R S E R V I C E The Heads, Everybody Knows We Got Nowhere (reissue) Naam/White Hills/Black Rainbows/ The Flying Eyes, 4-Bands Split (Vol. 1) SQÜRL, EP #3 The Cramps, Blues Fix EP Courtney Barnett, The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas ---------------------------------Bruno Guerreiro : A R T D I R E C T O R Pig Destroyer, Prowler in the Yard Darkthrone, Dark Thrones and Black Flags Electric Wizard, Time to Die Verma, EXU Napalm Death, Apex Predator - Easy Meat ---------------------------------James Lewis : M A R K E T I N G / P R O M O T I O N S Paradise Lost, Lost Paradise Gridlink, Longhena Pan.Thy.Monium, Khaooos ACxDC, Antichrist Demoncore Incantation, Diabolical Conquest
GUEST SLAYER
---------------------------------Sanford Parker : C O R R E C T I O N S H O U S E / B U R I E D AT S E A Death Grips, Government Plates Run the Jewels, Run the Jewels 2 The Bug, Angels and Devils Aimon, Aimon The Haxan Cloak, Excavation
TIM TRONCKOE
ego box
SET FIRE Decibel ventures backstage to break down your favorite artists’ set lists THIS MONTH:
JEFF WALKER of CARCASS WHEN WHERE
September 10, 2008 Sonar, Baltimore, MD
How democratic is the process of making a Carcass setlist?
Well, it’s diplomatic in the sense that everyone gets to suggest songs, but then there’s always the right of “veto!” Some songs we’ve never performed outside of the studio, some Bill [Steer] won’t sing anymore, some just don’t go down well in the live arena, etc. There are songs we feel we have to perform—they are perceived as our “hits” or just go down well, or are just damn fun to play! This gig was well before Dan Wilding and Ben Ash joined; how many members got a say in mapping this out during the initial reunion shows?
All four of us. The multiple appearances of “Intro Tape”: Are those just samples?
It’s the intro from and the in-between song samples from Necroticism played from an iPod. Just to keep the songs from the third album “authentic.” Also, it’s a bit more interesting than listening to Walker’s pathetic drunken attempts at humor, and gives him less chance to offend the audience.
The set closes with a medley that incorporates elements of Symphonies, Heartwork and Necroticism. Why did those particular songs flow so well together?
’Cause we play them in that sequence and it works—simple as that! We gaffer-taped the songs together nicely! This date was one of your first American gigs since originally disbanding. By that point, had you gotten over any initial nerves via playing the Euro/Australian festival circuit beforehand?
Well the only real nerves I remember were with Mike [Amott] and Bill, who had to take a good totty of whiskey right before going on stage for the first initial few shows. As for me, any “nervousness” manifests itself as slight stress— I’m pretty angsty and on edge before we play. I think this is down to the pressure of trying not to disappoint anyone and to meet any expectations of the audience. Whereas when we were young, we were more cavalier. There’s a definite feeling of trying to live up to the band's reputation—again, nothing that a third of a bottle of bourbon can’t fix!
One Swansong track made this show’s cut, “Keep on Rotting in the Free World” (you’ve broken out “Black Star” plenty of times since). Was there any trepidation in going back to a record you got so much shit for, even for one song?
Nah, we figured that song would work well live, and we wanted to represent every album that we had ever recorded. That record has a bit of an unfair stigma about it—it’s kind of turned into a cliché now to have a downer on that album. It’s… a gateway album for many and its actual sales (more than Reek or Symphonies) tell a different story: a lot of people love that album. For the band, though, it’s a recording with a negative vibe due to the circumstances surrounding the creation of it. You dedicated “No Love Lost” to Albert and noted that Decibel is great bathroom reading, and even better when you run out of toilet paper. How has the inclusion of the flexi disc affected your wiping habits?
You can now eat your dinner (the discs make nice disposable plates) at the same time as you take a dump before wiping your ass on the latest unread South Pole Dispatch. A D E C I B E L : M A R C H 2 0 15 : 1 1
ramblings Low Culture
Krieg’s Neill Jameson exudes warmth and compassion for his fellow man
One
The Year in Online Metal Stupidity thing you learn when you get
older is that you can never truly be surprised by stupidity, because it’s as common as coke in a drug-free school zone—but every so often, you’re still baffled. The last half of 2014 was one surprise after another, and the largest stain in the year’s tighties came from the introduction of the hashtag #metalgate. Now, considering I barely use the computer for anything but complaining and videos of people fucking, I figured it had to be one of the two. Oddly enough, it’s a combination of both, but mostly because after they do the former, they indulge in the latter before their mother knocks on their door to take out the trash. I guess this burgeoning new movement is a reaction to the last few years of people they consider outsiders moving into the neighborhood, kicking out the local mom-and-pops and building mustache-friendly fair trade coffee shops. While I understand being annoyed by these pesky folks with their fedoras and fixed gears, I don’t honestly understand what the fuck this has to do with anything. Claims of a new social justice movement within the metal scene seem to be a sticking point, but even Helen Keller saw that shit coming years ago. These people conveniently forget 10 years ago, when watch lists and groups of people would shut down concerts, organize label boycotts and so on. Why is that part ignored? Oh right, because those groups would (and still do) knock the shit out of people they disagree with. What’s Todd from Brooklyn going to do to fight back? Blog about it and probably raise heirloom tomatoes. It’s easier now because it’s sort of a path of least resistance strategy. There is a certain freedom of speech component to this argument. Personally, I feel that freedom of speech and expression is one of our most 1 2 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
valuable rights in this country, and I cannot stress that enough. But—and there’s always a but—you need to be prepared to deal with the counterpoint and the consequences of being able to shoot your mouth off like a shit sprinkler. You’re dealing with real people with their own set of values and (probably awful) hopes and dreams. They’re going to get pissed off, and now you’ve made the problem larger and more annoying, and no amount of Graveland YouTube videos will make that go away. I tried to read up on the master statements of #metalgate to see what all the fuss was about, but it comes off as a pissing contest where the obvious soft targets are in their sights, but they also take aim at this publication, among others that consistently cover bands and labels that a lot of these nerds consider sacred cows. They cite the melding of hardcore and metal as a big bullet point, but fuck off with that; metal and hardcore have been making eyes at and holding hands with each other since the ’90s. Indie rock’s interest in metal is another sore spot, but considering I’ve seen the sales numbers, I can tell you that Thurston Moore’s involvement in black metal hasn’t exactly drawn over a lot of these guys to the dark side. Move on. Metal isn’t supposed to be a “safe” genre, especially in the nastier subgenres. But taking part in the internet flame war to destroy the hipster objective—or whatever cute term you like—isn’t going to do shit except get all of those assholes to blog about it and bring more attention to it and probably have a panel at Burning Man about cruelty-free and grass-fed words that are okay to use in social settings. Todd will forget about his tomatoes and they’ll die on the vine. And that will be #metalgate’s biggest victory. Hate hipsters? Ignore them and they’ll get bored and take their bullshit elsewhere. A
l a t rew
Btruth
guide to staying kvlt while drunk… and drunk while kvlt by adem tepedelen
Drinking in the Thrash Zone
W
e don’t typically go trolling the Interhole for column ideas, but when it randomly drops one in our lap, we pay attention. Some rabbit hole we fell down produced an image of a pint glass filled with delicious cold, foamy beer with three words printed on the glass that spoke to us as if it were just us and that beautiful glass of beer in the entire universe. “EXTREME BEER ONLY” it shouted in its we-really-mean-it caps. “Fuck yeah,” we’re pretty sure we said out loud to our computer screen. With a little quick sleuthing, we tracked the origin of this glass to, of all places, Yokohama, Japan, to a tiny little brewpub called—wait for it—Thrash Zone. It was as though all our extreme beer/metal fantasies and wet dreams were realized halfway across the globe. Mind-blowing. Writing about Thrash Zone and telling its story in this column was a no-brainer. However, the language barrier proved to be a challenge. After agreeing to answer some questions via email, owner Koichi Katsuki responded to all but one of said questions with “---> SEE MY WEB PAGE.” Even the photos he sent didn’t exactly capture the glory of his establishment (which we saw well represented in many Instagram photos posted by his Adem Tepedelen patrons). Still, the would consider visiting Japan metal and craft beer just to go to Thrash Zone.
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CHRISTOPHER AMOTT (EX ARCH ENEMY) GRAND RETURN! “Captivity and Devourment” is Heavy, melodic, technical, and groovy: this is creative metal songwriting with one foot in deep in the classics and and one eye gazing towards the distant future.
MERCH AND VINYL BUNDLES AVAILABLE LIMITED EDITION DIGI!
KRUGER ‘ADAM & STEVE’ NEW ALBUM in Limited edition deluxe digipack with
slipcase. “Kruger are upholding a proud tradition of genre-scorning heaviness that dates back to the seminal bravey of Celtic Frost and Samael, albeit via the hypnotic bludgeon of Unsane and Neurosis” METAL HAMMER IN STORES NOW!
Language barrier be damned, craft beer is pretty much spoken internationally. worlds needed to know that Thrash Zone is out there, and it is standing firm by its proclamation of EXTREME BEER ONLY. The backstory goes something like this. Koichi-san started Thrash Zone in 2006 as a pub serving “intense hoppy” beers from the likes of Stone and Green Flash. He also contracted a local brewery to brew the house beer, Hop Slave, a big double IPA. By 2011, he had decided to brew his own beer—after some time spent learning the ropes at Ballast Point and Avery—and built a nano system in a nearby separate location about 10 minutes away from Thrash Zone. Today, his regular lineup of beers includes Hop Deicide (Imp. IPA), Morbid Red (IPA), Envenom (barley wine) and, of course, Hop Slave. Thrash Zone still serves extreme beers from other breweries around the world, but they are complemented by the variety of house creations. From the names of the beers and the pub itself, it’s pretty clear that Koichi-san is a fan of extreme music as well. He played in a hardcore band, Ministry of Ignorance, in the ’90s, and has adorned the walls of Thrash Zone with metal and hardcore posters, as well as a wall of Marshall amplifier fronts. Instead of sports, the lone TV plays metal videos and concerts, while the likes of Thin Lizzy, Rush, Voivod, D.R.I., C.O.C, Bad Brains, Capitalist Casualties, Infest and Crossed Out play on the sound system. Language barrier be damned, craft beer is pretty much spoken internationally. And there isn’t anyone who doesn’t understand EXTREME BEER ONLY. A
“An irresistible, taut metal Juggernaught”- METAL HAMMER
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D E C I B E L : M A R C H 2 0 15 : 1 3
ramblings
now cry later * cry by j. bennett
illustration by brunofsky
YOUR COMPLAINT IS ON FILE
Bennett, you hack -
Against my better judgment, I read your recent and thoroughly atrocious Decibel piece entitled “Does Death Metal Have An Image Problem?” in which you concluded that, yes, death metal does have an image problem, and I felt compelled to respond to some of the ludicrous assertions and blatant inaccuracies you attempt to pass off as “facts.” I don’t know where Decibel finds their writers these days—maybe smoking crack behind the local quickie mart?—but you are totally the most egregious offender of the bunch when it comes to sanctimonious bullshit and complete fucking nonsense. So, I just wanted to bring a few quick points to your attention—and your editor’s attention, in hopes that he’ll kick your dumb ass to the curb. Looky here: POINT # 1: Your article sucks. It is the suckiest piece of suckitude in the history of Decibel magazine, which places it very, very high in the running for the suckiest piece of suckitude in the history of suckitude itself. In fact, let’s go ahead and call it that right now: the suckiest piece of suckitude in the history of suckitude. There, now it’s official. POINT # 2:
Your endless references to sweatpants and sweatpant boners and sweatpants with printing on the legs and/or “words on the butt” are fucking tired. TIRED. Writer douchebags like you have been making death metal sweatpants jokes since the (glorious) dawn of death metal sweatpants. So, please, PLEASE for the love of all that is XXXL and also for the love of the Blue Grape catalogue (R.I.P.), please stop making death metal sweatpants jokes. We’ve heard them all before. Especially yours.
POINT # 3: Your assertion that “most death metal bands these days consist of a bunch of fat dudes wearing black T-shirts with other death metal bands’ logos on them” is patently false. If you pulled your head out of your ass long enough to peruse the last five issues of Decibel magazine, you’d see that only 3/8 of the death metal bands therein even have one fat dude, never mind the three or four it would take to constitute an entire band. So there. 1 4 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
POINT # 4: You seem to be prejudiced against bald dudes in death metal. WTF? I repeat: WTF? Let’s take a quick look at some of the biggest bands in death metal history: Autopsy, Deicide, Dying Fetus, Immolation, Suffocation, Incantation, Nile, Angelcorpse, Broken Hope… I could go on and on and on, but my point is this: What do they all have in common? BALD DUDES. Now, I realize that genre masters like Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Obituary don’t have any bald dudes in their respective lineups. Yet. And that’s the operative word here. Speaking of which: I saw a photo of you on the Internet about three minutes before I typed this. It looks like you’re losing your hair. POINT # 5: Why do you have to talk so much shit on Mortician all the time? Just because the dude hijacked a Polish cab at knifepoint 10 FUCKING YEARS AGO, you gotta keep cracking lame jokes about it in every crappy column you write? What did he ever to do you? Nothing, I’d bet. That shit is just mean-spirited. POINT # 6:
Don’t think I didn’t catch the off-color comments you made about mustaches. Your mustache jokes are almost as tired as your sweatpants jokes. It’s like you’re just trying to see how many times you can cram the term “lip broom” into a sentence. Pathetic. I did enjoy that one thing where you said Rick Rozz used to be the Tom Selleck of death metal, though. That made me chuckle. But what does that make you? The Hitler of unfunny assholes? Eat a dick, Roger J. Beaujard NYDM International Vice President A
live review
THE GATHERING: 25 YEARS OF DIVING INTO THE UNKNOWN WHERE:
Doornroosje (Nijmegen, Netherlands)
WHEN:
November 9
Despite having announced a self-imposed hiatus from recording and touring earlier this year, the Gathering decided to celebrate the band’s 25th anniversary with
a pair of special shows. These would bring nearly all of their current and former members up on stage, including the complete lineups found on 10 of the Dutch band’s 11 studio albums. Which was no easy feat, as several of the former members had left on somewhat contentious terms. Two shows were announced and quickly sold out, both taking place on one day at the 1,100-capacity venue Doornroosje. The band, led by the brotherly team of drummer Hans Rutten and guitarist René Rutten, decided to use as much of their original gear as possible to perform these songs again. Add to that the excellent sound at the recently renovated Doornroosje club, and you had a show that not only looked, but sounded amazing. Original vocalists Bart Smits and Marike Groot had performed a few years back on a handful of hastily organized Always reunion shows, but the real buzz was for the return of vocalist Anneke 1 6 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
van Giersbergen, who had not shared a stage with the band since her departure in 2007. The event kicked off with four vocalists (including current singer Silje Wergeland) all contributing on a version of “Saturnine,” which had mixed results. However, once the Mandylion lineup remained on stage for “Strange Machines,” the crowd sprang to life, finding van Giersbergen as resilient and chilling as ever. The band ran through material from each of their albums, excluding only their somewhat-
maligned Almost a Dance album. Smits turned in an excellent run-through of early doom/death chestnut “The Mirror Waters,” and Wergeland’s consistent, pleasant voice worked well on tracks like “Heroes for Ghosts.” However, it was van Giersbergen that shone brightest, both in terms of her ebullient stage presence and that voice. Highlights included an effective duet with Groot on “In Motion #1” and an especially deft vocal turn in the middle of “Waking Hour” that brought a spontaneous roar from the crowd. The absolute stunner was the eight minute “Travel,” complemented perfectly with projections of the slow, flaming plummet of the Atlas-Centaur rocket from Koyaanisqatsi. Most importantly, in addition to the captivating performances, the onstage attitude was clearly one of celebratory joy. That alone was nearly as reassuring as hearing the music itself, perhaps for one final time. —ULA GEHRET PHOTOS BY MARCUS MOONEN (MARCUSMOONEN.COM)
in the studio
*paradise lost
STUDIO REPORT
PARAdIse Lost TITLE
The Plague Within
There is a bit of everything on this record. From mellow through to extreme and everything in between. —Greg Mackintosh
STUDIO
Orgone Studios, London PRODUCER
B
Jaime Gomez Arellano
ritish doom lords Paradise Lost posted an ominous mesRELEASE DATE sage on Facebook recently. It read: “Our approach on this TBD 2015 album is quite different and embraces the band’s very early LABEL days.” For longtime fans—a.k.a. the Painless—the three words “very,” Century Media “early” and “days” in the same sentence referencing Paradise Lost’s music is reason to rejoice. But don’t think of Greg Mackintosh’s involvement in Vallenfyre or Nick Holmes’ recent appointment as Grand Vociferator in all-star death metal outfit Bloodbath as momentum to revisit stone-cold classics Lost Paradise and Gothic. “We just wanted to do a record with no boundaries,” Mackintosh says from the comfort of an Orgone Studios couch. “The last two albums we have done, I believe, were very strong, but also very traditional Paradise Lost records. There is nothing wrong with that, but I didn’t really want to do that this time around. There is a bit of everything on this record. From mellow through to extreme and everything in between.” Produced by Jaime Gomez Arellano (Cathedral, Ghost) and recorded at Orgone Studios in London, Paradise Lost’s lucky 14th—currently titled The Plague Within—finds the group in their comfort zone. Not just musically—expect lots of hooks, too—but environmentally. See, 2012’s Tragic Idol
was recorded at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden, and finding a pint after work was a bit of a chore due to country-wide liquor laws. Not in London. Mackintosh and the boys trip over pints and pubs at all hours, much to their hopeless delight. As for Paradise Lost firsts, Team Misery are recording with two separate guitar amp, stack and pedal sets, simultaneously run at full blast for the rhythms. Mackintosh admits they stole the idea from producer/Converge axeman Kurt Ballou. They also have a new distortion pedal, fittingly called “Funeral Party,” on every guitar and bass track. Expectations of a huge, heavy sound are, naturally, high. Early titles include: “Flesh From Bone,” “Beneath Broken Earth,” “Victim of the Past,” “An Eternity of Lies” and “Return to the Sun.” —CHRIS DICK
STUDIO SHORT SHOTS
Myrkur Aims to Render Gender Irrelevant on full-length debut LP Part of Myrkur’s appeal has been carefully safeguarding her image and background despite her surging underground popularity, even if her full name and identity is just a few mouse clicks away. But the Danish black metal artist hasn’t exactly been quiet about her recently finished full-length, due this year from Relapse. One Facebook post detailed how she recorded choral vocals in an Oslo tomb. Demos and snippets of studio work have been doled out
1 8 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
to her 12,000-plus Facebook fans. Finally, there have been full-on denunciations of political correctness from left field: “This is my music, so I will write what I want. And if you are listening to music because ‘a woman made it,’ then turn it off. Listen to any music only if it speaks to your ears and your heart.” Kristoffer Rygg, a.k.a. Garm of Ulver, is producing the still untitled album. There’s also a dream team of black metal backers: Øyvind Myrvoll of Nidingr and Dødheimsgard drums, while Teloch of Mayhem plays guitars (alongside Myrkur). The album was recorded in Oslo’s Valhallveien Studio and Emanuel Vigeland’s Museum. —JUSTIN M. NORTON
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heiress
HEIRESS
Avant hardcore is such sweet sorrow for Seattle riff merchants
S
eattle’s Heiress may smolder and crush like a crusty heavy metal motherfucker on sure-to-be-shortlived parole, but in its nuances, atmospherics, off-kilter grooves and choice of producers—Jack Endino; Tad Fucking Doyle—the quintet’s spiritual connection to the most famous moment in its hometown’s musical history is not difficult to divine. ¶ “We all have a deep appreciation for many of the grunge bands of the ’90s and have no problem with any associations people want to make between that sound and what we do,” guitarist Wes Reed confirms. “But I think the same thing can be said about our love for hardcore, punk, death/ black/post metal, noise rock, prog, classic rock, pop ... For every part that harkens back to Alice in Chains or Soundgarden, we have another that owes a debt to Slint, King Crimson, Integrity, Enslaved or Neurosis. We borrow from it all and put it in the Heiress blender.” ¶ The fusion works: As solid as the 2 0 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
band’s long-simmering 2013 fulllength debut Early Frost was, Of Great Sorrow proves to be a considerably more fully realized, free-flowing interpretation of the epic Heiress sturm und drang. “There were a couple songs on Early Frost that we had been holding onto for years because we wanted them to be on our first full-length for the greatest impact,” Reed explains. “By the time we got all the material together for that album, our sound had changed a little, which gave Early Frost a lot of the range it has, but also made it feel sort of like an anthology. With Of Great Sorrow, we went into the session with 12 songs and wrote two more in the studio, then chose the most cohesive 10 tracks to represent us. “Rather than try to fit riffs into a set time limit, we let the character of each song dictate how long we would repeat parts or bring in
new ones,” he adds, “and we gave ourselves the freedom to change anything that wasn’t working for us in the studio.” Beyond the aural churn, however, the Heiress evolution is less radical. “Apart from sometimes playing a little slower or tuning a little lower, not much has changed for us,” Reed says. “We love playing live regardless of the size of the crowd. We love writing new material. And we don’t have any plans to slow down … For me, the inspiration has shifted more from writing music for an imagined audience to writing for the other guys in the band. I have nothing but respect for their tastes and opinions, and it’s the best feeling in the world when I get them to break into a smile with a new riff or we’re all totally in the moment arranging a song at practice.” —SHAWN MACOMBER
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fulgora
N
o one was just throwing record deals at us because we’re in other bands.” ¶ Bassist John Jarvis wants to make this clear before anyone thinks Fulgora is some throwaway vanity project by ex- and current members of Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Misery Index and Dying Fetus. Mind you, that pedigree helps explain the killer fucking deathgrind these guys have assembled on their debut, Stratagem, but Jarvis knows how hard the band has worked since it was only a couple dudes jamming out in St. Louis. ¶ “In 2012, me and Brandon [LaMew, guitars/vocals] started demoing and looking for drummers, and I had been in a couple bands with Adam.” Enter Adam Jarvis, maelstrom behind the kits for Misery Index and Pig Destroyer, resident of Baltimore and John’s cousin. “He was pretty busy, but said he’d do it. Then he took it to a different level, and that’s when the music really started to take form.” ¶ This first long-distance relationship for the band lasted until John Jarvis was brought into the fold as 2 2 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
Pig Destroyer’s first-ever bass player and ANb’s latest accomplice. Then he became an official Baltimorean (is that what they’re called?), and the band’s second long-distance relationship was created. “We have to work out songs on Skype, and the main songwriting is still coming from St. Louis,” he says, “but we have a core band here with Sparky.” Yes, finally, enter Sparky Voyles, ex-Dying Fetus guitarist, who has recently joined to round out the impressive-enough-already lineup. The band is actually hard at work on the follow-up to an album that wasn’t even out during this interview, but they don’t seem too worried considering they were recently able to outshine an army of extreme opponents. “MetalSucks had a contest for unsigned bands, and we made it into the top five and got a free day
of recording,” he says. “Those guys are obviously big Pig Destroyer fans, but they made it clear Fulgora was its own entity.” And building off that recording, the band was able to win over Housecore Records, Phil Anselmo’s label, which is proudly pushing this bitter gem. Of course, while John is dedicated to extreme music, he has another passion: acting. “I’ve had a few scenes on House of Cards season 3,” he says. “And I’ve had some scenes on the new season of Veep. I’ve been trying to get some friends on it, too. J.R. [Hayes, Pig Destroyer vocalist] and his wife said they wanted to be extras.” Fulgora is set to have Stratagem break them out of the shadow of their big brother bands, head down their own path and possibly get Julia Louis-Dreyfus into grindcore—we couldn’t be more excited. —SHANE MEHLING
ALYSSA HERRMAN/FOTO PHORTRESS
FULGORA
Fraternal deathgrind supergroup earns the right to see stars
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lord dying
LORD DYING
T
Back from the road means back to work for Portland riff warriors
hink of the last time you were subjected to a “Happy Birthday” serenade. With Decibel’s own personal experiences as a guide, we’re guessing it involved a haggard handful of friends buzzed on whatever skunked beer was the drink special that night. Erik Olson—vocalist/ guitarist of Portland road dogs Lord Dying—can top that. ¶ “The beginning of the second half [of our European tour] was my birthday when we flew over there. So, while on stage, John [Sherman] from Red Fang came out with a bottle of Jim Beam and got a crowd of 800 Germans to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me,” Olson shares emphatically. “That was pretty crazy. Then I pounded some whiskey and don’t remember the rest of the night.” ¶ Maybe the post-gig hours drifted away into the fog of intoxicated amnesia, but the memories of the tour linger. Olson details the seven-week tour with vast praise for their reception, from the sold-out shows to the legendary catering. “It was my first time [in Europe] personally, and as a band as well. 2 4 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
The difference [between touring in the United States] is huge, especially touring over there with Red Fang. We were sort of spoiled for our first time there,” laughs Olson. Now between tours in Oregon, there aren’t spreads of artisanal breads and cheese waiting for them in their practice space, no collective howl of “Alles Gute zum Geburtstag.” “We all get back into the normal run of life, which… which sucks,” Olson chuckles after a pause. “We just keep on keeping on, and we always start writing immediately when we have a break because we’re so busy when we’re on the road.” While their debut LP Summon the Faithless was quickly tagged a sludge record, Olson says Poisoned Altars—their sophomore release on Relapse—wasn’t written with a focus on altering that perception. The goal was to simply stay dedi-
cated to creating the loudest, meanest hooks possible. Judging by their most recent collection of knockout blows disguised as songs—punched up by Joel Grind’s production while embracing thrash, death and meat ‘n’ taters metal—we’d say mission fucking accomplished. With new drummer Nick Parks (Bastard Feast, Gaytheist) now joining the songwriting process, Lord Dying are already blistering fingers and battering drum heads while writing their next chapter. “We really wanted to hone in our songwriting craft and explore,” says Olson. “It’s basically all about the riffs, and we’re more influenced by old-school death metal, which I think comes through on this album—and even more on the stuff we’ve been writing post-Poisoned Altars. We never really felt we were a sludge metal band, but we could be called worse things.” —SEAN FRASIER
Axl Rose g n u o y a f o r e g o n M a id e n . The swag Ir f o k c a tt a r a it w it h th e tw in gvue n g e d S e v e n fo ld N a s ti e r th a n A p a rt y th a n M ö tl e y C rü e . a n d a b ig g e r !!!
CORD E R IS H T D E E N U YO
March 10 th facebook.com/santacruzband
RANGER Where Evil Dwells March 17th facebook.com/rangerheavymetal
www.spinefarmrecords.com
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armageddon
ARMAGEDDON
T
Christopher Amott can’t stop it, so don’t rock it, you know he’s got it
he last time guitarist Christopher Amott had his name associated with a band that wasn’t Arch Enemy, George W. Bush was president and killer asteroid 2002 MN whizzed by Earth without much notice from the general populace. While gunning with his older brother on Arch Enemy breakout album, Wages of Sin, Amott was exploring melodic hard rock with Eucharist’s former rhythm section. The fact that Armageddon’s third album, Three, was vastly different from its two predecessors didn’t shock most metallers, however. Armageddon was always a vehicle for Amott to show his influences, interests and quality. Now, some 13 years later, Amott’s relocated to America and resurrected Armageddon with an entirely new lineup. ¶ “I never officially stopped doing Armageddon,” says Amott. “I just got very busy with Arch Enemy. Armageddon was always a side project until now. After doing two solo albums, which were very vocal-oriented, 2 6 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
I wanted to have a more intense metal band where I could do less singing and focus more on riffing and soloing. I wanted to make the best metal album I’ve ever done, and was extremely motivated to write a great record without compromise.” The record Amott refers to is new album, Captivity & Devourment. Two years in the making, Armageddon’s fourth full-length is, naturally, different. Actually, it’s a blend of all Armageddon albums—including debut Crossing the Rubicon—but with an updated feel. That being said, Amott did have an idea of what he wanted musically out of his newly formed band. “I did have some ideas going in,” he reveals. “For example, on the songs ‘Captivity & Devourment’ and ‘Equalizer,’ I wanted to write songs with many parts and a lot of
changes to keep an intensity going throughout the track. Actually, I never listen to new metal bands. Ever. I don’t want to be influenced. I stopped listening to new metal music in the ’90s and that’s probably why my songs sound the way they do. That’s my style, my influences. Honestly, some stuff that goes for metal today bores me and is somewhat foreign to me. Today I listen to pop music and anything that is a good song. Or I’m blasting the records I grew up with: Priest, Sabbath, Maiden, Slayer [and] Megadeth.” Fans of Armageddon won’t have to wait an eternity for the followup to Captivity & Devourment either. Amott informed us that he’s already hard at work on album number five. The six-stringer is also ready to take Armageddon on the road, potentially with Arch Enemy. —CHRIS DICK
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sannhet
SANNHET
Brooklyn boundary-pushers live to polarize
S
annhet bassist A.J. Annunziata sees the struggles of the modern music industry on a daily basis as a creative director for Sony. So, when it came time to commit to a band, he knew the pitfalls many commercial artists face—and the reason you should start writing music in the first place. “Working for a major—it’s amazing that they still exist,” he says. “Their head is too heavy for their body. Every band I’ve been in, it’s been an underground type of thing. I was never interested in popular stuff ever—even popular metal or tough guy hardcore.” ¶ Still, he likes his day job because it helps him avoid working on pharmaceuticals or consumer goods like Doritos. And it allows him to focus on Sannhet—a band that’s been saddled with tag “experimental” since their first album Known Flood and EP Lions Eye. Their upcoming album Revisionist on the Flenser will probably be equally confounding, even if experimental doesn’t quite describe what they do. “Well, when I think of experimental, I think of something like Merzbow,” Annunziata says. 2 8 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
Sannhet—which also features drummer/sampler Christopher Todd and guitarist/looper John Refano— was formed in Brooklyn, the locale that has birthed Tombs, Mutilation Rites, Pyrrhon and even Liturgy. The band’s earliest roots were elsewhere on the Eastern seaboard; Todd and Refano played in a rock band, but soon tired of the formulaic approach. Sannhet was their way of expanding their boundaries. Annunziata joined after relentlessly asking the pair if they needed a bassist. Annunziata says the building where they practice—which has 400 units—is a virtual melting pot of metal bands, each with a novel approach. That thriving community has led to appearances with both shoegaze metal bands and traditional groups. Sannhet have also generated a lot of ire on comment threads. “There are these staunch people who claim that what we do isn’t
metal, but there are other people who are redefining what metal means,” Annunziata says. “Every time there’s a thread [about Sannhet] on the Internet, half the people are saying, ‘Who is this band? What they are doing is incredible.’ The other half is filled with slurs and things like, ‘What is this faggot shit?’ I guess there are some people who just stay home and only listen to punishing, nail-biting metal. There’s sort of a staunch chauvinism, and they are trying to protect what they are holding on to. But we expect it. We’re trying to do weird stuff within a pretty specific genre. “ If anything, that all-in-or-allout approach has strengthened the band’s resolve to go their own way. “We’ve been getting post-rock and whatever ‘post’ comparisons you want to add,” Annunziata says. “It just keeps getting weirder and weirder.” —JUSTIN M. NORTON
Skym Kjeld taKes their inspiration from the ancient history of frisia, the northern area of the netherlands and Germany! Kjeld’s music could best be described as deeply rooted in the scandinavian blacK metal tradition, where cold melodic passaGes and brutal assaults nicely merGe into their own maGicKal blend. ancient rituals and traditions (lyrics are in the frisian lanGuaGe) combine with intense musicianship on the hiGhest level, maKinG this album a journey worth maKinG for those who embrace a cold, frost frozen winter niGht.
cd/2-lp/digital out march
DEVILISH IMPRESSIONS ADVENTVS repress of the classic ep! the band lead by martin walKyier from sKyclad.
epicness beyond the blacK, blacKness beyond the epic! polish blacK/ death crushers. for fans of septic flesh and behemoth!
cd/lp out now
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preach eternal gospel
SPLIT: WAR & HELL
repress of the classic mini album. comes with an etched b-side!
a split full of merciless uGly thrash metal! cd and lp limited to 300 copies!
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order our releases, exclusive vinyls, merchandise and hundreds of distributed titles direct from our online store! checK our shippinG rates to the u.s., they will not disappoint you!
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GENERATION OF VIPERS
Buddy-turned-bassist keeps Knoxville sludge merchants’ snakepit hissing
I
t’s a story responsible for the most divisive—if not reviled—period in the history of metal’s most popular band, and it goes like so: Band hires producer. Producer produces albums. Bass player quits. At the behest of friendship, a working relationship and “Fuck it, dude—you’re sitting right here” ease, said multi-instrumentalist producer fills the vacant spot. And while it’s arguable how much Bob Rock joining Metallica contributed to any legacy-smearing, there are definitely a string of forgettable albums out there existing as a signposts of an era best ignored. ¶ Thankfully, the parallels between Metallica/Rock and Generation of Vipers’ bassist Travis Kammeyer graduating from engineer/producer to full-time member end there. The Tennessee-based progressive sludge/post-metal trio is still writing their history and, sure, everything they do will be dwarfed by anything Metallica does, but that doesn’t mean most anyone reading this wouldn’t rather throw the crushing heaviness of their new full-length, Coffin Wisdom, on the jukebox before even considering hitting a CD shop 3 0 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
to forage for used copies of Load, Re-Load and/or St. Anger. “[Drummer] B.J. [Graves], [guitarist/vocalist] Josh [Holt] and [original bassist] Courtney [Rawls] started the band, and I recorded their first record, [2005’s] Grace,” explains Kammeyer, recounting the band’s history. “Then, we did [2007’s] Dead Circle. During both those records, something dark, crazy or unlucky would happen. We became good friends because we went through all those ups and downs together, and when Courtney left the band in 2006-’07, it was natural for me to jump right in. “Things have changed a lot,” he continues, about witnessing and contributing to the band’s progression, “I remember watching them and loving the little, heavy groove parts. When we got together, it was like, ‘Let’s write more of that.’ It didn’t matter if it was eight minutes and had less verse-chorus-verse structure. For the newer stuff, it’s definitely more about writing catchy riffs; a ‘heavier AC/DC’ is the way we always put it!”
Curiously and advantageously enough, all three members of GOV are drummers, which results in groove being a shared collective interest. Coffin Wisdom may orbit around Neurosis, poke and prod the aura of early Isis and exhibit tendencies similar to the other outfits Graves thumps the tubs for (A Storm of Light and U.S. Christmas), but GOV’s ace in the hole is their conscious weighing of simplicity and hooks alongside the slog through down-tuned tar pits. “I think all of us being drummers led us towards these sorts of songs,” Kammeyer notes. “When a weird or strange rhythm part comes up during writing, it clicks and we get caught up with it, and it makes perfect sense to all of us. Everything naturally happened to make the new record more rhythmic and visceral. It wasn’t about [previous album] Howl and Filth having a bunch of crap on it we didn’t want or need. It was more like, ‘Hey, it’s time for another record. Let’s do this.’” —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO
DAVE KILLEBREW
generation of vipers
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lotus thief
LOTUS THIEF
Promethean types retrofit ancient wisdom for big clubs and small theaters
A
s the unrelenting grip of stupidity tightens around America’s most hallowed institutions—churches, schools, legislatures and the like—it’s hard not to notice that metal and its affinities just fucking keep getting smarter. Consider Lotus Thief. Formed by multi-instrumentalist Bezaelith (Botanist, Mina Loy, the Night Falls) and Botanist founder Otrebor with the intention of shedding new light on forgotten and neglected texts, the SF-based psych/metal/space-rock entity is currently preparing to tour in support of debut album Rervm—a beautifully crafted adaptation of Titus Lucretius Carus’ epic philosophical poem (and groundbreaking work of natural philosophy) De Rerum Natura (The Nature of Things). ¶ “Rervm began with my circling around a translation of Lucretius’ work,” Bezaelith emails. “I knew right away the choice I had lyrically was between taking huge blocks of text that may or may not be relevant and trying to squeeze them into the songs and make the songs fit around them, or taking the themes 3 2 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
of the text and using them as a compass for mood and direction. I chose the latter. It kept me coming back to the purpose of the piece which, at least as Lucretius’ narrative implies, is to dispel his friend and possible patron Memmius’ fear of death, of the things about this universe that are not easily understood. How do you explain a concept like pain to a child? How do you rationalize heartbreak or lust? What do you tell yourself when you are mortally afraid? In 55 BC, we were asking these questions and still trying to understand stuff like thunder and lightning, deciding whether or not it was the doing of a deity or some natural force.” While Lotus Thief’s style is remarkably well-defined for a duo just starting to come to grips with their powers, the album owes allegiance to no single subgenre cluster. “Miseras” alone doubles as a road
map for future post-prog metal experiments (anybody’s) and a concise history of psychedelic music. Bezaelith’s lambent vocals and multidimensional guitar work help turn an otherwise interesting first album into a tour de force likely to find its way onto multiple year-end lists. But it’s that writing that keeps things interesting. “At the risk of being too weird or mystical,” Bezaelith says, “the truth is the piece more or less wrote itself. I started and stopped and found myself waiting for my text ideas and life experiences to act as a fuel source. And it happened. That’s also what’s happening with the first pass of the second album, too. I’m discovering the material is there under the surface of the water, and I’m pulling it up and out when the time comes. What it takes is being there ready to lay down the songs.” —ROD SMITH
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mors principium est
K
Death was the beginning; balancing heaviness and beauty is the present
evin’s definitely made the band a little more French—I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not,” Andy Gillion says facetiously about his new guitar partner, Kevin Verlay. Mors Principium Est might be based in Finland, but with the French Verlay and the English Gillion now on guitars, there’s more of an international flavor on the band’s excellent fifth album Dawn of the 5th Era. ¶ “It’s a new era for the band for a few reasons,” says Gillion. “I think [2012 album] …and Death Said Live served a purpose to resurrect a band that many people presumed was dead. We managed to continue the Mors Principium Est legacy, and it was a very special thing for me to be a part of, as MPE were one of my favorite bands before I joined to replace Jori [Haukio] as songwriter. Dawn of the 5th Era didn’t have the pressure of a “comeback” album. Of course, it came with its own pressures, but I felt that I could be a bit more experimental and try to take things to a new level musically.” 3 4 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
One of the band’s great strengths has always been an incredible knack for striking the right balance between death metal aggression and traditional heavy metal melody in the guitar work. You won’t find many other melodic death metal bands whose melodies leap out at listeners as much as MPE’s do, and the new record features arguably their finest work yet. “I think the balance comes naturally,” reasons Gillion. “My writing style is very melodic, but Ville [Viljanen, vocalist] pulls me towards the dark side a bit more, reminding me that we’re still a death metal band, melodic or not. Getting both aspects is crucial. Too heavy and it’s boring and mindless; too melodic and you’ll be listening to an hour-long guitar solo over a Justin Bieber
backing track. I personally have a hard time listening to a lot of death metal because so much of it seems soulless and boring to me. Too many bands are too concerned with being the heaviest out there and forgetting the point of music. So, it’s an objective for me to bring some color into the genre and give the listener something inspiring to listen to. Mors Principium Est’s philosophy has always been to balance the scales of heaviness and beauty, and I’m proud of that.” With such a strong album behind them, is there any chance they’ll play some shows stateside? “Only in my head, but I’m really hoping it becomes a reality soon,” Gillion admits. “We have nothing yet confirmed, but we all want to tour the States. I’ll do it just for the food, man.” —ADRIEN BEGRAND
PHILL BERRIDGE
MORS PRINCIPIUM EST
LITURGY
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by Justin M. Norton
arl Simon remembers the last good time with the Gates of Slumber. The band was touring with Church of Misery in 2012 and gathered for a round of beers at the Rainbow in Los Angeles. Misery frontman Tatsu Mikami was interested in hosting Gates in Japan and embarking on a legitimate world tour—the kind of package more common in the ’70s than the new millennium. “It was phenomenal,” Simon says. “They were getting ready to start the process for their new record and we were going to join up with them again.”
Within weeks, the Gates of Slumber’s fate changed. Bassist Jason McCash’s heroin problem worsened. Drummer “Cool” Clyde Paradis quit after some disastrous gigs. And Simon struggled with alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamines. “The wheels started to come off the cart really bad,” Simon says from his home in Indianapolis. “We’d all been dabbling in various substances,” Simon recalls. “People were getting deeper into things than they should have, but it wasn’t touching the music. Then we went to the Days of the Doomed Fest. The show was a goddamn disaster. Drugs had other plans and everything got derailed. One of the real tragedies of my life is that the last Gates show was so abysmal.” The Gates of Slumber—one of the best doom bands to emerge in the past 20 years, releasing modern classics like Suffer No Guilt and Conqueror—made several aborted efforts to restart, but could never get on firm footing. McCash repeatedly tried to get clean, but died after an overdose in early 2014. Drummer “Iron” Bob Fouts—who returned to the band after Paradis left—also dealt with addiction; the drummer was the subject of an online campaign to raise money for his treatment in 2014. The only one left was Simon, and he was so weary from the experience of watching his closest friend lose a battle to addiction that he became a borderline recluse. Simon is trying to move on with a new project called Wretch, featuring original Gates drummer Chris Gordon. As the name betrays, the band isn’t a departure from doom metal or the sound of his last band: their four-track
demo closely follows the musical direction that Gates of Slumber took on The Wretch, released by Rise Above in 2011. Several songs were written for the next Gates album, and all of them were recorded on studio time Simon originally reserved for his old band. Two of the songs—“Drown” and “Icebound”—deal with addiction.
One of the real tragedies of my life is that the last Gates [of Slumber] show was so abysmal. KARL SIMON Simon and McCash became friends not long after high school. Both were misfits trying to find a place in the world and the metal scene. Throughout the years, Simon says, McCash worked on loading docks, often on mandatory overtime. Simon believes his friend’s troubles started when he hurt his back and knee, and self-medicated with Vicodin and Oxycontin. “Anyone can tell you that you can find synthetic opiates at these places,” he says. “I’m not going to say it was just the pain. There were a lot of factors. But I just don’t understand where his mind was a lot of times.” McCash never fully beat the disease. Simon says he had to squelch the idea of a Gates
reunion, worrying it kept McCash in a cycle of addiction. “There were a lot of heart-to-hearts and a lot of attempts,” he says. “Jason wanted to get clean and he kept trying, but the shit is really rough.” McCash died not long after another twomonth rehabilitation stay. Simon says he wasn’t talking to McCash as much when he heard unexpectedly from his family. “I got a call from his wife, and she said it was over,” Simon says, his voice halting. “He was in a rough part of Indianapolis and overdosed. And these people were cleaning the fucking house so they wouldn’t get busted when my buddy was dying. ”Drugs literally sucked his life from him,” Simon says. “His wife was telling me a few months ago that the last time she saw her husband for real was when he quit cold turkey. She said it was like some kind of weird spell had been lifted and he was back. And that’s the real problem with this shit— the only way to get away from it is to get away from it.” Simon says he was exhausted from the Gates of Slumber’s slow demise, but realized upon reflection that he still loved music. But there could be no Gates of Slumber without McCash; what made the band work was their interplay and ability to work collectively on songs. Writing with Wretch is also a different beast; Gates of Slumber tightened fully-formed songs in the studio, whereas Wretch jam ideas in practice until there is consensus. Simon, who has long worked as a club bouncer, has quit speed and cocaine and reduced his drinking. He’s opened for bands like Skeletonwitch and Manilla Road. The second part of his musical career feels uncannily like starting over. He’s hopeful a label will sign Wretch, and longs to see the country in a van again. If not, he will self-release their debut. “I woke up to the fact that I was not taking care of myself,” he says. “We lost our perspective as people. So, I had to drop certain situations and people from my life. Now I’m ready to do this.” A D E C I B E L : M A R C H 2 0 15 : 3 7
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CALL&RESPONSE
EXHUMED To celebrate his band’s tour with Napalm Death, Voivod and
Iron Reagan, we sent Exhumed frontman Matt Harvey seven tracks
from new-blood death metal bands. Here’s what our favorite Giants fan had to say about them (while wishing we’d just sent him a copy of the Grindcrusher comp). TRACK
01
Fallujah, “Starlit Path” from: The Flesh Prevails [THE SKINNY] Focus on the “talented dudes” part The build-up has some nice Steve DiGorgio-type bass, and the overall vibe kind of isn’t too far from Human-era Death before it goes into some pretty powerless and pointless blast beats that sound like the drummer is having a tantrum while the riff is going on. The whole intro sounds a little unfocused. Then, at about 2:09, the band starts actually playing. It’s... eh, I dunno. I know tons of people—our drummer Mike included—love this stuff, but I don’t get it. Stopstart riffs that don’t really go anywhere with a tiny, tiny-sounding drum kit. It’s like everything I didn’t like about black metal—washiness, ambience, unnecessary layering, symphonic bombast—but played by a proggy death metal band. Talented dudes, but… no thanks
TRACK
02
Unwilling Flesh, “Vanquished Daylight” from: Between the Living and the Dead [THE SKINNY] Flesh + light = good times After a very boring sample, we get some very throwback HM-2 death metal. I have a giant soft spot for this kind of stuff. This isn’t remarkable or anything, but I’d rather hear a serviceable version of Dismember or Unleashed than 90 percent of the “death metal” going around these days. I like how they keep the number of riffs to a minimum and have a good, clean structure to the song. Also props for the rock beat that kicks in just before the two-minute mark. What is there to say? It’s Swedish death metal (whether or not these guys are from Sweden or not, it doesn’t matter), and it’s well done. With a little more emphasis on hooks, these guys could be something pretty special.
TRACK
03
Artificial Brain, “Labyrinth Constellation” from: Labyrinth Constellation [THE SKINNY] Seeing (two and a half) stars The intro kind of reminds me of something from Rust in Peace that I can’t place, but didn’t particularly like back then, and it still sounds kinda wimpy now. By the time the whole band started playing, I was kind of drawn in, though. There’s something Demilich-esque with the vocals and the tension in the riffs that kind of sounds like it’s about to fall apart at any given moment, which is a vibe I’ve always liked. At about 2:35, I’ve finally heard something I might actually categorize as “heavy,” which is nice, but I don’t think that’s what they’re going for. The clean guitars reek of youthful pretentious ambition, which is kind of charming, but not really my thing anymore. But the outro is cool—very melancholic. I’d say, for me, it’s a mixed bag.
TRACK
04
Execration, “Morbid Dimensions” from: Morbid Dimensions [THE SKINNY] Morbidly obtuse The guitar tone is kind of cool—very Marshall. They’re using all six strings for riffs and chord voicings, which is interesting, but steers a bit too close to black metal for my taste. By the time the vocals finally come in, the riff is pretty eerie and dark. Pretty interesting vibes going on here. The longer this song goes on, the more I like it. Cool vocals with some real desperation and pain happening as well, which is a nice contrast from a lot of the super-brutal vocal stuff that I don’t really get into. By the time the blast beat comes back at around 4:20, we’re back to stuff that’s too black metal for my taste, but the next riff is pretty cool again. I wonder how representative this song is of their record. Worth investigating, for sure—obtuse in a mostly good way.
TRACK
05
Ghoulgotha, “Citadel of Heathen Flesh” from: The Deathmass Cloak [THE SKINNY] Dare we break out “long live the new flesh”? These guys definitely have all the early Paradise Lost, Pyogenesis and Prophecy of Doom stuff, judging by their intro. The whole thing sounds like it was recorded in a cave—in a good way. The “verse” riff with the rhythmic drumming is objectively pretty goofy, but I dig it. I like that I can actually make out the title in the song. So far, this is probably my favorite track. I kind of have a hard time believing this is a current release—it’s so ’92. I know quite a few old heads that would dig the hell out of this track, and that alone puts a smile on my face while listening to it.
TRACK
06
Dead Congregation, “Promulgation of the Fall” from: Promulgation of the Fall [THE SKINNY] Much more than a feeling The intro is more Neurosis than death metal, but still quite powerful and melancholy. Again, I was always more attracted to the speed aspect of death metal and grind, but the doom end, when it’s done right, still gets to me. My only complaint is that the whole tune sounds like a really long intro. It’s two minutes in and there’s not been a single vocal or true drum beat. The atmosphere is definitely dark as fuck, though. It manages to be melodic without getting too sappy or emotional. The divergent guitar lines that happen once the vocals (finally) kick in are cool, the way they sort of weave in and out of each other, vaguely Immolation-esque. Very cool shit.
TRACK
07
Nader Sadek, “Descent” from: The Malefic: Chapter III [THE SKINNY] Minority report I’m not really into this intro at all. It’s too produced, and a chord progression that’s been done to death— Minor 6 to Minor 1. Yawn. Then the vocals are kind of somewhere between brutal and hilarious. The synths and shit just get in the way of any kind of heaviness going on in this tune, and I wish they would just stop. The bass playing is kind of interesting; that’s the best bit about this tune so far. Over a minute and fifty seconds in and I’m still hearing this same chord progression. It’s like Tool meets Demilich or something. Then we finally get to the “brutal” part, and it’s just baseball-card-in-the-bicycle-spokes double bass drumming before more atmospheric overproduced shit. I swear they asked me what all of my least-favorite things are and then put them into one “death metal” song. A D E C I B E L : M A R C H 2 0 15 : 3 9
find a fitting home for their thunderous new album BY MATT SOLIS
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Torche have been somewhat of a journeyman band. After releasing their debut LP and a follow-up EP with Robotic Empire, the boys headed to Hydra Head for a four-year run that included 2008’s excellent (and Decibel best-of champ) Meanderthal before ending up with Volcom Entertainment for 2012’s Harmonicraft. Oh, and that’s not counting the slew of singles, demos and splits released on labels like Daymare and Rotting Chapel Propaganda. To put it in baseball terms, Torche are the Kenny Lofton of metal—solid as a rock, valuable on many levels and, for whatever reason, prone to bouncing around all over the fucking place. So, when Volcom announced they were “restructuring” their music division in 2013, no one was surprised that a homeless Torche were able to quickly get back on track with a little help from their friends—specifically their pals in Upper Darby, PA. “Relapse was actually interested a while back, but we ended up working with other labels,” says bassist Jonathan Nuñez. “When Volcom went down, it just came up between us. All our friends who’ve worked with Relapse had nothing but good things to say, so Steve [Brooks, guitars/vocals] threw out a line and said we were ready to start working on a new album. When we met with those guys, it was clear they had a driving interest and excitement about working with us. They’re a really dialed-in label, and they came up with a lot of cool things surrounding this record that we’re really looking forward to!” The record in question is Restarter, a clamorous slab of riff-driven sludge-pop that’s a welcome return to the “heavy Torche” sound that took a bit of a backseat on the upbeat Harmonicraft. That’s not to say the band has abandoned their penchant for energy—it’s well represented on tunes like “Loose Men” and “Blasted”—but for the majority of Restarter, Torche are more interested in exploring lurching, bomb string-laden grooves, face-crushing drums and vocal hooks that sound like Badmotorfinger-era Soundgarden and Blue Record-era Baroness smashed into one of those Telepods from The Fly. Restarter’s heavy-as-fuck character might seem like a purposeful move designed to smoothly assimilate with their extreme cohorts on their new label, but Nuñez says Torche wrote the
album using the same process they’ve been employing since 2004. “Much like our other records, nothing was pre-planned as far as what we wanted to do,” he asserts. “We all had ideas of songs that would be fun to write, but we didn’t necessarily try to make things heavier—that’s just how it turned out. The writing process was pretty quick; there wasn’t a lot of time to overanalyze things. Rick [Smith, drums] and I live in South Florida, Steve
in their ranks, they were able to do just that. “Being an engineer, I knew exactly how I wanted everything to sound, but sometimes that doesn’t happen—you get it close, but it’s not perfect,” says Nuñez. “But from the studio demos to the final master, everything just fell into place on this record. I’m really happy we were able to dial in such a detailed, saturated sound. It took some planning, but it feels great to have our music sound the way we intend others to hear it.” Torche’s sonic identity can be attributed to many things—Brooks’ and Elstner’s ultradetuned guitars and crystalline vocal harmonies, the lurking rumble of the bomb string—but one of the most overlooked aspects is Nuñez’s bass work, which is Kenny Lofton-esque in its utility. “Steve and Andrew play in drop A, but I actually play in standard tuning, which allows me to keep a warm, tight sound without having that nü-metal bass blob tone,” he explains. “To me, the bass in Torche is there to reinforce the guitars. I’m not one to overplay because I don’t want to distract the listener from the riffs. I’ll do some countermelodies here and there, but I never want to take away from the group effort.”
Much like our other records, nothing was pre-planned as far as what we wanted to do. We all had ideas of songs that would be fun to write, but we didn’t necessarily try to make things heavier—that’s just how it turned out. JONATHAN NUÑEZ lives in San Francisco and Andrew [Elstner, guitars/vocals] lives in Atlanta, so when we get together, we really have to get busy and put in some long days to crank out an album. But it worked out well, and we’re all pretty eager to get out there and play these songs live.” Nuñez’s eagerness is perfectly understandable—the colossal riffs in songs like “Minions,” “Barrier Hammer” and “Believe It” will undoubtedly satisfy scores of tone hounds when Torche hit the road in support of Restarter. Indeed, one of the band’s primary objectives on the album was to capture the intense power of their live show, and with a professional sound engineer
Torche’s group effort has come together mightily on Restarter, and the forthcoming rewards aren’t lost on Nuñez and his bandmates. “Being in a band is a package deal,” he says. “You put in the work, from writing and recording the songs to mixing and mastering to the pressing to the artwork, so when it’s time to go on tour, it’s a reward for everyone. You get to see everything that you’ve put so much effort into come to life, and it’s a great feeling. Honestly, I want to do it for the rest of my life. I don’t think it’ll ever get boring. I love playing music and I love equipment, so it’s the best combination of everything I love! If it makes any sort of noise, I’m there.” A D E C I B E L : M A R C H 2 0 15 : 41
QA
CRONOS W I T H
VENOM’S main man on old members, new music and hitting the gym interview by
j. bennett
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photos by
ester segarra
W
e’re on the horn with Cronos for about six minutes before he starts singing Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” to us. “Listen to the lyrics to that song—‘Get your motor running, head out on the highway, looking for adventure…’—that’s what heavy metal is about!” he enthuses. ¶ It’s difficult to argue with him. No point to it, either. There are very few people more qualified to define heavy metal than the artist formerly known as Conrad Lant—bassist, vocalist and co-founder of speed metal motherfuckers and black metal progenitors Venom. (Besides, the Steppenwolf tune does have that one line about “heavy metal thunder.”) Along with original members Mantas and Abaddon, Cronos created the two greatest satanic metal albums ever written—1981’s Welcome to Hell and 1982’s Black Metal—plus two of the most infamous singles (“In League With Satan” and “Bloodlust”) of the NWOBHM era. Though their wild cacophony and hyper-satanic stance might seem almost quaint by today’s animalblood-soaked standards, they were easily the most extreme band at the time, and can probably take most of the credit for spawning the likes of Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Slayer and possibly Bathory—not to mention a few Scandinavian arsonists we could name. Unburdened by history, they’ve just released their 14th album, From the Very Depths, though the current lineup features relatively new recruits Rage (guitars) and Dante (drums). Not that Cronos has changed one bit… Did you ever think Venom would make it to album number 14?
It’s fucking crazy, mate. Official album number 14, unofficial album number 300. [Laughs] The great thing about the new album is that it was written by the whole fuckin’ band. Once we got past the first few albums back in the day, I was pretty much writing all the material. Okay, great, I’m a songwriter, but I like the whole idea of a band, you know? I like having other guys that want to contribute to what you do. When Rage and Dante first came into the band, they were playing other people’s riffs and other people’s drumbeats, you know? When we did the Fallen Angels album [in 2011], they started contributing ideas. That makes them feel more like members of Venom, you know? And it’s the same with this one.
I’d hate to think I’d be in a hotel room one day pulling me Doc Martens on for a gig and go, ‘I can’t be bothered to do this today.’ That would destroy me, because this is the greatest job in the world. ideas for the live shows. It’s the first time in my career where we’re jamming together. The old Venom never did that.
You’ve had Rage and Dante in the band for about five years now, which is almost as long as the classic Venom lineup was together. How would you compare the old Venom with the new one?
Do you get along with Mantas and Abaddon better today than you did when they left Venom?
I’d say this is on a par with or better than the original lineup, because when we first put the band together, it was a bunch of guys who liked each other, who enjoyed playing together, and who were very productive together in writing material. Once the rot set in, it went downhill. This is the first lineup since then that I can honestly say likes playing together, likes being together, likes coming up with songs and new
Well, I don’t really have much to do with them. Good luck to them and whatever they’re doing. But I’ve got no ill will towards anyone who’s ever been in this band. I do think people have joined Venom for the wrong reasons. Maybe they thought within a week they’d be a millionaire sitting in a big house in Hollywood or something. When they learned it was a lot of hard work, it was a bit of a shock to them. But
this is the music business. It’s a job. I know we don’t like to look at it like that or call it that, but it is. I’d hate to think I’d be in a hotel room one day pulling me Doc Martens on for a gig and go, “I can’t be bothered to do this today,” like a grumpy old man or something. That would destroy me, because this is the greatest job in the world. I have tons of hobbies, tons of other things that I do in me life, but this has always been my everything. I love this music and I love this band. Do any past Venom members currently have any ill will towards you?
Absolutely. [Laughs] But it’s all water off a duck’s back. It’s of no issue to me. If somebody wants to say something to me face, well, I’ll deal with it. But just getting on Facebook and crying because they’re no longer in the band, I don’t care. Cry all you want. I wouldn’t wanna go through life being that negative. I’d rather spend my life being positive than crying about shit I can’t change. Early in Venom’s career, you had a singer named Clive who wore corpsepaint. Did the rest of you ever try it?
Yeah, for a laugh. We did a photo session in one of the flats where we lived, and we had this long fluorescent tube, and we all put white shit and black eyeliner on our face and held the tube up for the photos. We’ve been talking to one of the labels about putting out a new box set because I’ve got some old demos from ’79 that I wanted to release, so I thought I might put some of those photos in as well. They’re really bad quality, but people can get the gist. [Laughs] Whatever happened to Clive?
No idea. Nobody’s seen him for years and years. When it got to the point where I was taking over on the vocals, he was a really big man about it. He shook my hand, wished us all the best and moved on. It’s better when people do that instead of being all bitter and grumpy about it. You worked at Impulse Studios with a lot of the old Neat Records bands back in the day. What were the highlights and lowlights of that experience?
Impulse Studios was basically doing folk rock bands when I started, like the English version of country & western—Jethro Tull-type bands, but not as heavy. They were awesome musicians. I was the assistant engineer and tape operator, and I’d just sit in awe of these people creating this music. But the fact was the studio wasn’t doing too well with this type of bands. D E C I B E L : M A R C H 2 0 15 : 4 3
Passing the torch Cronos (c) carries on with new jacks Rage (l) and Dante (r)
Me being a young rocker, I started badgering the different labels that used the studio about heavy metal, but I always got told to fuck off. [Laughs] But when Iron Maiden hit the charts with “Sanctuary” and “Running Free,” I could point and say, “Look, heavy metal’s on the charts! It’s on the radio! It’s on the telly!” The guy who ran the label knew nothing about heavy metal, so he sent me on an A&R errand around the Newcastle area to see what was happening. I found the Tygers of Pan Tang. I found Raven, I found Spirit, Fist—all those bands—and that’s when Neat Records was born. I assistant-engineered and tape-operated all their early sessions. I’ve still got those recordings on cassette. You also started going to the gym in the early ’80s, which wasn’t a common practice in England at that time. What led you there?
We played this gig in Poperinge, Belgium, in ’82, and it was our first real gig out of the U.K. We really wanted to impress this European audience, so we started running around like lunatics, just going absolutely crazy. I remember about the third song in, I looked at the guitarist, like, “Man, I’m fucked!” And he looked back with the same expression, like, “Fuck me, this is hard!” So, after the show, I said, “Dude, if we’re gonna keep doing this, we gotta start seriously hitting the gym.” You don’t go from drinking in bars and fucking chicks in fucking nightclubs to running around for an hour and a half like a lunatic with a big, heavy instrument and shouting at the top of your lungs. 4 4 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
So, yeah, I’ve kept myself fit ever since. I don’t force myself—it’s just part of my life. I get up, I eat, I go to the gym. I think exercise keeps you really positive in life. As a species, we are only too keen to sit on the couch with the remote control and a beer. We’re our own worst enemy. There wasn’t really such a thing as “gym culture” back then, either. It was mostly just serious weightlifters. How have you seen things change?
There’s a lot less people who want to be Arnold Schwarzenegger and a lot more people who just wanna be fit. I spent a lot of my youth trying to pack on as much size as I could, but it gets to the point where you’re like, “Fuckin’ ’ell, I’m gonna kill myself doing this.” [Laughs] Now it’s more about keeping tone and fit, cardiovascular health and all that. But I encourage as many people as I can to get fit because it’s so easy to get unfit. People come up with excuses about how they don’t feel well or the weather’s shit, but I go to the gym even if I don’t feel like going. It’s just something I do. You’re the only original member of Venom left. Do you feel like the last man standing?
I know what you mean, but it doesn’t really feel like that because of the fans. We’ve had fans that have stuck by us forever. The band has just kept perpetuating itself, even though there were a few patches where Venom didn’t really exist for a short while. But there’s always been a need to keep it going and hold the candle up. So, I don’t
really feel like the last member, especially with the current lineup. Rage and Dante have got such an excellent vision for tomorrow, and they bring so much to the band. They’re also eager to have as much knowledge as they can about the way the band was and the earlier songs. They’re constantly badgering me about some of the more obscure older songs, so if a fan asks for it, we can play it. Just the other day we started going through “Manitou.” [Laughs] And it sounded fuckin’ great. So, as long as Venom feels healthy, I don’t feel lonely. Has anyone ever approached you about doing a Venom movie, either a documentary or an actual feature film with actors playing the band?
That would be interesting. I did have an idea a few years ago about doing a sort of proper history of the band, but because there isn’t so much video footage of the early days, getting some young actors in to re-create certain scenes. But if I was gonna do something like that, I’d really want the input of the original guys. It wouldn’t be right if they didn’t appear. If it didn’t have interviews with Mantas and Abaddon, it wouldn’t be a real history of Venom, would it? But I don’t know how reluctant or willing they are to do that. Who would you want to play you?
Wow. [Laughs] That’s really difficult. I have to admit I haven’t given it that much thought. I haven’t watched a movie and thought, “Hey! He would make a really great me!” A
D E C I B E L : M A R C H 2 0 15 : 4 5
THE ALMO ST HALL of FAME S
We explain why 20 no-doubter Decibel Hall of Fames haven’t happened… yet We have a Hall of Fame FAQ online, and you guys must know the drill by now, but for posterity’s sake, here’s the verbatim answer (emphasis mine) to “What are the criteria for induction?”: “The record must be at least five years old. It must be considered an ‘extreme music classic,’ as determined by Decibel’s staff. Decibel must interview every band member who played on the recording, and present each of them questions exclusively about the writing, recording, touring and overall impact of said album.” That’s usually the big hold-up as to why your favorite record isn’t in there. Until now, we’ve only hinted here and there in blog posts at the stories behind our most egregious nocturnal omissions. Well, fuck that noise. It’s time to pass the buck and spill the beans. We’re just as frustrated as you to not share the inside scoop on classics by Judas Priest, Deicide, Kreator, Faith No More and other legendary extreme music artists. Hopefully the offending parties will read this piece and be shamed into participating. We’re selfish assholes that way. But we’re selfish assholes for you. —ANDREW BONAZELLI
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GODFLESH
W
e can understand how taking a retrospective peek at an album originally released 25 years ago can slip ‘n’ slide down the rungs of the priority ladder for some of these artists, especially for those who haven’t stopped being musically active and productive the entire TITLE: Streetcleaner time since. Why bother take the time out of your day to geek out over ancient history when your band has more LABEL/YEAR: Earache (1989) recent releases in the racks to worry about promoting? Godflesh are back on active duty after a 13-year hiatus, and 2014 saw them hit with two releases, the Decline & Fall EP and the A World Lit Only by Fire full-length. Justin Broadrick’s Jesu is still a working outfit and, additionally, he’s running his Avalanche Recordings label and a recording studio, neither of which are the sorts of jobs you can clock in at and spend three-quarters of your day playing Minecraft and snooping around on OK Cupid. But if you look at recent events, in which Broadrick and G.C. Green spoke
with our own J. Bennett for issue #118’s cover story, it’s clear the duo has no problem taking the time to chat, even about the embarrassing homemaking details of their early, pre-Godflesh lives together. It then becomes clear that Broadrick and Green aren’t the ones standing in the way of Streetcleaner being admitted into the Hall; that lies firmly in the non-compliant hands of ex-guitarist Paul Neville. Neville may have only played guitar on the album’s B-side tracks, but the rules dictated by Fearless Leader Mudrian state that in order to get a complete picture of any Hall of Fame record in question, everyone who performed on said album needs to be heard from. Broadrick has reported that, before losing contact with Neville, he floated the idea of participating in a Streetcleaner HOF, but Neville’s attitude was consistently that of, “What’s in it for me?” Then again, if you think about the number of bad contracts, label horror stories, shitty (if any) royalty rates and publishing rights sell-offs we’ve heard about over the years (including in a number of HOF stories!), maybe we can sympathize with Neville’s stance, regardless of how frustrating it is for fans and readers alike. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO CHANCE FOR INDUCTION: 75% if we launch a Kickstarter for five quid today!
POSSESSED
RUSH
BLACK FLAG
Seven Churches
2112 and Moving Pictures
Anything with Rollins
COMBAT (1995)
ANTHEM (1976 AND 1981)
SST (1981-1985)
While it would undoubtedly be a great coup to land the band whose 1984 demo gave name to one of metal’s most recognizable subgenres (um, that’s Death Metal, if you’re keeping score), it’s looking like this is one Hall of Fame story that will never happen. Anecdotal band history would lead one to believe that founding guitarist Mike Torrao’s gristly personality, compounded by the falling out the original roster had during the creation of The Eyes of Horror, are what’s standing in the way. Nope. Ultimately, Seven Churches’ non-appearance comes down to guitarist Larry LaLonde being too busy with chocolate factories, Claymation videos and goofy costumes to care. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO
This one’s a bit puzzling. Not because of the lack of extremity involved (as Dave Witte once revealed after attending a Rush show a few years back, “I’d never seen so many metal dudes air drumming in my life!”), but considering the number of biographies and video retrospectives about the band out there, not to mention 2015 being the 15th year of their annual RushCon celebration, it’s obvious the trio isn’t averse to looking back. The stonewalling appears to be coming from the band’s management, as they continue to sweep our repeated attempts under the rug. One would hope they’ve at least been politely Canadian about their rebuking.
It’s no secret that Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn has alienated numerous (read: pretty much all) former bandmates over the years. As the sole owner of the band’s label, SST, he had a unique position within Black Flag. When the idea to induct My War into the Hall of Fame was broached, we only needed to chase down Ginn (who also played bass on the album), drummer Bill Stevenson and vocalist Henry Rollins. Ginn and Stevenson were gung-ho without any arm-twisting or negotiating. With Rollins, we had to go through a publicist. The response? An unequivocal “never gonna happen.” —ADEM TEPEDELEN
CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
our name is mud.
40%. As of now,
CHANCE FOR INDUCTION: 20%. An End of Silence HOF
exists, Hank. Come on.
—KEVIN STEWART-PANKO CHANCE FOR INDUCTION: 60%. We’ve fought through
tougher publicity roadblocks. D E C I B E L : M A R C H 2 0 15 : 47
THE ALMO ST HALL of FAME S
DANZIG
TITLE:
Danzig
LABEL/YEAR:
Def American (1988)
I
f you’ve been reading Decibel since, oh, about August of 2010, you know that Glenn Danzig hates us with a fiery, possibly litigious passion. Not necessarily because we asked him questions about where he stole the Misfits’ Crimson Ghost from (a 1946 film serial) or where he stole the Danzig skull from (a 1983 Marvel comic) or even because we tried to give him a copy of the hilariously homoerotic Henry & Glenn Forever in his own house—although none of that probably helped. Believe it or not, those aren’t the only reasons the Danzig Hall of Fame isn’t happening. We’d actually contacted Evil Elvis about it maybe a year or two before our 2010 cover story outed him, once and for all, as a cranky old prick. (It’s worth noting that we’d interviewed him several times before—including when we met up with him just a month or so after the infamous North Side Kings punchout of 2004—and he was a totally nice guy.) At first, the artist formerly known as Glenn Anzalone was really into the idea of inducting Danzig’s classic 1988 debut into Decibel’s hallowed hall. But when he learned that we’d have to get guitarist John Christ, bassist Eerie Von and drummer Chuck Biscuits on the horn as well, he pulled out hard and fast. Which was a huge bummer, because Von had already agreed to talk, and we’d managed to track Biscuits down through social media (not that he ever responded—but that’s another
story). And though we’d still love to make this particular Hall of Fame feature a reality—we suspect we could get in touch with John Christ no sweat these days—we’re also roughly 1,000 percent positive that Glenn would still never go for it. Not just because of all the foregoing, but because any discussion about Danzig’s self-titled banger would necessitate questions about yet another thing Glenn stole: the song “The Hunter,” written by Booker T and the M.G.s, originally performed by bluesman Albert King (later by Blue Cheer, Free, Ike and Tina Turner, etc.), and yet credited in the album’s liner notes solely to Glenn Danzig. —J. BENNETT CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
North Side Kings remain
undefeated.
BLACK SABBATH
CANDLEMASS
IMMOLATION
Any of the first six LPs
Epicus Doomicus Metallicus
Dawn of Possession
VARIOUS LABELS (1970-1975)
BLACK DRAGON (1986)
R/C (1991)
Yeah, we know, it’s an outrage that only one Black Sabbath album— Heaven and Hell—has been enshrined in the Hall of Fame. Considering the fact that Bill Ward, Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler were all too willing to speak to us for that one, you can do the math regarding who’s holding out. Maybe it’s our refusal to let Ozz use a teleprompter during the interview, or our insistence that an interpreter be present that has resulted in the repeated rebuffs of our interview requests from management. Anyone down for a Born Again HOF? We hear Ian Gillan’s not too busy.
When Decibel inducted Candlemass’s Nightfall into the Hall of Fame, doom metallers scratched their collective unwashed heads in slow motion. Make no mistake. Nightfall’s a fantastic record, but album number two before groundbreaking debut, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus? Certainly, the outside view was that we had lost our little minds, but the reality was drummer Mats Ekström had vanished. Candlemass founding members Leif Edling and Mats Björkman don’t know if he’s behind the grill in a falafel cart in downtown Stockholm or living the high life in a castle in Uppland. —CHRIS DICK
Whatever form of ugly transpired between exImmolation guitarist Tom Wilkinson and the rest of the band in the early aughts, we’ll never know. Even ex-drummer Craig Smilowski wouldn’t bridge the gap for Decibel. We tried to locate Wilkinson on our own, using common and uncommon sleuthing tactics. No luck. That directly translates to no Hall of Fame for debut album, Dawn of Possession. Ever. If you’ve wondered why Incantation, Suffocation and other death metal greats break bread together in the Hall, while Immolation are suspiciously absent, well, now you know. As much as Dawn of Possession is respected and revered, there will be no red letter day for Immolation. —CHRIS DICK
—ADEM TEPEDELEN
15%. We’d say 5%, but Ozzy will be around another 40 years. CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
4 8 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
50%. Cue boogie version of Unsolved Mysteries theme. CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
50%. Cue DM version of Unsolved Mysteries theme. CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
diSEMBOWELMENT Transcendence Into the Peripheral RELAPSE (1993)
The liner notes contained the phrase: “For we will not pass this way again.” The doom-soaked, ethereal grind quintet was rumored to have already broken up when Transcendence hit the shelves in 1993, and indeed, this turned out to be a farewell from founding guitarist/vocalist Renato Gallina, announcing not only the end of the band, but also an end to all discussion surrounding his days in diSEMBOWELMENT. Though remaining members Paul Mazziotta, Matthew Skarajew and Jason Kells agreed to talk to Decibel for the Hall of Fame, Gallina repeatedly turned down requests for an interview, opting instead to focus on his award-winning work as a graphic designer and lecturer at a prestigious Australian university. Though co-disembowelers Mazziotta and Skarajew continue to carry the ethereal gloom/grind torch under the Inverloch name, Gallina’s hesitation in looking backwards has spelled demise for Transcendence’s inclusion in our Hall of Fame series. —SCOTT KOERBER CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
15%. fEELING pESSIMISTIC.
HONOR
SYSTEM
Editor-in-Chief Albert Mudrian reminisces on HOF ups and downs When you launched Decibel, was the HOF idea just a way to get Slayer mentioned on the cover? ALBERT MUDRIAN: It was an idea that had for a little while. But when you’re putting issue one together and you only have so much pull to get certain things like that done, it was something I thought we’d only do every once in a while. Between the first four issues of the magazine, there’s only one Hall of Fame. Reign in Blood is in issue two—and I think the only way we were able to swing that so easily was because Slayer were promoting their [Still Reigning] DVD where they were playing [Reign in Blood] in its entirety. At what point did you realize it was something you wanted to do in each issue?
JUDAS PRIEST Painkiller COLUMBIA (1990)
One of the most recognizable absences from the Hall of Fame, Judas Priest have repeatedly declined to participate. Despite Decibel’s several attempts during K.K. Downing’s tenure—and displaying our moral fiber by not selecting a release featuring drummer/convicted sexual predator Dave Holland— the Priest camp still stubbornly maintains that their focus is entirely dedicated to the future. That’s understandable when they’re releasing formidable albums like 2014’s Redeemer of Souls, but leather enthusiasts and heshers can agree: Painkiller—and its cover’s winged knight of the “Hell Patrol” triumphantly dry-humping the seat of a speeding buzzsaw-tired dragoncycle—belongs in our goddamn Hall of Fame. —SEAN FRASIER CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
25%. Old people get nostalgic eventually.
Slayer one is the shortest by far, because the format wasn’t established at that time—and in all honesty, the first issues were a little slim because the ad revenue wasn’t there. There just wasn’t that much space when you have a page count to work with. I mean, you know how this works: It’s essentially a magazine that’s driven by new releases. So, to find six, seven, sometimes eight pages for something that’s not a new release was difficult. But after the second one in issue five, the Slaughter of the Soul one, we decided to make it a regular feature.
Eagles’ run to the Super Bowl—and I literally remember interviewing Igor Cavalera either the day of or before the NFC Championship Game, and I couldn’t drink until after. But it was a misstep because I calculated the influence of Sepultura at that moment with Roots being more important than the overall picture. That’s sort of why in issue 100 we decided to induct Beneath the Remains, because I felt 100 was a fresh start and we can start doing multiple entries for the same band. So, now we have two Sepultura records in the Hall of Fame, neither of which is my favorite of theirs—that’s Arise.
What HOF album has been the most controversial induction? AM: It’s usually the ones that step outside of the purist bullshit of “that’s not metal” that grabs that attention. Examples being Failure; we got some shit for Bad Religion’s Suffer; we got some shit for Floor. A lot of people said, “Who is this band? You don’t have Judas Priest in the Hall of Fame, but you have Floor?” The one that, at the end of the day, is the most controversial or most often cited as “you fucked up” is Sepultura’s Roots, which was my doing completely and one of my early missteps editing the magazine. It was the third induction, and I was writing it in late 2004—during the
What are the most popular requests for the HOF that meet criteria, but will likely never be inducted? AM: There are a couple that are white whales. Neurosis is one of them. With Bolt Thrower, the white whale is Andy Whale, the old drummer who I’ve actually traded emails with, but just doesn’t see the point. To this day, I don’t think he totally gets the concept of all of this. He’s friends with Shane Embury, and I think if I got in the same room with him I might be able to work it out, but the rest of Bolt Thrower are such apathetic wild cards that even if that worked out, I’m sure something else would pop up that would stop it from happening. —SEAN FRASIER
AM: Fairly immediately after the first one. The
D E C I B E L : M A R C H 2 0 15 : 4 9
THE ALMO ST HALL of FAME S
GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN Ten Hall of Fames we would have rabidly pursued if everyone were still with us
1 DEATH, Leprosy
6 MAYHEM, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
2 PANTERA, Vulgar Display of Power
7 BATHORY, Under the Sign of the Black Mark
3 METALLICA, Ride the Lightning
8 CONFESSOR, Condemned
4 DIO, Holy Diver
9 DISSECTION, The Somberlain
5 TERRORIZER, World Downfall
10 VOIVOD, Killing Technology
HELMET Meantime INTERSCOPE (1992)
Got a copy of the September 2006 issue? Unearth on the cover, Rollins Band HOF? That’s as close as you’re gonna get to the inside story on the latter band’s one-time tourmates Helmet, and their major label breakthrough Meantime. Yours truly has tried again and again over the duration of Decibel’s existence to get all four members together to discuss this insanely influential (sometimes even in a good way!) chunk of savage, staccato dropD minimalism. Frontman Page Hamilton very kindly helped out with that issue’s all-too-brief one-man Q&A, and Aussie guitarist Peter Mengede would talk to us, but bassist Henry Bogdan and drummer John Stanier are just not interested. Seriously, I try to check in every couple years, and have not broken them down. There’s juicy behindthe-scenes acrimony here, for sure, but we’d rather just talk about that unfuckwithable 35 minutes and 36 seconds, guys. —ANDREW BONAZELLI CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
15%. This has turned
out, wasted time.
WINTER Into Darkness FUTURE SHOCK (1990)
FAITH NO MORE Angel Dust SLASH (1992)
One of the greatest acts of commercial suicide in history, Angel Dust was Faith No More at their most experimental (which is saying a lot for this band) and confrontational (check out their three-song ’92 Hangin’ With MTV set on YouTube). Albert originally embarked on the HOF quest himself, setting up interviews with Mike Patton, Mike Bordin, Roddy Bottum and Billy Gould, before learning that axeman Jim Martin was more enthused about “champion pumpkin farming” than discussing his final album with the gonzo Bay Area quintet. A U.K. FNM fan club scored an exclusive Q&A with Martin two years ago, but he has yet to respond to our multiple inquiries on an Angel Dust HOF, including one sent just last month to his family’s property management business in Hayward, CA (thank you, super sleuth Nick Green). Maybe the next request should come from Linus Van Pelt… —ANDREW BONAZELLI CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
35%. Wants cut of Golden Gods action first.
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Twenty-five years ago, this album’s glacial tempo was met with near-universal indifference by the generation of speed-obsessed death metallers to whom Into Darkness was misguidedly marketed. This also proved a hard pill to swallow for the drummers that bassist/vocalist John Alman and guitarist Stefan Flam were courting in 1989 after co-founding sticksman Joe Goncalves departed. The search was fruitless, but the band did manage to find an adventurous thrash percussionist willing to lay down drum tracks for Into Darkness before executing his own hasty departure. When the record finally saw official release, the album listed demo-era drummer Goncalves (rather than the guy who actually performed on the record), leaving us one interview shy of our strict HOF guidelines. Fear not, though: word on the street says an exhaustive book on death/doom’s formative late ’80s/early ’90s heyday is imminent, and promises an obsessive exploration of this enigmatic album based on testimony from remaining band members. —SCOTT KOERBER CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
20%. Coldness has prevailed.
D
ecibel first explored inducting Deicide’s Legion into the Hall. After much internal discussion (and with sound council from an ex-Roadrunner comrade), we settled on the self-titled debut. It made perfect sense. Easily the scariest and most confrontational record death metal record of the Golden Era, Deicide influenced a veritable horde of bands aching to top the Floridians in brutality, speed and anti-Christian TITLE: Deicide message. There were no peers to Deicide, however. We started down the typical path with Deicide: label LABEL/YEAR: R/C (1990) representatives past and present were contacted, interest was gauged, inter-member relationship complexities were understood, and outreach commenced. Decibel was, mildly put, stoked to learn about “Lunatic of God’s Creation,” “Dead by Dawn” and “Crucifixation.” Their infamous contract proposal at Roadrunner Records. We wanted to hear about Deicide’s studio work with producer Scott Burns. And how they settled on the eerie cover art. In short, Deicide and the Hall of Fame were ready to “levitate through the secret and ancient doors” together. Or so we thought. We quickly learned that Deicide’s self-titled wouldn’t be without complications. Head demon Glen Benton wanted zero part in a story that included ex-Deicide guitar players Eric
DEICIDE
and Brian Hoffman. In an email to Decibel in July 2009, Benton stated that he didn’t want to share magazine space with the Hoffmans. Four minutes later, Benton replied, CC-ing his attorney Kevin Astl, who was once the drummer for underground death metallers Epitaph. Benton’s position, using choice words, was that the Hoffmans weren’t above slander and defamation. A mere three minutes after Benton’s email, Astl explained Benton (and drummer Steve Asheim’s) stance on the matter, only allowing us to publish our interviews (which hadn’t taken place) after they went through revision by Benton and Astl. Before we could agree to terms, we had to contact the Hoffmans. They were contacted and agreed to be professional, yet candid with Decibel. In August 2009, we reached out to Benton, Asheim and Astl about continuing with the induction. Two days after our missive to Benton— beaming with positivity—he, with Asheim and Astl on CC, threatened to “sue all involved.” Needless to say, the escalation was absolutely ludicrous and completely inane. Which is why, of course, Deicide will never enter the Hall of Fame. —CHRIS DICK CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
Same chances of
God existing.
BOLT THROWER Realm of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness) EARACHE (1989)
Every two years, Decibel willfully hits its head against the wall. Hard. Inspired by some semblance of Bolt Thrower-related activity—like an appearance at Maryland Deathfest—we yet again embark on quest insane to induct death metal pillar Realm of Chaos. We always know what the answer will be—usually a polite-but-inexplicable “No” from bassist Jo Bench to crickets from exdrummer Andy Whale—but we can’t help ourselves. It’s borderline pathological. Certainly, the death metal gods have cursed us where it concerns Realm of Chaos. That unfortunately means we’ll never tell the story behind “World Eater,” the killer Games Workshop cover art, marketing death metal to Warhammer 40K fanboys, or why “Prophet of Hatred” was a CD-only bonus track. —CHRIS DICK CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
25%. More like Realm of Apathy. D E C I B E L : M A R C H 2 0 15 : 5 1
IRON MAIDEN
THE ALMO ST HALL of FAME S
Powerslave or Somewhere in Time (1984 AND 1986)
Longtime readers know about our June 2008 cover story on the making of Iron Maiden’s classic Live After Death double-LP. What they don’t know is that it was originally intended to be the first (and only) live album inducted into the HOF. Maiden manager Rod Smallwood couldn’t grant us time with each of the fab five who demolished Long Beach Arena in 1985, assuring me that we had “more than enough to work with” for our story. Still, the “Sheriff of Huddersfield” has always been supportive of Decibel, so you might yet get the chance to complain that we choose to honor something other than Piece of Mind. —ALBERT MUDRIAN CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
MIND GAMES of THRONES Behind the scenes on three memorable hard-to-get Hall of Fames
Darkthrone, Transilvanian Hunger
Pestilence, Consuming Impulse
MUDRIAN: We recently ran a Darkthrone cover
MUDRIAN: One of my favorite P.I. stories was from a few years ago when I greenlighted a Pestilence, Consuming Impulse piece. Of course, three of the four guys are easy to find because two of them were still in Pestilence, and [Martin] van Drunen was fronting Asphyx. But Marco [Foddis]—the old drummer—was nowhere to be found. There were rumors that someone saw him at the mall, but nobody could talk to him or something. Then we heard he was coaching some youth soccer team in the Netherlands and [Decibel writer] Chris Dick emailed the director of the entire league. Dead end after dead end, nothing. None of the scene guys from the Netherlands had heard anything about him—Stephan [Gebédi] from Thanatos, Bob [Bagchus] from Asphyx—people who’d been around for fucking forever. So, Chris thought it would be funny to make a post on the Deciblog that was just titled “Paging Marco [Foddis].” It was basically like, “Hey, if anyone knows where this guy is, please tell him to get in touch, we’re trying to complete this piece and nobody can find him.” So, six months go by and Chris gets an email from Marco saying, “Hey, I heard you were looking for me? I Googled my name and this is the first result that came up.” So, Marco’s self-Googling directly lead to the completion of the Consuming Impulse Hall of Fame.
story and I was simultaneously finishing up work on the Precious Metal book, and I wanted to do a bonus Hall of Fame that wasn’t available in the magazine. So, I thought Transilvanian Hunger would be a great one because it’s only two dudes and they’re both really interesting, and they bounce off each other so well. So, I went to Fenriz and said, “Hey man, would you be up for this interview?” And at first he said, “No, honestly I don’t have anything to say about that record. It was just something that came to me in a two-week period, and it was out of my system and then it was gone forever for me.” Then he just started emailing me every day for like a week, basically telling me things about the record. He said he was thinking about it and it was interesting how he went from Valhall— the doom band he was playing drums in—and [Darkthrone] only happened because [Valhall] were rehearsing at his house and had all this equipment around. Every day it was a new story. So, I told him, “You’re telling me all these great stories about this record—you might have more to say than you think you do.” And he was like “Yeah, you know, you’re right.” So, I interviewed him and the transcription is like 10,000 words long—from the guy who had nothing to say about the record. I’m not sure if that was me persuading him, or just Fenriz simply talking himself into doing it.
5 2 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
66.6%
Metallica, …And Justice for All MUDRIAN: I decided to put Metallica on the cover of our 50th issue, and said, “Let’s not talk about their horrible new music; let’s just talk about the last great thing they did”—which was …And Justice for All. Being friendly with the publicist of the band, I gave him advance notice and said, “Let’s get this done over a few months—I’ll get a hold of Jason Newsted, you get the other three.” He got Lars no problem, got Kirk no problem, and I got Newsted. Then all of a sudden, James Hetfield is just AWOL. I’m not sure what happened, but he wouldn’t pick up the phone, he wouldn’t talk to anybody, not even his management. So, we pushed it and pushed it, and it was our 50th issue—at the time, I was trying to make a big deal out of surviving that long—and I didn’t have a back-up plan. I put all my eggs in this basket and had to figure out how to make it happen. The publicist was longtime friends with David Fricke—the old Rolling Stone editor—and Fricke interviewed Metallica for this huge piece in ’88 when …And Justice for All came out. In the rock journalism world, David Fricke is a pretty big deal. I mean, I knew who he was. He was a talking head I saw on VH1 all the time; he’s like the 15th Ramone or something. So, David said, “Hey, I have the original transcripts here, and I could fax them over to you, because they’re just printouts. If there are Hetfield quotes you can use about the record, just use them and credit me as co-writer of the story.” And I was just like, “You’re amazing, dude.” He didn’t have to do that. He didn’t want any money; he just wanted a copy of the issue. I later told him, “You know, man, when I was 13, I owned a copy of The Def Leppard Story—Animal Instinct biography that you wrote, and I still have it.” I think it semi-embarrassed him, but he was super cool about it. —SEAN FRASIER
NEUROSIS Souls at Zero, Enemy of the Sun, Through Silver in Blood or Times of Grace (1992-1999)
Like a biennial plant, which blooms in its second year and promptly dies, so too are my regular requests for and subsequent denial of interviews for a Neurosis Hall of Fame story. Not that Oakland’s greatest music export (suck it, Rogue Wave) are unreachable. It’s just that many years ago they agreed that only Steve Von Till and Scott Kelly would represent their genre-defining vision via interviews. Never say never, but the only way I see the rest of those dudes acquiescing to my requests is if I fly to Oakland and kill the brain of zombie Al Davis myself. —ALBERT MUDRIAN CHANCE FOR INDUCTION: Equal to Raiders 2015 playoff chances
ULVER Bergtatt: Et Eeventyr i 5 Capitler HEAD NOT FOUND (1995)
The pinnacle of folk metal, Ulver’s debut Bergtatt: Et Eeventyr i 5 Capitler, is likely to never find its way into the great Hall due to the frosty relationship between frontman Kristoffer “Garm” Rygg and ex-drummer Erik “AiwarikiaR” Olivier Lancelot. The two Norwegians had a “falling out,” as Rygg puts it to Decibel, and they’ve not spoken to one another since. Never able to take “no” for an answer, we put up an APB on the Deciblog, hoping the Internet’s penetrating winds would lead us in his direction or—at the very least—Lancelot would Google himself. Alas, like SETI, we’re still waiting for first contact. —CHRIS DICK CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
10%. The induction
is Rygged
SUICIDAL TENDENCIES Suicidal Tendencies FRONTIER (1983)
KREATOR
W
hen we talk about Almost Hall of Fames, few fit the bill better than Kreator’s Pleasure to Kill. As one of the crowning achievements of TITLE: Pleasure to Kill Teutonic thrash, it was a given that we were going to make a full-court press on this one. So, LABEL/YEAR: Noise (1986) let’s rewind four years for the full story. We got original members, guitarist/vocalist Mille Petrozza and drummer/vocalist Jürgen “Ventor” Reil on board from the start, but were having trouble tracking down then-bassist Roberto “Rob” Fioretti. Through the combined powers of the band’s label and management, as well as Petrozza himself, we managed to not only find Fioretti on Facebook (where he has a couple Kreator-related pics up), but also obtain what was purported to be his cell phone number. After an exclamatory “Fuck yeah!” yours truly took the time difference between the east coast and Essen, Germany, where Fioretti lives, into account and called him up. After a frustratingly hilarious conversation with an elderly German woman who spoke absolutely no English, but understood “Roberto? Here?” the phone (which I quickly realized wasn’t Fioretti’s cell) was passed to a younger female relative. Her English was a bit better—and when I say a bit, I mean a bit—and she gave me another number. After a few tries of the second number, I eventually got in touch with Rob on a Saturday afternoon. Petrozza warned us that his former bass player’s English wasn’t the hottest, and had probably slipped a few notches since being out of the band and no longer touring. Yes, our conversation was a bit clunky, but decipherable enough, and things were looking up. However, as I had got a hold of Rob during a family function, which could be heard raging in the background, he and I agreed on a later day and time for the HOF interview. He even signed off by saying, “I’m looking forward to it.” And as you can tell by the lack of Kreator-related content in our Hall, that conversation never took place. He never picked up and, in fact, that was the last any of us heard from Fioretti. Both his and his wife’s Facebook profiles are still up and active, so thankfully at least, we know he’s not dead or rotting somewhere. Unlike the Pleasure to Kill piece. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO
CHANCE FOR INDUCTION:
20%. English isn’t our strong suit either.
I grew up listening to rap music, but even I knew that Suicidal Tendencies was dope. I’m a huge fan of the Rocky George era of the band, too, but the first Suicidal record is just so fucking perfect. When the Decibel Hall of Fame was getting off the ground, that’s one of the first records we talked about wanting to induct, and if things went according to plan (they never do), you’d have seen it within the first year of publication. At that point, all of the ex-members were playing songs from the first album in a band called AgainST, so I figured it wouldn’t be a problem. I hit up former bass player Grant Estes through Myspace first. Lovely guy; he wrote me back from a cruise ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I also traded a bunch of phone calls with guitarist Louiche Mayorga, who was so nice that he once returned one of my calls from the waiting room of a hospital while his sister was having surgery. Still, the word on the street was that Mike Muir hated all former members of the band, so I sent a polite email to his publicist and received a quick and pithy response: “Mike Muir doesn’t want to talk about any former incarnation of the band.” Try to wrap your head around this: A guy who has spent the better part of the last decade systematically revisiting and re-recording his band’s entire back catalogue doesn’t want to talk about the past. All I wanted was an interview, just one interview, and he wouldn’t give it to me. —NICK GREEN CHANCE FOR INDUCTION: Same chances of Watermelon Pepsi taking off. A D E C I B E L : M A R C H 2 0 15 : 5 3
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INSTALLMENT No.____ IN A SERIES EXPLORING LANDMARK ALBUMS IN THE BADASS PANTHEON OF EXTREME METAL
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story by nick green
Memories Can't Wait
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the making of Living Colour’s Vivid
ew York City was a creative nexus in playing in other bands, but at the heart of it, the mid-to-late ’80s. Art and fashion they just wanted to rock out. All of these guys swelled up from the underground and had experienced such an intense degree of converged into an amazingly vibrant alienation in their own lives that they simply and unified expression of culture. For filtered that collective frustration into making cutting-edge music, it was the place to be: ground what, ironically, came across as an incredibly zero for punk, jazz, funk, rap, avant garde and warm and all-inclusive record. furious collisions of all of those styles. New York The idea of four black guys speaking their City was also a genuinely seedy and dangerous truth in such a serious and sober fashion was DBHOF121 place, too. Crack cocaine swept the landscape not an easy pill for people to swallow, especially in ’86; the AIDS crisis was in full swing; urban considering the racial climate in America in Vivid blight and homelessness went virtually ignored the 1980s. But Living Colour really excelled in EPIC by the powers that be; and violent crime was at a live context, where they were just as comfortMAY 3, 1988 an all-time high. Memories from that from era able playing with Bad Brains and Circle Jerks Metal/jazz/rock hybrid have largely faded from view, but Living Colour’s as opening for Robert Palmer and the Rolling knows your anger Vivid—one of the more unlikely success stories of Stones. Of course, “Cult of Personality” preand dreams 1988—continues to paint an indelible portrait of sented an easy pathway to capturing hearts a time when everything seemed pregnant with and minds; its charms remain undeniable. But possibility, but also fraught with peril. hooks and melodies and universal themes abound on Vivid, from Living Colour were not the first artists of color to present the crestfallen country swing of “Broken Hearts” to stark socioidioms from other genres in a largely rock context, but they political commentary splayed out against a backdrop of funkwere the first band—to paraphrase the Malcolm X sample at metal and power ballads, like “Funny Vibe” and “Open Letter the beginning of “Cult of Personality”—to talk right down to (to a Landlord).” According to Skillings, the band’s main aim Earth in a language that everybody could easily understand. with Vivid was to create something “100 percent original and not Guitarist Vernon Reid, singer Corey Glover, drummer Will bite anyone’s style.” While Ronald Reagan was begging Mikhail Calhoun and bassist Muzz Skillings were all virtuosic musi- Gorbachev to open gates and tear down walls, Living Colour cians with a wide swath of formal training and experience were already doing that back home in America.
Living Colour
Starting in 1984, Vernon Reid played with a dozen different musicians under the “Living Colour” moniker. How did the classic Living Colour lineup begin to coalesce? VERNON REID: I was splitting my time between my parents’ house and a loft in Bushwick. Location-wise, it was perfect, because it was a straight shot down Broadway to get to CBGB’s. But it was also in the middle of the ’hood. We always knew when a song was good, though— we’d hear applause from the street. A bunch of different musicians cycled through the band, but the chemistry wasn’t there, or the timing wasn’t right, or they left for paying gigs. The first semistable lineup was with a bass player named Carl James and a drummer named J.T. Lewis. Corey joined because I was very self-conscious about singing, and Living Colour really started to gain some traction. In the middle of all of this, Corey
PHOTO BY FRANK WHITE
left to shoot a movie, and when he returned, Carl and J.T. both quit to join Steve Winwood’s band. I was completely blindsided by it, but that’s what enabled us to get things going with Will and Muzz. COREY GLOVER: I met Vernon at an ex-girlfriend’s birthday party in December 1984. When they wheeled out the cake, this girl asked me to sing “Happy Birthday.” Vernon approached me afterward and asked if I sang professionally. At the time, I was still out on the audition scene and doing commercials. So, I was like, “Yeah, I sing. But my thing is that I’m an actor.” Turns out, we were from the same neighborhood and he lived six blocks away. We hung out in his basement and he played me demos of “Funny Vibe” and “I Want to Know.” I did a show with them at CBGB’s and it took off from there. One morning following a gig, I got a call from my agent, who told me D E C I B E L : 5 5 : M A R C H 2 0 15
I’d landed a part in a movie. So, I walked down the block and told Vernon, “Look, I’m going to be gone for a couple of months, because I got this acting gig, so… sorry?” Mark Ledford rejoined the band as the singer and I went to shoot Platoon. By the time I got back to New York, he’d left again, and I was back in. WILL CALHOUN: I came down to New York in ’84 to see this band called Bush Rock with Kennwood Dennard, Wesley Grant and Delmar Brown. After the first set, I ran into Jaco Pastorious. He introduced me to Vernon. If Jaco said somebody was cool, you went with it. I came back to New York after I graduated school a couple of years later, and Vernon had a colleague of mine from Berklee named Mark Ledford singing in Living Colour. We exchanged demos, and he called me a month later and told me he wanted me for a gig. My main thing at the time was actually playing
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LIVING COLOUR VIVID Vivid Dreamers (L-R): Calhoun, Skillings, Glover, Reid
The times dictated why “Cult of Personality” became a touchstone, coming out of the ’80s and the Reagan era, and the idea that one person can embody a movement. That part of the political landscape hasn’t really changed.
C O R EY GLOV ER with Harry Belafonte. I was a huge jazz fan, and I wanted to be a session guy. I didn’t think I was necessarily going to join Living Colour, because my head wasn’t in that space. But I really enjoyed playing with those guys and I loved the musicianship behind it all. We talked a lot about politics and music and race—that was intriguing. There was so much more to it than just going into a room, plugging in and playing songs. MUZZ SKILLINGS: A friend of mine named Bill Toles kept telling me about the Black Rock Coalition. I went to one meeting and met Vernon, and he ended up calling me later to ask if I could do a show. Vernon gave me a tape of, like, 15 songs and I learned them all in a day. I showed up at rehearsal, and Calhoun and I were like butter right away. The two of us were kind of working more, and there was a moment where we both had to commit to putting Living Colour first, even when we weren’t making money. We were both on the way to establishing ourselves independently and having nice solo careers as sidemen. That was not a decision that we took lightly, because it had life-altering consequences, for sure.
Most of the writing credits on Vivid go to Vernon Reid, although there are a couple of songs written by the full band. What was the writing process like for Vivid?
The practice loft was kind of a laboratory. I had a little red notebook and I was constantly writing in it. Vivid is a chronicle of what it was like to be in New York City at that time, and each song had its own story. “I Want to Know” was a holdover from a previous period in the band. “Broken Hearts” was literally about this girl that I was living with in Harlem—it was a chronicle of a series of romantic disasters. When I went and got the loft, I’d saved up money from touring and I hit a crossroads with the relationship. Being in the band really seemed like an all-ornothing proposition. That was a very painful break-up. “Love Rears Its Ugly Head” appears on Time’s Up, but was actually written when I was falling in love with this girl. CALHOUN: Living Colour started out as “Vernon Reid’s Living Colour,” and he was hand-picking the cats he thought could best represent his ideas. It became a band because of the spirit of REID:
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what we did, but a lot changed in the process of making Vivid. “Cult of Personality” was a new song that we wrote together. “Desperate People” went like that, too. “Open Letter (to a Landlord)” was an idea. For the most part, these songs came into shape when we played gigs. That gave us the best creative space to try something new and experiment with that music without worrying about an audience or being successful. When it was time to do Vivid, we were in NBA Game 7 shape to cut that record. As a band, we were still young. But for those songs, we were very mature. You can hear that in the recordings. SKILLINGS: With Living Colour, there were songs that existed before I joined the band, songs that Vernon introduced after I joined, and songs that we wrote together. In just about every case, the musical experience was 100 percent collaborative. This is not to take anything away from Vernon, because he is a genius. But there were songs that Vernon introduced where someone would contribute a part that was very impactful, something that would make or break the song. Due to the nature of writing credits, if someone comes up with the lyric and melody, that’s what goes into print. Of course, there were several songs where Vernon set the tone and we followed that to a T, but when you’re talking about where the music came from, it was no single person’s brainchild. That’s for certain. GLOVER: “Cult of Personality” started out with a riff in my head. What I sang to Vernon was a lot more legato and lilting than what Vernon played. We took that, and added the bass and drums following that riff. Vernon had written part of the lyrics already in a notebook. The meat and bones of that song came together in the span of one rehearsal. We knew the song worked from the get-go. Our writing style typically started with someone contributing a groove, and then Vernon or I would add lyrics. Vernon brought in some songs that were already fleshed out, but they changed a bit when I started singing them. The way Vernon heard the drums for certain songs—Will didn’t play that way. Will came from a fusion background, and he’d use certain time signatures that would transform the song. Living Colour spent time at three different studios—Skyline Studios, Sound on Sound and Right Track Recording—in 1987. What parts of Vivid were recorded where?
We did basic tracking at Skyline, overdubs at Sound on Sound, and mixed the record at Right Track. As I recall, the album took three weeks in November of 1987, from pre-production to mixing. We were accustomed to playing live,
SKILLINGS:
Spreading the News Recording in the few safe-ish pockets of NYC, circa ’87
but studio time was more compartmentalized. Will and I pretty much laid our tracks at the same time. We’d wait until the drums were perfect. If I happened to have a good take when he had his great take, we’d keep it. A lot of times, Vernon would be playing along, comping, and some of those takes were so good that we just kept ’em. GLOVER: Muzz took his advance and bought a new amp and cabinet, so they spent a good bit of time tweaking that sound at Skyline. When we got to Sound on Sound, it was me doing vocals, and a lot of the solos were redone. Muzz was determined to make his bass solo on “Broken Hearts” technically perfect. I remember I came into the studio to check in, and Muzz had already been there for a couple of hours. They released me for the day, so I literally got on a bus and went to Syracuse to visit a friend. I spent all day hanging out with him and didn’t get back to the studio until midnight. Muzz was still there, working on the solo! CALHOUN: I think Fender Guitars had heard a bit about Vernon and Muzz, and we were ahead of schedule at Skyline, so we decided to take one of the songs and do an avant garde version of it. Muzz was playing this really out bassline and Corey was doing weird vocals, and that’s when the Fender guys walked into the studio with the guitars. The look on their faces was priceless! The mood lightened up after we took them into the control room and played some of the tracks, but they really looked like they were going to head for the elevator when they heard us playing. Sound on Sound was only for overdubs, so I didn’t spend a lot of time there. But Right Track was an amazing studio with a comfortable set-up. It was almost like hanging out at your friend’s
house, even though we had Whitney Houston and Mick Jagger recording on either side of us. Most of Vivid was produced by Ed Stasium, with a couple of songs produced by Mick Jagger. What was it like working with those guys?
I think Mick Jagger asked David Fricke from Rolling Stone if he knew of any guitar players who could back him for his solo record, and Vernon’s name came up in that conversation. Vernon brought me along to his audition. I guess I just wanted to meet Mick Jagger! Mick came out to greet us and said, “I’ve heard a lot about your band.” I think Doug Wimbish talked us up. So, we invited him to our next show at CBGB’s and he actually showed up with Jeff Beck in tow. That led to Mick hosting us in the studio to cut some demos. We did “Which Way to America?” and “Glamour Boys” with him, and the offers started coming in. The Epic deal seemed to be the most advantageous, so we took it and spent some time in the summer and fall of 1987 making Vivid. REID: I met Ed because he was working with Mick Jagger on the Primitive Cool sessions. I decided that we had to have him do our record because of one thing: We were talking about obscure records, and I mentioned Skull Snaps, who were one of these post-Funkadelic r&b bands. They had a song called “I’m Your Pimp,” which was a great tune. They were from Newark, and Ed froze when I mentioned them and said, “Uh, that was my first recording session.” I couldn’t believe it! I learned a lot just by hanging around GLOVER:
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and watching Ed and the session engineer, Paul Hamingson, set up equipment. SKILLINGS: Ed was the only guy who said, “I just want to capture what’s there.” We were starting to get offers and people had specific ideas about what we should be. That’s what sold us on him. I remember Mick Jagger being very nice, too. We were focused on the music and being efficient, and he made some editing choices we wouldn’t have otherwise made. But because it was Mick Jagger, we went with it. That was our first encounter with us changing our approach. We knew that we had to fit ourselves into a recorded format—we weren’t going to be doing 10-minute songs, you know? I think we were all having that internal dialogue like, “How much of this can we incorporate while remaining true to ourselves?” Some of the live staples of the era—including covers of songs by Tracy Chapman and the Clash—later appeared on the Biscuits EP. Is there anything that you were considering using for Vivid that didn’t make the cut?
We used to do a cover of “Love and Happiness.” It was one of my favorite things we ever did, because I love Al Green and it was perfect for Corey’s voice. But I really wanted to do the Talking Heads song “Memories Can’t Wait,” and Ed Stasium suggested it’d be a bad idea to two covers on our first record. “Love Rears Its Ugly Head” didn’t make the cut. “Broken Hearts” went on instead. It had more of a country vibe to it, and Muzz did a really nice bass solo on
REID:
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it. We figured that if “Broken Hearts” went over well, we’d just put “Love Rears Its Ugly Head” aside for the next record—which is what we did. CALHOUN: My favorite cover we did during the time was David Bowie’s “Rebel Rebel.” We added a Jamaican flavor to it, with a little bit of punk and thrash. When we got comfortable with the Living Colour songs at rehearsal, that’s always when we were like, “Let’s try something else out.” That’s how the Talking Heads cover came about. Ironically, that was the only cover that we didn’t play live. We messed around with it in the studio and it ended up being so unique that we knew it had to be on the album. In general, though, the songs on Vivid were carefully selected; we were trying to make a Living Colour record, and didn’t want to get too tangled up in covers. SKILLINGS: There were a bunch of songs that could’ve made the record, but for various reasons did not. There was a song called “Money Talks” that I really dug. I think it ended up on Biscuits. There was a song called “The Road Song” that I also really loved. “The Walls Between Us All Must Fall”—that was something we were playing, and it resurfaced on one of their later records after I left the band. Vivid still ended up sounding pretty broad. We had to feel out what we were going to be, because we really could’ve been anything, because everyone in the band was so versatile. Ultimately, the songs that satisfied the condition of igniting our collective passion were the ones that made the cut. Vivid spawned five singles, and “Cult of Personality,” in particular, seems like it was a lightning strike. Were you at all taken aback by the massive reception the album received?
I thought we were going to coast on this record and maybe the second one would do a lot better. The first single was “Middle Man,” and a few people noticed it. Then “Cult of Personality” came along. For us, we were working and on the road, and a lot of the hype surrounding the band was happening in a vacuum. We got off one tour, shot the “Cult of Personality” video a week later, and the next day, we were back out on the road. It started blowing up while were in Europe, and when we came back home, people were like, “You’ve got a Top 10 single now.” The times dictated why “Cult of Personality” became a touchstone, coming out of the ’80s and the Reagan era, and the idea that one person can embody a movement. That part of the political landscape hasn’t really changed. SKILLINGS: When we were done with Vivid, the only challenge was getting it heard. Calhoun and I were definitely like, “This is it.” We weren’t being hopeful or being arrogant; we just figured that it felt so good to us to just play the music that people had to like it. I think GLOVER:
Some of my friends from the Bronx were hard dudes. They were into rap and that was it. They were the kind of people who’d say, “This sucks. This band is bullshit. Get out while you still can.” But they’d come out to the shows and be like, “Yo, man, y’all are on to something. This is cool.”
WILL CA LHO UN we were able to break through because we had something to offer. The simple way of saying it is that we had critical praise and popular approval. So many bands have one or the other: Critics like them, but they’re not moving people’s hearts. We were very lucky that we were able to be authentically ourselves, and that who we were resonated with people. REID: I think I was in a state of shock. From my perspective, we had a snowball’s chance in a pizza oven. We were a very odd amalgam. Our music was all over the place—it was heavy, but it was funky, and it had aspects of jazz and prog in it. It was about coming from a multiplicity of places and perspectives. So, the fact that this record exists at all is crazy. I knew that I was through the looking glass when I heard Casey Kasem announce “Cult of Personality” on “America’s Top 40.” It was a weird, out-of-body experience. You know, there are so many talented bands out there that never get a chance. I feel incredibly fortunate when I look back on the experience. CALHOUN: We didn’t even bother going to the Grammys when we were nominated because we didn’t think we were going to win. Success was not on the Top 10 list of goals for anyone with Vivid. If my homeboys liked Living Colour, that was enough for me. Some of my friends from the Bronx were hard dudes. They were into rap and that was it. They were the kind of people who’d say, “This sucks. This band is bullshit. Get out while you still can.” But they’d come out to the shows and be like, “Yo, man, y’all are on to something. This is cool.” That was my first clue M A R C H 2 0 15 : 5 8 : D E C I B E L
that we were doing something important. For those guys to show up and cosign what we were doing, that was my barometer for the success of the band. Following the release of Vivid, Living Colour opened for the Rolling Stones on the Steel Wheels tour. How did you adjust to the transition from being a club act to playing enormous venues?
Our first major tour was with Robert Palmer, who’s basically a walking encyclopedia of music. It was interesting to play fancy halls and theaters with, like, 10 chandeliers. We’d come out and do “Cult of Personality” and “Middle Man,” and audiences were running for the doors. I remember one show where we were getting ready to play “Open Letter (to a Landlord)” and Vernon started to introduce the song and said, “Never mind, half of you people in here are probably landlords.” I didn’t really care that audiences weren’t always receptive, because Robert and his band dug us. Plus, I got to watch their show every night and learn something. That was a big part of my touring education. SKILLINGS: We did the MTV New Music [Assault Tour] with the Godfathers and the Sugarcubes, and we were playing slightly bigger venues, but those shows were still on college campuses, so it didn’t feel too different than playing a club. Corey was the person who probably had the most to negotiate as the frontman, just figuring out how to engage with the audience on that giant Steel Wheels stage. During the first show, we started out grouped together and just took off in different directions. Vernon went to one side of the stage, I went to the other, and Corey ran all the way to the front. Visually, it didn’t look right. So, we had to be instructed to stay within a 20-foot radius of each other. REID: The first time we played Philadelphia, opening for the Stones, I was terrified. I was glued to one particular spot on the stage and I was freaking out. I couldn’t wait for the set to be over, but I somehow got through it and was walking backstage when Keith Richards leaned over and coolly asked, “Hey, man, how’s the crowd?” After a while, we settled into a normal routine: We’d play the set, then Bill Wyman would kick my ass in ping pong. He’s a beast. You can’t fuck with those guys playing pool, either. GLOVER: You could fit every club we had ever played in up until that point into any one of those stadiums on the Stones tour. There was a real fish-out-of-water kind of thing in the beginning, because we were accustomed to playing close to each other on small stages, and there was a complete lack of intimacy on the Steel Wheels tour. Still, we were received better than most opening acts for the Rolling Stones. We had heard the stories about people booing Bob Marley off the stage and we were like, “We better get ready, because these white folks are not going to understand us.” CALHOUN:
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LIVING COLOUR VIVID The 700 (dB) Level Reid (l) and Skillings shred up Veterans Stadium, opening for the Stones
“Funny Vibe” features “social commentary” by Chuck D and Flavor Flav. This was before Public Enemy’s breakthrough It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, though. How did this pairing come about?
“Funny Vibe” came out of this period where I was listening to a lot of King Crimson, but funk music was always ingrained in my personality. It’s also the first Living Colour song I ever wrote, and it’s based on this real experience I had stepping into an elevator at a department store and seeing a terrified woman clutching her purse. I played guitar on “Sophisticated Bitch” on Public Enemy’s first record Yo! Bum Rush the Show. While I was in the studio, I asked them if they’d be down to appear on the Living Colour record. Chuck D and Flav came through and did that appearance on “Funny Vibe.” It wasn’t even a rap; it was like Milton Berle dropping in for a cameo on a comedy show. GLOVER: They were still kind of underground and on the bubble when that came about, but the very militant stance Public Enemy took musically and culturally was already setting people on edge. Vivid was sort of us taking bits and pieces of our musical identities and putting them all together, very ’80s-sounding things, metal-funk fusion, and a lot of jazz flourishes. There was a bunch of stuff going on with the record already. To have Chuck and Flav appear on what was ostensibly just a rock record was kind of groundbreaking at the time. Now, it all seems commonplace. Back then, it was radical. CALHOUN: Corey and I spotted Chuck and Flav coming out of the studio when we were picking up a rental van for our first tour. They gave us a demo of It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back on cassette. It was mind-blowing, and it became the soundtrack of that first tour of America. When we got to Florida, people were like, “Hey, there are some colored guys from New York and they say they’re a rock band!” Then they’d start laughing. Until we played our first note—then people looked like Jesus Christ had come out of the sky and was handing out Bibles. We definitely pissed some people off. But I also trusted that no matter what happened, I could get back into the van and listen to Chuck and Flav. That album was our fuel to make it through the South and cut through the racism we encountered. REID:
What considerations did you give towards establishing a visual iconography for the band?
I was a thrift-store junkie, and I think I paid 50 bucks for the green Body Glove wetsuit. Vernon found that motorcycle jackets really worked for him, even though he never rode a bike in his life. Muzz was interested in the concept of the “third eye,” and there were always eyeballs on his shirts. Will was very much about the athleticism of playing the drums, so he dressed like an athlete. It was about taking these everyday things and making them special. I had some friends who were like, “Why do you guys have to dress in costumes? Can’t the music speak for itself?” But we were living in a visual age, and you understood the music better if all of your senses were affected by what we did. CALHOUN: I was probably the most conservative one in the group: I was from the Bronx, so I liked my hi-top fade and my creased jeans and shell-toed Adidas shoes. I was the last one to dread my hair. But I wanted to step outside of myself a little bit. There’s certain things that I’d never put on—like Corey’s wetsuit. I was really into boxing, cycling and swimming as a way of increasing my stamina and improving my drumming performance. I’d never had the experience of doing six shows a week, carrying my own gear and driving everywhere. My body was getting tired more quickly, and I wanted to tune myself up. Vernon thought the cycling thing would be a cool look for me, and I already had all that stuff, so that’s where my style came from. SKILLINGS: Vernon definitely had a visual tone that he was thinking about and representing, and I think each of us took the attitude and the idea of that and adapted it into our own GLOVER:
The first time we [opened for] the Stones, I was terrified. After a while, we settled into a normal routine: We’d play the set, then Bill Wyman would kick my ass in ping pong. You can’t fuck with those guys playing pool, either.
VE RNO N R E ID thing. Back then, there were all of these stores where you could go to customize your clothes. You could bring a T-shirt to a store like Unique Boutique, choose what colors you wanted and have them do spin art on it. It was like ordering a pizza—you’d choose your ingredients and let them work. You could customize sweatshirts, T-shirts, pants, all of it. You could make your own belt. You could even go to St. Mark’s Place and have a pair of socks custom-made. It wasn’t about designer labels. It wasn’t even about wearing anyone else’s idea of fashion. The ’80s were about expressing yourself as an individual, and that whole culture has completely died out. M A R C H 2 0 15 : 6 0 : D E C I B E L
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New York City started to receive a truly radical facelift during Rudy Giuliani’s mayoral term. What was going on in the Ed Koch era to inspire “Open Letter (to a Landlord)”?
What inspired the song was a local park, where we’d go to play handball and basketball when I was a kid. The earliest DJs used to set up there, too—that’s where I heard Kraftwerk’s Trans-Europe Express for the first time. I lived in Park Slope, I grew up in Crown Heights, I spent time in Bed-Stuy. I lived in the North Bronx. I came to understand that community is car service, the dry cleaners, the local burger joint, neighborhood businesses, churches, schools and public parks. These places help to make us who we are, and all of that was under assault by gentrification. GLOVER: Speculators came in to places like Harlem and Crown Heights and saw a bunch of beautiful homes going fallow. Some folks took to raising the rents to drive working class people out, or set fire to the buildings so they could renovate them and bring a higher class of people in. Sometimes, they’d just demolish a building because the land was more valuable. In the meantime, communities and neighborhoods, where people knew each other and had lived for generations, were vanishing. Brooklyn is a prime example: I cannot even afford to move into the home I grew up in. SKILLINGS: Somewhere up the chain, someone would make the decision to stop collecting trash in a neighborhood. Then the street lamps would go out and they wouldn’t replace the bulbs. Then drug dealers would start to congregate. The city took advantage of social forces to create conditions that were favorable to landlords, who would start fires or create enough crime to make people want to flee. My father was a deputy chief in the fire department, so I have a personal connection because I was always worried about him. He used to tell me stories about buildings engulfed in flames, with people hanging onto the fire escapes, and the NYPD not letting the fire trucks through. They didn’t want to let go, or they’d fall to their deaths, but the metal was so hot that it was burning the flesh of their hands right off. This only happened in black neighborhoods. Pops is 90 now, and he’s still talking about it, because these things are still going on in the city. REID:
The members of Living Colour have all described Vivid as an “autobiographical” album. What is the most meaningful song for you, personally?
“Funny Vibe,” because it paralleled my experience while making the record. The perception of Living Colour was misguided, and I saved all of the press that I thought was horrifying. We
CALHOUN:
When I joined Living Colour, there was an artificial boundary that already existed and was becoming more explicit: You can’t do this because you’re black. After a while, you got tired of hearing it.
MUZZ SKILLING S had to learn the hard way when we were doing interviews: Don’t say anything that you don’t want to read. Journalists constantly angled our responses to make us sound like angry black men who hated white people. We dealt with the same resistance from conservative African-Americans who weren’t into rock music, too. We were—and still are, in many ways—aliens in many musical communities because of what we were into. I think our educational backgrounds, the structure of our families, and even the way we articulated ourselves shocked people. GLOVER: “Middle Man,” which was based on a poem I wrote at a very low point in my life where I considered killing myself. I was getting pulled in different directions and stuck in this sort of limbo: Are you an actor, or are you a musician? Writing that poem was a way to work through some of that, and I ended up realizing that I wasn’t in such a bad place—I was in a spot where I could see and evaluate all sides. That was very indicative of what Living Colour was about: four black folks from the so-called “inner city” who, in the emergence of hip-hop and the continued prominence of r&b and jazz, sort of straddled the line between all of it. REID: There was this great intermingling of artists and musicians in New York in the ’80s, and I had gotten to know a few of the up-andcomers. Keith Haring did a painting on one of my guitars. I also met Jean-Michel Basquiat right when he exploded on the scene. He used to be known as “Samo,” and you’d see his graffiti tag everywhere around the city. I’d run into him here and there, and one day I told him I was going out on tour for two weeks, and he asked me to come visit him in his studio when I got back. Right after I returned, I got a phone call from my friend Greg Tate and he told me that Jean-Michel OD’d. I’d already had at least five situations where people I knew got caught up in the life and ended up as drug casualties, asphyxiated with a plastic bag tied around their heads or beaten to death for shorting dealers. It was the final straw in the series of catastrophes. That’s where “Desperate People” came from. The origins of Living Colour are closely tied to the formation of the Black Rock Coalition, a M A R C H 2 0 15 : 6 2 : D E C I B E L
not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating new outlets for black rock music. Point blank: Is the climate any better now for black rock musicians?
We’re still grappling with race in America, and that’s an unpleasant conversation to have because we’re dealing with events that went down hundreds of years ago. I see bands like Vintage Trouble, Unlocking the Truth, TV on the Radio and Santigold, and I feel like the future is bright. The whole Afropunk movement is energizing. There’s still a lot of work to be done. It should be interesting to see how the conversation takes shape after Obama. The idea that a black man was elected as President within my parents’ lifetime is insane! Of course, social media and the internet have created new avenues for people to be hyper-racist. That technology is not going away. SKILLINGS: There are certain obstacles that are no longer there, but it’s harder, in general, for all musicians to make a living. When I joined Living Colour, there was an artificial boundary that already existed and was becoming more explicit: You can’t do this because you’re black. After a while, you got tired of hearing it. That part of it is not as prevalent anymore, because folks are now accustomed to seeing people who are not white males in rock bands. Being a band with four dark-skinned black men was definitely a hurdle, though. Maybe people would’ve rather had us be a bit more soft-toned in our approach. But that wasn’t who we were. CALHOUN: I never liked the term “black rock.” If the industry wasn’t going to call Led Zeppelin and Van Halen “white rock,” I felt like we shouldn’t segregate ourselves like that. Usually, when the subject of the Black Rock Coalition came up, I just bowed out and let Vernon talk about it. Still, I loved what the organization was able to accomplish—it gave a number of artists an opportunity to present themselves in an arena that wasn’t otherwise available to them. I think conditions are worse now, because I’m still hearing the same kind of misguided things I encountered 25 years ago. If Spike Lee is still a “black filmmaker” and “blacks playing rock ‘n’ roll” remains a talking point, the problem hasn’t gone away. A REID:
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After years of silence and controversy, Jef Whitehead of Leviathan gives his first in-depth print interview and a rare glimpse into his new life story by
photos by
J. Bennett
Shimon Karmel
ef Whitehead does not care what you think. He cares about a lot of things–his music, his paintings, his newborn daughter, his girlfriend, his friends, his work as a sought-after tattoo artist–but definitely not what anyone thinks. If you don’t like the tortured, atmospheric black metal he’s been making under the name Leviathan since 1998, that’s fine. If you don’t like the music he’s created as Lurker of Chalice or as a member of the black metal supergroup Twilight, that’s okay, too. Don’t dig the painting he did last year for the cover of Lord Mantis’ Death Mask album, which depicts a bound, bloodied and naked transsexual with a noose emerging from her own slit wrist? No sweat. “I’ve seen a bunch of comments online that say, ‘Jef Whitehead, I don’t know about that guy,’” Whitehead tells Decibel. “That’s right. You don’t know. You don’t know me. But I’m not afraid of anything anybody wants to say. If you don’t like what I do, don’t look at it. A lot of people think my stuff is misogynistic or they think it borders on rape-worship. I use the word ‘whore’ a lot. It’s about the Beast of Babylon—a lot of it’s biblical—but people can decide for themselves. Bottom line, it’s a way to get nasty shit out of me. It’s music that worships darkness, atrocity, all kinds of different hatreds. And you don’t have to buy it.”
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We’re somewhere in Oregon—Whitehead would prefer if we didn’t say where—in a storefront art space that he shares with his girlfriend, Stevie Floyd, vocalist/guitarist of Taurus and Dark Castle. The couple’s five-month-old daughter, Grail, is in a portable bassinet nearby. (Incidentally, she’s probably the happiest baby we’ve ever seen.) The space is essentially split in half, with Whitehead’s workspace on one side and Floyd’s on the other. On Whitehead’s side, Leviathan LPs are on display above the stereo—Floyd’s doing—and various drawings in progress are strewn across the table. Floyd’s side is littered with handmade amulets and outgoing mail, mostly prints of original paintings she and Whitehead have recently sold to fans. A custom Monson guitar and assorted amplifiers occupy one corner of the room. The huge painting Floyd did for Dark Castle’s Spirited Migration album hangs in another. Whitehead is showing us the series of 10-inch by 10-inch pen-and-ink illustrations he’s going to include as inserts with the latest Leviathan album, Scar Sighted. The CD version will be released by Canadian bastion of extremity Profound Lore, but he and Floyd plan to do the vinyl themselves. “The drawings that come with the vinyl will be on whiteboard, so they’ll be 12 by 12,” he
“I don’t understand why Decibel wants to put me on the cover. It’s bizarre. I don’t tour. I don’t even play shows. Do that many people really care?”
Jef Whitehead explains. “You can put ’em on your wall, use ’em as a coaster, throw ’em across the street. Some of them tie in with the lyrics, so there’ll be art on one side and lyrics on the other. I just wanted to do something special for this album.” Whitehead sits with his black leather jacket across his lap. It’s covered in the logo patches of black metal and black/thrash bands, with Swedish spike enthusiasts Nifelheim occupying the crucial center-back position. Whitehead’s arms look as though they’ve been covered in tattoos several times over, but among the patchwork once can clearly make out a giant Leviathan crescent moon, a Van Halen logo (“I’ll love Van Halen forever,” he enthuses) and a twisting black centipede on his right forearm, the latter done by Floyd. He’s sipping MexiCoke from a glass bottle when he says, “I don’t understand why Decibel wants to put me on the cover. It’s bizarre. I don’t tour. I don’t even
play shows. Do that many people really care?” This is not false modesty, or even a rhetorical question. He really wants to know the answer. Not caring what people think also means not keeping up with how many people might be interested. Up until very recently, Leviathan had virtually no online presence and almost every piece of Leviathan merchandise available has been a bootleg (more on that later). It’s only in the last year or two—after getting a lawyer to review the contract he signed with his old label, Moribund Records—that he’s learned roughly how many copies of Leviathan’s critically acclaimed albums The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide (2003), Tentacles of Whorror (2004), Massive Conspiracy Against All Life (2008) and the killer 2005 demo collection Howl Mockery at the Cross have been sold. He says the figure is at least 30,000, but admits that the reason he hasn’t seen much money from the sales is his own fault.
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“I’ve made some bad decisions for Leviathan,” he concedes. “I don’t wanna go on and on about Moribund, but I signed certain papers. A lawyer that works with a bigger label looked the contract over for me and said, ‘Yeah, dude—you basically bent over. You greased your own self.’ But I’m gonna re-press those records and whatever happens, happens. It’s my music, and everybody knows that.” Another thing that anybody who’s paying attention probably knows: Whitehead is one of the most important black metal artists of the 21st century. “I think he’s one of the most creative and interesting musicians not just in black metal, but in music in general,” says Neill Jameson of Krieg, who also played alongside Whitehead in Twilight, and recently joined forces with him for a Leviathan/Krieg split 7-inch. “His ideas are really ahead of the curve. He doesn’t think within the confines of genre at all. As someone who’s been jaded by the black metal rule book we all were given in high school, to see someone who’s working in a more personal aesthetic without really caring about anything but their own personal satisfaction, that’s what draws me to his music.” “I think it’s about time Jef got the recognition he deserves,” says Billy Anderson when he hears that Decibel is putting Whitehead on the cover. The famed producer of heavy—Neurosis, Melvins, Pallbearer and a few dozen other high-powered et ceteras—helped Whitehead bring Scar Sighted to fruition, but he’s been a Leviathan fan since the beginning. “I heard Leviathan around ’98, not long after he started doing it. A friend of mine in San Francisco gave me a tape with a bunch of shit on it, and the Leviathan track really blew my face off. When he told me it was a one-man band, I was like, ‘This is one guy?’ So, yeah, Jef’s been a diehard motherfucker forever. He bleeds this shit.” It’s worth noting that Whitehead rarely gives interviews. He did just two to promote Leviathan’s last album, True Traitor, True Whore, back in 2011, including one for Decibel. At the time, Whitehead was living in Chicago and facing multiple criminal charges—including a particularly grievous one of sexual assault with a tattoo machine—and up to 60 years in prison for allegations stemming from an argument with an ex-girlfriend. As it turns out, his accuser was full of shit: 28 of the initial 34 charges were dropped, and Whitehead was found not guilty on all but one (aggravated domestic battery) of the remaining six. He ultimately received two years probation and maintains his innocence on all counts. Incredibly, he did the two interviews before the verdict came down. That anyone in that situation would talk to anybody who wasn’t a trusted friend or family member is astounding. It’s even more remarkable when you consider that Whitehead doesn’t like interviews in the
first place. “I was shit-toast drunk when I did those,” he says today. “I was going through a lot of stuff with the court case, which I didn’t wanna talk about, and of course that was pretty much the focal point of the interviews. Besides, talking about yourself is really boring. I only did them because Bruni asked me to.” That’d be Chris Bruni, founder of Profound Lore, the label that released True Traitor, the vinyl version of 2005’s A Silhouette in Splinters, and now Scar Sighted. “He never assaulted her whatsoever, and even the domestic he got charged with is false,” Bruni told Stereogum when the court’s decision came down in June of 2012. “It’s bullshit.” It’s safe to say that True Traitor isn’t Whitehead’s favorite Leviathan album. That’s probably because most of it was written and
were on the loser path, and I was being a loser. A lot of people can do that ‘never stop the madness’ thing, which I think is fuckin’ amazing— I think there’s a certain freedom in getting fucked up—but I can’t do anything in life when I’m doing that. I can’t make any music. These days I’m making a living from making art, so I can’t do that to my family. It’s just not right. Having Grail has been a crash course in pulling my head out of my ass. “I don’t regret the record,” he clarifies. “I regret the time in my life. But this nerdy black metal dude at a Krieg show in Chicago decided to tell me how much True Traitor sucked. I asked him why he thought it was bad, and I think it was because it wasn’t as steeped in black metal as he would have liked. But that stuff doesn’t affect me. I’m not in control of who hears what I do or how they’re gonna take it.” Oh, and about that Lord Mantis album cover: Whitehead knows it pissed people off. “A lot of people got really offended by that around here,” he says. “They thought it was trans-phobic, which had nothing to do with it. It’s not about shock value—the whole thing is about self-hatred. If they knew [Lord Mantis mastermind] Charlie Fell, they’d know that. But people got emotional, and it affected Stevie and Taurus in a way. So, I put myself out there. I told people I’d be willing to sit down with them and talk about it. But they hemmed and hawed and said they were really busy with work, and now it’s almost a year later.” Apparently, it wasn’t that offensive after all.
“That entire time period from 2001 to 2005 was when American black metal was really starting to come into its own. Jef was at the forefront of that. He’s definitely responsible for a lot of what the current aesthetic The Birth of Wrest is now, whether or not The origins of Leviathan can be traced back to those bands acknowledge the mid-’90s, when a friend turned Whitehead on to black metal. At the time, he was tattooing their debt to him.” in San Francisco, where he lived for 27 years,
Neill Jameson, Krieg recorded while he was sweating out a decision in his case. “It’s definitely the least-focused record I’ve ever done,” he admits. “I had one song written, and then I redid two songs from [the 2002 compilation] Verräter and the rest was on the fly, with the exception of one or two riffs. A lot of it was very childish and not very thought-out. I was kind of in a limbo, you know? I was facing 60 years in prison. I don’t know if I thought I should get mine while I’m outside or what. I put a lot of people around me through a lot of unnecessary bullshit in that situation.” Part of the problem was that Whitehead was also getting wasted all the time, to the point where he missed the first day of recording for the album. “I was ingesting anything I could to change the way I was thinking,” he offers. “I was a mess. I was hanging out with people that DECIBEL :
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and playing drums in an instrumental indie rock band called Gift Horse. (Oddly enough, the title track of Scar Sighted is heavily influenced by Whitehead’s time in Gift Horse.) “I worked with this dude who was into all kinds of music,” he explains. “He’d play me Emperor and then he’d play me Squarepusher. The first couple black metal albums I bought were the standards—Darkthrone, Burzum, things like that—but I went in deep.” Like many a black metal obsessive before him, Whitehead embraced the music’s mystical qualities and eventually internalized them. “It’s the way it makes me feel,” he says. “There are dark things in this plane of existence, and you can either fight them or embrace them. If you embrace them, you have to have the constitution to deal with it. I don’t know if I have that constitution, but it’s a way to express sadness, joy, hatred—a lot of hatred, a lot of sadness— and having something to show for it.”
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Black metal quickly became an addiction. For 10 years, Whitehead lived at 4 Ashbury Street in San Francisco, just a 15-minute walk from Amoeba Records and about 30 from Aquarius Records. “I was spending at least $200 a week on CDs,” he ventures. “You make a lot of money tattooing, which is like whoring your art out to people, but I don’t live very extravagantly, so I could afford a lot of music. I might’ve spent $600 some weeks—it was really like $200 per trip. But I needed to do it. It became a drug in a way.” Like all addicts, Whitehead slowly cut himself off from the rest of the world as he plunged deeper into his self-contained world. He began writing and recording his own black metal songs on a Tascam cassette four-track, playing every instrument and doing all the vocals himself. “I found this music that made me feel a certain way, and I wanted to see if I could do it,” he explains. “I’d get home from work and make music all night, or I’d get up in the morning and make music until I had to go to work. I blew people off, too. I remember people getting pissed off at me, like, ‘Why didn’t you answer my phone call? Why don’t
you come hang out?’ If I did hang out with someone, I’d be thinking, ‘Wow, I really wanna get home and finish that song.’ Or I’d go to a pay phone, call my apartment and hum a guitar line or a drum beat into my answering machine. And then I’d go home and learn it. I wish I still had those tapes.” He took to crediting himself on Leviathan’s cassette demos as “W” for Whitehead, which soon evolved into the moniker “Wrest”—to take by force. As Wrest, Whitehead would don spikes and corpsepaint to pose for photographs. “Having a moniker or wearing corpsepaint is a way of removing yourself from your earthly being, which is another reason it’s odd to do interviews,” he offers. “When I did corpsepaint, I would put it over my tattoos, too. Even though I had a good time doing it, and I definitely felt different when I did it, that was someone in their late 20s and early 30s being inspired by 16-year-old kids. I’m 46 now, so I’m a little too old to put on the Insane Clown Posse makeup. But it’s not that I think it’s immature. I don’t look at those photos and get embarrassed at all. It’s just not me now.” While living at 4 Ashbury, Whitehead
recorded at least 15 Leviathan demos, two splits and two full-lengths—basically everything up to Tentacles of Whorror. And that’s just the stuff he released. At one point, he shows us a book of CD-Rs containing hundreds of Leviathan demos. “I have CD-Rs full of demos that never came out,” he explains. “I’m not super-psyched on some of them, but they’re there. I have something to show for the time.” “When Jef first came here, he was pretty much living out of a backpack,” Floyd explains. “He wrote to this guy in Oakland to get his demos. When all these books of CD-Rs came, I was like, ‘Let me put these on a hard drive—please!” “There’s some that I lost, too,” Whitehead points out. “There was one that was gonna be the second Lurker album. But I’m gonna do a box set of demos from Lurker and Leviathan and some songs that turned out to be Twilight. I’m sure all five people out there who are into Leviathan will be psyched.” Tim Lehi worked with Whitehead at Tattoo City in San Francisco during Leviathan’s formative years. Hearing the early Leviathan demos inspired him to start his own one-man black metal band, Draugar, in 2002. He’s since released two full-lengths and is planning a third. “Black metal became something we both fell into deeply and became obsessed with,” Lehi tells Decibel over the phone from Black Heart Tattoo, the shop he started with Whitehead in San Francisco in 2004. “We’d get to work early and he’d have a tape of something he made the night before. Him making so much stuff was so impressive, and definitely inspiring to me. When I started doing it, we’d tease each other about our tapes but get really stoked on them at the same time.” Very few copies of the early Leviathan cassette demos exist. “I was just making the tapes, giving them to friends, and selling some at Amoeba and Aquarius,” Whitehead explains. “Stevil at Amoeba and Andee [Connors] at Aquarius were instrumental in getting my stuff heard. But there was very little thought of putting it out there on a bigger scale. When I signed with Moribund, I was just psyched that someone wanted to release my stuff.” By the time the first proper Leviathan album, The Tenth Sub Level of Suicide, came out in 2003, Whitehead found himself at the vanguard of what might loosely be called a movement. Along with a handful of other corpsepainted loners like Scott Conner of Xasthur, Neill Jameson of Krieg and Andy Harris of Judas Iscariot (who is credited with pioneering the one-man black metal band in the U.S.), Whitehead was responsible for spearheading a sea change in American black metal. “Around the time I became aware of Leviathan and Xasthur, that was when American black metal was really starting to change,” says
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“I did a tour once when I was feeling kind of depressed and I wasn’t super stoked to be there. I had the Lurker [of Chalice] album on repeat in my headphones for the entire tour. Somehow it made me feel better. I know there’s other people who’ve had that experience.”
Stevie Floyd Jameson. “It was going from a lot of the more primitive and Finnish-inspired style—everyone was jocking Beherit at the time—into a darker, more personal thing. No one was talking about imaginary friends in the sky or anything like that. It was about the darkness that we were personally experiencing. It was a game-changer. That entire time period from 2001 to 2005 was when American black metal was really starting to come into its own. Jef was at the forefront of that. He’s definitely responsible for a lot of what the current aesthetic is now, whether or not those bands acknowledge their debt to him.”
He Whom Shadows Move Toward In at least one crucial way, Scar Sighted is a return to the Leviathan of old. During his peak creative period in the late ’90s to mid-aughts, Whitehead wasn’t drinking or taking drugs. “I was sober the entire time,” he nods. “I was sober for 11 years altogether. I was playing every day. I lived for making music, and I felt like I didn’t have a choice. Stevie and I were talking about this the other day: To me, there’s a difference when you hear a band and it sounds like they’re trying to get somewhere. They’re doing the popular D-beat thing or they’re trying to reach a certain audience. And then there’s the people who, if they didn’t have their music, they’d probably be dead. They have no other choice.” Whitehead fell off the wagon while he was working on Massive Conspiracy. “My life pretty much shit the bed in 2006,” he offers. “But I let it. I was sober guy for 11 years, and I decided to start getting fucked up again. I’m not somebody who can do that. Any kind of stressful situation, I want a drink. And I don’t want a sip—I wanna get soused. As far as what happened, I think everybody knows already.” What happened was the tragic suicide of his longtime girlfriend, who killed herself a year after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Not long afterward, Whitehead tried to take his own life at 4 Ashbury. All of this was detailed in Noisey’s One Man Metal documentary in late 2012. Understandably, Whitehead had no desire to talk about it then—the doc’s narrator tells
the story instead—and he has no desire to talk about it now. “I’m on my way back from that,” is all he says. For obvious reasons, the psychic scars from that experience run exceptionally deep. By the time of his court case and True Traitor, Whitehead was in rough shape. He credits Floyd with helping him clean up again. “You were done with music when I met you,” she tells him. “You hadn’t done any in so long.” “Yeah, because I was pathetic drunk guy,” he replies. Not that resisting the urge to dive tits-first into a whiskey bottle is any easier these days. “Oh, I could go get fucked up right now,” he deadpans. “It’s tempting. I’m definitely a pickle. I can’t ever be a cucumber again. I’m a drunk and an addict and all that stuff. But I’m choosing not to do that. I mean, the first 20 minutes is great, but the rest of it sucks. I have incredible social anxiety, so going to shows is tough. It makes me wanna drink pretty bad. But I remember the show.” These days, his drinking is minimal. “I’ll have one or two drinks every now and again, but I never get to the point where I couldn’t grab Grail real quick and get her out of a building or change her diaper,” he says. “I’m just not willing to do that anymore.” At this point, the name of Whitehead’s onetime friend and musical collaborator, Blake Judd of Nachtmystium and Twilight, comes up. Judd’s precipitous decline into drug addiction, theft and fucking his friends over is well documented. In fact, Nachtmystium’s Metal Archives profile kicks off with: “Blake Judd is a prolific scammer who collected money for Nachtmystium merchandise and other goods which he did not send.” Judd’s reputation for extreme shittiness was only compounded by his 2013 arrest for stealing what Neill Jameson recently revealed to be the guitar of a friend who was letting Judd crash with him. Whitehead doesn’t want to dwell on the topic—he doesn’t even really want to see Judd’s name in print anywhere near his own—but he agrees to say a few words: “Get well soon. I’ve been there—except for the stealing, lying and throwing your friends under the bus, I’ve been there. But what you’re doing is a choice. It’s a
bad choice, but it’s a choice. The thing I regret is that now some of the things he’s done have reflected on Neill, [Twilight member/producer] Sanford Parker, Thurston Moore and anybody he’s played with. Dudes have a hard time now because they were involved with him. It’s sad, but it’s not. He made a choice.”
When Jef Met Stevie If there’s one thing that stands out most in Jef and Stevie’s art space, it’s the dozen white roses in a vase on Stevie’s side of their shared work table. Turns out the couple just celebrated their two-year anniversary. “I never thought Jef would be buying me flowers,” Stevie beams. “It’s really sweet. He buys me flowers all the time. I haven’t really had a dude do that. My dad used to buy me flowers.” “I’m old enough to be your dad,” Whitehead laughs. “You would’ve had to have had me at 13,” Floyd replies. The story of how Jef met Stevie is a convoluted one involving a lot of close calls and near misses. But it was Stevie who sought Jef out. “I’ve never gone out of my way to meet a guy before,” she explains. “I’m a loner. I lived by myself for eight years before him. And it wasn’t like I was trying to hang out with him like that. I just wanted to shake his hand and tell him how much he really, really heavily influenced me.” “Which is super-bizarre for me,” Whitehead chimes in. “I know I’m not the only one,” she continues. “When Dark Castle was on tour, I’d meet people who were super into Leviathan and Lurker, too. I did a tour once when I was feeling kind of depressed and I wasn’t super stoked to be there. I had the Lurker album on repeat in my headphones for the entire tour. Somehow it made me feel better. I know there’s other people who’ve had that experience.” Whitehead and Floyd eventually connected through True Traitor producer and Twilight member Sanford Parker, who gave Jef one of Stevie’s solo albums. “I put his number in my phone as ‘Jef Fucking Whitehead,’ and it’s still like that,” she laughs. “I thought he was never gonna call me, but he did and we talked that night for like five hours.” After a few months of phone calls, Whitehead flew to Boise, Idaho, where Floyd was tattooing at the time. “I went there to do a ‘tattoo sit-in,’” he says. “But it was really to meet Stevie.” They’ve been working on music together ever since. On his first trip to Oregon, Whitehead and Floyd spent a month hunched over an 8-track cassette recorder. They’re calling the project Devout. “We have about 20 songs now, and it’s really fun,” Whitehead enthuses.
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CALLISTO
LOTUS THIEF
Since their 2004 debut, True Nature Unfolds, Callisto have constantly sought out new ground in the post-metal genre. Now, the band has returned after some years of relatively quiet existence with a new album Secret Youth. Secret Youth is a spellbinding, contradictory concoction of more straightforward elements mixed with a strong and somber experimental overtone. File under Progressive Noise Rock.
Lotus Thief weave a compelling union ofmetal, space rock, and ambient sounds, all with the purpose to pass along the knowledge of superlative ancient texts.
Secret Youth
Rervm
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Available on CD, double LP and digital formats on January 30th (Europe) /February 2nd (UK). www.svartrecords.com
ISTEN FANZINE Don’t Break The Ghost
Isten Fanzine is the most legendary of all legendary underground metal fanzines. This hardcover 800 page mammoth is an exhaustive compilation of things published (and unpublished) under the Isten banner from 1984 onwards. It’s also a story of mad devotion to heavy metal witchery and the lost alchemy of the fanzine: it’s all about the ritual, the sacrifice, the demons. This is a life’s work, presented with all of the evidence.
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“A lot of really awesome stuff happened while I was making Scar Sighted. We found out we were pregnant, we got this art space, we got the apartment across the street. And I’m making a living painting commissions right now. I just gotta stay outta the Jameson bottle and things will be alright.”
Jef Whitehead “We used a makeshift drum set here and there. We even used Decibel magazine as the snare in one song. I don’t know what people are gonna think about Devout, and I don’t really care. It’s like when Leviathan started—it’s for ourselves. The thought of people hearing it didn’t come until way after. We were just falling in love and making music.” There’s no question that Stevie and Grail’s arrival have improved Whitehead’s life considerably. “There was a time that I was worried I would never see Jef again,” Lehi reveals. “We talk or text almost every day, so it pleases me to know where he is now with Stevie and Grail. I went up there to visit them recently and it was inspiring because they’re being prolific even as they nurture and raise Grail. So, I think the future’s bright, even if the music’s not.” Whitehead says that fatherhood has changed him in ways he never thought possible. “I have something to answer for now. I have responsibility. I never thought I should have kids because I let myself go down the shitter a couple of times, but it’s awesome. I’ve never felt so much love and so much fear at the same time. Not necessarily protecting Grail from all the things in this world, but just being there and maybe helping her understand it or cope with it. So, it’s awesome. Awesome, but scary.” These days, Whitehead and Floyd take turns watching Grail while the other makes music or art. Since Whitehead just finished Scar Sighted, it’s Stevie’s turn to make an album. “I just hope she hurries up, because I’m ready to
go again,” Whitehead laughs. In the meantime, they’re both working to take control of Leviathan’s merchandise sales. They’re currently in the process of tracking down bootleggers and staunching the flow of unofficial Leviathan and Lurker items. Whitehead shows us stacks of bootleg Leviathan and Lurker patches that he confiscated from online opportunists. “We’re going after the bootleg shirt people next,” he says. “They’re making money off of my hard work, and a lot of the designs are not correct. Some of the shirts I see are just corny. I’ve gone back and forth with a few people, and most of them have been cool about it. But one guy wrote back to me, ‘Bootlegging saved punk rock.’ So, I told him, ‘Blackened expressions don’t need to be saved.’” All of this is new territory for Whitehead, who’s never really made his own Leviathan merchandise. “I made a couple of shirts when Verräter came out, but I just gave them to friends,” he explains. “But I’m doing my own hoodies right now, and I just got some stickers made as well. People should know that the only place you can get official Leviathan merch right now is from me and [print shop/online retailer] Holy Mountain.” Lately, Whitehead has spotted other bands using the iconic crescent moon logo he designed for Leviathan. “That drippy moon is mine,” he says firmly. “I’m not Switzerland about it. It’s got one or two prongs on the top and three on the bottom. It might sound childish, but it’s important to me. I saw some other band use it,
so I contacted the artist and he was like, ‘So, do you own the inverted cross, too?’ But it’s two different fucking things.”
Light Pierces the Darkness As you’ve probably figured out by now, Whitehead is a modest guy. When talking about specific Leviathan records, he’s quick to credit the producers who helped him realize his vision—Billy Anderson on Scar Sighted, Sanford Parker on True Traitor, and his old friend and former roommate Daniel Voss on Massive Conspiracy and much of the material going back to Tenth Sub Level. “It’s kind of unfair to call Leviathan a one-man band,” he says. “Those guys are part of it now, whether they like it or not.” He’s also adamant about mentioning the folks who stuck by him through his court case: his friends at Taylor Street Tattoo in Chicago and Temple Tattoo in Oakland, and fellow Twilight soldier (and now Decibel columnist) Neill Jameson. “Jef is probably the closest thing to a brother that I’ve ever had,” Jameson says. “I’m an only child and most of my family is dead, but Jef is someone who, from the moment we started working together, became family to me. When you deal with normal people, you see certain behaviors that are just despicable—how people treat each other, how selfish they are, how intolerant they are. Jef doesn’t fit into the mold of normal society. He’s a real rarity as far as that’s concerned. When we’re working together, we have a common vision, but we’re
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seeing it through four eyes.” Though Twilight publicly disbanded in 2014 before their final album was even released, Whitehead isn’t confining his musical presence to his own projects. He’s been doing guest vocals galore lately—for Floyd’s new Taurus album, for Portland sludge-crust miscreants Bastard Feast, and for Seattle-via-SF black metal squad Black Queen. If all goes according to plan, he and Floyd will be lending their voices to the new album from the Body in a few days. But the project he’s most often asked about is Lurker of Chalice, for which he put out just one album back in 2005. Many a fan wants to know if he’ll ever do another one, and the few public replies Whitehead has given have hovered in the “probably not” range. But today he’s refreshingly noncommittal. “We’ll see,” he says tenuously. “I started making that kind of music in ’98, and the album came out in 2005. So, it was seven years of doing four-tracks every day—there’s a lot of Lurker of Chalice demos. But it’s also kind of incestuous. A lot of Lurker of Chalice stuff became Leviathan and vice versa. When I was doing that record, I just wanted to do something different that didn’t have anything to do with Moribund and had a lot more to do with
other kinds of dark music that I really enjoy. I’m not saying, ‘Hey, look at me’ here, but I don’t think I did anything wrong with that record. Come to find out that a lot of people really dug it, which is awesome. So, yeah, there might be another one.” Lurker of Chalice is a decidedly different beast than Leviathan—more somber and ambient, with tones and textures that don’t necessarily fit into the tight strictures of traditional black metal. But Whitehead brings the same attitude to both. “I obviously don’t have a formula,” he explains. “I’ve never had playing live or touring looming over me, so I’ve never made a song and had to think, ‘How am I gonna do this live?’ I haven’t intentionally not tried to repeat myself—I’m just ADD. There’s tons of diehard black metal kids that hate Leviathan because I put too many different kinds of things in there. I’ll put in something syncopated, or I’ll use an e-bow. I get the hairy eyeball from all kinds of people, and I love it. I mean, I like Teitanblood, too, but I don’t have the patch and the shirt and the hat, you know? People can think whatever they want. I’m not gonna stop. And if there was no way for me to get my music out there, I’d still do it.” Despite what the peanut gallery might have
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to say, Whitehead’s trajectory remains on the upswing. “A lot of really awesome stuff happened while I was making Scar Sighted,” he says. “We found out we were pregnant, we got this art space, we got the apartment across the street. We got the house we’re buying right now. I’ve done a lot of art for bands that I really like. And I’m making a living painting commissions right now. I’m not really tattooing that much, which is fine with me. I’m actually not sure if I wanna do it anymore. Stevie got me an amazing Monson guitar—I got an endorsement from them. Things keep trickling in. I just gotta stay outta the Jameson bottle and things will be alright.” The idea that life could always go back to the way it was before he met Floyd seems to both haunt and motivate him. “I’m in love, I have a beautiful daughter, and we’re starting this great life where I’m putting out my own music and merch,” he offers. “But I’m 46, you know? Two rad years don’t cancel out the 44. I still have all those years in my head. I still look at things a certain way. I’m still a negative creep. I’m still attracted to bad things. At the same time, I feel like a completely different person. I’m ready to get up and take life on. Because I don’t have a fuckin’ choice.” A
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INSIDE ≥
76 BLACKLISTED Growing and showing 78 THE BODY AND THOU #hipstermetalgate 78 CADAVERIC SPASM/CLIT EASTWOOD Unforgiven-able 80 JOHN CARPENTER Every day is Halloween 84 HATEFUL ABANDON Orphan’s tragedy 86 NAILGUN MASSACRE Their point is…?
ALL THE NOISE THAT FITS REVIEWS
REVIEWS BY THE
Damned Good
NUMBERS MARCH
1
new column about a format we once devoted an entire feature to belittling
1
old column that amusingly pleads for a Vision of Disorder HOF
1
lead review illustration that could be the box cover of Clue: Extremely Extreme
1
review of the new Venom that, um… just read the Q&A.
NIGHT DEMON call upon the spirits of the
A
greatest metal generation on their debut
fter a few years of writing about music, it becomes painfully obvious that the biggest challenge of the job isn’t NIGHT DEMON coming up with new adjectives for “brutal,” or figuring out questions to ask bands you don’t care about, or coping with Curse of the Damned CENTURY MEDIA crippling poverty and the inevitable drinking problem. No, the true challenge lies in discovering unique ways to say “this band does nothing original, but they do it well.” If you were waiting until the end of this review to learn my judgment, I’m sorry for the spoiler. ¶ So, to get it out of the way: Night Demon do nothing original, but they do it well. So well, in fact, that the listener has to wonder how so many other bands fail at the same task when given very similar ingredients. Three dudes, a barebones set up, and the entire history of heavy metal at their disposal. It ain’t rocket science.
ILLUSTRATION BY MARK RUDOLPH [MARKRUDOLPH.COM]
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Debutante Ball: P a r a g o n Re c o r d s
Of course, Curse of the Damned only draws from a select time spectrum: 1979 to 1983. Not a bad segment of the time-space-metal continuum to make your home. This Ventura, CA trio clearly has some Iron Maiden records (Paul Di’Anno era)—that bass sure gallops. Their collection goes deeper than the obvious, though. They covered Jaguar and the obligatory Diamond Head on their 2013 self-titled EP, a pretty clear sign that they liked their New Wave of British Heavy Metal before the bands went all fancy and got “production” and “variety.” The four originals on said EP confirmed that impression. Those originals were also good enough to get the band a contract with Century Media (or maybe it was the blitzkrieg of their live show—either way), so now there are actual, like, expectations. Never fear: the bigger label does not mean bigger ambition. See, Night Demon understand something we mere mortals don’t: you don’t have to be original if you have great songs. Night Demon must’ve sold their souls to the Beast on the cover, because this tome is full of them. At one end of the groove, “Screams in the Night” feels more Girlschool than Motörhead with its simple, propulsive energy. At the other, “Save Me Now” brings things to a close with its soulful Thin Lizzy jam. In between, angelic witches do battle with tanks and tygers hailing from Pan Tang. Satan makes several appearances, including one as the protagonist. There’s no denying the importance of originality. Night Demon may not have that, but they have everything else important. These very sounds rang from countless carparks in industrial England during the tyranny of Margaret Thatcher. Who cares if their actual genesis came several thousand miles away and three decades later? —JEFF TREPPEL
BLACKLISTED
8
When People Grow, People Go
NEW YORK, USA
W W W. PA R AG O N R E C O R D S . C O M
Over the course of 14 years, New York-based Paragon Records plucked promising acts from across the global underground—Finnish cult legends Black Crucifixion, Kyrgyzstan’s Darkestrah, Ukraine’s Khors and America’s Crucifier—to aid in its dastardly mission. Its mantra is: “If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed.” Paragon Records are likely serious in their motto. The label’s 50-plus releases prove there’s staying power in the dark arts. —CHRIS DICK
HADEZ Morituri Te Salutant The descendants of Atahualpa aren’t afraid of Morbid Angel-isms (think Altars of Madness) on fourth album Morituri Te Salutant. The group, in existence since 1986, blazes a familiar, if wicked trail of unbridled death metal. Hadez aren’t of the musical quality of their influences, but there’s enough raw talent to make up for the missed Trey-isms. And there’s even a shaky, cult-centric cover of Black Sabbath’s “Symptom of the Universe” for the traditionalists out there.
HERETICAL Dæmonarchrist - Dæmon Est Devs Inversvs Italy isn’t the most impressive country for extreme metal. Sure, there’s Mortuary Drape, Opera IX, Novembre, Labyrinth, Monumentum and a few more, but it’s not like Germany or Sweden. Sicilians Heretical are hoping—with ill will—to reverse that trend, even if the group’s sound and artwork feel like they’re straight from 1994. Actually, Heretical have been around since 1993, so it stands to reason their aesthetic might be moored in early ’90s pan-European black. Musically, this isn’t too far removed from For All Tid-era Dimmu Borgir, with mid‘80s thrash metal gang vocals.
GREY SKIES FALLEN The Many Sides of Truth The Many Sides of Truth is the first album in eight years for the New Yorkbased melodic (death) metal quintet. The group’s fourth album follows in the footsteps of predecessor Two Way Mirror. Though many remember Grey Skies Fallen for their early aughts work, they continue to serve as one of the underground’s most unsung acts. Though The Many Sides of Truth is rough around the edges, there’s plenty of charm to the depressive stuff. Think Novembers Doom with an (early) In Flames approach to the guitars. Maybe.
PANYCHIDA Grief for an Idol The Czech city of Plzeň might be the best place for a Pilsner. It’s also the home city of pagan metallers Panychida. If the group’s name sounds like an incurable STD, well, it’s the Czech word for “memorial service." All told, Grief for an Idol isn’t too far removed from Scandinavian black with a Bohemian bent. Which means melodic black with some off-the-wall rhythms and song motifs. Countrymen Stíny Plamenů are of similar quality and approach, actually. If folk-driven black from Eastern Europe is your sweet spot, then Panychida is your newest hopeful.
D E AT H W I S H , I N C .
First they show, then they grow
Since forming in the early 2000s, Philly’s Blacklisted have proven to be one of the more capable bands when it comes to scathing hardcore that’s heavy on introspection and, consequently, selfloathing. Vocalist George Hirsch’s barbed lyrics flay the flesh on his back with every verse, as 7 6 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
if the harder he screams, the closer he gets to redemption. The real treat is how his injuries morph from album to album. If Blacklisted’s 2008’s Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God was a gaping wound that bled like a stuck pig, 2009’s No One Deserves to Be Here More Than Me was a fullbody bruise. Listeners decried the latter as being
too grunge-influenced and not as blistering in its pace. The title of the new album is an appropriate response to such criticisms: When People Grow, People Go. If you can’t deal with change, move right along. Here, Blacklisted attempt to instill greater melodies in such a way that the music feels cohe-
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sive, but doesn’t lose any ferocity. Opening track “Insularized” is a mid-tempo chugger that sports a shadow of a hard-rock-radio boner. Hirsch barks rapidly, but then composes himself enough to sing the chorus: “We all die, we all die, we all die disguised.” “Riptide” is full of lurching, gnarly grooves that radiate disgust, like Pantera saddled with extra sadness, and shit gets even slower and darker on “Gossamer.” Elsewhere, Blacklisted unload a menagerie of grinding, scraping and ringing, with true-to-form hardcore vicious enough to loosen the floorboards in Hell. The band is shoving itself forward, stylistically speaking. Grow on with your bad selves, fellas. —JEANNE FURY
BLODHEMN
8
H7
INDIE RECORDINGS
Norse by Norse-west
Blodhemn is a one-man black metal project from Invisus. While he fleshes out the lineup to a four-piece for live performances, in the studio it’s strictly Invisus’ gig. He handles all the instruments, all the vocals. There’s nothing remarkable in that alone; black metal has consistently proven that it is amenable to a single vision writ large in screams and programmed drums (that are then buried under oceans of atonal fuzz). But Blodhemn is a spectacular departure from the lo-fi bedroom set, and while H7 is raw and crisp—guitars all treble crunch, with Invisus giving us his native tongue straight from the throat—it is a hi-fi spectacular. Shit— in an alternate universe, Don Cheadle’s Buck Swope could seen walking off the set of Boogie Nights rapping hard on how this is black metal of the highest fidelity. It is. Channeling Immortal, pre-Isa Enslaved and Taake, H7 is a physically imposing, consistently exhilarating second-wave black metal record. It could come from nowhere else but Norway; all of its ingredients are locally sourced; the merciless tremolo-picking caving away before the four-to-the-floor eighth note power chords and lithe grooves, haunting melodies imbuing the fury with a sense of melancholia; an obscured keyboard refrain on “Andenes Ansikt” reprises Burzum’s “Dunkelheit.” All in all, this is rousing stuff. Maybe there is something in the Bergen water supply, as Høest similarly takes such a redux approach to a solo project, and it’d be interesting to learn if Invisus is similarly an uncompromising maximalist, an agent provocateur, and will find a way to incorporate the boing-boing of a mouth harp amidst the caterwauling max-tempo madness. Time will tell. —JONATHAN HORSLEY 7 8 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
BODUF SONGS
7
Stench of Exist THE FLENSER
And the violence caused such silence
Stench of Exist has the title for a brooding, self-aware black metal throwback. It’s just nothing like that. If anything, the album—part of a continuing series of meditative records from Mat Sweet (not Matthew Sweet—which reminds me, “Girlfriend” is the bomb!)—is all atmosphere. Literally. Track eight, “Grows in the Small World of Nerve,” is actually the sound of falling rain with some sound effects. So, that one’s maybe a step above a white noise machine. When not dabbling in too much atmosphere, Stench is still a quiet, contemplative album, full of hushed vocals, occasionally jarring percussion and an otherwise healthy minimalism. Some piano here, a little distortion there. The near-orchestral “Last Song Save One” is an anomaly, a fully-realized track that veers into shoegaze. Otherwise, they’re playing with absence here. The lack of constant noise. And even the prettier stuff has an ominous tone— the danger in “Modern Orbita” comes not from an assault, but the perception that something darker is coming. Which, spoiler alert, it doesn’t. But, hey, that’s perception. In the end, Boduf Songs are creating that respite between Pallbearer and Godflesh that you didn’t know you needed/wanted. A disturbingly quiet breather within your usual breakneck soundtrack. —KIRK MILLER
THE BODY AND THOU
6
You, Whom I Have Always Hated THRILL JOCKEY
But how do they really feel?
A collaboration album between the Body and Thou might sound like the red button that’ll do us all in, but here we are, still standing. You, Whom I Have Always Hated isn’t quite an “album” anyway, as the first four songs appeared on last year’s Released From Love. Both bands are such titans that they don’t mutate into peak heaviness, but find a (still heavy) common ground. The Body strip Thou of their fragile post-rock beauty and make them uglier; Thou, in return, bring the Body back to earth, away from their experimental tendencies. Most of this is sludge without forgiveness, with “The Wheel Weaves” and “The Devils of Trust” in particular as unrelenting boulders for songs. Bryan Funck plays lead vocalist here, with Chip King providing occasional
shrieks in the background. Even these bands have to think about palatability sometimes. Hated’s centerpiece is a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Terrible Lie,” which has its signature synth line choked and overtaken by blunt doom. Funck has found Trent Reznor’s early-’90s angst crystallized in mint condition, and channels it most sincerely. “Lie” pairs well the other cover tune on here, Vic Chesnutt’s “Coward.” Despite massive amplification, their rendition remains true to the song’s message that might can often be misplaced. Hated is nastier than most doom records, but with Thou coming off of Heathen and the Body having not long ago released I Shall Die Here, it feels like it should add up to just a little more than it does. —ANDY O’CONNOR
CADAVERIC SPASM/ CLIT EASTWOOD
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Split
H O R R O R P A I N G O R E D E AT H
Noise for music’s sake
Music writer’s confession: I accepted an assignment to review this album because I believed the bad puns would flow like a river of excrement. You set yourself up when you call your band Clit Eastwood and rock tunes like “I Was Married to Gay Hitler” and “Abortion Trimester 666.” It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to call your next album Dirty Harry Bush or Million Dollar Crack Baby. A funny thing happened on the way to the cliché farm: this split totally rips! It rips in the perverse way Relapse’s Slimewave compilation did seven years ago. The songs are nasty, brutish and short, to quote a phrase from Hobbes. Cadaveric Spasm don’t get as much attention from the outset because their name isn’t Clit Eastwood, but their material has a (low rent) Brutal Truth Need to Control vibe. The vocals are reminiscent of our erstwhile columnist Kevin Sharp, and the two-minutes-on-average songs have a sort of teetering on chaos “Jemenez Cricket” vibe. And Clit Eastwood—this is some Boddickerstyle powerviolence, minimal in duration and maximum in intensity. As much as I celebrate a sense of the absurd in extreme metal, I almost wish they’d held off on the humor because people will assume this band is worth avoiding; they even admit to starting as a joke band on the Internet. If you loaded Donita Sparks on a truckload of meth and had her read nothing but Penthouse Forum letters, she might started a band like Clit Eastwood. There’s a lesson in all this, folks: You never know what to expect in the land of the extremely extreme. You come in looking for a bunch of one-liners and you end up with about 10 minutes very well spent. —JUSTIN M. NORTON
NEUROT RECORDINGS YOB
Clearing the Path to Ascend
NR090 CD & DIGITAL
UFOMAMMUT ECATE
NR093 CD, DIGITAL & LP
IDES OF GEMINI Old World | New Wave
NR091 CD & DIGITAL
BROTHERS OF THE SONIC CLOTH
NR092 CD, DIGITAL & LP
STRENGTH
STORE.NEUROTRECORDINGS.COM
VISION
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JOHN CARPENTER
8
John Carpenter’s Lost Themes SACRED BONES
Green glowing Satan goo in a cassette case
Undeniable fact: John Carpenter is the fucking MAN. He not only wrote and directed some of the all-time greatest genre flicks (Halloween, Escape From New York, The Thing), he also helped pioneer the use of synthesizers as a scoring device, composing some classic tunes in the process—the Halloween theme alone inspired an entire decade’s worth of copycat soundtracks. Even now, 30 years after his prime, his work continues to be a key influence on a growing number of synthwave artists, from Zombi to Perturbator to Cliff Martinez. His music is so indelible and ubiquitous that it’s hard to believe that Lost Themes is his first non-OST album. Better late than never. In the same way that his scores perfectly evoke the imagery onscreen even when you aren’t watching the film, the songs here paint images of all the movies he never got to make at the height of his directorial prowess. “Vortex” tells the story of a group of rough-and-tumble space jockeys carrying hazardous cargo through pirate territory. “Mystery” conjures a nightmarish ’70s Italian slasher flick. “Obsidian” remakes Rio Bravo once more (a favorite of his). Nods to other legendary synth composers like Goblin and Tangerine Dream abound, and that, more than anything, makes it clear that he’s having fun playing with music without being restricted by what’s onscreen. His gift for creating visuals comes across even when there are none. That takes a rare talent indeed. If Hollywood won’t fund his movies anymore, this is a nice consolation. —JEFF TREPPEL
CONVENT GUILT
6
Guns for Hire
SHADOW KINGDOM
Sing like you mean it, dammit
When King Diamond’s video for “The Family Ghost” was making the rounds in 1987, I was convinced that, instrumentally and compositionally, what I was hearing was of one of the best, most cutting-edge heavy metal bands in existence at the time. That band—LaRocque, Denner, Hansen, Dee—was astonishing, but as was always the case with King, 16-year-old me could not get my head around his singing. It was 8 0 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
Where cassettes are taken seriously—maybe too seriously BY DUTCH PEARCE
II
AUREOLE
ETERNITY
FA L L E N E M P I R E
Omnivorous Void Spawn of that rank November night at the Eiskeller— conceived two minutes into “Deathcrush”—comes Omnivorous Void, a bellicose geist whose three mortal servants, A. (bass/vox), E. (drums) and F. (guitar/vox), call themselves I I. They not only philosophize with jackhammers, they are the dealers of our just deserts, our punishment for merely existing.
AMBEVILENCE
Alunar
Alunar via earbuds is a guided journey through an antique Magnavox’s snow screen, while black metal haunts the periphery. Crafted by a young UkrainianAmerican, Alunar is a masterpiece that captures the foggy dread of waking up from a long nap and finding that it’s dark out and everyone’s gone.
TAROT
Adv. Promo Tape MMXIV
The Watcher’s Dream
H O M E TA P I N G C R U E LT I E S
H E AV Y C H A I N S
Rumors about which shadows cast Ambevilence and petty issues with the name itself have already distracted some would-be devotees of these 13 minutes of oddly-shaped, star-swallowing OSDM. Instant kvlt points for warding off even those who’ve sworn allegiance to the murky underground. Don’t sleep on Ambevilence. Don’t even close your eyes.
so frustrating at the time (I eventually came around), an example of how heavy metal, more than any other genre, relies so much on getting that mix of instrumental chops and lead vocals just right. We all have those metal bands that we should like, were it not for a singer whose voice just doesn’t cut it for us. The potential for great things from Aussies Convent Guilt is through the roof. Formed only a few years ago, they arrive with their music sounding fully formed, as this debut hits the ground running with a scintillating blast of traditional heavy metal and ’70s heavy rock. The speed and tautness of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal meshes beautifully with influences ranging from Thin Lizzy to Rose Tattoo, the riffs lithe, melodic and confident, while the rhythm section is robust and capable of smooth grooves. Unfortunately, the singing feels like an afterthought, earnestly trying to carry a tune, but always falling flat, both figuratively and literally. Sixteen-year-old me would scoff, but this record could really use some flamboyance on the level of King Diamond. —ADRIEN BEGRAND
If this issue were like one of those greeting cards that plays a song upon being opened, “The Watcher’s Dream” would be playing on this page. With the organ, the mellow vocals, the whole vintage vibe, there’d be no need to explain why this Tasmanian trio’s trio of cassette EPs have sold out instantly. Luckily, Tarot’s got a Bandcamp, and there’s a compilation CD (plus two new tracks) coming soon.
DORTHIA COTTRELL 8 Dorthia Cottrell FORCEFIELD
Taking for pain as needed
On Windhand’s last record, the band broke up its oppressive sludge with “Evergreen,” an elegiac acoustic hymn that further showed off the vocal capabilities of frontwoman Dorthia Cottrell. And following in the footsteps of various doomsicians, she has gone unplugged for her debut solo record. Cottrell’s Virginia background may be one explanation as to why her husky, downcast delivery is reminiscent of another Appalachian-bred singer, Chan Marshall, a.k.a. Cat Power. Both soulful and delicate, the depth of her vocals keeps aloft the unadorned music with tales of love gone or slowly disappearing. And while these types of records often fall into a bleak repetition, songs like “Maybe It’s True” and “Kneeler” contain hulking pastoral melodies that are rejuvenating when tossed in between the
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dirgier tracks and two covers—one from doom scene favorite Townes Van Zandt and one from Gram Parsons. There are points, though, where songs lag behind the singer. This is not a wholly barebones project, with the occasional layered guitar work, and a full band could push some of these songs into something truly powerful. There is a middle ground between fuzzed-out brutality and sparse acoustics that could really benefit someone with her range. But even if Cottrell sticks to these two extremes, there isn’t much to lament; whether howling through an avalanche or crying into the void, she is an intoxicating presence. When she sings, “I’m gonna break my heart here on this microphone,” you have no choice but to believe her. —SHANE MEHLING
CRYPT SERMON
8
Out of the Garden DARK DESCENT
And into heavy rotation
The rigid standards of traditional doom correlate with the complacent expectations of its followers, and the subgenre has persisted despite the fickle trend winds. Given that doom is as old as metal itself—arguably older—what’s most impressive about Crypt Sermon’s debut album is that, even though every fist-raising moment on Out of the Garden is familiar in some nostalgic, dreamy way, most of it sounds paradoxically novel as well. With the exception of “The Master’s Bouquet,” which has to be a stolen b-side from Candlemass’s Nightfall session. Otherwise, the songs on OOTG are as refreshing as they are unquestionably doom. The very act of listening to Crypt Sermon folds time and metal in on itself. The result is that you either vividly recall how you felt upon hearing Cathedral or Solstice that first time (as with an acid flashback) or—given your age—you can fathom, with all senses, what it must have been like when those gods first called out from the void. And like Cathedral and Solstice, Philadelphia’s Crypt Sermon is also made up of musicians from non-doom bands. Vocalist Brooks Wilson plays guitar in Trenchrot; Will Mellor from Hivelords plays bass. The two guitarists, Steve Jansson and James Lipczynski, share their skills with thrashers Infiltrator and the blackened Labyrinthine, respectively, while drummer EES also plays for black metallers Ashencult. What brings them all together is no doubt what brought the two aforementioned legends of doom together, to quote Crypt Sermon themselves: it was “The Will of the Ancient Call.” —DUTCH PEARCE 8 2 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
7 DIRTY MIKE AND THE BOYS/ VIOLATION WOUND/ FIRST CLASS ELITE Grime! Greed! Gore!
H O R R O R G O R E P A I N D E AT H
Punk is death
Stereotypically speaking, death metal’s sociopolitical affiliations have been mostly concerned with weapon equality—a knife’s good as any chainsaw or hammer. Three bands with celebrated death metal pedigrees screw extra studs into their vests for Grime! Greed! Gore!, a three-way split release of lawless punk that unfolds like a beer-drenched basement show. Mike Abominator (Gravehill) is Dirty Mike here, and with charming titles like “Holy Mother of Buttfuck” and the two-part opus “Crack Baby,” the nickname’s well-earned. Dirty Mike and the Boys raw-dog hardcore punk in sloppy 60-second blasts like the Murder Junkies got hopped up on stolen amphetamines and stumbled into some greasy-spoon southern groove. Second band up: Violation Wound. Featuring the commanding vocals of Chris Reifert (Autopsy), they follow the natural progression from MC5 to Motörhead to Poison Idea to this filthy rock ‘n’ roll/hardcore punk hybrid that’s slammed a few too many drinks, and are set to rampage into town for a night of shit-stirring. Closing out the split is First Class Elite—a fitting name for a band including three-quarters of death metal royalty Asphyx. “Ready for War” stomps out of its holding dungeon with fleeting death/doom before morphing into fanged crossover thrash. Spiked with call-and-response vocals and down-tuned hardcore, this sounds exactly as awesome as you’d expect from the renegade bastard child of Carnivore and Dutch death metal. This split is raw and inconsistent, but if you’re seeking nuance, go listen to your local contemporary adult radio station. Leave rock ‘n’ roll to degenerates like these who will defend and honor its legacy. —SEAN FRASIER
THE FLIGHT OF SLEIPNIR
7
V.
N A PA L M
The musical equivalent of an eight-legged horse?
When it comes to bands making music in a style that’s been done in great abundance by countless others, all anyone can ever ask for is a good idea or two. Something a listener can latch on to, something to draw people in, in a way that few similar-sounding acts have done. Take that sound that’s been done to death, make it your own,
use that sincerity to give it a real identity, and chances are it’ll happen. Colorado duo the Flight of Sleipnir could have easily taken the predictable route in their approach to pagan-themed black metal, following faithfully in the footsteps of West Coast titans Agalloch, but to the credit of David Csicsely and Clayton Cushman, they’re smart enough to know how to create something original instead. The Flight of Sleipnir’s fifth album seems to tread familiar territory at first, as those lush Pacific Northwest strains are unmistakable: introspection, harshness, staggering beauty. Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll hear a little more. A strong doom influence creeps into the music, the force of which lends the music gravity, both structurally and metaphorically. There’s a sludgy tone to the guitars, but that’s counterbalanced by evocative, gothic melodies. Progressive rock influence can’t help but be heard on the dynamic “Nothing Stands Obscured.” And perhaps most intriguingly, a psychedelic element is evident on “Sidereal Course” and “Gullveig,” which lends the music even more mystery than it already has. It makes for a unique, pleasing hybrid, an album with grace and character. —ADRIEN BEGRAND
GHOULGOTHA
7
The Deathmass Cloak DARK DESCENT
Dressing for the funeral
There was no way that Ghoulgotha’s full-length debut was ever going to advance death metal’s form and function. The crude rot and on-off blast of last year’s Prophetic Oration of Self EP was brief and underwhelming, but it nonetheless served its purpose as a lo-fi declaration of intent, two tracks of down-in-the-dirt death metal. It was the sort of thing that Wayne Sarantopolous (Father Befouled, Encoffination) specializes in. Sarantopolous added “Ghoulgotha guitars/ vocals” to his extensive résumé after leaving Dallas for San Diego and hooking up with drummer Charles Koryn of Ascended Dead. Two years of jamming it out brings them here, but The Deathmass Cloak sounds like it was recorded way back when the cassette was still an economically viable format. Maybe it was inevitable that it would sound raw and fuzzed-out, but compositionally it captures the playful, warped quality of an era when death metal’s frontiers were physically malformed, when the weirdness of your riff patterns and creepiness of melodies meant as much as the brutality of your delivery. The Deathmass Cloak expands upon Prophetic Oration, repurposing the morose crawl of the title track as the center-
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piece to a record that seesaws uneasily between Autopsy splatter and morbid death-doom, creaking with melodies culled—then subverted— from the Hanneman playbook, and jacking into weird rhythms on a whim. It doesn’t always work; something is lost when Ghoulgotha drop the tempo and pick it up again spasmodically; it’s not so much momentum as it is traction on the part of the listener, who’s left sifting for hooks or something human to hold onto and connect with. But perseverance is not without reward. —JONATHAN HORSLEY
HATEFUL ABANDON 8 Liars, Bastards CANDLELIGHT
Stranger days
The one word I want to use to tie together Hateful Abandon’s combo of electronics, peace-punk and bleak post-punk (with a pedigree in black metal under the name Abandon) is cinematic. But that doesn’t tell you much unless you know what kind of movie we’re talking about. So, I’m gonna outline this movie right now, and then I’ll turn it into an awesome blockbuster screenplay, get that Hollywood money, forget all my old friends and hang out with other rich assholes. It’s gonna rule. OK, we’re in a grim totalitarian future, as you can tell from the Sabbath-riff synths and industrial pounding of “Maze of Bastards.” Now meet the extremely cool resistance! A ragtag gang of cyberpunks, there’s like a Hawkwind hippie guy, maybe a sexy-lady post-apocalyptic occultist. They speed through the wasteland in a really cool future car being politically radical, blasting “Culprit.” Then “High Rise” nails the exact sound of early British industrial metal, so our heroes should go to a super-decadent cyber nightclub and maybe someone has a bad trip on a crazy designer drug. “The Test” goes for grim, serious synthpop, so… right, gotta have a romance in there somewhere. “The Walker” is the climactic encounter with our evil totalitarian leader and his legion of clone-bot minions. Well, guess what, fucko? “There Will Never Be Peace”! Synths throb in the middle, with the record’s most aggro percussion below them and the angriest vocals up top. Evil regime vanquished, everyone learns the true meaning of punk and they start a noble new society (“December”). BOOM. Guaranteed cult classic. —ANTHONY BARTKEWICZ 8 4 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
---by Shane Mehling ----
In which we assess the damage done on this month’s Filthiest vinyl Vision of Disorder Still 12-inch [ D I G N I F I E D B A S TA R D , I N C . ] I would only review this if I got a copy, because boy howdy do I love Vision of Disorder. (Still waiting to do the Imprint Hall of Fame, dudes.) This was their first five-song EP, and it comes with the two bonus tracks from the Spain import, and it is untouched. No remixing or remastering; just pure ’90s Long Island hardcore I listened to in my car like 5,000 times. The people rushing to buy this know exactly what I’m talking about.
Muscle and Marrow The Human Cry 12-inch [ B E L I E F M O W E R ] This gothy indie rock doom duo produces some quite overcast music, with oversaturated guitars, a stripped-down drum kit and bewitching vocals that glide from dazed melodies to wails that pierce straight through your chest. Imagine Beth Gibbons from Portishead during an exorcism. The beginning of the record sets the stage well, but when they get a few songs in is when everything comes together. Rhythmic, experimental, hooky and occasionally terrifying, these guys deserve your attention.
Victim of Circumstance Victim of Circumstance 7-inch [ N E R V E A LTA R ]
Any sense of pretension or trends has crumbled away due to these old-school crusties blasting through 11 songs of hardcore grind. There isn’t a whole lot to say except that the layout is nice, the music is violent and you should own everything Nerve Altar’s selling.
Portal/Blood of Kingu Split 7-inch [HELLS HEADBANGERS]
One track each from these dudes, with some noticeable sound quality differences. On one side we have black metal Ukrainians Blood of Kingu delivering a slickly demonic epic. On the other side, though, we have Portal, who recorded this 15 years ago on a four-track, and I can definitely believe it. The guitar sounds like it’s going to shred out of the speakers with the drum machine mercilessly plowing through as the vocalist sings into a rain stick. In other words, it’s lo-fi as shit, but also pleasantly berserk.
Regimen Regimen 12-inch [ G A P H A L S ] This is punk given a hardcore edge with all songs in Swedish, I think, so I’m not sure what they’re trying to tell me in “Konsekvenserna” or “Lamna kniven hemma,” but it’s probably about how the system is all fucked up. Anyway, this isn’t really my thing, but if you like ballsier punk and aren’t an American idiot like me, you could do a lot worse.
Krang Bad Moon 12-inch [ S A C R E D P L A G U E ] More punk? All right. But while this doesn’t grind, they are definitely crusty enough if you’re looking for something that’s a little heavier and thrashier. This also has super out-of-place melodic solos that I actually dig. Also, “Mirror Puncher.” Got to love a song called “Mirror Puncher.”
newnoise INFAMOUS SINPHONY
6
Gospels of Blood SELF-RELEASED
Cutting runtimes and forearms
The second LP since San Diego-based veteran thrashers Infamous Sinphony regrouped in 2010, Gospels of Blood resonates with blazing throwback riffs and greasy solos from the opening pummel of “Disembodied Voices.” With shared Californian roots and a Tom Araya doppelganger in vocalist Greg Raymond—though Raymond certainly expands beyond Araya’s urgent bark—the Slayer comparisons may be unavoidable. Here they’re even further warranted, as the opening songs feel like the next chapter most fans anticipated in Slayer’s ’90s evolution following punk cover album Undisputed Attitude. In its first act, Gospels of Blood snarls with the feverish propulsion of a band trying to collapse the nearly 30 years between their formation and this effort. It may not possess the same furious mean streak as Infamous Sinphony’s 1989 fulllength debut, Manipulation, but they still proudly carry the torch of heyday thrash and speed metal. When anchored in old-school crossover— like standout tracks “Enemy of the State” and “Opposite Land”—their songs snap necks and likely incite borderline criminal circle pits. But as they veer towards backwards-hat hardcore, their breakdowns and slam riffs don’t nearly sport the same brawn and bite. Too often the songs—like the abrupt fade-outs of “Struggle” and the title track—announce themselves with a roar before trailing away into muted memory. At 14 tracks and 37 minutes, Gospels of Blood feels like it should have followed Reign in Blood’s lead and opted for a leaner runtime. Sometimes four tracks and nine minutes less still means slaying harder. —SEAN FRASIER
KING WOMAN
7
Doubt
THE FLENSER
Her majesty and decay
At the outset, the goal of this droopy-souled San Franciscan quartet seems familiar: to fill your mouth, nose, ears and entire brain cavity with fuzz. Slowly. Certainly, “Wrong” and “Candescent Soul” sound like the last ebbing communiques leeched from the depths of a massive barbiturate overdose. Vocalist and band founder Kristina Esfandiari (ex-Whirr, Miserable) croons and slurs from a murky hollow under thick blankets of distortion. The oily fem-doom vibe seems unlikely to grab the attention of any but the style’s most
single-minded devotees… until Colin Gallagher finds his way into the treble clef during “Burn” and “King of Swords,” and changes the game completely. Okay, not completely. But the emotional palette achieved by the clean leads in those songs absolutely overshadows the curmudgeonly crawl of the other two tracks. The undulating midrange waves in “Burn” are constantly berated by the guitar’s siren screaming across the surface. Nothing, though, compares to “King of Swords,” which alone justifies almost any price the Flenser might wish to slap on Doubt. It’s six minutes of heart-wringing perfection, a Deafheaven song after a night of binge drinking and ill-advised physical exertion. “King of Swords” clothes its pain in gorgeous, rising tremolo pitches and Esfandiari’s most insistent rants when she calls out, “And you take, and you take, and you take… from my heart,” then laments that “love is gone.” This is one trip into strungout anxiety we can be happy to take again and again. —DANIEL LAKE
LEVIATHAN
8
Scar Sighted P R O FO U N D LO R E
Heal turn
When Leviathan released True Traitor, True Whore in 2011, things were looking pretty bleak for Jef Whitehead, a.k.a. Wrest. The black metal act’s one-and-only member made the album under the cloud of criminal indictment, and it was dramatically different than its predecessor, 2008’s Massive Conspiracy Against All Life. Whereas Leviathan had become notorious for making chaotic, mindfracking black metal, True Traitor was an arty, moody and, at times, groovy effort, one that is equal parts black metal, post-rock and noise. Fast forward to 2014: Wrest is a free man (you can read the specifics of his case in J. Bennett’s cover story) and, musically, he seems to be back to his old ways. You could call this new album Massive Conspiracy Against All Life (Slight Return) and you wouldn’t be far off—at least not in terms of ferocity. The first track with vocals, “The Smoke of Their Torment,” blazes out of the gate, a furious mix of anxious beats, proggy guitar lines and otherworldly vocals (think: an Americanized Deathspell Omega). True Traitor has a blitzkrieg of an opener, too, but Scar Sighted only occasionally lets up. For example, the next track, “Dawn Vibration,” is an impenetrable storm of fuzz and percussion. Even when Wrest goes ambient for a spell—say, on the tribal intro to “Gardens of Coprolite”—the non-bruising passages are short-lived. Given its sonic aggressiveness, one might be tempted to call this a mean-spirited record,
except Scar Sighted song titles—such as “Wicked Fields of Calm” and “A Veil Is Lifted”—suggest otherwise. The new album seems to be the work of someone who’s come out the other side. Maybe a little less bitter. Definitely a little wiser. —BRENT BURTON
MARDUK
8
Frontschwein NUCLEAR BLAST
’Duk dynasty
Ready to feel old? Marduk, those corpsepainted, Satantouting mainstays of Swedish black metal, are celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2015. You know what else is celebrating a quarter-century of existence this year? Fucking “Cherry Pie” by Warrant—the anthem of a bygone era ruled by poofy-haired lizard people. And when’s the last time you heard that abomination outside of a strip club? Thankfully, Marduk haven’t been relegated to such a depressing legacy. On Frontschwein, their 13th LP, the boys trample through 11 songs that seethe with misanthropic hatred and showcase a total command of the black metal genre. There’s palpable, youthful energy all over this album, particularly on ferocious tunes like “Afrika,” “Thousand-Fold Death” and the title track. It’s as if nearly three decades of successful blaspheming haven’t meant shit up to this point—Marduk are still playing like they have something to prove. Frontschwein is replete with compelling components: icy, inventive riffs that are often reminiscent of early Enslaved (see “Falaise: Cauldron of Blood” and “Rope of Regret”); World War II-inspired lyrics and sickening howls courtesy of vocalist Mortuus; and a top-notch performance from new drummer Fredrik Widigs (Rage Nucleairé), who does a fine job of replacing departed skinsman Lars Broddesson, especially when he has space to groove on mid-paced bangers like “Wartheland” and “503.” Does it sound markedly different than its predecessors? Not really. But diversity has never been Marduk’s bag—they exist to pummel and befoul, and Frontschwein keeps their filth-encrusted bar as high as it’s ever been. —MATT SOLIS
MORS PRINCIPIUM EST
7
Dawn of the 5th Era AFM
Ad vitam aut culpam
Melodic death metallers Mors Principium Est hit veritable gold on 2005’s The Unborn. But when riff whiz/solo god D E C I B E L : M A R C H 2 0 15 : 8 5
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Jori Haukio departed for a tenured position in absolute obscurity a year after release, the Finns’ stock dropped a few notches. Haukioless follow-ups Liberation = Termination and ...and Death Said Live were competent efforts to keep the Latin-named band alive and relevant, with Ville Viljanen assuming the helm, but they couldn’t match the otherworldly qualities of The Unborn’s spotlight tracks. Turns out Viljanen isn’t about to let the cold hand of death touch Mors Principium Est. New album Dawn of the 5th Era recaptures some of the The Unborn’s brilliance while retaining the aggressive stance of Liberation = Termination. Newish guitarists Andy Gillion and Kevin Verlay (both shockingly not from Finland) provide much-needed life with their nimble fretboard work and twin lead action. They’re particularly awesome on “We Are the Sleep,” instrumental cut “Apricity,” “The Journey” and opening track “God Has Fallen.” Outside of Gillion and Verlay playing like they own the place, Mors Principium Est are largely the same beast. Viljanen’s raspy bark remains convincing, if single-minded. Drummer Mikko Sipola sounds similar to past albums. His pummel propels the Est with ease, but there are times where it sounds like it’s not Sipola playing; or, that his drums are so sampled and overproduced that he might as well not have put in the long hours at Ansa Studio. Dawn of the 5th Era isn’t going to win against At War With Reality, but in a time where aggressive melodic death is a rarity, there’s no reason forgo the Est, particularly when they close out the album with a cut like “The Forsaken.” —CHRIS DICK
NAILGUN MASSACRE
8
Boned, Boxed and Buried XTREEM
The Netherlands’ Roger Murtaughs
While there never was any real groundswell of support for a sequel to the so-bad-it’s-good 1985 horror film Nail Gun Massacre (sample taglines: “Cheaper Than a Chainsaw!”; “A Very Penetrating Story!”), a potential sophomore effort by the Dutch death metallers of the same name is another story entirely. Sure, the quintet’s 2011 full-length debut Backyard Butchery was a surprisingly assured, expansive and—though a band that describes their sound as a “piercing rampage against blast beats, technique neurotics, hippies and semi-intellectuals” might not 8 6 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
appreciate this last accolade—nuanced splatter platter of extreme metal earworms. It was also clearly summoned into existence by a group of individuals who hadn’t quite pulled its collective musical self entirely out of the primordial goop yet. Or, to employ vocabulary more local to the art in question, the butchery actually did still feel a bit backyard. Not so on Boned, Boxed and Buried, a record that builds upon virtually every strength exhibited on Backyard Butchery even as it simultaneously snuffs out a host of niggling weaknesses. Which isn’t to say that Nailgun Massacre have abandoned their über-brutal approach to aural slaughter or watered down the gleefully vile imagery. (Fears of the latter should be laid to rest by song titles like “I Bury the Hatchet in Your Face,” “Casket Full of Fun,” “Stinky Stench,” “Where’s the Head?” and, of course, “Nailgun Messiah.”) There’s just a new clarity of intent and execution here, as if over the last four years the band has taken some steel wool to its sound, mercilessly scrubbed the grime and rust away, and discovered an even sharper, shinier nail beneath. Now locked and loaded, Nailgun Massacre are about to drive home one of the first standout death metal releases of 2015. —SHAWN MACOMBER
PSYCROPTIC
7
Psycroptic PROSTHETIC
How can we sleep when our ears are burning?
At first, I was confused by what I was hearing. Psycroptic didn’t sound like the Psycroptic I remembered, and in light of the snarky promo hoax recently pulled off by Old Man Gloom and Profound Lore, the possibility that someone was yanking my half-black chain was very real. Then I realized I was mixing up Psycroptic with Ulcerate. You’d think the limited number of high-profile Australians/New Zealanders—and that the bands hail from two totally different countries!—signed to highprofile labels would nix any confusion, but never underestimate my ability to muddy up the simplest of situations. Confusion sorted, Psycroptic’s self-titled fifth album began speaking to me as previous records The Inherited Repression and (Ob)servant have, leaning as they do to the cohesive and orthodox side of the tech-death spectrum. Instead of a quasi-astrophysical journey into double-digit dimensions with metal that sounds like pictures taken by the Hubble telescope, Psycroptic deliver a more conventional beatdown with a greater
sense of structural linearity, a spidery groove based more in the San Francisco Bay Area than the Tampa Bay Area and, in Jason Peppiatt, the least death metal-sounding death metal vocalist in death metal. Psycroptic is bookended by “Echoes to Come” and “Endless Wandering,” two tracks that illustrate versatility with the inclusion of a haunting Latin feel alongside non-traditional chug-andwander riffing (the former) and the insertion of some mild stoner-rockin’ and epic prog-rock (the latter). These elements—as well as acoustic guitars and shredding scales/runs—permeate throughout, but there are far too many moments where the technical flash and dash of the riffing takes precedence over connection and continuity between riffs. This detracts from the initial excitement that songs like “Ending” and “Cold” provide. For fans of Obscura, Gorod and those who have given up hope of ever seeing a new Necrophagist record. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO
SEXTRASH
7
Sexual Carnage GREYHAZE
Sorry Ma, forgot to take out the Sextrash
If your band is called Sextrash, you damn well better have a naked nubile getting fondled by members of the band on the front cover. And, yeah, a title like Sexual Carnage definitely sets the mood, too. Lyrics about alcohol abuse, sexual perversion and Satan? Check, check and check. You can see why this 1990 release—the first from this Brazilian quartet—has attained cult status and has been reissued by Greyhaze. Sexual Carnage was originally unleashed on the world by Brazilian label Cogumelo Records (Sarcófago, Sepultura, et al.) in that awkward era when the more vicious, hateful side of thrash metal was edging toward what would become death metal. In addition to being really poorly recorded and mixed—guitars really high, drums and vocals low, nonexistent bass—it is, not surprisingly, a chaotic, frenetic slopfest (at least rhythmically). But that’s the appeal, right? If Venom and all those no-talent punk rockers before them legitimized chaos and über-aggressiveness over virtuosity as a musical style, others were sure to see how much further it could be taken. There’s clearly some talent here, but no effort was made to, let’s say, promote that on Sexual Carnage. A handful of bonus demo tracks—even more painfully recorded—are included so you can witness the evolution from demos to the debut fulllength. —ADEM TEPEDELEN
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SODOM
6
Sacred Warpath SPV/STEAMHAMMER
Just call me Angelripper of the morning
If American bands hadn’t invented thrash in the early ’80s, the Germans would have gotten around to it sooner or later. Something about the genre just seems to suit the Teutonic aesthetic. And, incredibly enough, the three greatest purveyors of German thrash— Destruction, Kreator and Sodom—are still going at it and producing quality material. Unlike, say, some of their (more or less) contemporaries in the Big Four. This new Sodom EP only features one new track (plus three live tracks), but the song “Sacred Warpath” is solid evidence that the band is as vital as ever. This ain’t the sloppy, blazing fast mayhem of their youth, and, in fact, we’d describe it as dark and brooding, something akin to In Solitude’s Sister in sound and approach. It’s more about shading and mood than brutal, lightspeed assault. The live tracks—“The Saw Is the Law,” “Stigmatized” and “City of God”—offer a pretty good indication of how they got from there to here. “The Saw Is the Law,” from 1990’s Better Off Dead, kicks off with a Ramones-style version of “Surfin’ Bird” before morphing into a major chugfest. Ironically, it’s “Stigmatized,” from 2013’s Epitome of Torture, that most resembles the chaotic thrash of the band’s early years, while “City of God” (from 2006’s Sodom) sits comfortably between the two stylistically. Not a lot of new material here, but it’s quality stuff nonetheless, and it has us eagerly anticipating the next album. —ADEM TEPEDELEN
SUMAC
7
The Deal P R O FO U N D LO R E
The waiting is the hardest part
Sumac weren’t on the radar of very many until recently, and when Profound Lore introduced the trio to greater numbers of the great unwashed, you could hear the heavy breathing and see the drool collecting in the world’s beards. That’s because the trio consists of Brian Cook (Russian Circles, ex-Botch) and Nick Yacyshyn from Baptists getting together to help Isis’ Aaron Turner with his rekindled desire to crush eardrums the way he used to when mosquitoes were controlled and seas were red. There was a time when Isis and term the “post-metal” weren’t exclusive. That was back when the band first rumbled out of the Boston 8 8 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
hardcore scene with a Godflesh-sized monkey on its back. Sumac takes that sensibility, drags its knuckles through the dirt and shaves down the slope of its Australopithecus afarensis forehead. The dynamics are extremely cut and dry—noisy washes vs. loud and crushing vs. louder and more crushing. Any mention of layers is in reference to the 700 distortion pedals propelling Turner’s down-picking and palm-muting. Yacyshyn’s battery sounds like amplified landmine explosions, and Turner might want to eventually see an ear, nose and throat doctor to extract that copy of Streetcleaner from his gullet. “Thorn in the Lion’s Paw” sounds like Bigfoot, the Abominable Snowman and Bamm-Bamm Rubble jamming, but that nine-minute stretch of ground-and-pound is offset by the quick pace chaos, repetition and experimental noise of the title track. What’s up in the air is the effectiveness of the long spans of effects-laden soundscapes and near-silence. Respite from the pummeling for some, boring momentum killers for others, as “Hollow King” proves on both accounts. You’ll often hear people talk about music’s true impact coming not from what you play, but what you don’t play. Sumac sometimes tip the scales in the wrong direction when it comes to testing the limits of patience and waiting. But for Turner’s revitalized interest in crushing, killing and destroying, we’ll gladly wait for it to slink around the corner. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO
SYLOSIS
7
Dormant Heart NUCLEAR BLAST
Defibrillate your ears
Britain’s Sylosis represent a lot of what is good about “aboveground” extreme music today. They’re excellent players and committed road dogs. Their records sound totally pro, but not glossy. They inject tasteful melody into their thrashtastic workouts without watering down the heavy parts. And above all, they write circles around most modern metal bands. More metal singles should sound like “Leech,” one of the many centerpieces on their fourth album, Dormant Heart. If Sylosis were shaken up at all by the RV accident they endured in 2013, it hasn’t made a big impact on the sound of Dormant Heart. Like previous album Monolith, Dormant Heart synthesizes Metallica’s complex thrash (the title track) and Lamb of God’s groove (“Overthrown”) with neo-classical shred, maybe with an extra pinch of Mastodon on “To Build a Tomb” and “Mercy.” Sylosis have always been tough to pin down. That’s what happens when you’re this adept at pulling so many different strands together.
There’s a unique identity at work here, though, exemplified by another holdover from previous albums: those indulgent build-ups that stretch every song 30 seconds to a minute longer than it needs to be. It’s not just the track lengths that lean toward bigness; it’s the entire vibe of the album. Song after song, fast or slow, we get the same minor-key, windswept mood. Halfway through, the epicness starts to sound distant— passion eclipsed by professionalism, spirit by sound. On a song-by-song basis, Sylosis are pretty unfuckwithable. It’s just that it’s easier to respect what they’re doing on Dormant Heart than to love it. —ETAN ROSENBLOOM
TAAKE
8
Stridens Hus CANDLELIGHT
Less “Sweet Home Alabama,” more “Sweet Home Arendal”
If you flip back to our recap of last year’s Maryland Deathfest, you’ll note how miffed this particular hack was at the absence of banjos during Taake’s set. That’s typical me, though: ignore all the crap that gets most everyone else up in arms, such as accusations of racism, prejudice and stupidity disguised as free expression, time spent in the pokey and general antisocial behavior in order to raise a stink about a missing Kentucky Serenade Stick. Not being a black metal traditionalist, and giving less than two shits about “kvltist” purity, I was hoping that Høest (he who is Taake) and his gang of guest musicians would expand upon previous album Noregs Vaapen’s brief (but ripping) banjo and mandolin excursions. Sorry to break it to you my fellow foggy mountain nerds, but keeping in line with MDF 2014, Stridens Hus is free of the Memphis Mating Machine. In fact, aside from the twangy solos in “Orm” and “Stank,” album number six takes a step back towards customary, aristocratic Scandinavian black metal, with any melodic moves added in insidiously and seamlessly. A sweeping sense of menace commingled with a splash of orchestrated class drives “Kongsgaard bestaar,” and album opener “Gamle Norig” has guitars that sound like cobra venom spitting out second-wave atonality and a Steely Dan-worthy chorus riff. And then there’s the grandiosity of “En Sang til Sand om Ildebrann,” which slices and dices some very obviously Norwegian musical moments with ’80s metal and almost dares you to not fucking love it. Taake may not have explored the direction I personally wanted them to (“Get your own fucking band, you nitwit,” I can hear you rightfully screeching), but I can’t hold that against
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Stridens Hus, as it’s an album that resolves Høest’s youth with the sounds and influences of maturity. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO
UNSACRED
7
False Light FORCEFIELD
“Call It What You Want”
New kids on the block Unsacred cut through three EPs before venturing into full-length land on False Light. The Virginians are part of a new flock of black metal-inspired acts whose primary aim is to lift Scandinavianisms (Norwegian and Swedish) of ’90s-era legends while also remaining grounded in opposite direction DIY-isms of crust/ punk. The scary thing is, it largely works. Certainly Unsacred and their peers aren’t aspiring to Emperor or Dissection-level majesty. The vision and talent just aren’t there. Instead, the Americans take best-of-breed attributes from both genres (particularly Darkthrone/Burzum/ Marduk) and apply only what “feels right.” This approach serves Unsacred well on False Light. At no time does the trio feel out of their depth, but at the same time Unsacred aren’t terribly interested in simply overlaying riffs from “As Flittermice as Satans Spys” on a savage Dis-core drum beat. To that end, the vest-pocket of innovation at Unsacred’s hands is commendable. False Light is an uncompromising and formidable forward thrust of anger. It’s designed to be such, actually. In that, however, the music feels too onesided. The vocals are harried and tormented, but dominate the mix. It’s as if the power of the rhythm section—the back-alley grime of the bass is borderline ridiculous—doesn’t really matter in the overall soundscape. Similarly, the guitar playing could be more assertive throughout; the fleeting melodic moments hint at so much more, actually. Unsacred are on the right track with False Light. They’re also smart to keep Americans familiar with black metal and crust/punk, two disparate forms of music from very similar places. —CHRIS DICK
VENOM
4
From the Very Depths S P I N E FA R M
Leave this in hell
Though From the Very Depths is Venom’s 14th album since 1981, it’s necessary to note this is only the second release with the current lineup; that shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with the messy, ter9 0 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
ribly uneven past of the esteemed trio. When your band requires its own detailed Wikipedia page to sort out all of your past members, it’s not unfair to suggest that maybe it’s time to retire the upper arm gauntlets. But, as with the five previous records, bassist/vocalist and original member Cronos is around to give the illusion that the band is the same pioneering metal force that birthed Welcome to Hell back when Tom Araya was still a respiratory therapist. Of course, this has been and continues to be Venom in name only, with even the faintest hints of originality, enthusiasm and evil stripped clean. The production is too modern for any possibility of a retro thrill, and instead winds up sounding like a nicely recorded slab of speed metal that never gets out of second gear, offering leathery rock numbers that will be played on the next tour to forgiving diehards until they’re shelved like so much of the band’s far too extensive catalogue. My final thought on From the Very Depths can apply to many of Venom’s past records and likely any future ones: These guys did some incredible, invaluable things for extreme music a long time ago, and nothing they do now will take away from that, no matter how hard they try. —SHANE MEHLING
VOICES
9
London CANDLELIGHT
Dandies plus underworld equals major reverse sophomore slump
The laws of chance and chaos would have annihilated way up front all but the tiniest opening for London’s cyclonically balanced mix of epic sweep, coherence and density (conceptual and sonic) to actually become part of reality. That it did suggests that said vortex had an autonomous life of its own, and that it wisely chose Voices as the best possible vector for manifestation. As second albums go, the expanded-vocab blackened death metal quartet’s paean to their home turf is fucking magnificent. While its human narrative core of obsession, lust, betrayal, loss and suicide would be more than adequate under even the most exacting conditions, the album’s namesake dystopia is its real focus. Opener “Suicide Note” eases us into the psychic cesspit with sparse acoustic guitar and piano, the despair in Peter Benjamin’s clean vocals foreshadowing the madness that strikes in “Music for the Recently Bereaved.” As on much of the album, Benjamin and guitarist Sam Loynes alternate among growls, screams, howls
and clean vocals (in this case, startlingly beautiful, Bowie-esque harmonies) in rapid succession, lending a claustrophobic air to bassist/producer Dan Abela’s spacious mix. As the album proceeds and its unnamed protagonist’s downward spiral progresses, implied claustrophobia gives way to full-blown panic, with drummer David Gray’s impeccably articulated blast beats often generating a degree of tension that might be unbearable in less intriguing environs. While the protagonist disintegrates, the album’s complexity escalates minus even a hint of loss of guts or glory. Even at their best, Akercocke couldn’t touch this shit. —ROD SMITH
VOLAHN
9
Aq’ab’al
IRON BONEHEAD
Mayan symbol, not Mon Calamari admiral
Is it possible to celebrate the rise of an ethnically exclusive underground occult phenomenon without completely dislodging it, exposing it to the hard light of public scrutiny and eventually exploiting it? Can fullthroated encouragement be distinguished from scene-glomming poserdom? These are the questions that haunt me when I imagine describing the intense experience of listening to Volahn’s first full-length recording in six years. The album arrives on the heels of Crepúsculo Negro’s label compilation Tliltic Tlapoyauak, which documents the various musical configurations known as the Black Twilight Circle. Anyone scouring Southern California for ultra-limited local black metal cassettes (so, not me) has been listening to Volahn and his contemporaries for years, but the CN compilation made the scene available to a somewhat wider audience. Background info dispatched, let’s get to why Aq’ab’al fucking rules. The sheer velocity and complexity of the guitar and drum work throughout these marathon compositions should drop jaws. Most bands who have their shit this locked down also shell out for a glowing production meant to highlight their shimmery talents. Not Volahn. Aq’ab’al clatters around in a brash, almost punk-flattened mix, boosting the album’s mean hostility without giving up an ounce of musical impact. Ever tried to hug a seething beast made entirely of knobby elbows and bristly chins? Aq’ab’al feels a lot like that. Then, after nearly 10 minutes of rib-chipping battery, the song (pick one) downshifts into acoustic picking and flute trills, a move that finally chops the tether and flings your astral self far beyond physical realms. —DANIEL LAKE
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Whether it’s religious expression, gender issues/ equality, the usual partisan political braying or “the Albanian Patron Saint of Cabbage’s High Holy Feast Day,” as immortalized by the late, great Greg Giraldo, everyone seems to be fighting for, marching about and/or protesting something these days. What placard-waving assumptions will I make about this month’s crop of hopefuls? Read, find out and disagree. BY KEVIN STEWART-PANKO
Iamí Luz e Sombra I don’t have a working knowledge of Portuguese, but if I were to hazard a guess as to what this one-man meditative Brazilian black metal experience is crowing on about, I’d say mainlining peyote, legalizing LSD, the chemical composition of psilocybin and reveling in barbiturate lows. Recorded on “old equipment in an older dungeon,” Luz e Sombra recalls as much Burzum as it leans towards Opeth’s quiet moments. And mindaltering drugs. Even if he’s singing about “indigenous culture, nature, mediation and shamanism,” Google Translate mentioned something about drugs, which is what I’m going with. iamimusic.bandcamp.com
Idol of Fear All Sights Affixed, Ablaze There’s a parallel here between Idol of Fear’s vociferous musical yawp and that of a rowdy street protest stuck at the crossroads of whether or not to continue screaming “Hey! No! We won’t go!” or actually going home because it’s cold and no one is actually sure anything is being accomplished. But that’s what you get when your black metal is an indefinite smearing of old and new, your songwriting frustratingly nomadic and the only energy present is tentative and unwilling to pull the fucking trigger. www.facebook.com/idoloffear
Karkaos Empire Montreal’s Karkaos strike me as the sort of band who probably had a website, as well as Facebook and Twitter pages—not to mention a Big Cartel store with shirts, hoodies, coozies and monogrammed condoms available— before any music was actually written. That what they (eventually) wrote comes from the slick and shiny Arch Enemy/Dimmu Borgir/(new) In Flames school makes not an iota of difference, as they’re going to push their wares down all throats, gag reflexes be damned. When they’re not protesting increased tuition fees for marketing programs and business schools, that is. www.karkaos.com
Kolony Sledge I’ll take the bet that the only issues of Decibel these guys own are the ones with one of the Big Four, Iron Maiden, Children of Bodom and DragonForce on the cover. I’ll double down that they only read the cover stories and nothing else in those particular issues. These dudes sound like the sorts who get angry about metal lacking melodic robustness, and are still perplexed at how and why death metal even exists. They love keyboards, arpeggios and music theory, and will never fail to point out how all that growling and screaming shit isn’t real metal, all without realizing how much they come across like crotchety fogeys in the process. www.kolonymusic.com
Laugh at the Fakes Dethrone the Crown Much will be said about this Toronto band’s name, and some of it might not even be about the world of haterade they’re inviting upon themselves before a single note of Dethrone the Crown is ever played. That’s OK, because this quartet is otherwise preoccupied with their intensive campaign to write music harkening back to the days of teased ‘n’ crimped hair, gym socks stuffed into leopard print spandex and the declaration of Alice Cooper’s Trash being the pinnacle of hard rock supremacy. Somewhere in Mississauga, a stripper is making the lead singer breakfast. laughatthefakes.bandcamp.com
Poois Soul Spook Collector It took me a while to figure out where this band is coming from, and then it hit me: everywhere! Taking as much influence from the lunk-headed basics of KISS and AC/DC as they do from part-time genre-benders like Zeppelin, Rush, Max Webster and System of a Down, this Nyack, NY middle-aged freak show comes across like Mr. Bungle-as-sculpted-by-classic-rock-radio. Rudimentary song structures are reggae-d up, classical-ized and countrified, and sound as obnoxious as they do inventive. Keep an eye out for their petition to eradicate the “genre” section of iTunes, because it’s all just music, brah. www.poois.net
Seethe Rise From Ruin Given that this sextet makes no bones about actively seeking the right label/record deal, yet has assembled one of the most professional-looking and -sounding releases to ever come across the Boner desk, means they’re about tearing down old walls and methodologies as much as they are maintaining them. Being passionate about music and presentation, the Milton Keynesians inject a modern edge (read: a bit of Meshuggah with a bit more on the breakdown tip) into their U.K. thrash sound, with the most confounding aspect being why they have two singers instead of a third guitarist. Listen to “Ruination” and tell me I’m wrong. seethe.bandcamp.com
Tria Mera Extinction “Give us more endorsements!” and “We want gleaming new gear!” read the hastily painted and homemade signs. It was the afternoon the members of Tria Mera went on a protest disguised as a promotional campaign, in which they assaulted the front lawns of the Australian offices of Pearl, Zildjian, Sennheiser and Pro-Mark. The response was overwhelmingly positive, but conditional on getting rid of the good cop/bad cop vocals and easing up on the Sumerian-core. Guess who lived up to their end of the bargain? www.triamera.org
UxSxOx EP UxSxOx stands for Unregistered Sex Offenders. Their video for “Delivery Room Voyeur” was done by Non-Consensual Productions and… yeah. I don’t think getting me started about the obvious when it comes to puerile fun and games in metal is going to get anyone anywhere. Plus, I’m sure scads of politically correct foot soldiers have already organized their online petitions to drive them out of their San Antonio home. This sort of stuff has always been mildly funny for brief windows of time before the joke erodes like wet tissue paper. Imagine S.O.D. meeting Exhumed and trading dick jokes about rapist lepers. www.facebook.com/UxSxOx
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subculture
horror Richard Christy’s
Relive your haunted youth with a grab bag of horror soundtracks on vinyl Spoiler alert: I need to be spanked. Here I am writing for the world’s greatest music magazine, and I’ve never written an article solely based on music—in particular horror film music on vinyl. I’ve been a fan of vinyl since I was a little kid in the early ’80s, when the most popular options were vinyl and 8-track, and I wasn’t about to go sit in my parents’ 1973 Chevy Monte Carlo in the dead of winter to listen to the 8-track player. As a kid, I had one of those old box-shaped record players with the lift-up lid covered in blue jean material, and after I wore out my 45 RPM single of Joey Scarbury’s theme from The Greatest American Hero, my next step on my path to lifetime horror geekdom was obtaining a vinyl copy of Sounds to Make You Shiver. I still have that Halloween classic, which I crank up every October, much to the chagrin of our guinea pigs Taco and Tico. In my opinion, music is as important to a horror film as the story itself, especially in my favorites of the ’70s and ’80s. Try to imagine John Carpenter’s Halloween without his genius music; it wouldn’t be anywhere near as frightening. Luckily for myself and horror fans who love classic horror films, there has been a resurgence of horror soundtracks on vinyl in the last few years, thanks to great companies like Death Waltz and Waxwork, to name a few. It seems like my bank account is being drained weekly thanks to the glut of amazing soundtracks coming out on vinyl. How can I NOT buy the Creepshow soundtrack on blood-splattered gatefold vinyl? How can I NOT buy the remastered Day of the Dead soundtrack on double yellow and green vinyl? I have to say, my all-time favorite horror soundtrack (which I proudly own on orange vinyl) is the haunting
In my opinion, music is as important to a horror film as the story itself, especially in my favorites of the ’70s and ’80s.
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synthesizer score for Halloween III: Season of the Witch. The album comes complete with extra tracks and alternative mixes, a cool poster and amazing cover art. Most importantly, the sound is stunning—especially the deep synth bass that permeates this soundtrack. There are even new movies with cool vinyl soundtrack releases, like Godzilla, ParaNorman and Guardians of the Galaxy. Plus, horror vinyl makes a great gift. Even if your friend doesn’t have a record player, they can always frame it and put it on the wall—blood-splattered vinyl spices up any den! With record players at a very reasonable price nowadays, I would recommend reliving your horrorloving, vinyl-listening youth and picking up some classic horror soundtracks on vinyl. My metal pick for this month is the vinyl soundtrack for the classic Dario Argento film Creepers, which is super hard to find, but worth the hunt! Featuring Iron Maiden, Motörhead and Goblin, plus the amazing poster artwork on the cover, a painting of Jennifer Connelly with half her face eaten off and insects swarming around her, which prompted many stares from me every time I went to the video store as a kid. You can’t go wrong with this soundtrack. Although Queensrÿche said “don’t ever trust the needle,” I trust the needle on my record player to bring me some excellentsounding horror every time I throw on a classic soundtrack. I know—that was a cheap way for me to throw in a plug for my favorite Queensrÿche song, and for that I’m sorry! Like I said earlier, I need to be spanked. Albert, since you’re editor-in-chief, I think that responsibility falls on your shoulders. Just please be gentle. A Well, until next month, keep your horror horrifying and your metal heavy, and make every day Halloween!
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Résumé Attempts 51-54 51. 1989-1993:
attended Reed College, Portland, OR. Conferred Bachelor of Arts (English), June 1993 JUNE - AUGUST 1993: assistant manager, Macheezmo Mouse, Portland (Beaverton location). Trained as manager after mastering counter/kitchen tasks. Left to pursue musical career. SEPTEMBER 1993 - PRESENT: played organ in touring musical ensemble. Under the direction of our brave leader Star Devourer, myself and three others, toured the U.S., England and central Europe, under the name Infection Cult. 19931995 were spent promoting our demo, Cunt Virus. 52. 1989-1993: attended Reed College, Portland, OR. Bachelor of Arts (English) conferred June 1993 JUNE - AUGUST 1993: assistant manager, Macheezmo Mouse, Portland (Beaverton location). Ran payroll for 15 employees, supervised kitchen, worked cash register. SEPTEMBER 1993 - PRESENT: after taking central Europe by storm in support of our first tape, Cunt Virus, Infection Cult resolved to open new 9 6 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
market to keyboard-based extreme metal. Ahead of our time, we explored eastern European markets. In retrospect, this was something of a mistake, as 53. 1989-1993: attended Reed College, Portland, OR. Bachelor of Arts (English) denied June 1993 for failure to complete coursework JUNE - AUGUST 1993: Three Months of Glory at Macheezmo Mouse SEPTEMBER 1993 - PRESENT: after rejecting the empty accolades of Reed College and mastering the shining grills of Macheezmo Mouse, I saw that the virus was lacking in the Old World. Wild pirates on raging seas, we celebrated bloody victories in the squats of England, Holland and the recently collapsed German Democratic Republic. Yet when our travels took us somewhat east, our luck turned, and the life of the outlaw grew bitter, as 54. 1989-1993: sold weed in front of Reed College, Portland, OR. When accused by police or school
authorities of trafficking, insisted I was only asking people where they went to school. “Reed? Reed?” This joke took four years to get old. JUNE - AUGUST 1993: We Will Always Remember You, Mouse, and Your Incorruptible Macheezmo SEPTEMBER 1993 - JUNE 1996: played every squat in England and the U.K. multiple times. It sucks loading an organ into a squat, and it sucks having to replace an organ when it gets stolen from the squat. That is what I learned in this period. JULY 1996: We had a tape called Cunt Virus. It was pretty popular with kids in the squats and the squat scene was really taking off in Serbia. However, we overestimated the tolerance of the Serbian authorities for Infection Cult. FEBRUARY 2015: released from Sremska Mitrovica prison, Serbia. Repatriated to Portland under a diplomatic agreement between the U.S. and Serbian authorities. Returned to Macheezmo Mouse, but it’s a Blimpie now. There are a lot of things I’m willing to do, but I have my limits. A ILLUSTRATION BY VERTEBRAE33 [VERTEBRAE33.COM]
MATT PIKE OF HIGH ON FIRE Converse Rubber Tracks Live San Francisco, CA August 20th, 2014