Decibel #223 - May 2023 by Red Flag Media

REUNITED IN SLAUGHTER DISMEMBER BLASPHEMY MACABRE SINISTER

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MAY 2023 // No. 223

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PHOTOS: Chad Lee (King), @wombat (Tribbett), Dirk Behlau (Amott), Jody Wilk (Donais)

EXTREMELY EXTREME

May 2023 [R 223] decibelmagazine.com

upfront 8

obituary: tim aymar Hard to believe

10 metal muthas Raising the shark tank 12 subterranean

dissonance fest review When the underground gets literally literal

16 majesties Reigniting the flame 18 century Somewhere in time 20 rotten sound Write to worry 22 poison ruïn A dungeon of their own making

14 low culture Absolutely no time like the present

24 celestial wizard Up and running like the wind

15 no corporate beer Diversify your brews

26 gel Constantly growing 28 sermon Him for the hopeless 30 lamp of murmuur Come forth demonized 32 sandrider A joy to work with 34 acid king Taking up space 36 lotus thrones Cry now, cry later 38 vredensdal Reaping what you sow

features

reviews

40 night demon Breaking with tradition

69 lead review Current day crossover heroes Enforced mow us down with a barrage of riffs that prove their slaying power on War Remains

42 q&a: dismember Drummer Fred Estby is only interested in going with the flow

Let the Devils In COVER STORY COVER PHOTOS BY SHIMON KARMEL, GENE SMIRNOV, A.J. KINNEY AND WOLF MOUNTAIN PRODUCTIONS CONTENTS PHOTOS BY SHIMON KARMEL ADDITIONAL PHOTO EDITING BY ESTER SEGARRA

46 the decibel

hall of fame Midwestern metal maniacs Macabre carve out a truly unique death metal-inspired sound focused on the world of serial killers with their Nuclear Blast debut Sinister Slaughter

70 album reviews Records from bands that are so mad the Tour isn’t coming to Brazil, including Deathgrave, Enslaved and Unto Others 80 damage ink Guilty of being... something

Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $29.95. Periodical postage, paid at 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, P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia, PA 19107. © 2023 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 1557-2137 | USPS 023142 Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.

2 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

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REFUSE/RESIST

May 2023 [T223] PUBLISHER

Alex Mulcahy

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Albert Mudrian

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“[I] spent a lot of time with Dark

Symphonies catalogs looking for descriptions of similar sounds to order imported CDs without even hearing them first.” That’s Majesties guitarist Carl Skildum from page 16 of this issue, discussing his mania after first discovering the melodic black/death sounds of the mid-’90s perfected via shortlived, seminal European labels like No Fashion and Wrong Again Records. Today, the words “mail-order catalog” almost exclusively escape from the lips of 50-somethings, often in the same labored breath as “tape-trading” and “actual letter-writing.” I know because all of that paper and audio analog is jammed into a box just collecting dust in the back of my basement closet. When I eventually die, my kids will discover it, wonder aloud, “Why would he keep this?” and then immediately throw it out. If you grew up in Nowheresville, PA, like me, extreme metal mailorder catalogs were sacred canon. In 1994, it was a 120-mile drive to the nearest record store that imported any of the records I wanted, so beyond the occasional pilgrimage to a real city, distro catalogs from Relapse, Necropolis, Full Moon and the aforementioned Dark Symphonies were essentially my record stores. Mind you, this isn’t an old-man yarn about how “the kids are lazy” and “things were better back then.” The internet was in its infancy, so unless you knew someone with the physical copy of the record you were interested in, the two-sentence, hyperbolic product text like, “This unholy release is dark, aggressive, extremely brutal and melancholic—a punishing vocal style makes this a unique release,” was what we had in lieu of “visualizers.” I could occasionally get Ted from Dark Symphonies on the phone for better recommendations—while artfully dodging the sales pitch for his Autumn Tears project—but mail-order was generally an expensive game of trial and error. For every revelatory Bergtatt purchase, there was a mediocre Ablaze My Sorrow album I can’t even remember the title of; for each Esoteric Epistemological Despondency doom discovery, I invariably ended up with a copy of the Gathering’s Almost a Dance, which I then had to unload on some other unsuspecting rube on the alt.rock-n-roll.metal.death newsgroup. Sure, I can admit that Bandcamp is clearly a better user experience, while still remaining nostalgic for the days of mailing stamps or well-concealed dollar bills in exchange for the arrival of those precious distro updates. You can’t do that today, but you can order that new Majesties album, which is pure melodic black/death metal straight out of a 1995 mail-order catalog. Keep it true—don’t even preview. albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief

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To order by phone: 1.215.625.9850 (10 a.m. – 5 p.m. EST) To order by fax: 1.215.625.9967 To order online: www.decibelmagazine.com Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $29.95. Periodical postage, paid at 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, P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia PA 19107. Copyright ©2023 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. PRINTED IN USA

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You are the third or fourth member of the Metalheads Podcast ensemble to appear in this column. Those podcasts are often seven-hour, beer-fueled marathons, and we have on reliable authority that you hit the wall pretty hard when recording an episode with a Decibel staff member. Was that because, like Decibel, you are unable to make it through an entire episode of the show?

Markisan Naso Chicago, IL

You spent a large portion of the pandemic living in Hawaii. What was that experience like?

It was absolute bliss. I can’t imagine a better place to be when the world effectively stops than Hawaii. The state closed its door to tourists for quite a while during the height of the pandemic. Without that influx of visitors crowding Oahu, my wife and I got to enjoy the island so much more. For us, the main attraction of Hawaii is its natural beauty. During the pandemic, the beaches never closed. The forests never closed. The ocean stayed open for business. In 2019, my main concern with moving to Honolulu was the lack of metal shows. But soon after we moved, COVID-19 shut down concerts everywhere, so I ended up not missing much live metal. Our two-and-a-half-year stay in Hawaii was really a perfect window in time to experience paradise. It’s something that probably won’t ever happen again.

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’Twas our Top 25 Metal Albums [of] 2020 midyear countdown show, and the revelry was intense. Four hours in, I had already put down two meads and seven beers with ABVs of 9% or higher. I was feeling it. I saw a rainbow and knocked over a mic on accident, so I decided to leave and go take a nap. When I suddenly dropped out of sight, the Metalheads were baffled and concerned, but after a few minutes they just decided I passed out. I can’t blame them. Anyone else on the cast would have been incapacitated by half the amount of alcohol I drank that night. But then, suddenly, I made my triumphant return 15 minutes later and completed the episode, more lucid and wittier than before. The boys were shocked. They marveled at my recuperative abilities. So, “hit the wall?” Nah. I just curled up against it for a bit, then stood up and kicked its brick teeth in. It’s the greatest comeback in the history of podcasting. You have attended Metal & Beer Fest in the past and are an outspoken fan of our flagship

meadery Brimming Horn. So, let’s put you on the spot: Is mead actually more metal than beer?

There is no beverage more metal than mead. Mead is the oldest known alcohol. It’s a lot stronger than beer, if made properly. It was dubbed the nectar of the gods by the ancient Greeks. It’s the drink Vikings are greeted with after they die in glorious battle and ascend to Valhalla. Mead fueled the epic hero Beowulf. Beer has been around a long time, but it just doesn’t have that same kind of celestial status. You wouldn’t even have beer in the world without mead makers blazing the path. You’re co-creator and writer of the comics By the Horns and Voracious. Here’s your advertising space: Why should metalheads go check these out as soon as they finish this month’s Stone Cold Lazy?

Voracious is about a chef who travels through time, kills dinosaurs and serves them at a restaurant in the present. My current series, By the Horns, is an epic sci-fi/fantasy adventure about a heartbroken warrior and her telepathic wolf companion who want to murder all the unicorns in the world for destroying their lives. The main character, Elodie, can rip off unicorn horns and merge them together to form magic weapons. Do comics get more original or metal than that? Plus, Brimming Horn made a mead for By the Horns while I was in Hawaii. It’s the only one they’ve ever crafted for a comic. All their other collaborations have been with metal bands. If that doesn’t get metalheads to pick up my books, I don’t know what will.

Chuck BB is the illustrator of the graphic novels Black Metal, Vol. 1, 2 and 3 . For more info and art, head over to chuckbb.com

OBITUARIES

YOU

probably know Tim Aymar from his legendary per-

formance on Chuck Schuldiner’s final Control Denied album, The Fragile Art of Existence. Having advanced (and arguably perfected) death metal, Chuck began to feel creatively limited by his vocals, so he decided to retire Death by adding a melodic singer to the lineup and calling it something new. But where did Chuck, who could have recruited nearly any singer in the metal world, find Aymar? The same place I did: on the 1994 demo tape Virtual Insanity, from Pittsburgh’s Psycho Scream, which also included guitar god Jim Dofka, bassist Brian Mihalovich and future YouTube viral sensation Steve “The Mad Drummer” Moore. I met Jim in 1997 at a festival in Maryland, where he handed me that tape and changed my life. Musically, it was perhaps the best example of American power metal made in the ’90s, but it was Tim’s absolutely unhinged singing that hooked me. It’s difficult to describe Tim’s voice because it was so unique. To even make the attempt inevitably invokes some of the most legendary names in metal history: Dio, Gillan, Caffertey, Wayne and Dickinson. He married a throat-shredding rasp to a world-beating range, splitting the difference between Blackie Lawless and Geoff Tate. It was exactly the voice Chuck was looking for. Chuck recorded a demo with Tim for the newly rechristened outfit, but Control Denied was soon put on hold at the insistence of 8 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

Schuldiner’s label, who demanded one last Death album. So, while Chuck was making and promoting 1998’s The Sound of Perseverance—most of which was intended for Control Denied— Dofka put me in touch with Tim, and I asked him to sing in the new band I had just formed with a teenage Chris Black. With Chris Kerns, the four of us became Pharaoh, a band that would last for 25 years until Tim’s sudden and unexpected passing on February 13. But at the end of the ’90s, while we were writing our first album, Chuck revived Control Denied, and Tim spent a month with the band in Florida recording their debut at Morrisound. On the day the album was released—his 32nd birthday—Chuck was diagnosed with brain cancer; exactly 19 months later, he succumbed to the

disease. A second album was written, but famously never completed. Who knows what heights that band might have achieved? If Chuck had lived, would Tim Aymar be a household name in the metal scene? He was so close, several times, to “making it.” His project before Psycho Scream, the glammy/sleazy Triple X, played three nights a week, selling thousands of tickets and earning a living for the band and crew before grunge killed hair metal. At some point in the mid-’90s, Tim flew to Copenhagen to audition for André Andersen’s post-Royal Hunt band, Prime Time, but that didn’t pan out. Tim told me several times that his old friend from Pittsburgh, Reb Beach, asked him in the ’80s to join his new band, but Tim demurred and the band’s bassist, Kip Winger, decided to front the outfit instead. Was that true? Who knows? Tim told a lot of stories—he was one of the oddest people I ever knew, and his peculiarities could be trying, but we were nevertheless friends and bandmates for a quarter-century. We made five albums together; he was my brother and my muse, and I was his most devoted fan. Pharaoh had at least another album in us. His new band Helios had just released their debut. Music was everything to Tim, and for most of the time I knew him, music was all he had. Now that he’s gone, his irreplaceable voice silenced, his music is our last consolation. Rest in power! —MATT JOHNSEN

NOW SLAYING Wonder what Decibel world HQ has been rocking for the past month? Well, here are the records that we spun most while no longer being surprised that Metallica apologists will happily choke down any plate of shit they are served.

Because not all of us were spawned in the darkest recesses of hell

This Month’s Mutha: Bridget Marie Ismert Mutha of Abe, Eli and Henry Ismert of Hammerhedd

Tell us a little about yourself.

I am the youngest of six kids and have spent my whole life in Kansas City. I am a child of the ’80s, so I toted a pink boom box or Walkman everywhere I went. Fast forward to my college years where I met my future husband, Luke. He was the first guy I had met who loved music more than myself, and had quite a CD collection. We ended up getting married shortly after college and moving back to our hometown of Kansas City. We both worked as computer programmers until we had kids. As a mom, it was so fun introducing my kids to all the music that I loved. And now I get to hear their music under my feet most nights. What effect did you have on your sons’ musical proficiency? Were you a metalhead yourself, or did you simply support them learning instruments at a young age?

I don’t really credit myself with any effect on their proficiency. I guess I supplied the music in the car and at home. But my husband is one of 10 kids, and they are extremely musical. My kids grew up watching their aunts and uncles jamming at family parties. Before they had their own instruments, the boys would take my pots and pans and scrape together anything else that made noise and head to our basement. I remember many years of retrieving my frying pan from Eli when I needed it. So, I guess you could say that lending them my cookware was my contribution to Hammerhedd.

How did you react when Metallica reposted their cover of “Eye of the Beholder”?

That was pretty surreal. Actually, we were in the Culver’s drive-thru after a soccer game when Henry announced that their video had been reposted by Metallica. I think we were all pretty blown away by the reaction to the video. You take for granted what happens all day in your house. To see Metallica giving them props was nuts. The boys not only loved Metallica’s music, but they had a huge respect for the band as people who had weathered so many storms. They were musical “father figures” to them, so it meant quite a bit. Other than shredding, what are some of your boys’ other interests?

They love sports. Between the three of them, they have played it all. Nowadays, Abe is wrestling for his high school, and Henry and Eli will accept an invitation to anything: pickup basketball, family football games, bowling and local public golf courses. Mostly we can all agree on our love for the Royals and the Chiefs. Their second album, Nonetheless, will be released by the time this issue goes to print. What do you think of Hammerhedd’s musical evolution to this point?

It has been really fun to watch. They have really morphed into something that’s hard to put into a genre. Henry (the oldest) used to be the driver of the creative process, but that has changed. All three of them now bring in their individual tastes and opinions, which is why the sound continues to change. —ANDREW BONAZELLI

Albert Mudrian : e d i t o r i n c h i e f  Wayfarer, “Night Shift” Decibel flexi  Venomous Concept, The Good Ship Lollipop  Botch, We Are the Romans  Blackbraid, Blackbraid I  ISIS, Panopticon ---------------------------------Patty Moran : c u s t o m e r s e r v i c e  Cro-Mags, The Age of Quarrel  Agression, Don't Be Mistaken  Sick of It All, Sick of It All  Subhumans, The Day the Country Died  Crass, Best Before 1984 ---------------------------------James Lewis : a d s a l e s  Blackbraid, Blackbraid I  Mystic Circle, Erzdämon  Sanguisugabogg, Homicidal Ecstasy  Street Tombs, Reclusive Decay  Cryptopsy, The Unspoken King ---------------------------------Mike Wohlberg : a r t d i r e c t o r  Botch, We Are the Romans  Botch, An Anthology of Dead Ends  The Acacia Strain, Step Into the Light  Gel, Only Constant  Drain, Living Proof ---------------------------------Aaron Salsbury : m a r k e t i n g a n d s a l e s  Night Demon, Outsider  Venomous Concept, The Good Ship Lollipop  Squid Pisser, My Tadpole Legion  L.O.T.I.O.N., World Wide W.E.B.  Smells Like Paint, The World Is a Technological Wasteland and I'm Tired of Living In It

GUEST SLAYER

---------------------------------Justin Cory : u s n e a  Mizmor, Cairn  The Soft Moon, Deeper  Grouper, Shade  Mortiferum, Preserved in Torment  Dream Unending, Tide Turns Eternal

PHOTO BY

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ORION LANDAU

SUBTERRANEAN DISSONANCE FEST

 As above, so below

No matter the stage, Imperial Triumphant know how to mesmerize an audience

SUBTERRANEAN DISSONANCE FEST

erhaps it was inevitable given that it was taking place in Philly just 24 hours before WHEN: February 11, 2023 the Eagles were set to compete in Super PHOTOS BY A.J. KINNEY Bowl LVII, but for a good part of the day, the inaugural Subterranean Dissonance Fest felt almost as much like a tailgate as a festival. ¶ More than one vocalist roared “Go Birds!” over the course of the afternoon, while New Jersey’s Cognitive took the stage to Eagles green lights and the NFL theme. Local boys Horrendous led the crowd in an “E-A-G-L-E-S” chant, and Pyrrhon frontman and former Philadelphian Doug Moore sported a T-shirt celebrating the team’s 2017 NFC Conference Championship victory. ¶ While hopes for a parade were ultimately dashed, the festival itself was an ear-bludgeoning success, showcasing the diverse and often eccentric fringes of experimental and progressive metal for a nearly non-stop eight and a half hours. Literally subterranean, the daylong event took place in two adjacent rooms at the below-street-level Underground Arts, allowing the crowd to flow back and forth with barely a breath between bands. WHERE: Underground Arts,

Philadelphia PA

Following a brief 3 p.m. set by Sunrot for the most punctual fans in the smaller Black Box, Brooklyn’s Pyrrhon opened the Main Stage with a blistering performance that set a high bar for the day. Moore accompanied his bilious vocals with the fervent gesticulations of a tent revival preacher while the band erupted into virtuosic frenzy, bassist Erik Malave spider-walking all over the bass like a demonic Jaco Pastorius and guitarist Dylan DiLella summoning a mesmerizing squall. It was somewhat whiplash-inducing to walk from that into a manic set by The HIRS Collective, featuring the vocal-guitar duo backed by a dizzying collage of battering hardcore drum tracks and repurposed samples. An A.C.-style outburst might suddenly give way to a verse of 1 2 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

Deee-Lite’s “Groove Is in the Heart,” or Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” lead into a flailing thrash workout. Back on the mainstage, technical death metallers Cognitive packed a set bristling with corrosive vocals, angular riffs and robust grooves. It was a good day for fans of intricate bass playing—a trend continued on the second stage with Daniel Ephraim Kennedy of Philly experimentalists Cleric. Aptly thanking the lively crowd for “sticking around and getting your ears beat up,” the quartet navigated rapidfire transitions from prog-death complexity to avant-jazz ambience, at times approaching the scattershot mash-ups of John Zorn’s Naked City. Sporting vintage Dio and Ozzy T-shirts, Horrendous nimbly melded guttural death and

NWOBHM twin-guitar harmonies, unashamedly and enthusiastically breaking out into an extreme twist on various fist-pumping anthems. Supergroup Umbra Vitae, led by Converge frontman Jacob Bannon, proved surprisingly cathartic. Bannon’s caged-tiger pacing and the serrated sincerity of his vocal attack proved equal parts punishing and passionate. The remainder of the evening’s Main Stage offerings was absolutely crushing. Drummer Kenny Grohowski claimed MVP honors for the day, playing back to back in the welcome and savage revival of John Frum in place of founding drummer Eli Litwin (who looked on happily from the crowd, having made the drive down from his new digs in Massachusetts), then masking up for a theatrically ecstatic outing with Imperial Triumphant, the latter conjuring a hybrid sound as dense and mysterious as the smoke machine fog that enshrouded them. The fact that the crowd thinned out over the course of the closing set by Liturgy reflected the unremitting intensity of the day, which the band did nothing to alleviate. Bookended by songs from their upcoming album 93696, Liturgy played a 50-minute set that was taut and focused, with songs that thundered with the recursive monomania of Rhys Chatham’s maximalist guitar compositions topped by Ravenna HuntHendrix’s piercing, anguished shrieks. While ascending the stairs back to street level that night did come as a relief, Subterranean Dissonance promoter Graham Noel should be commended for curating a festival this adventurous, audacious and diverse. Here’s hoping it becomes a tradition, however untraditional. —SHAUN BRADY

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BURNING WITCHES set the world ablaze, ushering in a new wave of heavy metal!

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Blackened thrash veterans LEGION OF THE DAMNED return with undeniable The Poison Chalice!

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NEY ISEM

T BY COUR

Leaving Las Vegas ack in high school, my friends and

I formed a band called Abominus, a death metal band that quite frankly sucked, and that I was eventually booted from. But for the first year or so, it was pretty much the thing that our social circle would gravitate around, mostly because our social circle was the band and a few assorted punks and metal kids we associated with. And then there was Cory. Cory was a bookish, slightly anxious, proudly Jewish Star Trek nerd whose favorite band in the world was U2. He could not have been further from the rest of us in taste and aesthetics (on the surface) if he tried. And yet, he was an important part of our world and generally took the brunt of whatever shit we’d throw at him; which, at that age, was a loaded diaper’s worth on a daily basis. I can’t remember if it’s because his mother worked nights or if she was at her boyfriend’s place, but Cory’s apartment was generally empty on Friday or Saturday nights, and would inevitably be a stop before we’d head to the Ocean City boardwalk’s 12th Street pavilion to try to look cool while loitering and be harassed by cops. We’d descend upon his second story apartment and fuck around for an hour or two each weekend, generally being nuisances because that’s what our lives were in the mid-’90s. Eventually we started having small parties there, bringing girls by, whatever dumb shit you do at that age. As I said earlier, Cory was proudly Jewish, and I brought that up not only because it was a big part of his personality, but also because I distinctly remember that we were at one of his parties around Passover that year and someone was throwing matzo crackers into the ceiling fan (in what could be constituted by Metal Twitter™ as a hate crime these days). Shit like this happened frequently at these parties, like someone pissing in the cat box or rifling through his mom’s 1 4 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

shit trying to find a dildo. I even had my first bonafide handjob at one of these things (in his bed, no less). Jesus Christ, I’m a terrible friend and he had the patience of a saint. Cory eventually moved to Las Vegas at the end of the ’90s and began working for Apple. It would be a solid decade before I saw him again. Krieg played Vegas in the winter/spring of 2013, about 10 years ago at the time of this writing; he came out with some friends who were into metal, and we spent the evening catching up. It seemed to me that he had landed on his feet out there and had built a nice life for himself. We stayed in contact over social media, and it seemed like he was really working on getting his health in order (he was a bigger guy) and was characteristically optimistic, another contrast to the rest of us growing up. He sent me a message telling me how happy he was to see that I was a father and that I’d gotten myself on track. I figured I’d respond later, because I’m shit with messages and a bad friend. They found his body at home towards the end of last year, with some drug paraphernalia next to his bed. Cory had first flirted with heroin when he visited L.A. a few years ago, and it devolved into addiction, as these things tend to. I had no idea, as there weren’t any of the telltale signs that he was fucking his life up or stealing from people. His communication stayed consistent and organic. His friends out there told me that he was struggling to fight his demons, and then one night he just never woke up. Cory was a beautiful soul who always put others before himself. We all need to keep in mind that we don’t always get a “later” to respond to people, nor do we have any idea what any of us are truly going through. This wasn’t the easiest one to write, but it’s the least I could do for the memory of a friend whose cat box I definitely didn’t piss into. I’ll miss Cory; a lot of us from those days will.

Necessity Motivates Invention Among Brewers— Beyond Beer

ick any stat from reports on shrinking craft beer sales and find a similar story: Brewers, already facing supply-chain shortages and rising ingredient costs, plus a fever pitch in competition, are feeling the squeeze from hard seltzer and canned cocktails. (Exhibit A: According to Brewbound, market research firm IRI shows craft beer’s share of convenience-store sales seventh behind assorted domestic premiums, imports, flavored malt beverages and hard seltzer.) The latter two categories steal precious shelf space and fickle consumer attention from craft beer. Diehard beer enthusiasts may shudder at the thought of seltzers and readyto-drink cocktails pouring from their beloved breweries, but industry realities demand some kind of innovation to stay relevant. The compromise? Keep making great beer for your existing fans and roll out some new categories to engage new ones, which helps support you continuing to make that beer. Many breweries are now scrambling to add non-beer offerings, while a few that had already started experimenting beyond beer driven by their own creativity fortuitously find themselves well-positioned. In Lakewood, NY, Southern Tier Brewing Co. co-founder Phineas DeMink talked about making canned cocktails a decade ago, says Nathan Arnone, distillery director at the result of DeMink’s vision, Southern Tier Distilling Co., established eight years ago.

 The six million dollar can Breweries are now innovating to include booze with their brews

Research and development is at the brewery’s core, manifesting in signature flavors like the Pumking Ale and Crème Brulee stout. The distillery team takes a similar approach, making everything from the straightforward Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon to a hop-flavored whiskey distilled from the brewery’s popular 2XIPA to a Pumking Whiskey. DeMink’s canned-cocktail idea was a natural progression; as the bartenders in the distillery’s tasting room began creating cocktails, Arnone and the production team began deciphering which would be best scaled up commercially and how to best do so. So far, they can a Whiskey Mule, King [Pumking Whiskey] & Cola, Lime Agave Margarita, Bourbon Smash, and a variety of vodka cocktails and seltzers. While presumably some people know they want spirits and head to the distillery, and others stick to the brewery, Arnone sees crossover in customers (it helps that the distillery and brewery are across the road from one another). The expansion of breweries into other drink categories is happening in tandem with the expansion of consumer discovery and growing interests. They’re interested in more categories, and breweries are there to serve that, their proliferating offerings in turn continuing to fuel consumer curiosity. “Now more than ever, consumers are not pigeonholed into, ‘I’m a beer drinker,’” says Arnone. “It’s, ‘I drink booze, too.’ Wine drinkers drink ciders… people are branching out.”

Visuals, the wine, cider and aperitif leg of North Carolina’s Burial Beer Co., also predates the recent rush to diversify. Co-founder Tim Gormley moved from head brewer to a more experimental brewer role as Burial opened new locations, and says a passion for exploring unique ingredients led him down the path of amaro; experimenting with making amaro-inspired beers evolved into the pursuit of making vermouths and aromatized wines. Burial began learning from and collaborating with winemakers. The aim, Gormley says, was to “further enhance the immersive experience of visiting our taprooms by offering wine we made ourselves,” rather than something bought from other producers and resold. They now rent a unit in a wine-making cooperative in Geyserville, CA to remain hands-on. “Being authentic and making your own liquid is the most important thing,” Arnone says of breweries looking to diversify their offerings. It’s tempting to try courting new audiences, but it’s too easy to tell which innovations come from an on-brand place of authenticity and creativity, and only those experiments succeed long-term. If that’s not a fit for a brewery, it’s best for them to lean into what they do best. But breweries who already possess that itch to tinker are currently in a good place to welcome more drinkers. Says Gormley, “I think it’s increasingly important to think about ways to be inclusive at the taproom and offer different products for different people.”

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MAJESTIES

ince you’re reading decibel, it’s safe to assume you’re fond of, or at least familiar with, the ongoing renaissance of old-school death metal. If you’re not, please familiarize yourself—this issue ought to provide plenty of signposts for your listening pleasure. ¶ If you are familiar, you must concede that this New Wave of Old-School Death Metal, while brilliant, skews heavily toward the most grooving, rotten, maybe even primitive side of the genre’s forebears. For the most part, new bands ignore death metal’s now-maligned, but once-transcendent melodic school. ¶ Nature abhors a vacuum, Aristotle once said, and modern melodeath gap Majesties have risen to fill it with their debut record Vast Reaches Unclaimed. Majesties is a new project by veteran Minnesotan shredders Carl Skildum and Matthew Kirkwold of Inexorum, as well as Tanner Anderson of Obsequiae (Skildum and Kirkwold also play in Obsequiae live). ¶ Skildum wrote to dB to describe the project’s origin: “Some of the first Majesties riffs were just some ideas that I was playing while warming up at Obsequiae practice in 2016. They weren’t meant to be anything, but Tanner stopped and said, ‘What’s that?’” 1 6 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

Both Obsequiae and Inexorum contain elements of melodeath; still, Majesties is the songwriters’ first collaborative stab at the genre. “This was a way for Tanner and me to do something else that we enjoyed in parallel,” Skildum adds. “We felt like it had a distinct enough sound to differentiate itself from Obsequiae, and a lot of the material predates Inexorum entirely. Mostly, it was just a good reason to spend more time together.” Skeptics ought to be happy to hear that Majesties draw specifically from melodeath’s primordial days, the expansive and unpolished age of Wrong Again and No Fashion Records. In other words, the good shit. “It was the [1995 Wrong Again Records] W.A.R. Compilation - Volume One that really grabbed me,” Skildum notes. (If you’ve never given that comp a listen, don’t hesitate.) He recalls a friend calling him not long after to play In Flames’ “Ever Dying” from their 1995 Subterranean EP.

“That was all it took,” he concedes. “It was the sound I was waiting for: a blend of the twin guitar madness of the greats of NWOBHM and the extreme drumming and vocals of death and black metal. I was hooked and spent a lot of time with Dark Symphonies catalogs looking for descriptions of similar sounds to order imported CDs without even hearing them first.” Vast Reaches Unclaimed masterfully rekindles that old flame, but it’s not yet clear if Majesties indicates that there’s more rejuvenated melodeath in store for the zeitgeist. For Skildum, the genre doesn’t need a revival so long as those old bands still inspire us. “For the members of Majesties, it never went away, and I know a lot of our friends feel the same way,” he stresses. “It will persist as long as it can still open up doorways into undiscovered sounds and unexplored places. That seems like a good thing to me.” —JOSEPH SCHAFER

PHOTO BY SARAH KIRKWOLD

MAJESTIES

Inexorum and Obsequiae members won’t let the mid-’90s melodeath sound perish in flames

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CENTURY

Swedish trad-metal duo hoists chalice, presumably storms castle

lame it on maiden. Century guitarist/vocalist Staffan Tengnér does. “My first record was The Number of the Beast, and it set me on this path that I’m still on,” the Swedish musician tells us. “As much as I love other kinds of music, in some ways heavy metal will always be the first and the last.” ¶ If you’re reading this, you can probably relate. And if you blame your musical taste on Iron Maiden, Mercyful Fate and ’80s Euro metal in general, Century have got the modern incarnation of your not-so-modern needs covered. Soaring vocals? Check. Wall-towall NWOBHM riffs? Double check. Killer solos? Triple check. ¶ We can thank the pandemic for Century’s origin story. Tengnér and drummer/bassist Leo Ekström Sollenmo were playing with Stockholm speed metal killers Tøronto when Tengnér was laid off in 2020. After spending the summer building a recording studio in an old bomb shelter, he rang Sollenmo, whom he recognized as a kindred spirit. “I already knew that we share almost exactly the same frames of reference,” our man says. 1 8 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

“He had lots of riffs and ideas that fit with mine, so we wrote the demo in a week and recorded it that same month.” Appropriately entitled Demo MMXX, the four-song cassette caught the attention of Darkthrone drummer and heavy metal tastemaker Fenriz, who touted it to Your Humble Narrator in a Decibel interview that same year. It soon made its way to the ears of Henry Yuan at Electric Assault Records, who released Century’s debut single, “The Fighting Eagle,” last year. Now the band is ready to drop their first full-length, The Conquest of Time. “I took the title from a book by H.G. Wells that I’ve never read, mainly because I thought it sounded cool,” Tengnér explains. “Then we realized it worked well because some of the songs have a vague theme of time, but also because it fits with our time-related band name. I find that a lot of lyrics and titles work that

way—their meaning can sometimes become apparent in hindsight.” Just as “The Fighting Eagle” (which reappears on The Conquest of Time) was inspired by the 1982 swords ‘n’ sorcery turkey Ator, the Fighting Eagle, many of the album’s songs find their genesis in international cinema. “Master of Hell” was inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 classic The Seventh Seal. “Distant Mirror” was inspired by the 1962 short film La Jetée (which provided the basis for Terry Gilliam’s 1995 mind-bender 12 Monkeys). “Servants of the Iron Mask” was inspired by Lucio Fulci’s 1983 fantasy headache Conquest. This month, Century will embark upon their first U.S. tour, based around their appearance at the Hell’s Heroes fest in Houston. “I’ve only been to New York City before,” Tengnér says. “I’m definitely looking forward to seeing many of these other states and cities I’ve only seen in movies.” —J. BENNETT

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ROTTEN SOUND

Finnish grindcore vets document the ongoing Apocalypse

oesn’t take much to notice we are experiencing some turbulent times in humanity’s history. It’s even more apparent to residents of Finland—after all, they’re right next to Russia, and it’s a little scary dealing with an ongoing pandemic, war-happy neighbors and the increased internal threat of an extreme nationalist party gaining in popularity. It certainly hasn’t escaped the notice of Rotten Sound vocalist Keijo Niinimaa, who’s had a lot of time to think in the six years between last album Abuse to Suffer and the recording of eighth full-length Apocalypse (record pressing issues delayed the release). ¶ Of course, it wasn’t supposed to take that long. The band had music written in 2019, something Niinimaa remembers for a specific reason: “Slayer was still playing and then everything went to shit. They have to come back; Pantera isn’t able to do the part.” ¶ Between the pandemic sucking the motivation out of everyone and the search for a new bass player, Niinimaa had to deal with something else unusual: 2 0 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

an inability to come up with lyrics, a barrier he broke through as soon as the band was able to get out there again and play again. And boy, did he have a lot to say. “I’m saying that we have things to worry about. And it kind of matches the audio to be pissed off. So, that’s why I’m yelling at people,” Niinimaa explains. “It’s not really a concept album as such, like some of the previous ones were. It’s more like individual songs. Some are somehow connected, but there’s some familiar themes and there may be new ones. The world around [us] was kind of strange. So, I did drop a couple of lines about conspiracy theorists and the climate change denialists and the fact that it’s kind of worrying when it’s going through social media, which has been more mobilized by whoever bought it. We live in a strange world when it comes to information. It was strange before, but it’s more and more polar-

ized, and that’s why I felt that it was important to point out those things. It’s 18 warnings: Don’t do this. Don’t get in trouble as a species.” A lockdown spent arguing with people on Facebook and without the cathartic release provided by touring led to short sharp shocks like “Digital Bliss,” “Newsflash” and “Patriots,” some of the most straight-ahead grind the longrunning quartet has ripped out in years. Which should make their longtime fans happy. “It’s more of a grindcore album from the previous ones,” Niinimaa says. “The latest ones we’ve done have had more death metal and groove stuff. Like Cursed, Cycles, obviously Suffer even. We don’t have those slow songs on this one. There’s some slow passages and parts, but it’s more grindcore, and that’s something we really wanted to do: 20 minutes of in-your-face.” —JEFF TREPPEL

PHOTO BY MIKA AALTO

ROTTEN SOUND

POISON RUÏN

Philly dungeon punks ditch the veil, unite with legendary hometown label

hen i first caught wind of Philadelphia post-punk band Poison Ruïn signing to Relapse, I was taken a bit by surprise. Frontman and guitarist Mac Kennedy doesn’t share my sentiments. “It feels very comfortable,” he says, citing the band’s personal history with the label and shared hometown as reasons they decided to team up. ¶ The very usage of “band” is also a new concept. Kennedy here is joined by guitarist Nao Damand, drummer Allen Chapman and bassist Will McAndrew. Poison Ruïn were formerly known as a mysterious, anonymous entity, but Kennedy decided to drop the pageantry in favor of pure, raw music with debut full-length Härvest. ¶ “It’s interesting,” Kennedy says of the band’s decision to “go public.” “It’s not something I’ve ever really done with a band—not for a lack of wanting to, but largely never making something people cared about. As far as presentation of the material, the look and feel had to be careful and thoughtful to make sure that the intention remained the same; 2 2 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

because we’re sort of changing scope and scale in how we’re operating as a band, [we] needed to sort of double back and recheck [that] the material itself musically and visually remained the same and had the same feeling. I think part of it works well or sort of amplifies the initial mysterious feeling that the music had when it was just some band or person you don’t know about.” Poison Ruïn’s arcane sound, something that echoes UK 82 punk with a more weathered sonic aesthetic, is ultimately a more deliberate approach than Kennedy has taken with other bands. “I really deliberately try to think in a vacuum or in a pure kind of song way without context of genre or style,” he explains, “and that’ll be humming an idea or working them out on a piano that I know is not going to be part of the final thing as a means of developing.”

When asked about the “dungeon punk” genre tag, one earned via the band’s fusion of dungeon synth and black metal elements alongside their core peacepunk/anarchopunk sound, Kennedy laughs. “I’m fine with it; it makes sense,” he says. “I think it would be somewhere between arrogant and corny to personally insist that the music is something distinct enough to deserve its own title, but that’s a good way to sum up what it sounds like. “I look for ideas that are a little more melodic or ‘musical’ than your typical punk or rock riff or part,” he continues. “I try to make sure each song at least has some part that has a more ‘archaic’ sounding thing— modal or with certain theoretical things that fit the aesthetic. The initial idea was to cover a wider breadth of raw musical territory, but still choose ideas that can be chiseled down into a driving rock/punk/ metal context.” —JON ROSENTHAL

PHOTO BY CECIL SHANG WHALEY

POISON RUÏN

CELESTIAL WIZARD

Rocky Mountain power thrashers ride the winds of unexpected interest

hen high school buds Nick Daggers (guitar) and Amethyst Noir (vocals) originally formed Celestial Wizard (née Solarfall), their goals were modest. First, it was scratching their creative itch with fantasy-themed, energy drink-drenched power metal. Then, it was to play a show; then record their material; then release the recording so people outside their circle of friends and family could hear what they’d been up to since 2011. Following the release of two selfissued albums—2018’s A Sinister Awakening and 2022’s Winds of the Cosmos—momentum picked up and Celestial Wizard found themselves facing new, unforeseen challenges. Like the last-minute navigation of bureaucratic red tape. ¶ “We actually hit that panic button a couple months ago,” Daggers laughs. “We ended up filling a dropped spot on the upcoming Hyperspace Metal Festival in Vancouver, so there was a mad scramble to get our passports so we could play.” ¶ Presciently, travel documents were secured just as Winds of the Cosmos came to the attention of Italy’s Scarlet Records, which has not only reissued the album

2 4 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

(garnering the band increased amounts of overseas attention) but has been working to get them on European summer festivals. “It was a sticky situation,” Daggers recalls. “We had the album out and were running a campaign with a PR guy we hired, dropping singles and videos when Angelo [Mora] from Scarlet reached out. It was weird because we had a PR campaign chugging along for our album release and a label interested in releasing the album. We didn’t want to stop the campaign in case Scarlet didn’t work out, so we released the album. A couple months later, we finished negotiating, so we took it down so they could promote it the way they wanted. So, there have been two PR cycles for the same album!” For a band that formed and selected its name because they were looking to avoid trademark infringement (“Solarfall was taken from an Immortal song,” Daggers

explains. “When we recorded the first album, there were like eight other Solarfalls and we didn’t want to run into any issues, so we rebranded ourselves”), things have been moving swiftly. As they navigate uncharted waters, both in terms of opportunities provided by Scarlet and coming out of COVID’s two-year standstill, Celestial Wizard are looking forward to putting in the hard work, even if they’re still figuring out what that work is. “We want to do as much as we can with the time we have without knowing how much time we have,” Daggers reasons. “Things have been ramping up, and some of us are feeling like we’re punching above our weight class as we’re trying to figure out how to balance our band and personal lives. We’re taking things as they come on a week-toweek basis, but being flexible and rolling with things has benefited us a lot.” —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

PHOTO BY TAYLOR NEIL

CELESTIAL WIZARD

GEL

ou’ve likely noticed that the underground punk scene in the United States is exploding, each month bringing what feels like a spate of essential new demos, EPs and albums. At the head of that burgeoning movement is New Jersey outfit Gel. ¶ Formed in 2019 as a fun, low-pressure project, Gel quickly grew in popularity and became the members’ main priority. They released a string of 7-inches, tapes and splits, and hit the road with the same enthusiasm last year, crushing full and regional U.S. tours be it solo or with veteran heavyweights Municipal Waste and High on Fire. Now that they’ve cemented their reputation, it’s time for Gel’s next step: debut album Only Constant. ¶ “Writing a cohesive record instead of a cohesive EP is definitely a little harder, and we have been touring so much, so there is a lot more attention on it,” says guitarist Anthony Webster, acknowledging the band’s fast rise in popularity. “But for the most part it feels the same.” ¶ Only Constant is the most vulnerable output Gel have crafted to date. Over the course of 10 songs, the New Jersey punks rip through 16 minutes of 2 6 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

roaring, stomping hardcore that grapples with some of vocalist Sami Kaiser’s most personal demons. “They center around my realization of my alcoholism and focusing on my mental health and taking the reins on that,” Kaiser tells Decibel. “Working through that in a tryingto-be-more-skilled sort of way.” Kaiser explains that on previous releases, their sense of anger and frustration was more general. On Only Constant, things are more concrete, adding an additional layer of honesty to the album. “It’s vulnerable, for sure,” they reason, “but ultimately, it’s a good thing that people can connect with. I think it’s authentic on my end. I feel good about the lyrics that I’ve written in the expression of negative emotion, but also trying to work through and channel.” Drummer Zach Miller recorded the album alongside engineer Trish Quigley at New Jersey’s Landmine

Studios, and he says that things came together rather easily; Only Constant was written in 2021, before Gel spent much of their time on the road, and tracking vocals and instruments only took a few days each. Miller says he can’t predict what Gel’s next release will look like, beyond some commitments to compilations. But that itch to write is returning. As anyone who’s heard their music before knows, Gel are meant to be experienced live, something Miller is very much in agreement with. “I like playing shows more than I like writing anyway,” he says. “It’s like, ‘Oh, we could do this tour, or we could take a month off and write.’ I’d rather do the tour.” We’ll see what the future holds for Gel. For now, Only Constant is a friendly reminder that punk music is best when it’s loud, fast and fun. —EMILY BELLINO

PHOTO BY ANGEL TUMALAN

GEL

New Jersey hardcore punks just want to shake us up

painting by sergio padovani

on tour now

romannumeralrecords.com / d e e p cr o s s . ba nd ca m p . co m ca ssette ta p e edi ti on ava il a bl e at : s o m at icau s t in. ba nd ca m p . co m

SERMON

Progressive doom project takes another step towards enlightenment

THE

album itself is about abuses of power of all kinds, whether that is a religious doctrine, person-to-person, to the self.” ¶ So begins Him, the shadowy frontman and mastermind of U.K. progressive post-metal act Sermon. Emulating Amorphis, Katatonia, Tool, later Anathema and Porcupine Tree, Sermon found themselves at the receiving end of ample praise following debut album Birth of the Marvellous in 2019. A sad and difficult record to conceive, it was largely and tragically inspired by a terminal cancer diagnosis. Shortly following its release, an international pandemic hit, meaning that Him had a hell of a lot more to channel into his songwriting. ¶ “It’s all about an abuse of power,” he reiterates. “I’m not opposed to things like cancel culture, because it’s provided some results and some great things have happened because of it. I do think, though, that one of the biggest dangers is to stop dialogue entirely. I think in history that’s when bad things happen. 2 8 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

“Equally, I’m not a historian. I’m not a philosopher. I’m not a social economist. So, I don’t know these things, but in terms of the anger that happens from that, most of the album, it’s me observing these things and interpreting them in my own way.” He continues, framing his words slowly and deliberately: “It’s a cheap empathy. I’m not actually properly angry. You just get frustrated about things that you read and see, and we were constantly fed information all the time, and we live in a noisy world, and absorbing too much of it is tiring. And it can mean you can end up being angry without really knowing why. The album is a reflection of all of those things, and does sound angry because of that. In contrast, the first album sounds sad because it was around grief and the loss of my dad.”

That experience was a lot to untangle, and sonically, it resulted in an angrier-sounding record, Of Golden Verse. On paper, it’s largely like the debut: Written exclusively by Him, the drumming was provided by James Stewart (ex-Vader, Decapitated) and production was helmed by Scott Atkins (Gama Bomb, Cradle of Filth, Behemoth). Of their continued participation, Him says “They are basically everything… I love them both. “The aggression has been ramped up,” he elaborates. “Tonally, it’s similar, but it’s much more guitaroriented. The vocals are more aggressive. The songs are faster and more primal, and maybe a bit more stripped back. It’s just more savage. I wouldn’t say it’s a complete reinvention of the first, though—absolutely not. It’s one step. Another step.” —SARAH KITTERINGHAM

LAMP OF MURMUUR

LAMP OF MURMUUR Prolific one-man black metal blizzard reimagines his grim and frostbitten kingdom

his is probably the most important album I’ve made in my career as a musician,” says mysterious Lamp of Murmuur mainman M. “It represents a great change of identity as a whole in the sense that, in the past, all the demos and both albums speak about this illness, this frailty, this suffering and pain that I’ve felt for a long time and translates to this depressing-sounding music. When I was recording Saturnian Bloodstorm, I found myself at the bottom. I can’t play drums, I can’t sit at my computer for more than half an hour, but I had these ideas. I felt this frustration boiling up. When I was thinking about the album concept, I felt like I didn’t want to make this album about frailty, about illness again. ¶ “I want to make a bigger statement about overcoming all these obstacles,” he continues. “I can’t play drums? Fuck it, I will program them. Nothing will stop these visions I have. I feel this album reeks of that arrogance of I did this, this is great. 3 0 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

I overcame a lot of obstacles. I pushed my boundaries as a music producer. I overcame my vocal cords breaking and I found a new technique. It’s a declaration of strength and newfound vigor for the project. “I wanted a massive change with the aesthetic overall. The production is different, the approach—everything is so different compared to what I was doing. If I am going to make all these changes, I will commit 100 percent to it, from the cover art to the sound production to the lyrics, everything. I will commit to this vision totally or I won’t. That’s how I picked Karmazid for the art. That’s not amateur or beginner art—it’s next-level stuff. I think he excelled with it. He created something I am in awe of. “I think the change in aesthetic has to do with stepping up on all aspects of the project as a whole. I grew up watching and listening to

all these bands like Emperor, Dimmu Borgir—all these bands who have these epic and iconic album covers. I wanted to have something like that for an album that means so much to Lamp of Murmuur. It was time to shift the focus.” In a few short years, Lamp of Murmuur’s skyrocketing popularity has resulted in an equal pushback from internet elitists, but M. doesn’t pay mind to the insecure. “I don’t care, to be honest,” he concludes. “I make the music I want to listen to. I don’t care about anything but my vision. I don’t care about anything but creating the music I enjoy listening to and I feel is worth listening to. This is music that comes from my absolute passion and devotion for black metal as a whole. I don’t care about what anyone else thinks about my music because I think it’s great.” —JON ROSENTHAL

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SANDRIDER

Only one road is untraveled for Seattle rock and hardcore boppers

hat a world it would be if everyone loved their band as much as Jon Weisnewski. “From the beginning, I was dead-set on Sandrider never feeling like a job, never feeling like an obligation,” says the guitarist/co-vocalist. “It needed to be fun. And it’s been such a joy. It’s just so liberating. It’s the best.” ¶ Formed from the smoldering ashes of two of the Pacific Northwest’s loudest rock bands—Akimbo and the Ruby Doe—the power trio has been together for 15 years, writing songs and releasing albums whenever they damn well feel like it. But according to Weisnewski, while the band is an allaround good time, “it’s never been comfortable or easy.” And their fourth LP, Enveletration, proves that they still want to be the loudest fucking rock band in town. ¶ “We’re a base instinct/ primal songwriting sort of band,” he says. “We just write what feels really good in the moment. Crack into the adrenaline. We don’t force things to happen. You can feel it in the room 3 2 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

when an idea is gonna work. Everybody’s bopping, there’s energy to it. Those are the ones we commit to.” That kind of visceral impact is felt through the entire album: Wiesnewski’s riffs slash across the immense basslines of co-vocalist Jesse Roberts, while Nat Damm drums like asteroids colliding into each other. And yet, there’s an addictive amount of melody and layers in these songs, often thanks to the vocals. “Oh, God, we hate vocals,” Wiesnewski admits. “But this time we tried a little bit. I’m really happy with how they came out. We’re doing a thing I’ve always wanted, which is more call-and-response vocals, and Jesse was able to try a lot of interesting things in his basement with effects. He felt more comfortable to try this shit in his house. There you can do a take and wait

a day and then try something else. And he can do it without spending thousands of dollars in the studio.” The pure deafening rock of Enelevatrion will obviously lead to reinvigorated demands that Sandrider hit the road, even if they’ve been famously anti-tour since their inception (part of that whole wanting-to-enjoy-themselves thing). Wiesnewski thinks the band may finally be in a spot where they give in. Though it will very much be on their terms. “I feel like it’s changing,” he says. “I’m now personally open to some short runs. But I’m never going back to Get in the Van-style punk tours. I will do targeted runs. I will stay in hotels. I will fly to portions of the country. But I’m not going on another six-week, floor-sleeper tour. That is never happening again.” —SHANE MEHLING

PHOTO BY JOHN MALLEY

SANDRIDER

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ACID KING

Space is the place for returning stoner doom legends

their fifth full-length since 1993—and first studio LP in eight years—Acid King set the controls for the heart of the sun. While the San Francisco doom-dealers (named for a murderous drug kingpin) spent the last three decades carving out a mind-altering reputation from deep inner space, Beyond Vision trawls into mankind’s final frontier. Space is the place. ¶ “Every time 2001: A Space Odyssey plays at the theater, I go!” writes dark star commander Lori Joseph. “I pretty much view most movies about space. I love the planets, the atmosphere. It is just so beautiful, so inspiring, so mysterious.” ¶ Their first on Blues Funeral Recordings, Beyond Vision unfolds a largely instrumental mushroom cloud of sound and hallucination, seven barely demarcated songs triggering a chain reaction of lysergic malevolence and calcifying mass. If our onetime solar nebula solidified a fifth rock from the sun, this cooling magma might be dubbed Acid King. 3 4 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

Synthesizers proved key. “I’ve always used ambient sounds [and] effects pedals on my music, but I never dove into the world of synth,” details the quarter-century Mission District dweller. “I can’t exactly explain this sudden urge for more of this, but listening to Bowie’s Low for the millionth time several years ago, I just really felt this connection to ‘Warszawa.’ I started playing it as my intro song before Acid King went onstage. “I wanted to capture that feeling within Acid King,” she continues, “but the soundtrack that was the 100 percent biggest influence on this release was the Apollo 11 movie that came out in 2019. I’ve been a big space fan since I was a kid, and when I went to see this at the theater, the soundtrack just blew my mind. I purchased it the next day and obsessively listened to it. This is the single biggest soundtrack that

took me to the place I needed to be to write Beyond Vision.” She and Jason Landrian cross astral axes, while bassist Bryce Shelton mans said waveform generator and Jason Willer beats it all together. “One Light Second Away” throbs The Thing. “Mind’s Eye” blinks distant intonations from the bandleader. “90 Seconds” suffocates in space as “Electro Magnetic” drones and closer “Color Trails” pings infinity. This is the way. “Yes, The Mandalorian was on during the writing of this release, can you tell? HA!” Joseph exults. “At this point in my career of going on 30 years in this band, I need to take a left or right hand turn with my music and expand into other avenues. I love the direction this new record took me. It challenged me technically and helped me to grow as a musician and songwriter. So, there is no going back!” —RAOUL HERNANDEZ

PHOTO BY KEVORK DEMIRJIAN

ACID KING

Candlemass 35TH ANNIVERSARY TRIPLE LP BOX SET

Nightfall LIMITED EDITION

35TH ANNIVERSARY BOX SET features - 3 LPs of coloured vinyl

LP 1 Nightfall with newly remastered audio of the album by Patrick Engel at Temple of Disharmony LP 2 Alternate mixes and studio outtakes LP3 Demos & rehearsals

THE ULTIMATE

DOOM EXPERIENCE! AVAILABLE NOW

Each is presented in its own sleeve within the box ‘Nightfall’ poster An eight-page booklet featuring rare band images, and text originally featured in the ‘Behind the Wall of Doom’ book, written by Per Ola Nilsson.

DHG

BLACK MEDIUM CURRENT

New studio album of bleak, dark and dissonant sounds from Norway’s avantgarde pioneers with Vicotnik’s trademark solemn vocals recalling ancient qualities of Black Metal viewed through a modernist lens

14/4/23 CD Digipak / Gatefold 2LP / Digital

HELLRIPPER Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags MORK Dypet The third album of high octane melodic black/speed metal combined with sprawling, folklore-infused epics from Scotland’s finest!

The Norwegian winds blow once more and usher in the new era of MORK in the form of their new album ‘Dypet’. Grim frost-bitten riffs and harsh vocal melodies, ice cold hypnotic Black Metal feat. guest appearance from HJELVIK(Kverlertak)

“A thrilling reminder of why black metal and speed metal go together like whips and leather” DECIBEL 8/10

OUT NOW

Limited Edition Gold Vinyl LP / Limited Edition Green Vinyl LP / CD / LP / Digital / Cassette

DARK SIDE OF THE SACRED STAR

24/03/23

CD / Ltd edition gatefold silver vinyl LP / Gatefold LP / Digital / Handsigned copies available exclusively on the Mork band store

A very special collection of exclusive new tracks from some of the great Black Metal artists of the current Peaceville roster. Includes extra disc containing an expansive look at some of the best of 1990s black metal (also available on LP)

OUT NOW

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LOTUS THRONES

LOTUS THRONES No matter the musical style, Heath Rave knows it’ll end in tears

IT’S

almost passé to mention how bleak the world has become. We (the collective) have, at best, become numb to this reality or, at worst, are bored by it. Fortunately, we still have some prophets of negative emotions out there, speaking to the masses and imploring us to feel something, anything. Heath Rave, frontman of Lotus Thrones, is among them. Preparing his second full-length, The Heretic Souvenir, it seems Rave is less insular and guarded than his first album, Lovers in Wartime, would lead you to believe. ¶ “Looking back, that had a lot to do with the fact that that was a learning period for me on top of being really dark for the entire world,” Rave says. “I had no idea what I was doing as far as writing and recording my own music. There was a short break with a huge life change between writing and recording Heretic and Lovers. By that point, I was ready to hit it full steam and experiment and create. Emotionally, I was at a point with some things in my life where I just didn’t give a fuck anymore, and it was a safe place where I could lose myself and break free.” 3 6 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

The Heretic Souvenir shows Rave truly finding his footing, shining at the forefront instead of bringing up the rear like his previous musical endeavor, Wolvhammer. With this new confidence, Lotus Thrones has transformed from a studio-only entity to a live force to be reckoned with. Does this mean Rave is writing with a live audience in mind? “No. It’s been incredible to get out again, and the musicians that are performing with me are so talented and amazing, but that’s not what this project is for. It’s not really for anything other than just to be as it wishes in whatever universe construct we may or may not be existing in at any given point as matter.” As his day job as a tattoo artist is obviously incredibly visual, this is a vital part of Lotus Thrones as well (the most recent example being a video helmed by our own Andrew Bonazelli’s collective 10 Seconds to

Comply for “Gore Orphanage”). So, how important is this element to the shape of Lotus Thrones? “Seeing things will inspire a song or lyric,” Rave explains. “I was spending some time at the ocean with my daughter when I was fleshing out the final concepts of this record, so I took some photos for [album cover artist] Toby Verhines when I was explaining the feeling I wanted for the layout. I ended up going back in and adding some sound design that gave me the feeling of being there after some of the songs were finished as well.” Rave has been many things over the last few years: post-punk minimalist, master of morose sludge and purveyor of jazz noir. What does he want us to walk away feeling this time? “We can’t fight time or the elements; certain things are best left to drown or burn.” Fucking cheery, indeed. —NEILL JAMESON

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VREDENSDAL

Prolific Green Bay goblin delivers disgusting black metal from the valley of wrath

hat wisdom might we hear out of the mouths of Bandcamp commenters? “New Wave of USBM is upon us and I hope there are many more bands out there that will follow this path…” This declaration comes from metal enthusiast Kylmmys, in praise of the first Vredensdal demo, 2019’s three-song Gather, All Ye Hellions. And why not? NWOUSBM is no more unwieldy than any of those other initialisms, and maybe it’s time we hear something that shakes up our expectations and sets fresh flame to the scene. ¶ “Initially, I was turned off by the idea,” says headmaster Mikael Vredensdal, a.k.a. Goblin Reaper, “because I didn’t want to be associated with USBM. I just wanted to be making my own music. I’ve always been inspired by lots of bands. But then I thought, ‘What if I just ran with it?’ 3 8 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

To them, it sounded different than the majority of American black metal, and I would agree with that. I felt like there was a lack of something fresh. I’ve just got to roll with it and kick as much ass as I can.” Vredensdal’s ass-kicking count is impressive so far. The Fealty of Diabolism album followed shortly after that demo; 2020 saw not only full-length The Tyrant and the Shattering Steel EP; a year later, the project capped off a trilogy with Silence Is Eternal, a notably tighter affair than its predecessors’ near hour-long run times. “I’m big into creative freedom,” our man shrugs. “Maybe I’m doing it wrong, but I don’t give a fuck. I never know what’s going to happen next. I’m just winging it, but at

least [I can] bang my head while I’m winging it.” You should be banging your head, too. This year, Dutch label Soulseller is releasing the next stage in Vredensdal’s evolution, Sonic Devotion to Darkness, whose cover is graced by the closest thing any self-respecting metal artist will get to a selfie. “I found that mask at a thrift store Halloween section for five bucks. The Goblin, as it’s called, has sort of become a mascot for the band. Wearing a mask is mysterious—there’s almost a soul to the character, and the darkness, escapism and fantasy aspect live through that Goblin character—while at the same time, it’s me. It’s a really weird dichotomy.” —DANIEL LAKE

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J L.A. TRAD METAL WARRIORS

NIGHT DEMON

DELVE INTO THE SUPERNATURAL ON THEIR NEW CONCEPT ALBUM story by ADEM TEPEDELEN // photo by PETER BESTE

BIEBLE L 40 : M A PAY R I 2L022032:1 D: EDCEI C

arvis Leatherby understands, in no uncertain terms,

that nothing is going to be given to him and his bandmates in Night Demon. For 12 years, the trio— led by bassist/vocalist Leatherby—have scratched and clawed and busted their asses to get where they are today. Look, we’re not suggesting that they’re at the top of Heavy Metal Mountain, but they have carved out a substantial niche in the metal world by being ambitious, clever, creative and, obviously, talented. There are few bands waving the flag for traditional heavy metal who have so ambitiously guided their own career forward rather than waiting for it to come to them. Leatherby, along with guitarist Armand John Anthony and drummer Dustin Squires, knows that this isn’t a world where bands get six-figure advances from major labels and sent into high-priced studios. It’s all about DIY, top to bottom. ¶ “We’re pretty self-contained,” he tells Decibel via phone. “The band is self-managed. We like to record ourselves. We’ve been at this for a long time—in our lives, not Night Demon—so we’ve made a life out of just being around music and being heavily involved in every aspect of it. We kind of have our own growing empire.”

to create an album’s worth of songs had the He’s not exaggerating. Though Leatherby has for the last couple of years largely lived with his added dimension of coming up with a story that tied everything together and making sure that girlfriend in Northern Ireland, Night Demon there was flow and continuity. “I’ve written a have sunk some deep roots in their Ventura, CA few movie scripts in the past—that’s kind of a hometown. “You know how Metallica has HQ? secret passion of mine—and I kind of wanted Well, we kind of have that, too,” he explains. to do the same thing here,” says Leatherby. The “We have a few warehouses that are connected story he landed on was inspired by an abanto each other ,and we’ve kind of spent the last doned church he visited in Ireland. It involves decade building it up. So, Armand has a fulla young protagonist leaving the protected confledged recording studio, Captain’s Quarters, fines of his sheltered existence only to discover and he does a lot of records there. When we’re he’s entered an alternate reality that he can’t on tour, other engineers and other bands will escape from. come in and rent the place out and do albums. It’s a tale the band set to its NWOBHMMy office is there, and we have full-on rehearsal influenced music and is meant to be consumed studios that are really nice that we built over as one whole piece, broken into eight songs. time. We have all of the [Night Demon] archives By necessity, the music there, and we have a fuldidn’t just serve the fillment warehouse for our lyrics; however, it needed merchandise next door.” to follow the story arc In creating this empire as well, without losing over the years, they auspithe catchy quality that ciously pandemic-proofed defines trad metal. “We themselves to a certain still wanted the listener degree when all that to be satisfied, and we went down in early 2020. still wanted it to be Plans to make a follow-up catchy and have some to 2017’s Darkness Remains hooks,” says Leatherby. proceeded undeterred. “We want to write some“We started writing this thing that’s soothing to album during the first the ear and makes the wave of the pandemic,” listener go somewhere Leatherby says. “So, from emotionally.” early April [2020] into That’s the triumph the fall, we worked a lot of Outsider. It’s a great on this record. We were album, all 35 minutes of basically isolated with it, with songs that sound each other. This made it like classic Night Demon, a unique and somewhat but it offers a little more. more comfortable [recordThe band made sure to ing experience] than include the lyrics and normal [because] we didn’t story in the inserts of have people stopping by the physical copies of the the studio once an hour record. “You can read to hang out. We had a lot along to what the story more focus than usual.” should be, or you can That focus was put into listen to it as they are creating Outsider, a concept album, recorded by JARVIS LEATHERBY as songs and have your Anthony, that would chalown interpretation,” lenge the band creatively Leatherby explains. “We like nothing they’d done before. But that fits didn’t want to leave that to any kind of mystery. perfectly with the band’s M.O. They always want We don’t want to be mysterious. We’re here to to keep pushing forward and progressing. “We tell the story.” decided that if we’re not going to go out and It wasn’t an easy album to make—perhaps the do something different [for this album], then band’s toughest to date—but they are relentless let’s not make any more records,” Leatherby in their pursuit of greatness and always willing admits. “If you look at our catalog, everything to strive for something more because they love in traditional heavy metal, we’ve basically what they do. “It took a long time to get to this covered. I’d rather not be an AC/DC with this point,” says Leatherby, “and I think we’re still kind of thing. No disrespect to them, but I’d trying to keep growing in a way where finanjust rather not have 20 albums of the same cially we can sustain being in a band and not thing. I’d rather have a handful that say having another job. But lemme tell you, it does their own thing, and that’s all you need.” become a job and it does get stressful. Today I What would normally be a process had to keep reminding myself, no, I get to do this; I of simply combining lyrics and music don’t have to do this.”

If you look at our catalog, everything in traditional heavy metal, we’ve basically covered.

I’D RATHER NOT BE AN AC/DC WITH THIS KIND OF THING.

D EDCEI C BIEBLE :L A: PMRAY IL 2021 3 : 41

interview by

QA FRED j. bennett

WI T H

ESTBY

DISMEMBER ’s co-founder on the dawn of Swedish death metal, Like an Everflowing Stream and the possibility of new material

4 2 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

ast year, the metal world rejoiced when it was announced that Dismember, but we had different names at first.

Dismember’s back catalogue would be available on streaming services for the first time in ages. By then, vinyl reissues of the band’s classic ’90s albums were fetching ridiculous amounts of money—never mind the originals—and even CD versions were hard to come by. In a way, the scarcity reflected that of the band itself. After breaking up in 2011, the Swedish death metal legends reunited in 2019 and began making select festival appearances—right before the pandemic shut everything down. ¶ With their discography back online and new physical remasters on the way, there’s already been talk of new material. But first? “Right now, I’m putting together the booklet for the box set.” That’s what Dismember drummer and chief songwriter Fred Estby tells us when we catch him on the Decibel hotline. “It’ll have all the albums, plus another LP with extra tracks we have recorded over the years. It’s called Historia Mortis. It’ll be limited, but it’ll be really cool. I don’t know when exactly it will be out, but hopefully later this year.” ¶ Our man is calling from his pad in New York City, where he’s been living for the last seven years. “I met a woman that I really connected with over here while I was on tour,” he explains. “I was going back and forth between Sweden and New York for a couple of years, plus doing front-of-house and tour managing for other bands. Then I decided to move here. We got married in 2016, and I love it here. I don’t know what it is, but ever since I first came to the U.S. in the early ’90s, I felt there was something about here that really fits me.” What was your life like in the late ’80s when you started Dismember?

I was playing ice hockey—I was a goalie. I played soccer. But I was also a metalhead, so music and sports [were] my whole world. I was playing some guitar at that point. When I started junior high, I met Nicke Andersson, and that changed a lot of things for me because he’s a very musical person and I didn’t have someone like that around. I had a lot of friends, but no one who could really play an instrument properly. In that way, I was kind of by myself a bit. Nicke and Kenny [Håkansson], also from the Hellacopters, already had a band. It was just the two of them because they were the only two punk rockers in our whole school. And I was one of the only real metalheads in our school. When you share such special interests, you bond in a certain way. I didn’t connect with other people that easily until I met Nicke. They asked me to join their band, and I was like, “Sure!” You and Nicke both play guitar and drums. Who was doing what at this point?

He played guitar almost as well as drums already back then, but he was mainly a drummer. I didn’t know how to play drums at all, but I could play a little bit of guitar. When we were recording some stuff with our punk band, there was a drum kit at the studio, so Nicke gave me P H O T O B Y N AT H A N I E L S H A N N O N

some pointers. When Nihilist started, I decided I needed to write my own music like they did. So, I met [Dismember guitarists] David [Blomqvist] and Robert [Sennebäck], and we started playing together. I think I had just turned 16. I was supposed to play guitar, but we couldn’t find a drummer, so I was like, “Okay, let’s learn how to do this!” I asked Nicke, “How do I play like Dave Lombardo?” [Laughs] He said I should maybe start a bit simpler than that, but he gave me a lot of pointers and good advice. He’s always been very helpful and a good coach. He was very generous with this time, and still is. He doesn’t want his friends to sound like shit. [Laughs] I had a drum kit in the basement at my parents’ house, so I just practiced and practiced every day. What do you remember about the first Dismember rehearsal?

We had Erik Gustafson on bass—he was in Therion for a while—and he was originally from Texas. But his stepdad was Swedish, so he moved to the neighborhood where we went to school. He had a mohawk, he was skateboarding, he had a leather jacket, and he listened to D.R.I. and bands like that. He was a year younger than us, but me and Nicke started hanging out with him. He was very exotic to us—he could tell us about bands we could only maybe see in record stores. So, me and Erik and David started

I think Asphyxiator was the first name, and then Dismemberizer—Nicke came up with that one, actually—but the first rehearsal was really fun. I couldn’t play drums for shit, but it was cool to have two guys who were super into playing music. We all loved the same stuff—everything from Iron Maiden and Death to Bathory and D.R.I. So, it felt like we had a lot to pick from to start our own band, which was a pretty cool feeling. But we knew we had to work hard to get better and try to write some songs. Nicke created the Dismember logo and played some guitar on the early demos, so he was helping out quite a bit in the early days…

Yeah, me and Nicke were hanging out all the time. We did a lot of tape-trading, went to parties and hung out on the weekend. He quit school after junior high and started working. I lasted one year in senior high and then I dropped out. I just wanted to play music and start working to finance the band. So, he was involved in what Dismember was doing, and I was involved in what Nihilist and later Entombed were doing, too, to a certain extent. Sometimes Nicke and I would play guitar together and he’d say, “I can’t really use this riff for Nihilist. Do you want it for your band?” And then I’d give him a riff back for Nihilist. There was a lot of that. What was the first Dismember show like?

[Laughs] Oh, wow. In Stockholm at the time, there wasn’t many venues that would let young kids come and play. And no one wanted to hear that kind of music. It was kind of dead in that way. The whole socialist movement in Sweden back then was good, in a sense, because we didn’t have many poor people. No one was living on the streets, and everything was pretty equal. But the downside was that you didn’t have that many options when it came to food, movies, TV—we had two TV channels. Everything felt a little bit like Eastern Europe, but it wasn’t like we were under a dictatorship or communist rule. So, it was a little bit boring compared to the States. If you went to see a big show like KISS or something, there would be no alcohol because you couldn’t sell alcohol with minors present. But it was either the big bands or nothing, so everything was very DIY. You had to talk to people at the youth clubs, who were maybe 20 years old or something, and nag them to do a show. But it would always be outside Stockholm—never in the city. So, the first show we played was at a punk house that was being occupied so it wouldn’t get torn down. They were squatting and making shows there, basically. The punk scene in D E C I B E L : M AY 2 0 2 3 : 4 3

 Soon to be alive

Estby (l) and Dismember are less like a raging river, more like a flowing stream when it comes to new material

You had a better chance of doing that if you had a job and could show them you were doing other stuff. So, I was like, “Sorry, dudes: I’m breaking up Dismember and I’m joining Carnage.” And I did. We recorded the demo, got the record deal and started making songs for the Carnage album. We barely rehearsed as a band before the studio recording. We even took some Dismember songs and put them on the album. We just went for it. When you reformed Dismember a year or so later, you guys recorded Like an Everflowing Stream, which is considered one of the best death metal albums of all time. And most of you were still teenagers. What was your life like at that point?

Stockholm wasn’t that big, but it was for everybody—they made sure anyone could play. No alcohol was allowed, but you could go out to the woods, drink and come back. That first show was pretty bad, as I recall it. We played with some punk bands that I don’t remember. It would’ve been late ’88. I think we had just recorded the first demo, and Robert had joined the band and started singing with us. It wasn’t that great, but it was fun. Later, Treblinka, Dismember and Nihilist would try to get shows together because there was a bigger chance you could actually get a show going with more bands. Not long after Dismember started, you and David joined Carnage, which featured a young Michael Amott on guitar. Was Dismember broken up at that point?

The scene kind of got bigger when we met bands from Gothenburg and other bands from up north, like Meshuggah. They’d come to Stockholm to see Slayer, for instance, so you met 4 4 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

people from other cities. In 1989, I met Mike. He was a little bit older than us, a really good guitar player, and he seemed to have a plan. I was so restless, and I so much wanted to get my band a record deal and then go out on the road. That was my whole goal. So, when I met Mike, I imagined how much faster everything would go if I played with this guy instead of David and Robert, who were adamant to finish school and get their diplomas. That felt like an obstacle in my way. I was very self-absorbed, I guess. [Laughs] When Mike told me their drummer quit and asked if I wanted to give it a shot, I took the bus to the city he lived in and rehearsed. It felt good, so I joined. He knew the guys in Carcass and the people from Earache because his parents were from the U.K. He had more connections, so I left Dismember. Around that time, I was up for army duty. In Sweden back then, you had to go do army service for a year. But that was going to completely ruin my whole plan, so I was trying to get out of it.

The Dismember albums were recently remastered for digital release, so you’ve had to revisit them during that process. What are your observations about Like an Everflowing Stream today, over 30 years after its initial release?

I’m not a sentimental person. I live here and now—I don’t look back too much, and I don’t look forward too much. That’s just how I am. And I’m old as dirt right now—past 50 and all that. But, when I think back about it, I just remember this as a very happy time. We were doing something that we felt was gonna turn out great. As soon as we started recording, we were like, “Fuck. This is awesome.” It felt that good, then and there. I know everyone is asking about a new Dismember album, which you’ve said is a possibility. Where are you guys at with that? Do you have any new songs?

We have new material. We have not sat down and made the songs yet. But everybody’s been writing. I don’t know exactly what everyone has, but we’re not in a rush. We’re working on shows for this year and getting all the old releases out properly. And that takes time, because everyone has a regular job. So, it’s not a fast-moving train. But we’re working on it.

PHOTO BY NATHANIEL SHANNON

I asked Nicke [Andersson], ‘How do I play like Dave Lombardo?’ He said I should maybe start a bit simpler than that.

I was a mailman at that time. I got up at 5 in the morning, barely made it to the mail office at 6, and worked until 2 in the afternoon. Then I went straight to the rehearsal room, which was a 35- or 40-minute train ride. We’d rehearse until 9 or 10 p.m., and then I’d take the train an hour back to my parents’ house. Eat something, go to bed, wake up, repeat. On the weekends, we’d play a show, go to a show, listen to music and trade tapes. We lived this. To us, it was like, “This is what we love. This is what we want to do.” We wanted to make things happen with this music.

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the

definitive stories

behind extreme music’s

definitive albums

dave hofer

Murder, They Wrote the making of Macabre’s Sinister Slaughter

here is no other band like Macabre. The Downers Grove, IL act’s relentless double-bass drums,

unusually high-pitched vocals and folk-/nursery rhyme-influenced melodies gave birth to a self-branded subgenre called “murder metal” in 1985 via a lineup of guitarist/vocalist Lance “Corporate Death” Lencioni, bassist/vocalist Charles “Nefarious” Lescewicz and drummer Dennis “the Menace” Ritchie (which remains unchanged from day one). Macabre are a reflection of the Midwest and its melting pot of metal. To an outsider, the band is simply from Chicago, but for locals, the “greater Chicagoland area” encompasses not only the varied neighborhoods of Chicago proper, but the surrounding suburbs. The area has its fair share of massive bands—Smashing Pumpkins, Rise Against, Fall Out Boy—but Disturbed notwithstanding, the place’s biggest metal export is… Master? Trouble? Broken Hope? When it comes to metal, it’s the place of “not quite making it.” Because of—or possibly despite—Macabre’s double-whammy of nebulous location and love-it-or-hate-it approach, the band was quickly able to reach cult status after self-releasing 1,000 copies of 1987 debut 12-inch Grim Reality on their own “label,” Decomposed Records. This caught the attention of the U.K.’s Vinyl Solution, which reissued Grim Reality with two additional songs, as well as Macabre’s 1989 debut LP, Gloom. Five songs from a self-released demo, Shit List, were pressed onto vinyl by Germany’s Gore Records in 1990, which was followed by almost three years of silence. Macabre’s next sign of life came in 1992 with an appearance on the legendary Son of Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh! compilation on Slap-a-Ham Records (“52 Bands! 69 Songs!”), to which Macabre contributed an early, 12-second version of “Zodiac.” Demo versions of four more Sinister Slaughter songs DBHOF221 appeared on the Relapse Records Underground Series Nightstalker 7-inch in 1993, preceding the album’s release on Nuclear Blast later that same year. Ultimately, Sinister Slaughter sticks out like a sore thumb from its 1993 Nuclear Blast classmates. Gorefest’s reissued Mindloss, Dismember’s Indecent & Obscene, and Benediction’s Transcend the Rubicon all lean heavily Sinister Slaughter into the ’90s death metal sound. A 1993 review of Sinister Slaughter from NUCL EAR BL AS T The Fifth Path zine dubs the band “educational speedcore,” and an Ax/ APRIL 13, 1993 ction Records ad from Maximum Rocknroll describes their sound as “allout murder blurr/vicious.” Sinister Slaughter is, without question, one of Portraits of serial killers a kind. From its hyper-detailed Beatles-parody cover art to its blistering speed and biting dark humor, Sinister Slaughter’s legendary, singular vision is a welcome addition to our Hall of Fame.

MACABRE

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MACABRE sinister slaughter  Midwestern Massacre

Other than a single European tour, Macabre preferred hunting in their own backyard during the Sinister Slaughter era

show, and indeed I did! You’d hear about his band called Venom; they play super fucking fast. Just from being kids in close proximity, in a suburban neighborhood, when we were doing our punk shit, we would see Nefarious driving a hearse, and he said, if I recall, that he was going to call his band Sinister Minister and show up [to shows] with all the gear in this hearse! We were like, “Well, that couldn’t be cooler! This guy is out of his mind.” When you’re an underage kid, the only place to do anything at night is the 24-hour restaurant. We asked him what was really two seconds later—but seemed like a lifetime because it’s punk rock, you’re a little kid and your bands are changing almost every weekend—“Hey, where’s the hearse? What’s with Sinister Minister?” He says, “Nah, fuck that, there’s no Sinister Minister. It’s Macabre now!” By the time Macabre signed to Nuclear Blast, it was a bigger label.

What was happening with Macabre between Gloom and Sinister Slaughter? NEFARIOUS: Between those albums, we played local shows and didn’t really tour at all. We’d get some shows occasionally out of state; did a lot of Indiana. We sent out a newsletter, a mailing list of fans, pen pals, whatever. We sent out probably 1,000 or more fliers. We’d bloody-handprint them all! We got contacted by several labels wanting to do stuff, but Nuclear Blast was the biggest one. I dealt with Nuclear Blast before it was anything. It used to just be kind of punk rock. I traded Markus [Staiger, Nuclear Blast founder] for some of his records, which I couldn’t sell! They had, like, pink covers, and I was thinking, “What the hell is this stuff?” I put it in a store on consignment and never saw a penny from it; so, basically, he got free Macabre records. At some point I said, “You’ve got to buy them from me, I’m not trading anymore!” Bands would send us tapes because we’d put “Decomposed Records” on everything, so everyone thought we were a record label! I had hundreds of demo tapes over the years. Sometimes fans of Macabre [would] send tapes: “Here’s my band!” CORPORATE DEATH: I used to go to the Thirsty Whale a lot because there was always some

kind of metal show going on there. Sometimes, me and Nefarious would go there and sell Grim Reality LPs in the parking lot. We’d sell ’em for five bucks each, telling people, “It’s really heavy, fast metal shit! Look at the cover!” We started at the bottom! Macabre seemed to play with lots of different bands back then. DENNIS THE MENACE: Yeah, fuck it. It doesn’t matter what [band] it is. If you want to jam, and you want to jam with us, fine! DAN SCHNEIDER (SINISTER SLAUGHTER COVER ARTIST): There is this weird era in which

most independent music in Chicago was punk rock. If people were doing things for themselves, by themselves, that was punk. There was no such thing as an underground metal band; [a “metal” band] would have been an arena-rock band. [There was a point] when people who were in the metal scene decided they were related to punk rockers by a cousin or something. You would see the dudes from Zoetrope hanging around at the punk shows: “Hey man, I’m Barry from Zoetrope and you guys are into hardcore, and it’s fast, and that’s what we’re doing!” They tried to draw some similarities to build some bridges where perhaps somebody like myself would go to a metal M AY 2 0 2 3 : 4 8 : D E C I B E L

NEFARIOUS: They were putting out stuff like Pungent Stench that was selling 100,000 copies. Then it got bigger and bigger… now they have Slayer! Markus wanted to sign us. Gave us some crappy contract. We signed it anyway and did the album and an EP [1994’s Behind the Wall of Sleep]. CORPORATE DEATH: When we signed with Nuclear Blast, we were looking for a label. We were not [re-signing] with Vinyl Solution. Vinyl Solution gave us a teeny budget for Gloom. It’s hard to do a whole album for $2,500, but we pulled it off. Nuclear Blast gave us a decent budget and we got to pick the studio. DENNIS THE MENACE: I think the budget was $10,000.

Macabre have been known to write songs and sit on them for a while. For example, the 1987 Shit List 7-inch has an early version of “What the Heck Richard Speck (Eight Nurses You Wrecked)” and a demo tape that circulated around the same time included a live clip of “Mr. Albert Fish (Was Children Your Favorite Dish)?” There’s also alternate versions of four Sinister Slaughter songs on the Nightstalker 7-inch. Were you always writing and recording demos? NEFARIOUS: [The Nightstalker material] had to have been recorded before Sinister Slaughter. That’s where we recorded the different version of “Zodiac.” Brian Griffin from Broken Hope recorded that. We were going to record with Brian anyway, and [Chris Dodge] was doing a compilation and wanted a short song, so we just made a bunch of noise and [yelled] “Zodiac!” I designed the cover for that 7-inch. Want to know a little secret about where I got that pentagram? I stole that off the first Bathory album!

I needed a pentagram and thought, “Oh fuck, I can’t draw one that good.” I put the Macabre logo on it, so Quorthon designed half of that! CORPORATE DEATH: We just did the demos of [the Nightstalker tracks], and I don’t think we planned on releasing it, but [if] someone offers to put them out… the live recordings [from Shit List] was a mobile unit this guy brought into Club Stodola. Twenty-four tracks, really nice, recording the bands, we just had to buy the tapes. At that time, I had a broken arm from Taekwondo, and I had a cast on my left wrist. I had to cut away a piece of the cast to be able to play the guitar. We’d write different ways. Sometimes we’d be jamming and come up with some cool patterns and throw lyrics to them later. Sometimes I’d write at home myself and say, “Okay, I thought of this new melody,” bring it to practice. We’d record on little cassette recorders so you can remember shit. I never tried to force it. DENNIS THE MENACE: As a group, we’d be practicing, and if there was a part where we’d get stuck with writer’s block, we’d figure out parts then and there. The end of “Vampire of Dusseldorf,” for instance, was composed [all together]. NEFARIOUS: It’s all that. You can come up with a riff, some lyrics, a chorus line. That’s how we used to do it. Dennis would jam some drum part; he’s pretty much a natural at picking out any rhythms you come up with. Sinister Slaughter was recorded at the legendary Universal Recording Corporation in Chicago. It’s prominently stated in the liner notes that it was the final album ever recorded there. CORPORATE DEATH: We heard bands out of there!

Manowar recorded there. It was a killer studio. We were going through the board they used for a Blues Brothers [soundtrack] record! Really good gear. When we got in there, some guy was like, “We’re not going to be able to start this for another week, are you sure you want to [record here]?” We were like, “Yes, we want to record here.” He said, “It’ll be the last album, because we’re closing down!” NEFARIOUS: Universal is a studio that went back to the ’40s. It was a pretty high-profile studio throughout the years. Everybody’s recorded there. Manowar recorded Kings of Metal and Fighting the World there, and I always liked those albums a lot. They had huge sounds. When we got there, Nuclear Blast gave us [a budget] to record and the studio gladly accepted it, but apparently Universal was bankrupt. They said, “We could give you your money back and you can go record somewhere else, because we’re closing up, but if you want to finish the project, go ahead and do it.” We wanted to record there. We had a cool engineer; he didn’t want to leave, so he kept mixing the hell out of this stuff week after week after week. We spent a lot of time on the mixdown. They were actually selling gear out of the

studio as we were still mixing. The studio was in the [Masonic Temple/Oriental Theater] building, which is one of the first skyscrapers in Chicago. When we were there, the theater was closed and hadn’t been open in years. That’s [built on] the same location as the Iroquois Theatre fire, where over 600 people died [in 1903]. Tell me about the engineer, Jeff Cline. NEFARIOUS: He came with the studio! He was really into it and cool. He took a lot of time on Sinister Slaughter. I don’t think he was getting paid [additionally]. We probably got a lot more time out of that studio than we paid. While we were recording, they let him do whatever he wanted. We probably went [to the studio] 50, 60 times! Every day for a couple of months, mixing

“Scary Gary was a farmer, and when he was a kid, he used to call pigs. That’s how he did the scream [on ‘White Hen Decapitator’]; that’s an inhale.”

D E NNIS “T HE ME NACE ” RITCHIE mainly. We recorded all the tracks in a week or so. Probably did the drums in two or three days. Then the guitars and adding stuff on top like sound effects and the Synclavier [digital synthesizer]. The mixing took a long time, probably one song per day. I don’t know that he knew about metal or anything, but I guess he liked it. Cool guy; we got along with him. I think we might’ve even smoked weed with him! I printed some T-shirts for him because he had a band. CORPORATE DEATH: He was great. We could smoke weed in there, he’d smoke with us. He was just a young guy that knew his shit. He would take four or five hours to mix one song and then say, “That’s it for the day, I need to let my ears rest.” He was a perfectionist. “We’ve got to do it right.” I don’t know what kind of music he was into, but this guy could mix anything. I knew we were taking a long time and I told Jeff, “I know we only have so much of a budget here…” and he D E C I B E L : 4 9 : M AY 2 0 2 3

would say, “Don’t worry about it, I’m going to get this album done for you guys.” Not like, “You guys are going over, we’re going to need more money” or anything. He had his heart in it. JEFF CLINE: I wasn’t going to leave them hanging. I tell my students this: Mixing is like drinking: You need to know when to say when. If you keep on mixing, you’re going to end up facedown, puking all over yourself! DENNIS THE MENACE: I’ve always tried to make sure I get my tracks done in one or two days to save time. Hopefully. I try not to take too long. A lot of songs are one take. We were well-rehearsed, knocking that shit out like it was nothing. CLINE: That was a time when big studios were starting to suffer some problems, so slowly I watched Universal lose business. [Home recording technology] was creeping in. Different business models, revenue streams. The studio manager came up to me: “Have you ever heard of Macabre? Can I trust you to do an album with them for Nuclear Blast?” “No, but sure, let’s do it!” At the same time, I was freelancing for Oprah at Harpo. My big claim to fame is that I mic’d up Oprah! It was an analog console at Universal. A Neve 8048. We used the primary studio, Music 1. Universal occupied two floors, I think we were on the 15th floor. Recording to 32-track digital tape. An old Mitsubishi reel-to-reel, one-inch digital machine. For things like the sequencing, MIDI triggering and samples, we used a Synclavier. I’m teaching now at the University of Memphis, and I’m such a killer with my students about pre-production, and there wasn’t a lot of pre-production with Macabre. When’s the first date? Come on in! I think getting sounds with them was more on-the-fly. Once we dialed it in, it was like, “All right, let’s go!” There was a lot of good energy going on. As a drummer, I have to know: Has Dennis the Menace used the same Yamaha kit for the entirety of the band? What guitar and bass gear did you use? DENNIS THE MENACE: Since 1986! It’s a Yamaha Power Tour. The shells are made of Philippine Mahogany and Birch, which they don’t make anymore. It’s a wicked sound. I think it was around $2,000 at the time. I try to take care of them; I do beat the fuck out of them! [Laughs] I started playing drums in ’74, ’75. My brother caught a stick during Neil Peart’s drum solo and gave it to me. It’s the 747. [Peart]’s “The Professor,” you know? So, I switched to Neil Peart sticks when I was like 10 years old. I’ve had a few different pedals throughout the years, but I’ve been using DW-5000s for the past 25 or 30 years. I’ve been using the 22” Zildjian Ping since Sinister Slaughter. We used acoustic and triggers on the drums, with some other sounds he had, like the sound of a basketball bouncing. There’s like three different sounds in the kick drums.

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CORPORATE DEATH: I used the same guitar on all

of Sinister Slaughter. I was playing a ’78 Dean-Z. I was using an ADA preamp and I used a Digitech 256 processor. I think I used a ’79 Dean-V for some of the solos. On the song “Killing Spree,” I used a metal pick that the Great Kat gave me. CLINE: The standouts for me were the vocals and the double kick drum. We’d be MIDI triggering some of the sounds to blend in with the [analog] kick drum, like vocal layering, but different sounds on the kick drums. I’d be watching on the screen, the attacks of the kicks going by. From behind me, Dennis would be like, “Stop! You missed one!” Back it up [and] sure enough... It was cool; we really fine-tuned the kicks. This is still when the theater was totally unoccupied. You’d have to go down to the basement. You could cut through a fried chicken place and work your way into the back of the theater and you’d hear the rats in the balconies scattering. That room was great. Get onstage, crack a snare and record the sound of the room. NEFARIOUS: I think I used my [Mesa] Boogie on some of it. I had a four-string Olympic bass. We weren’t tuned down back then. We were at A440. Now we have the low B, but we’re still at A440. I had an ADA with an Ashly power amp, and that’s how I got some of the distortion stuff. I used that for the noisy airplane [intro on “There Was a Young Man Who Blew Up a Plane”]. I asked Jeff Cline, “You got any sound effects? We could put some airplane radio in there.” They had these reel-to-reel tapes. Sound effects going back to the ’50s and ’60s. We got the explosion off one of those tapes, too! We said, “We need an explosion!” So, we were checking out different explosions! The explosion effect is so loud. NEFARIOUS: It is pretty fuckin’ loud, isn’t it?

[Laughs] Scary Gary is credited with vocals on “White Hen Decapitator.” He provides insanely high-pitched vocals and the verses. I heard a rumor that he was a hog caller. Is that true? CORPORATE DEATH: Scary Gary was from this

band called Dark Light. This guy was a super high screamer, so I asked him to do the voice on the beginning of “Nightstalker” and he does the whole song of “White Hen Decapitator.” People request that song sometimes, and I’m like, “I didn’t sing that!” DENNIS THE MENACE: He was a farmer, and when he was a kid, he used to call pigs. That’s how he did the scream; that’s an inhale. I don’t know how the hell you can inhale and hit that note, but… it’s from pig-calling. I’ll never forget it. He’s a big dude, six-foot tall, 200 lbs., the wallet with the chains and keys on it… after he

“We got all the photos [for the album cover], compiled them and built an actual set in my basement. We tried to parody the Beatles as close as possible with… the TV set, the rocking chair. That was my little toy rocking chair as a boy.”

CHA RLE S “NE FA RIO US” LE SCEWICZ finished that scream, he passed out, boom! Hit the ground, keys everywhere! CORPORATE DEATH: He cut his nose on one of the music stands! We had him keep doing it over and over again. DENNIS THE MENACE: The [take] we kept is the one where he passed out. NEFARIOUS: [Laughs] Oh, I don’t know about that! He was just doing pig calls; he’s kind of a country boy. I believe he was from Iowa. We practiced at this place in Chicago and his band was renting downstairs, right beneath us. They used a drum machine with [crazy] double-bass and he’d scream. We started hanging out with them, partying, and became friends. We were recording Sinister Slaughter and said, “Hey, we want you to come on the album and do a scream for us.” I like having guests come in, it’s fun. He may show up again, someday. Speaking of guests, you also have someone named Tony Iovino credited on two songs. DENNIS THE MENACE: He was one of my brother’s friends from grade school. Tony would eat and sleep with his guitar. Every time you’d see him, he has his guitar, playing his guitar. Call him on the phone: “What are you doing, Tony?” “Oh, M AY 2 0 2 3 : 5 0 : D E C I B E L

I’m eating.” You’d hear him chomping and then [noodling guitar noises]. That’s all he ever did. Let our friends jam on our album? Why not? CORPORATE DEATH: We got him to do the acoustic solo intro on “What the Hell Did You Do?” and the solo on “Shotgun Peterson.” I used to hang out and play guitar with the guy all the time, he was one of my teachers over the years, so I asked him to do a solo. I did all the other solos, including the one before “Edmond Kemper Had a Horrible Temper.” I did that solo and asked Jeff, “Can you take that same solo and start it from the end, then have one backward and one forward?” Somehow it seemed to work! The liner notes read, “absolutely no harmonizers or tape speed changes on this album!!!!” Why was this important to include? NEFARIOUS: Back in those days, if people used a harmonizer on their voice, “Oh, that’s cheating! It’s not really low.” We got accused of that on Grim Reality! Of speeding up the record! CORPORATE DEATH: [The vocals] were all-out, pretty much. I tried to have variety; I always have. Some low growls, some high-pitched ones. Layering my voice on a lot of it.

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CLINE: We had a little isolation booth off the studio, and before we would do a session or a vocal overdub, Corporate Death would go in there and rattle off these Italian arias! I remember stacking a lot of vocals. SCHNEIDER: Many people accused Dennis the Menace of being a drum machine! The guy is a machine!

The Beatles-inspired artwork is so unique, especially for 1993. The concept is credited to Nefarious and John Martin, and the cover is credited to Dan Schneider. What can you tell me about the process of creating the cover? NEFARIOUS: We used to jam with John in high school. Not Macabre, but another band. Another guitar player. We were sitting around one night, and I was really getting into Frank Zappa at the time. I had the album We’re Only in It for the Money, and they did a parody of the Sgt. Pepper’s cover. Me and John started talking, smoking weed in my living room, saying, “We could do this,” naming killers we could put on it. I just started compiling faces. We were going to do it like the Beatles did, set it up as a real photo set, try to get everything in proportion. It became really hard, then our friend Dan Schneider came to us and said, “I can do this on a computer.” We got all the photos, compiled them and built an actual set in my basement. It’s a composite photo; there’s three different photos in the cover. We set up the kick drums in the front, Dan made the drum skins. We got skulls, we bought potting soil, we had weed in there, little trinkets. We had a big roll of black construction paper; you roll it out on the ground so there’s a soft corner in the back so you don’t see any edges. We put all the mulch and crap on there. We made [the ground] so it was tilted up to the front, and Dan spelled out “macabre” in bones, put all the stuff around it. We tried to parody the Beatles as close as possible with like items: the TV set, the rocking chair. That was my little toy rocking chair as a boy. The album was done for quite a while, but I think it came out a few months after [Nuclear Blast] wanted it to. [They were] threatening us, “We’re going to use a different album cover!” They probably would have used Master’s On the Seventh Day [God Created… Master] cover! I told Markus, “Please wait, it’s going to be the best album cover.” He said, “I’ve got all kinds of artists here to do album covers!” “Well, that’s great, but maybe another time!” CORPORATE DEATH: I like the Beatles. I’ve always been a fan. Zappa did a humorous version of it, so

we were like, “We could do it with killers!” We had access to a medical skeleton, and another guy had medical skulls, so we were able to borrow the stuff. DENNIS THE MENACE: Real bones, real guts and real pot plants. We used to grow weed when we were younger. Had one plant that wasn’t so great, so we just killed it and used each branch as a little plant. If you notice, they’re alive [on the cover]. They’re wilting, but still fresh. That’s real weed! My brother took all the photos. The back cover photo is Nefarious’ basement, too. SCHNEIDER: Macabre was a very heavily merchandised band. The reason for that is because in Nefarious’ mom’s basement, they had the most advanced screenprinting equipment that you would find in the Chicagoland area. The price-per-unit that you’d have to pay in the ’70s to get a screenprinted garment for your band would be insanity. It was unaffordable because there was no competition, no one was doing it. Sure enough, Nefarious and Corporate Death got completely pro equipment, properly installed in Nefarious’ mom’s basement. And they’re young guys—I don’t think they’re even 21! They’re making Macabre stuff, but they’re also printing for the local McDonald’s! Printing real jobs! Around Sinister Slaughter, we’re still over there hanging out, printing shirts, and they start talking about the record cover—things that they might do to make it look like the Beatles. They were maybe going to collage it together. Thinking about how to approach the job with a 35mm camera, a library card and a photocopier. It sounded kind of lo-fi, like they weren’t sure how to do it. I suggested we move the press off to the side for one day and we could set this up as a real photo. We came up with a list of all the props we’d need. We took all of those ideas and tried to transform them as much as possible into a still-life photo shoot that could be real. During this time, image-editing software had finally just landed in which it might be in

A room full of witnesses  Macabre live at the Wetlands in New York City, circa 1994

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somebody’s house who’s not very rich, and that person was me. I knew one guy from a different band that won a ton of money on Wheel of Fortune, and I knew he took the money and bought different programs like Photoshop that would run on a PC. I said, “I’ll pay you to get copies of the discs and the license.” I think he agreed for $280. That was all the money I had. I suggested we could put the images together on a computer. There was no proof that this could even happen. We just knew we were going to get these programs, and now we’re going to use them. We can move some images around, composite some shit. This is archaic. The demands of laying out that cover? We bit off almost more than any machine at that time could chew. I sat there editing those photos together for literally a month. The big hard drive at the time was 250 MB! We could put the cover onto the hard drive and save it, but the file was too big to get off the machine! We had no way to get it to the job house to make color separations to then send to the printer. There’s no workflow for this, all pre-Internet. We needed a thing similar to a Zip drive. It was a portable, magnetic-media writer that could handle the files. It cost $300-400. Corporate Death had the money, found the drive, bought it and a few discs, and brought it over to my house. At that time, you would never have a record cover like this in the underground. Who would do all this? That [cover] happening is as unique as Macabre. Macabre only went on one tour to support Sinister Slaughter, a two-month trek across Europe with Pungent Stench and Brutal Truth. What do you remember from that tour? DENNIS THE MENACE: There was one show, maybe in Portugal, the mayor of the town was there at the concert. After it was over with, he brought us to this pub and opened it up. There was like 50 or 100 people drinking in there. The [venue] got

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MACABRE sinister slaughter

“My first-ever tour was opening up for Macabre with my old band Repugnant. We were so in awe over how nicely they treated us. From a songwriting view, I still think that Sinister Slaughter is their most accomplished work.”

TO BIAS F O R G E , G HO ST torn apart. It was in a theater with bolted-down seats. [Fans] literally tore up the first 10 rows. As soon as we hit the stage, shit started flying. CORPORATE DEATH: There were too many incidents to even remember ’em all! It was a big party the whole time. It was fun. Pungent Stench were fans of ours, and they were on Nuclear Blast, too. Alex [Wank, drummer] from Pungent Stench was a promoter and he set up a lot of the stuff, but ultimately it was Nuclear Blast that got us out there. NEFARIOUS: I met Napalm Death on that tour. They were like, “We want Macabre shirts!” We were playing in Stuttgart. I think they played there the night before or were playing the next day; maybe they had the day off. I remember seeing Shane [Embury] walking out of the girls’ bathroom, but you’re in Europe, so I guess it doesn’t matter. I knew Danny Lilker before. I went and saw Nuclear Assault with Metal Onslaught back in 1987 in Elgin, IL, and met him then. Gave him a Macabre tape. DENNIS THE MENACE: I knew who Danny was! Everyone knew who Danny was. I was kind of [starstruck], honestly. “Holy shit, we’re going to tour with Danny Lilker!” I was happy as fuck, are you kidding me? He’s a total rock star! The guy from S.O.D. and Anthrax? That was really cool. DANNY LILKER: This was a two-month endurance test with three bands on one bus. After seeing Macabre over 25 times, we’d already been

walking around screaming, “Albert!” as it was, since that is part of the iconic chorus of “Albert Was Worse Than Any Fish in the Sea.” We played a few shows in Portugal. There we were, the morning of the show, collectively delirious from the cumulative effects of being on this long-ass tour with lots of partying, etc. We were all sitting around a table outside of the venue that the club had set up for morning catering like coffee, breakfast food and all that. At this point, a dude with long red hair walks up and says, “Hey, guys! We’re really happy to be putting on this show! If you have any questions or need anything, just let me know, I’m the promoter and my name is Albert.” There was a one-second pause and then everyone on the tour (three bands and crew members) all looked at him and (sure enough) screamed, “ALBERT!!!” The vinyl edition of Sinister Slaughter has hand-censored sleeves. Why is this and are they all censored? CORPORATE DEATH: This was in Germany. When

[the printer] shipped them, customs crossed out things like the Zodiac symbol, [saying it] was some sort of racist thing, but it was just a symbol that Zodiac would use in his coded letters. DENNIS THE MENACE: They crossed out the swastika on Manson’s forehead. Just goofy shit with customs. There’s uncensored ones out there! Hard to find, but they’re out there. M AY 2 0 2 3 : 5 4 : D E C I B E L

NEFARIOUS: The sleeves were printed in Germany. Nuclear Blast had the records pressed in the Czech Republic. Not all of the covers went to the Czech Republic. A lot of kids were writing me saying, “You just take lighter fluid and wipe off the magic marker!” There was a Brazilian pressing; I’m not sure if it’s a bootleg or if Nuclear Blast licensed it, but that was copied off the censored cover, so that one is permanently censored! Funny story: Tobias [Forge] from Ghost came up to me and said, “Is there any chance I could get an uncensored version of Sinister Slaughter?” He has the Brazilian copy. I said, “I can arrange that, I have a few copies.” [After Sinister Slaughter], we toured with Repugnant when he was a kid and remained friends throughout the years. The other guy, Johan [Wallin], they called him Sid Burns. Tobias’ name was Mary Goore. Tobias will come to our shows when we play in Sweden. He really likes music. He knows his stuff—all the old-school stuff. DENNIS THE MENACE: We did a few shows with Ghost in 2016. A band dropped out or something and we did Wisconsin, Chicago, Minnesota, I forget where else. It was just us and Ghost. TOBIAS FORGE (GHOST): My first-ever tour was opening up for Macabre with my old band Repugnant on a handful of shows in Belgium and the Netherlands in 2000. We were such fans of the band, and were so in awe over how nicely they treated us. All of us were staying in the same apartment for the duration of the tour, since each show was just a few hours away, which meant that we could drive back after, to hang and bond. Besides having had them supporting on a few of our Ghost shows, I still bump into those guys every now and then when we are on tour and I have always admired how extremely original they have remained—not only as a band, but as cool and kind individuals. From their Shit List demo tape to the latest album, they still have that uniquely patented, unmistakable and straight-up fucking awesome sound. From a songwriting view, I still think that Sinister Slaughter is their most accomplished work. It is a masterpiece.

Is there anything you’d change about Sinister Slaughter? NEFARIOUS: I think, “I might have done that part differently,” or something I do live now, I wish I would have thought of then. That’s probably why I don’t listen to old recordings—because you dwell on that stuff. I’ve read other interviews with people that say they don’t listen to old albums because, “I cringe at it because I should have done this or didn’t like how I played that.” Sometimes you have to go back for reference and you’re like, “Oh, it’s not so bad!” DENNIS THE MENACE: Everything went the way it was supposed to go! CORPORATE DEATH: I don’t think so. But if you ask me about Gloom… [Laughs]

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story by

JOSEPH SCHAFER photos by

SHIMON KARMEL, GENE SMIRNOV, A.J. KINNEY and WOLF MOUNTAIN PRODUCTIONS additional photo editing by

ESTER SEGARRA

Hard work and defying the odds unites

DARK FUNERAL, CATTLE DECAPITATION, 200 STAB 2023 WOUNDS BLACKBRAID DECIBEL MAGAZINE TOUR and

on the

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That’s how long it’s been since the inaugural Decibel Tour. Let that number sink in. Better yet, let’s put it in perspective. That’s as long as Ozzy Osbourne’s original run singing for Black Sabbath. It’s also the same length of time between Metallica’s first rehearsal and the release of The Black Album. It’s longer than the average length of a marriage in the United States, as well as Celtic Frost’s active recording period (both of them). ¶ Put it this way: A lot of good shit doesn’t last eleven years. That my esteemed editor’s been able to keep our circus traveling annually through three presidential administrations, two global economic downturns, and a once-in-a-lifetime health crisis is notable. That the Decibel Tour is still throwing curve balls and allowing young, untested bands to prove their mettle next to some of the most potent live acts metal has to offer is remarkable. ¶ Maybe I’m biased in that assessment (note the title of the magazine you’re holding), but if I am, it’s because I got into metal through a love of confrontational music. I love when hard work pays off. I love upstarts and underdogs, and this year’s tour has both in spades.

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Starting from the top, Dark Funeral and Cattle Decapitation are two road-tested bands with verifiably vicious life shows. Each has a distinctly oppositional point of view relative to mainstream society in America and three decades of music to celebrate. Those are your underdogs. An opening for them is 200 Stab Wounds and Blackbraid, two young bands whose success belies their youth: 200 Stab Wounds formed in 2019, and Blackbraid began just last year. Each represents the tip of the spear for new and potent movements in the metal underground, Ohio’s death metal boom and the ascendant Indigenous black metal movement, respectively. They’re the upstarts.

KEYS to the KINGDOM

Dark Funeral wouldn’t have looked out of place

on the first Decibel Tour. Like that year’s headliners Behemoth and Watain, they’re a storied black metal band whose music puts a premium on melodies and whose live show punches above its weight. Unlike their peers, it’s hard to imagine Dark Funeral’s ascent to the throne before now. The band’s completed a fall tour as direct support for Cannibal Corpse and playing directly after Immolation. For most bands, playing in between those two acts could be a fate worse than death metal: the entire venue’s collective smoke break. Instead, by all accounts, Dark Funeral’s rocksolid stage presence and arena-sized riffs won over crowds of gore-aligned die-hards at every show. Their hot streak reached its culmination at a climactic appearance at a sold-out Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest in Denver. “That show was really amazing, totally sold out. The crowd really turned out. In fact, the crowd turned out for that entire tour,” says Lord Ahriman. “That was our first club tour in so many years, so we were extra hungry, too. There were some amazing bands on that bill, long-time running and professional bands, but we always try to do our thing, whoever we’re out with. We always give 110%, and I live by the philosophy that we can always do better.” Lord Ahriman’s led Dark Funeral with that same can-do attitude since founding the band alongside David “Blackmoon” Parland” in 1993. By 1996 the Stockholm outfit released their first full-length, The Secrets of the Black Arts, on No Fashion records, the same label that issued debut records by iconic Swedish outfits including Dissection, Katatonia, Marduk and Unanimated.

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Like their peers, Dark Funeral placed a premium on melodies in their compositions, and in so doing helped set the template for what much of extreme metal would look like later that decade. “Melody has always been the key factor,” Lord Ahriman agrees. “Melody mixed with a certain atmosphere.” That melody gives Dark Funeral’s music a transfixing quality that translates well live. Black metal doesn’t always produce roadhungry bands. For every show-crazed Goatwhore, there’s a “not in this lifetime” Dakthrone. Dark Funeral is squarely in the former category. The band’s been playing live frequently since the ’90s while many of their peers either changed sounds, endured massive line-up changes, or were forced into long, sometimes permanent hiatuses.

If I was to go out on a straight black metal tour? I think it’s boring for the crowd, and it’s sure as hell boring for me.

WE LIKE TO BE IN A POSITION WHERE WE DON’T FIT IN WITH THE OTHER BANDS. Lord Ahriman DARK FUNERAL “We’ve been consistent and worked hard over the years,” Lord Ahriman says. “I don’t look so much at what’s going on with other bands. They’re free to do whatever they want.” Dark Funeral themselves faced several lineup changes and even took a long break from the studio between 2009 and 2016, yet Lord Ahriman has kept them gigging—and relevant. Throughout those tours, they’ve developed a formidable live show, displaying tight musicianship even while drummer Jalomaah

routinely blasts at Satan-only-knows beats per minute. Those stop-on-a-dime performances are anchored by vocalist Heljarmadr’s imperious frontman persona. Lord Ahriman attributes Dark Funeral’s ability to endure to a formidable work ethic. “From my perspective when it comes to Dark Funeral, as long as I am hungry—which I still am—then we’re going to keep going. And we’ve been climbing the ladder quite well, but we’re not at the top yet. We could still do so much better. “ Even so, it’s taken Dark Funeral years to achieve top billing in the United States. Though they’ve co-headlined with Belphegor and Septicflesh, The Decibel Tour will be their first run since the early 2000s with an hour-plus set time they often enjoy in Europe. “We’ve headlined a few small tours back in the day, but this is the first real headlining tour we’ve done in a long time. Recently, we’ve done mostly festival sets or co-headlining shows with 45- or 50-minute-long sets,” he says. “It’s more inspiring to play a long set; it feels more complete. At times we’ve felt that we were cheating the fans with these shorter sets. The feeling was, ‘Fuck, we could really give them more. Oh well, Next time.’ Well, this is next time.” He says, promising songs that Dark Funeral hasn’t played live before. Even with such potential surprises in store, some black metal die-hards may balk at the prospect of Dark Funeral playing a bill split 50/50 down the middle between death and black metal bands. It’s a purity standard that Lord Ahriman’s never sworn fealty to. “A mixed tour package is always the best,” he says. “It’s always more interesting for me to go out with bands that share the same love for extreme metal but perform in different ways. For me, as a musician listening to the show every night, it’s more interesting to get variation from all the bands.” “If I was to go out on a straight black metal tour? I don’t know. I think it’s boring for the crowd, and it’s sure as hell boring for me,” he continues. “We like to be in a position where we don’t fit in with the other bands, and that’s why we play weird shows and festivals. We enjoy it, even if we play a very mainstream festival and only 50 people like us and the rest think we suck—I think it’s killer to play those; it feels like we’re on enemy territory.” Lord Ahriman’s passion for finding that enemy territory, as well as comrades in arms that don’t play the exact same sort of music, has been a hallmark of his touring sensibilities for some time. Now as then, Cannibal Corpse was Dark Funeral’s partner in heresy—Lord Ahriman relates a story about their first time touring with Florida’s most gruesome in the ’90s. “Back in the day, we played what was probably the first big black metal and death metal tour in Europe,” he recalls. “Their crowd hated us. Our crowd couldn’t understand why we were on

@AqualambRecords

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tour with Cannibal Corpse. Booking agents said the same thing. ‘Why the hell are you playing black metal and death metal on the same bill? Nobody will come.’ But, of course, it was a completely successful tour. It opened doors. More tour opportunities started popping up when we started mixing black and death metal.” Lord Ahriman’s been stepping through those open doors for 30 years, and as a result, at last in America, Dark Funeral’s getting their longcoming due. Notably, he’s done it without any stage provocative gimmicks, incendiary quotes or sloganeering T-shirts. Instead, he’s chosen to simply do the hard work, even when that’s not a very black metal thing to do. “There’s always going to be bands who stick out and dare to do different things,” Lord Ahriman says. “And Dark Funeral’s always been one of those bands willing to walk our own path.”

PAROLE

Massive event outings are nothing new for Cattle

Decapitation. The California death-grind misfits likewise walk their own path. In fact, they have been doing so as a live staple since at least 2003, stopping their aggressive tour schedule only when writing and recording another groundbreaking or at least head-turning record such as 2012’s Monolith of Inhumanity or 2019’s Death Atlas. The latter hit No. 20 on Decibel’s Top 40 Albums of 2019 list, and Cattle Decapitation was promoting it on tour when, you know, the literal plague was, in fact, brought back. “It completely put things in perspective,” says Cattle Decapitation’s vocalist and longestserving member Travis Ryan. “I recently turned 48 years old. Those two years off did me zero favors, except it was really, really fucking nice to be forced to take a break along with 8 billion other people.” 2021 was the first year Cattle Decapitation didn’t play a show since 1999, but neither the time off nor the approaching Big 5-0 has thrown Ryan and his peers off their game. The band has returned to the stage, having just toured the U.S. with Obituary, Carcass and Amon Amarth. The country they played to, though, looks very different from the one that went into lockdown, by Ryan’s estimation. “Last year was one of the toughest on record for multiple reasons, for many people, not just us,” he continues. “The culture has changed drastically in the last few years. I’m honestly shocked there’s still even a place for death metal

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or extreme metal now that everyone is pretending to be such perfect specimens of our species.” Those specimens can look forward to another searing critique in the form of the tenth album, Cattle Decapitation record, Terrasite. The album continues Ryan’s ongoing theme of provocative and thoughtful meditations on humankind’s fundamental unkindness to the world it lives in while honing their death grind chops to a finer point. It also continued the band’s ongoing collaboration with Metal Blade records, who will release Terrasite this coming May while the band plays direct support to Dark Funeral on The Decibel Tour. Old-school Cattle Decapitations fans shouldn’t expect much of the band’s vintage material later this spring. That means nothing predating their recent Decibel Hall of Fame inductee record, The Harvest Floor. “We don’t play older stuff because the crowd gives more feedback for the later stuff. In a live setting, we feed off that energy from the crowd. If they don’t have it, we eliminate that,” Ryan says. “Starting with The Harvest Floor and even more so with Monolith of Inhumanity, we developed a whole separate fan base,” Ryan continues, “And they either don’t care about the earlier stuff or aren’t moved by it enough to show enthusiasm.” Instead, expect material from Terrasite; Ryan and co have already road-tested one song from their latest offering, “We Eat Our Young,” during a recent run with Obituary, Carcass and Amon Amarth. However, that cut alone doesn’t hint at all the death grind mayhem the record contains. While its songs generally feel faster and more focused than the more arch material from 2019’s Death Atlas, its sonic palate is even more expansive. Cattle Decapitation is no stranger to unorthodox sonic choices; their zeal for unexpected vocal timbres or distortion decisions is as central to the band’s character as Ryan’s environmentalist and animal welfare-oriented conceptual framework. Even so, Terrasite feels like the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. Much like the insectoid organism emerging from its husk on its cover, Terrasite reframes the sometimesavant choices of Cattle Decap’s last decade as one stage of a continuing mutation rather than an evolutionary endpoint. “Death Atlas was supposed to sound as final as it did, and Terrasite is very much supposed to be the antithesis of that,” Ryan agrees. He identifies three previous eras of Cattle Decapitation, with Terrasite beginning the fourth. “Monolith of Inhumanity seemed to have a shift in the sound that turned some heads, and I feel like this record has the same kind of shift in it.” The insect adorning Terrasite’s cover has a second thematic resonance: as a stand-in for Ryan and his crew as survivors, as underdogs. Metal is not always friendly to experimentation, doubly so for bands with strong lyrical convictions that may not jive with less critical listeners.

“It was so much worse when we broke out of the grind scene and into the metal scene when we signed to Metal Blade,” Ryan recalls. “The idea of vegetarianism or veganism or even talking about the welfare of animals did us zero favors. Most people view metal and music as an escape, and we’re one of those bands that uses gritty reality as a topic of conversation whilst still creating an escape for people. I’ve seen people say, ‘fuck their lyrics; I don’t need someone telling me how to live.’ They’re clearly not reading them, then. Or are processing them in a way that is unintended. “Thing is, I frequently say ‘we’ in the lyrics. As in, I’m human. As in, I’m part of the problem too. It’s OK. I’m not on some high horse telling anyone what to do,” Ryan continues. “I feel we are simply misunderstood, and there are only so many steps an artist of any kind should have to take to make them understand correctly. Also, it’s art. It doesn’t have to be 100% understood at all times.” Whether misunderstood or not, Cattle Decapitation’s continued existence and placement on the Decibel Tour shows how underdogs and experimenters can thrive if they stick to their guns. “We’ve never overcome these odds. I think people are just more accepting of what people are delivering to them now,” Ryan says. “We’ve been around a while and have seen whole subgenres come and go and come back again. Our band has endured the rise of nu-metal, then that went away—thank God. Then it came back recently— goddamnit. You could say the same about deathcore. Same with ‘slam.’ There’s a whole list. We never left; we’ve been trudging along this entire time but playing on the same field as all of this stuff. One could consider that overcoming odds, I guess. Considering we somehow maintained relevancy even given a constantly shifting landscape in the culture, I’m grateful for that.”

KILLED by DEATH

Before Cattle Decapitation, Cleveland’s 200 Stab

Wounds will take the stage. The gory death metal quartet first worked with Decibel on an afterparty for 2022’s Metal & Beer Fest Philadelphia. “The Metal & Beer Fest was a really smooth experience, and our headliner at the after-show itself was amazing,” says vocalist and guitarist Steve Buhl. If the leap from after-party appearance to second set on a national package tour strikes you as a little fast, that’s an understandable reaction, but consider this before following that train of thought: 200 Stab Wounds just completed a massive co-headlining national tour with Decibel’s 2022 Album of the Year titleholders Undeath (Phobophillic and Enforced opened). They’re no strangers to the road, having opened for Soulfly before that. “You could argue that we are probably the most popular active touring underground band from Cleveland at the moment,” Buhl says.

Thing is, I frequently say ‘we’ in the lyrics. As in, I’m human. As in, I’m part of the problem, too. It’s OK.

I’M NOT ON SOME HIGH HORSE TELLING ANYONE WHAT TO DO. Travis Ryan CATTLE DECAPITATION

“The way our band has benefited the most is going out on the road. Our shows just keep getting better and better, so why stop now?” The band’s rapid rise is no surprise; 200 Stab Wounds has been on a steady upward trajectory since “Go.” The band formed as a side project for Buhl, whose main band at the time was a thrash project called Subtype Zero. Bulh wrote the first 200 Stab Wounds songs in 2019 after being inspired by bands like Frozen Soul and fellow Ohioans Sanguisugabogg. “I demoed out the first EP at home. It was originally supposed to be for Subtype Zero, but I thought it was too heavy for that band, too drastic of a change. So, I just said, ‘fuck it, I’m going to start a whole new band.’” Buhl tapped his Subtype Zero bandmates bassist Ezra Cook, drummer Owen Pooly, and guitarist Lance Buckley. “Ezra and I have been jamming together since we were in second grade. We started our first real band around seventh grade, and we started going to shows together,” Buhl remembers.

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Together they recorded their debut EP, Piles of Festering Decomposition, and announced its existence in early 2020. A ten second clip from that EP, posted to Instagram, caught the attention of Sanguisugabogg singer Devin Swank, who forwarded the sample to Maggot Stomp label head Scott Magrath. In April that year, Maggot Stomp issued Piles of Festering Decomposition, and the response was immediate: The EP was the second best-selling metal item on Bandcamp the day it was released. “We were blown away. It was almost instant success.” Buhl remembers. “We knew people were going to like it, but we didn’t know it was going to do anything.” Regional fest offers and tours came soon after, even while the COVID-19 pandemic kept many indoors, much to Buhl’s surprise. “We hadn’t even played a show,” he says. “We learned later that we had a long road ahead of us, and we still do. But the support and response to everything we’ve been doing is incredible. We have the best fans in the world.”

To some extent, that success is understandable. Maggot Stomp has a successful track record of dropping popular debut demos by tough-but-hooky death metal bands, including Frozen Soul’s Encased in Ice and Pornographic Seizures by fellow Ohioans Sanguisugabogg— both now on Century Media Records. Piles of Festering Decomposition put Buhl in the company of some of the bands that first inspired him to transition to death metal. “What ties us all together is the that we were on Maggot Stomp at the same time, and we are fun,” Buhl says. “We all have our own sound, and you can tell immediately who it is. That’s why people dig it.” But you can’t attribute the band’s appeal solely to the pack they ran (and still run) with, either: 200 Stab Wounds prioritizes listenability. “There’s a lot of newer bands that are good but, there’s nothing identifiable about them, so I think that’s why people are attracted to us.” Buhl says. “When we’re writing we just think about the most fun riffs, the catchiest riffs, something you can hum.” That inexplicable fun factor allows them to open for bands like Soulfly and now Dark Funeral, who may not be in it for gore and breakdowns alone. According to Buhl, the band’s success is also owed to more ephemeral factors. “I’m a nut when it comes to thinking about why everything has happened the way it’s happened for us,” muses Buhl. “I really think it’s because we did this band for the right reasons. Everything fell perfectly into place in the beginning. We work our asses off, whether it be songs, touring, or even our merchandise and album art. This is our life, and I think people saw from the beginning that we were serious about this band.” That seriousness paid off with their 2021 debut album, Slave to the Scalpel, which represented a purposeful step forward from their debut. “In my opinion there’s only so much you can do with super low-IQ chugging,” Buhl says. “Obviously, there’s bands where that’s their thing and they do a good job, but we felt like if we stuck with our EP sound all the way through, we were kind of limited.” The result was an irresistible half-hour of mirth-filled mutilation in the vein of Cannibal Corpse’s earliest records, albeit with leveledup vocals and a smirking sense of humor. For proof, see single “Itty Bitty Pieces” for friendly violent fun packing sharper hooks than a Hellraiser movie. Buhl kept that evolution progressing with their latest non-album single, “Masters of Morbidity,” which displays even more sophisticated songwriting without losing touch with the band’s thrash roots, or the aforementioned fun factor. A pristine production job by Mark Lewis (Cannibal Corpse, Whitehcapel) doesn’t hurt, either. Buhl and co will return to the studio with Lewis to record an as-yet untitled sophomore PHOTO BY GENE SMIRNOV

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We work our asses off, whether it be songs, touring, or even our merchandise and album art. This is our life, and

IFROM THINK PEOPLE SAW THE BEGINNING THAT WE WERE SERIOUS ABOUT THIS BAND. Steve Buhl 200 STAB WOUNDS

album for Metal Blade Records (one of Decibel’s Top 20 Most Anticipated Albums of 2023). While details are scarce, 200 Stab Wounds have already been playing “Masters of Morbidity” and one more new cut, “Release the Stench,” live. Buhl promises more material from the new record will be played on the Decibel Tour. Regarding their upcoming tourmates, Buhl had this to say. “We all think the lineup is great. Interesting, for sure.” Regarding the genre mix, he agrees with Lord Ahriman. “We’ve learned that when you have a bill like that, where it’s all metal, but the bands all have their own distinct sound, it makes the tour that much better because it doesn’t get stagnant. Every set is something fresh for the crowd, and it keeps them excited and makes each band stand out. “That’s what makes this all worth it,” he continues. “Stepping outside the box and doing something unexpected, meeting with people that are like-minded and learning about them and learning that you probably have a lot more in common than you would have thought.”

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OVERNIGHT SENSATION When it comes to meteoric rises, however,

maybe no band on this or any other Decibel Tour has had as rapid an ascent as New York’s atmospheric black metal outfit, Blackbraid. Coincidentally we spoke to sole musician Sgah’gahsowáh on the band’s first anniversary. “It’s been exactly one year since I started Blackbraid,” Sgah’gahsowáh said on a Zoom call from the basement of his house, situated in a remote part of the Adirondack Mountains. “The first thing I did was on the 26th of January last year; I made a little YouTube channel, and I put ‘Barefoot Ghost Dance on Blood Soaked Soil’ up. That’s the day it became official.” “Barefoot Ghost Dance on Blood Soaked Soil” is the first single from Blackbraid I, a half-hour blend of folky atmospherics and brooding black metal Sgah’gahsowáh recorded in his friend and producer Neil Schneider’s basement (Schenider is credited with drums). Sgah’gahsowáh selfreleased the record that August. Blackbraid I

received an increasing flurry of attention leading up to its release and was greeted with critical acclaim, including the coveted No.4 spot on Decibel’s Top 40 Albums of 2022 list. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. Most days, it seems pretty crazy to me,” Sgah’gahsowáh says of his sudden embrace by the metal community. “For the first four-five months I was doing this, it was a constant uphill battle. I was fighting to get an interview here or there. Nobody cares when you’ve got one or two songs and no name. Even in vinyl and merch production, when you have no name, nobody wants to work with you that much. For the first half of that year, it seemed like I was always struggling to get Blackbraid to where I thought it could be.” What a difference six months and some soldout presales make. “It’s crazy how black and white it was,” he continues. “After the album was released, it was like a switch was flipped.” One person who signed on before the Blackbraid rocket reached escape velocity was Austin Lunn of USBM luminaries Panopticon. “Austin is one of the first people to really take an interest in Blackbraid. On Day One, he was there,” Sgah’gahsowáh says, pointing to the longsleeved Bindrune Records T-shirt he’s wearing during the interview. At first, Sgah’gahsowáh never intended for Blackbraid to play live. “I’ve been around music my whole life, and I know how hard it is to make it, especially in black metal. I’ve seen so many friends in small bands struggle, and I did some small runs when I was young. It sucks breaking your back and not getting anything out of it. I didn’t want to be killing myself for no reason just to be out there in a van. Lunn, whose career has taken a similar albeit longer arc, predicted he’d change his tune before anyone else. “He did a similar thing, a DIY solo project. He switched his vision at some point but insisted he would never play live for a long time. I said the same thing; I didn’t want to play live. But he was in my ear saying, ‘just wait, in six months, you’ll be playing shows.’” Six months was more like weeks after the release of Blackbraid I. The project debuted as a live unit on September 10 in California. “What changed for me was I got offers, not just for tours but for one-off shows that were profitable. I never thought anyone would actually offer me money,” he says. “At some point, I just said, ‘I’ve got to stop saying no, the offers are good, and I’d love to play with these bands. I’ve got to roll with it now.’” After deciding to make Blackbraid work live, Sgah’gahsowáh assembled a band. “I hit up my buddy Eddo in L.A., who runs a label called Night of the Palemoon that specializes in indigenous black metal.” Eddo is Eduardo Mora, whose label functions as a lynchpin for several bands, including his own projects, Mäleficentt and Ixachitlan (among others), and has released PHOTO BY A . J. K INNE Y

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YAKUZA

Supercluster | CD/LP/Digital

Severance | CD/LP/Digital

Sutra | CD/2LP/Digital

JAAW is a post-industrial supergroug featuring Andy Cairns (Therapy?), Jason Stoll (Mugstar, KLÄMP, Sex Swing), Wayne Adams (Death Pedals, Big Lad, Petbrick) and Adam Betts (Three Trapped Tigers, Goldie, Squarepusher). JAAW glories in big riffs and massive hooks, while also pushing the boundaries of what that even means thanks to its uncompromising strangeness.

Severance is the 9th release from multiinstrumentalist, compulsive creator, and unrepentant volume addict Timo Ellis (Cibo Matto, Spacehog, Yoko Ono) under the NETHERLANDS moniker. File under progressive technicolor sludge.

Svart Records unveils “Sutra”, the new album from grand master avant-garde overlords Yakuza. Like John Coltrane jamming with Napalm Death amid Voivod chords and King Crimson structures

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hard-working attitude that Lord Ahriman espouses. “We’re going to bring 110% every night. I don’t expect them to expect anything of us— but we’re ready to go.” Sgah’gahsowáh had similar glowing remarks for the remainder of the bill. “I’ve never seen Cattle Decapitation, but their fan base is almost like a cult; they’re so hardcore. What 200 Stab Wounds is doing in death metal is super impressive, too. They seem to be on a similar trajectory as us; they came out of nowhere and flipped death metal upside down.”

DEAF FOREVER Flipping the world upside-down, or at least

Nobody gets to do this as their first tour, like, ever. It’s trial by fire, but we did it to ourselves, so I’m excited.

IT’S OUR CHANCE TO PROVE OURSELVES. Sgah’gahsowáh BLACKBRAID

music by Decibel favorites Lamp of Murmuur (their second LP made our top 10 albums of 2021, and so did Panopticon, for that matter). Mora plays in the five-piece live version of Blackbraid, alongside several other indigenous musicians living in California. “Obviously, indigenous culture is intertwined with Blackbraid as well. I really wanted like-minded indigenous dudes in my lineup,” Sgah’gahsowáh says. “I need to give him credit for the live lineup, he introduced me to other guys from that scene, and we all hit it off.” Sgah’gahsowáh says Mora and his cohort’s success are indicative of a broader movement accepting indigenous culture in metal that he’s a part of. “I love to see people putting indigenous metal in the spotlight. It’s a special time for it.” He credits specific inspiration to Moro’s projects and Nechochwen, whose album Kanahawa Black also made Decibel’s Top 40 Albums of 2022. “I jumped on the train when the momentum was already going; I gotta give those guys credit. Now we see

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more people making it, but it comes from them blazing the trail for us. Seeing them prosper and how the scene is coming into its own in the U.S. is really motivating, especially Eddo. He’s doing his thing, and people are receiving it positively.” As such, the 2023 Decibel Tour represents the first time American Indigenous black metal will have on-stage exposure on a large scale in most of the country. It’s a lot of pressure for one musician, even backed up by a who’s-who of the movement, but Sgah’gahsowáh doesn’t sound intimidated by the prospect. “Right now, I’m just excited. We aren’t intimidated at all,” Sgah’gahsowáh says. “I want to make the most out of this year as I can. Nobody gets to do this as their first tour, like, ever. It’s trial by fire, but we did it to ourselves, so I’m excited. It’s our chance to prove ourselves.” “It’s our first tour, and it’s Dark Funeral; I grew up listening to Dark Funeral and never thought we’d be touring with them in a million years,” he says before echoing the same

trying to flip metal upside-down, has been one of the Decibel Tour’s operating principles for the past 11 years. That first tour in 2012 gave serious occult-minded black metal and blackened hard rock acts inroads to the still highly religious middle of America. Subsequent tours have given then-nascent movements like the current wave of old-school death metal revivalists a platform. Those two things might have seemed untenable or at least highly unlikely scant few years prior. This year’s tour is about erasing boundaries and celebrating hard work. Its four-quadrant split between black and death metal, between road dogs and young bucks, is a snapshot of where extreme metal is today and where it could still go. Scratch that—where it will need to go to keep the old flame alive. “In my generation, black metal is one thing. For the newer bands today, it’s a whole different thing,” Lord Ahriman opines about the generational divide. “When a music genre has been around for many years, of course, there’s going to be new inputs and new takes on things. The new generation has new ideas about what black metal is for them, and that’s what keeps the scene alive. This is part of the musical culture; it has to develop. That’s life.” It’s an enlightened perspective honed by his years as both admirer and survivor of the sometimes-capricious nature of trends in music. “Back then, there were a lot of hardcore people who hated new bands, and you know what, a lot of them are far from metalheads now, so maybe they feel a little insecure,” he says. “I’m part of the only generation that’s seen the entire development of metal, from blues rock to heavy metal, to now. When you have that experience, it changes your perspective; you feel a little more secure.” What secures these four bands, their different world views and disparate takes on extreme music together, is a commitment to developing that culture without sacrificing quality. “The defining factor is that all Decibel events, whether it be the fests you guys put on, or the tour packages, are always top-tier lineups,” Buhl opines. “No filler. People are always excited about that.” Cheers, Steve. We’re excited, too. P H O T O B Y W O L F M O U N TA I N P R O D U C T I O N S

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Above the Remains ENFORCED

MAY

Youthful thrashers don’t reinvent the crossover wheel, but they spin it to near perfection on album No. 3

FROM

30 YEARS AGO THIS MONTH

Tool, Undertow

Fudge Tunnel, Creep Diets

Fear Factory, Fear is the Mindkiller EP

Vince Neil, Exposed

R 8

ichmond, va is one of the greatest metal cities in the world. It may lack the historical gravitas of Birmingham or the diabolical mysticism of Trondheim, but pound for pound, band for band, this charismatic, complicated Southern ENFORCED college town has been punching above its weight since the ’90s, War Remains when GWAR and Avail ruled the roost and the Lamb of God and CENTURY MEDIA Municipal Waste boys were still in high-tops. Many of its best exports were spawned at the crossroads of thrash, punk, crust and death metal, and the upstarts in Enforced are no exception. ¶ The quintet (which features members of RVA notables Red Death and In Battle) has just come hurtling out the gate with its third album, War Remains, which is as fast and furious a belter as any hesher worth their patch vest could wish for in 2023. One could credibly peg them as Richmond’s answer to Power Trip (wrap your ears around the pummeling dominance of tracks like “The Quickening” and “Mercy Killing Fields”), but Enforced swear a stronger allegiance to classic ’80s thrash and its hardcore punk-corroded cousin, crossover.

ILLUSTRATION BY MARK RUDOLPH [MARKRUDOLPH.COM]

D E C I B E L : M AY 2 0 2 3 : 6 9

This is the band’s second full-length outing with Century Media, and while that big-label gloss certainly helped smooth out the production, it hasn’t blunted their edge. With riffs these sharp, you want to be able to hear what they’re serving up—and according to guitarist Will Wagstaff, a “non-stop, no-frills, indiscriminate ass-kicking” is on the menu. It’s a fair assessment; all 32 minutes of War Remains are pit-tested and mosher-approved. Opener “Aggressive Menace” sets the tone and breakneck tempo with an immediate burst of screaming guitar and speed metal churn, and “Hanged by My Hand” is an old-school circle pit waiting to happen, complete with a snazzy little snippet of guitar work ripped straight from one of the good Slayer albums. “Avarice” veers closer to the realm of death metal (drummer Alex Bishop steals the show with some wellplaced double bass), while the title track slows the tempo down even further, executing a brief foray into swampier territory before stomping back up to speed. There’s a pleasant amount of variety here, but the meat of the album remains the same: strong riffs, killer solos, a dominant rhythm section and hoarse, commanding vocals that are just decipherable enough to chill your blood (check out choice cuts like the murderously catchy “Nation of Fear” or shredder’s dream “UltraViolence” for a representative taste). Are they reinventing the wheel? No, but really, who asked them to try? There will always be a place for this kind of overcaffeinated, gleefully speedy, hardcore-stamped thrash aggression in our world, and with their latest album, Enforced have proven themselves to be more than qualified to carry that torch. Lace up your high-tops, tuck in your ponytail and let ’er rip. —KIM KELLY

AARA

Triade III: Nyx DEBEMUR MORTI PRODUCTIONS

Not your average black metal romcom

This Swiss outfit was founded in 2018 by vocalist Fluss (which loosely translates to “River”) and multi-instrumentalist Berg (“Mountain”) to create art highly influenced by atmospheric black metal. Sporting an epic, classical feel, their sweeping compositions aim to take the listener through the darkest alleys of the human experience. The band’s fifth full-length since 2019 is a succinctly elegant display of power and class, paring down, tightening up and culminating in an increasingly familiar aggressiveyet-graceful style. 7 0 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

Based on the 1820 gothic novel Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin, Triade III: Nyx is the fitting climax of AARA’s Triade album trilogy. As with each preceding part, AARA have delivered a suite of emotionally taut songs in which sublimated choirs, disembodied voices and otherworldly textures preserve the atmosphere while swarming, hyper-lyrical guitars and pounding jackhammer percussion provide industrial-level tensile strength. Thematically, the album draws on the last section of Maturin’s classic book. Nyx—the given name for the Greek goddess and embodiment of night—represents the end and darkness, with the protagonists’ stories finding their conclusion. It would not be unfounded to suggest connective tissue between AARA and Wolves in the Throne Room in sound, band construction and nature-forward ethos. While Triade I and II align with their Pacific Northwest brethren’s more recent output, Triade III better captures WITTR circa Black Cascade. It was wise to deliver Triade in digestible parts rather than one magnum opus, but enjoying all three back-to-back is an immersive experience that should be at the top of any 2023 black metal to-do list. —TIM MUDD

ARDENT NOVA

Ardent Nova W I S E B LO O D

It’s not reality, it’s just a fantasy

Ardent Nova got their start decades ago as Pagan Thunder. Not sure which moniker is more apropos, but progenitor Mike Pardi (Empty Throne, ex-Xasthur) has a strange amalgam of styles on lock for his debut as Ardent Nova. Imagine the uplands of Amon Amarth, the chromatic hard rock aggroisms of Children of Bodom and the (occasional) Sleipnir-like gallop of pre-Album Quorthon. This cauldron of metallic interiority has its merits. Pardi does almost everything (Ryan Gallagher handles drums) on Ardent Nova. From “Rise From the Ashes” and “Stronger Than Time” to “Chieftain” and “In Darkest Ages,” the vision, as capacious as it is, holds onto its character with remarkable deftness. Had Ardent Nova come out on some obscure Euro label in 1997, it’d all jibe with the then-universe—a more accomplished offshoot of say, the Everdawn or In Thy Dreams. That Pardi spikes moments of classic NWOSDM into his frothy björr makes absolute sense. But there’s a wish and hope that Ardent Nova didn’t simply rephrase the past here. At times, the nostalgia charms, while at others it’s a

reminder of the incapability of melodic death metal as it struggled beyond the “Gothenburg Three.” The co-production by Pardi and Gary Miranda (Draconis, Defeated Sanity) has meat on its bones, though. Unlike contemporary productions of similar stature, the drums aren’t digitized into oblivion and Pardi’s sandy growls don’t overpower his impressively cantillating guitar work. Ultimately, Pardi needs to fold in different tempos, textures and atmospheres to challenge well-established norms or face the nullity of Fatal Embrace, Behind the Scenery and other long-forgotten flybys. —CHRIS DICK

CONTRARIAN

Sage of Shekhinah W I L LOW T I P

Where’s the catch?

Chuck Schuldiner is found, spectre-like, throughout Contrarian’s Sage of Shekhinah. The latter word means “dwelling or settling of a divine presence” in Jewish scripture, and so, such reference to that particular death metal deity is apt. Contrarian—helmed by guitar prodigy Jim Tasikas—have always been beholden to Death circa Human to The Sound of Perseverance. And like the Four Horsemen of Technical Death Metal—the aforementioned Death, Atheist, Cynic and Pestilence—Contrarian’s manipulation of tempo, tone, riff and rhythmic switch is founded in pushing what this subgenre is capable of. Yet, despite the Middle Eastern slant presented here in terms of thematic and tonal scales, this Rochester, NY band still needs to master hookcraft. To argue that such songwriting catchiness is not a focus of this complex style would be ridiculous, as many examples—from Individual Thought Patterns and Nile’s Annihilation of the Wicked (“Lashed to the Slave Stick”) to Absu’s blackened thrash and Melechesh’s Mesopotamian metal on Emissaries (“Ladders to Sumeria”)—prove the contrary. So, behind the sharp shifts, ascending progressions, exotic phrasing (which makes the listener feel like they’re sprinting across a packed market in Marrakesh while Unquestionable Presence blasts), acrid shrieks and undulating basslines, there’s still an absence of sharp hooks. Some fans of guitar prodigies will overlook such issues. But for anyone schooled on the records Contrarian hold tantamount, the lack of comprehension (pun intended) when it comes to ensuring tracks lodge in listeners’ cerebellums is this band’s only hurdle to crossing over to a larger metal audience. —DEAN BROWN

DAWN RAY’D

To Know the Light PROSTHETIC

Union Jacks

Dawn Ray’d have been bucking against black metal’s conventions since 2015, but have always been adept at cherry-picking the genre’s best bits for their own purposes: feral aggression, bombast, icy melodies and raw delivery. The band’s latest effort sees them continuing along the path forged by 2019’s Behold Sedition Plainsong, but taking a markedly more melodic direction. Here, Dawn Ray’d employ the grandiosity of folk metal to tell their tales of toil and resistance, and draw on its members’ broad musical talents to build something sturdy, stylish and truly beautiful. All three pull double or triple duty here, with Simon Barr on vocals, violin and synths, guitarist Fabian Devlin jumping in on backing vocals, and drummer Matthew Broadley adding piano and harmonium. Those sonorous clean vocals from Barr and Devlin mark some of the album’s most compelling moments, like the breathtaking a cappella harmonies “Requital” and the deceptively lovely “Freedom in Retrograde”—lyrics like “fuck every prison and fuck the bastards that put us in them” have never sounded prettier. The homegrown folk traditions of Northern England, with its wild moors, centuries of worker struggle and post-industrial rot, are alive in songs like the frosty, contemplative “Ancient Light” and fierce album opener “The Battle of Sudden Flame,” which marry those lilting traditional melodies with black metal’s harsh urgency. (Imagine if a Hammerheart-era Quorthon had started volunteering for his local anarchist infoshop, joined a union, then gone back in time to write the soundtrack for the original Wicker Man—that’s the vibe). This is folk metal at its best and most true: metal for the people, those who have lived, worked, and died together under the same system and the same boots, and still managed to create art, music, community and rebellion in the hope of building a better world. —KIM KELLY

DEATHGRAVE

It’s Only Midnight TA N K C R I M E S

Got the time

Greg Wilkinson might have the best CV in metal right now. He of the immaculately maintained Piccadilly weepers (look it up) is a founder of sludgemongers Brainoil, the sole member of the apocalyptic Leather Glove, Chris Reifert’s partner-in-grime in Static Abyss and the resident bass-slapper in motherfucking Autopsy. If that wasn’t enough to seal the deal, Wilkinson is also

the guitarist for Deathgrave, who last burst our eardrums with 2018’s sardonic So Real, It’s Now. Five years later, the San Jose deathgrinders are back with It’s Only Midnight, another twisted mass of charred riffage and gallows humor. It’s bleak and funny and gross, and it absolutely rips. Wilkinson’s ongoing alliance with Reifert makes a lot of sense when you listen to Deathgrave. It’s Only Midnight is built out of the same basic components as Autopsy’s singular death metal. You’ve got your loose, punkish fast parts and your doomy, groovy slow parts. Autopsy lean a little harder into the latter, while Deathgrave by far favor the former. The best songs on It’s Only Midnight dole out a heaping helping of both. “Tony’s Deli” thrashes violently through its first verse before handing the song off to Fern Alberts, who brings things down to a menacing crawl with her simple, stalking bass lick. That’s followed by “Sewer Runs Through Her,” a disgusting little number that nestles a skulking death-doom passage in the middle of a 90-second hardcore workout. If It’s Only Midnight has a flaw, it’s the way Deathgrave’s tried-and-true formula renders the songs a little bit interchangeable. But you probably aren’t listening to “On All Fours” and “Atomic Narcotic Withdrawal” to hear something you’ve never heard before. You’re listening to get your head ripped off, and Deathgrave are more than happy to oblige. —BRAD SANDERS

DEEP CROSS

Royal Water

ROMAN NUMERALS

Dayglo Carpathian angst

I mean, I know that Janus is the Roman deity presiding over (literally) doorways and (metaphorically) transitions through life. And there could be a handful of other possible interpretations or intentions that might infuse the title of Royal Water’s opening track, “For Janus.” But my ’80s-broken brain wanted it to be for Janosz Poha, that art museum bigwig turned Vigo-possessed antagonist portrayed so comically by Peter MacNicol in Ghostbusters II. Unfortunately—for the Austin, TX duo Deep Cross, if not for this particular nostalgic side trip—the song would actually be a perfect soundtrack for a demondamned afterhours gallery mixer led by Poha while floods of neon slime drown the streets in negative emotion. The pair’s promo materials tout their music as “experimental post-punk/industrial,” and the only adjective missing from that description is “awesome.” Royal Water is short—only five songs across less than 30 minutes—but the tracks here are succinct packages of narcotic grooves, propul-

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sive riffing, sweet and salty tonal emanations, melodic vocal lines that are suitably despondent (yet can rise to scalding screams when necessary), and a bass throughline that wraps around everything and squeezes so blissfully, so ungently. You could easily treat these tracks as a palate cleanser between more metallic barnburners, but dismissing the musical and emotional depth here so blithely would be a mistake. Deep Cross never sound much like Junius or Thief or Cremation Lily, but I’d be surprised if these guys’ record collections and gear choices don’t overlap somewhat. And when things get heavy, it’s hard not to hear Justin Broadrick egging them on from the wings. Let’s throw this band some money and encourage them to drop a ton more like this on us. —DANIEL LAKE

DOWNFALL OF GAIA

Silhouettes of Disgust M E TA L B L A D E

A time of changes

Since 2008, this German/ New York combo has straddled black metal, delicately dour post-rock, and alternating layers of crusty D-beats and body-hammering sludge. And normally, the only people miffed at their nonlinearity were black metal’s Warriors of the Keyboard™; the same folks who get pissed on days the wind doesn’t blow directly from the north and accuse meteorologists of not being “trve.” People with busy schedules and short attention spans may have been similarly pissed at previous album, 2019’s Ethic of Radical Finitude, as many of its tracks tinkered with song lengths in the neighborhood of seven to 10 minutes. On the positive side, it demonstrated Downfall of Gaia’s proficient, progressive tendencies. Silhouettes of Disgust takes all of the above and wraps it around the fallacy of mankind to create an album brimming in abrupt, jagged shifts based on the overarching theme that we’re killing ourselves quicker than the world can get the job done. As politics, stress, depression, anxiety, isolation, microscopic viruses, guns and tribalism are rattling our constitutions, tracks like “Existence of Awe” slingshot between punky blasts and atmospheric Neurosis/Jarboe collaborations; “The Whir of Flies” sounds like the Helvete shop on the business end of a bungee cord, with Nergal experimenting with anthemic post-metal comprising the violent recoil; “Bodies as Driftwood” and “Unredeemable” sound like a tour bus shared by Tragedy and Tombs being T-boned by an Explosions in the Sky-piloted Pinto; and so on and so forth. With songs clocking in at more economical and manageable lengths, there’s less space 7 2 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

for dynamic stretching, which directs tighter, more claustrophobic transitions that make this band’s sixth full-length a jarring and abrupt— but immersive and atmospheric—listen. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

END FOREST

E.N.D.

NIKT NIC NIE WIE

It’s coming

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Dave Ed from Neurosis and a dozen or so Polish musicians walk into a bar. Oh, and also Danbert Nobacon from Chumbawamba. And there’s no bar, because this all happened remotely during those months of widespread COVID-19 shutdowns in 2020 and 2021. Sorry, I’ll start over… What? You haven’t heard this one before? That’s great! Neither have I, and it’s worth hearing. In an era when it feels like every metal release is some version of death metal, black metal, doom metal or a celebration of the vintage hard rock that’s at the root of all this madness, E.N.D. sounds more like those willfully genreless heavy records whose heyday existed in self-contained fits from the late-’80s until the early-to-mid-’00s, when some pioneering hardcore guys slowed their shit down, snarling it with art rock tendencies and enough genuine wit and passion to stand out from the heavierthan-thou crowd. Early cut “Prophecy” crackles with the same East Asian chaos energy as Goninish’s Naishikyo-Sekai, sans piano but avec woodwinds and sitar. Name-dropping the Neurosis bassist/vocalist at the top of the review was no accident, either; aside from the fact that his monstrous voice punches out of the Siekiera cover track “Atak,” the tribal-industrial approach to drumming and the stone-grinding chord shapes from the guitars evoke the California band’s mid-period pretty flawlessly, to the point that the noisy admonitions of “Las nadchodzi” feel ripped right out of the 2003 Jarboe collaboration. A lot of music tries to sound this immediate, unhinged and poignant, but only manages to pigeonhole itself without shaping any particular identity. E.N.D. has an agenda, speaks its truth and kicks ass while doing so. —DANIEL LAKE

ENSLAVED

Heimdal

NUCLEAR BLAST

Summon the motherfucking Bifrost

To see the future, sometimes it’s necessary to look to the past. Still odd that

a band started 30-some years ago, inspired by sounds from 20 years before that (and mythology formed millennia prior), would be one of the most forward-thinking bands in extreme metal. And yet, Enslaved. Heimdal, album number 16 in their Nordic pantheon, takes its name from a god who possessed senses so keen he could even see events to come. Appropriate. The Caravans to the Outer Worlds EP presaged this progressive masterpiece. That title track is here and remains one of their finest compositions—unhinged psychedelic black metal madness. While it’s the highlight of the record, it’s not because the other songs slouch. Drop the needle anywhere in this conceptual piece of Norse mythology fan fiction and you’ll find something exciting: the Rebel Wizard/Thy Catalfaque nightmare vortices in “Kingdom”; the pulsating electronics lurking under “The Eternal Sea”; days of future pastoral vibes in “Forest Dweller.” There’s even some black metal! Check out “Congelia” if you’re looking for a raging Viking party. While the individual songs stand out as their own distinct pieces upon first listen, this is also one of those records that reveals itself more the further you expose your ears to it—a rare feat in any day or age. Have Enslaved crafted their greatest triumph three decades into an already illustrious career? Only a being with preternatural foresight knows for sure. They may top it yet. —JEFF TREPPEL

FANGE

Privation T H R O AT R U I N E R

The upward spiral

Fange have been incredibly prolific these last few years, putting out two full-lengths and two meaty EPs since 2019. While usually this kind of output means a band is returning to the same well again and again, the French three-piece has been pushing itself with each record. On this new LP, Privation, they’ve gone even further with their most ambitious and impressive album, even if it does come with a few missteps. Previously death-sludge merchants, their switch to a drum machine in 2020 helped make them a full-on industrial band, which they’ve now fully embraced. They haven’t strayed so far to keep this from being a shrieking, harsh, brutal set of noise-drenched songs, but this is richer and more dynamic, with a much greater focus on both clean and heavy guitar hooks. Their utilization of symphonics allows them to explore much more melodic territory, sometimes bordering on prog metal. It usually works, though this is also where they go a bit far.

The aforementioned missteps are the two big swings the band takes with guest vocalists Cédric Toufouti and Cindy Sanchez. Both are excellent singers, but the approach on their respective tracks does push the band a little too far into that proggy direction, which feels too at odds with the rest of the album. It’s a valiant effort; it just doesn’t quite work. But these guys are making omelets and breaking eggs. Privation is yet another recent example of Fange taking risks and letting everyone else reap the rewards. —SHANE MEHLING

FIRES IN THE DISTANCE

Air Not Meant for Us PROSTHETIC

Orchestral maneuvers in the dark

You know when you’re walking through the graveyard, longingly lamenting the tragic demise of your inamorato/a (or some other equally miserable occasion), and all of a sudden an orchestra appears out of the mist to greatly amplify the expression of your sorrows? I’m sure everyone’s gone through something similar, and that’s what the surprising first spin of Fires in the Distance’s second album feels like. Okay, it’s not like Echoes From Deep November, their very well-received debut from 2020, didn’t already have grandiose ambitions of some sort, what with the weepy keyboards and that typically wide, crushing doooom sound that luminaries of old such as Novembers Doom helped perfect back in the day. But from a relatively workmanlike, yet effective, combination of synths, slow fat riffs and a tight production, the scope of the Connecticut band has undergone a massive upgrade, with this very ambitious live viola, violin, cello and piano ensemble turning them into something quite different. Randy Slaugh, who has previously worked with very undoomy people like Devin Townsend, Periphery and TesseracT, was the chosen collaborator to bring their new vision to fruition, and in sonic terms, at least, the end result is staggering. The songs themselves are solid, offering plenty of dynamics—complex and layered, but never overwhelmingly so—and they hold up well the monumental structure used to perform them. In the end, it all depends on what you want from a doom album, really—while necessarily losing some of the more emotional, intimately mournful appeal of their debut with this bold step, Fires In the Distance now offer a more theatrical, operatic, great tragedy kind of opus, with six colossal songs standing as pillars of a once epic, forgotten age. —JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS

FROZEN CROWN

Call of the North SCARLET

Here I go again on my own

I’ve listened to a lot of symphonic metal. I even used to have an entire column in this magazine with, in hindsight, a not-particularly-enlightened name that covered the latest operatic opuses made by musicians with frilly shirts and even frillier hair. They all sounded basically the same. Honestly, I’m not sure if anybody else is even interested in this style of bombastic pageantry anymore. Frozen Crown formed in 2017, well after the genre’s expiration date, so I went into Call of the North hoping they had a fresh take on the genre. Spoiler: nope. If you told me this came out on Napalm in 2004 alongside Elis and Visions of Atlantis, I’d believe you. So, whatever, we’ve given nines to new bands that sound like Cannibal Corpse meets Cannibal Corpse. This stuff lives and dies by its hooks. Singer/guitarist/songwriter Federico Mondelli just doesn’t have the chops of a Tuomas Holopainen or a Mark Jansen. He fares best when going for the more power metal end of things, like when he calls for freedom on “Victorious” and unleashes the archers on “In a Moment.” Unfortunately, the more symphonic entries just don’t hit the Nightwish/ Epica extremes they need to succeed, leaving the listener cold. It’s the Italian five-piece’s fourth album, so they definitely have the sound down at this point. It’s just not a particularly interesting sound anymore. Nothing offensive here; just nothing worth heeding the call of any cardinal direction, least of all one that’s gonna lead you to frostbite or polar bears. —JEFF TREPPEL

GRAVE PLEASURES 6 Plagueboys

CENTURY MEDIA

Semi-known pleasures

You might have noticed that goth rock and post-punk are having a moment—ask one of the people who mortgaged their house to afford Sisters of Mercy reunion tickets. The Black Nail Polish revival isn’t just a nostalgia train, either—newer bands like Boy Harsher and Drab Majesty are likewise trying to occupy the middle ground between “Black No. 1” and “Black Celebration.” Add Finland’s Grave Pleasures to that list. Grave Pleasures have both black metal credibility and a palpable sense of menace, featuring members of Oranssi Pazuzu and vocalist Mat McNerny, formerly of [Code] and Dødheimsgard. McNerny is their ace in the hole; he can move D E C I B E L : M AY 2 0 2 3 : 7 3

the needle the way his audible influences Glenn Danzig and Ian Curtis once could. When they fixate on his charisma and their metallic drive, they’re at their best, as on 2017’s Motherblood and 2013’s Climax, the sole album by their former incarnation, Beastmilk. What makes Grave Pleasures unique also gives them trouble—they’re too heavy for some post-punkers and too delicate for some black metallers. On Plagueboys, they pick a lane and lean away from their heaviest instincts. Songs like “High on Annihilation” and “Imminent Collapse” come across like Oranssi Pazuzu’s most psychedelic moments looped into Public Image Ltd tributes. McNerny still charges the material, but he mainly operates in his upper register, which doesn’t sound like his comfort zone. When Grave Pleasures lock in, as they do on the excellent “Heart Like a Slaughterhouse” and “Conspiracy of Love,” they’re still the best band in this intersection. The other half of Plagueboys feels transitional and a little incomplete. Maybe they’ll master their lighter, brighter side in due time. Until then, there are always overpriced reunions. —JOSEPH SCHAFER

MORK

Dypet

PEACEVILLE

This is just a tribute, you gotta believe it

Norway’s Mork has been an intriguing band to watch over the past few years—though mainman Thomas Eriksen has been at it with this project since 2004, it was 2017’s Eremittens Dal, whose cruel riffing and heavy atmospheres landed the record on my Album of the Year list, that convinced me, hey, this band might be onto something good. Obsessed with the old ways and deeply researched (in part due to Eriksen’s prolific black metal podcast), Mork exists as a paean to black metal’s past just as much as the project brings the old ways to the future with a twist of tasteful modernity. On Dypet, the band’s sixth album, Eriksen definitely dials the coldness meter up a few notches. Like standing in front of the open freezer on an impossibly hot day, Dypet’s frigidity is refreshing, a respite from newer black metal’s moving away from Blashyrkhian landscapes in favor of emotions and evilness. Mork is, for all intents and purposes, a cold band, one that looks to the

GATEKEEPER, From Western Shores

Hockey gloves of metal | C R U Z D E L S U R

Time flies when the world is having a collective existential crisis. The careers of so many underground bands were delayed by the pandemic—they’re regular working folks just like you and me—that Metal Archives is now loaded with band discographies that have a familiar three-to-five-year gap between the Before Times and the present day. We’ve all been in such a brain fog that when a great band like Vancouver’s Gatekeeper re-emerges with new music, the

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first thought that comes to mind is, has it really been five years? A lot has happened in the Gatekeeperverse since 2018’s superb debut East of Sun. First, lead guitarist Adam Bergen replaced Kenny Kroecher back in 2019, and most crucially, formidable frontman Jean-Pierre Abboud stepped down as lead singer. Thankfully, bandleader/songwriter/ rhythm guitarist Jeff Black brought in one Tyler “Tex” Anderson, singer for Okanagan epic metalers Odinfist, and on the excellent new

mountains and fjords in a classical sense (for black metal), and Dypet’s preoccupation with Norwegian weather brings about archetypical black metal—crisp, powerful and menacing, but with a passion for the old days that simply wasn’t around yet back when. Eriksen’s black metal obsession is admirable and relatable, but the issue with this album isn’t its passion, nor is it the painstaking research—it’s the execution. Mork as a unit is a tribute, which is its ultimate downfall—why listen to a new album in an old style when you can listen to the older album instead? This is what holds Dypet back from getting a bigger score here. Don’t get me wrong— this is a great album. But catch me listening to all the same albums Eriksen was listening to when he made this album, too. —JON ROSENTHAL

NE OBLIVISCARIS

Exul

SEASON OF MIST

Hanging in the balance

Apologies to band founder, vocalist and artwork creator Xenoyr, but Ne Obliviscaris’ art has been a

album From Western Shores, he proves to be a marvelous hire. Possessing a gritty tenor voice that bears a remarkable resemblance to Metal Church’s late, great Mike Howe, Anderson brings not only extremely impressive vocal range, but the kind of command and charisma Black’s swashbuckling compositions demand. The rousing title track kicks off the record in majestic, galloping fashion, but it’s on the album’s two centerpieces, “Exiled Kings” and “Keepers of the Gate” (get it?), where the new guy proves his worth. Too many years might have passed between albums, but Black and Gatekeeper have not lost a step. In fact, they’re getting better. —ADRIEN BEGRAND

consistent stream of digital horrors, and the band clearly deserves something more than what looks like an AI-generated “knights, horses, Greek muses” pile-up. On the other hand, it is ironically a faithful representation of most of their music so far, and hey, if Meshuggah can survive similar visual atrocities, why shouldn’t they? What a strange thing to be bitching about for almost a third of the review, isn’t it? Well, yes, but looks do count, and the thing is, you already have an opinion on Ne Obliviscaris after three albums and two EPs in the last 10 years, and even if Exul took longer than usual to be crafted, it’s not such a drastic change to their everything-plus-a-couple-of-kitchen-sinks maximalist approach. If you somehow found genius in the jumbled mix of tech-death, proggy meanderings, neoclassicisms and whatever else they’ve thrown together, you’ll go crazy for Exul. But if you didn’t, you probably won’t again. Do give it a chance, though. It is still, by normal standards, a wild collection of incompatible building blocks, but this time the final result feels like it was an adult, rather than a four-year-old left alone for a month with two buckets of random Lego pieces. Straight from opener “Equus”—by far their best song ever, Deadsoul Tribe-ish vibes and all (isn’t the intro totally “A Flight on an Angel’s Wing”?)—Exul flows much more seamlessly than before. Many of the gutturals and clicky blast beats still grate and feel mostly out of place, but the sheer beauty of the cleanly sung, violin-led passages and other lush orchestral parts balances things out enough to actually produce an overall enjoyable listen. Even for Ne Obliviskeptics. —JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS

NETHERLANDS

SEVERANCE S VA R T

Don’t blame the Dutch

Some albums are built around a bunch of disparate ideas, where you’re never sure what the next song will sound like. NYC’s Netherlands aren’t quite that bananas, and the majority of their ninth (!) release tends to orbit loosely around sludge rock. But there are plenty of digressions, and often not for the better. The album is bookended well. Opener “Siccaravallo” sets an impressive tone of lumbering, screaming, down-tuned jamming that would please Harvey Milk (the band), while closer “Celia’s Mansion” is a rattling Soundgarden homage that’s surprisingly effective and the best thing on here. Everything in between, though, is dicier. 7 6 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

These are cool, heavy experiments mixed with mediocre songwriting and outright terrible ideas. The Helmet riff on “Goons” gets beaten into the ground, going nowhere. “Silencio” is a funky lounge track that’s as enjoyable as any funky lounge track. “Omisha” pulls out another catchy, early-’90s post-hardcore riff but then there’s also rapping, and not in the radical Judgment Night soundtrack way. The music is actually more reliable than the vocals, which are exhaustingly all over the place. Sticking with a handful of the best styles would have been far preferable to including everything, no matter how grating. Netherlands is the brainchild of Timo Ellis, an incredibly accomplished and prolific artist. SEVERANCE feels like some of his latest inspirations that were rattling around his brain and thrown onto tape. That is admirable, and maybe some of us are even a little jealous, but it’s just not very good. —SHANE MEHLING

NIGHT GOAT

Totem

BLACK DONUT

You can make my underworld

Ohio’s hesher Hall of Fame—femme entrance—hails notable Buckeye toughs the Deal twins, Doris Day and Chrissie Hynde. Leading Canton death-rock outfit Night Goat, frontwoman Julia Bentley smears some bodily fluids onto said engraved marble wall, drawing focus for a bloody raw-throat and rabid delivery. At key pressure points, she also dips into a monotonic approach reminiscent of Donita Sparks. Back in the before times of 2019, said she-goat and her herd—hubbie Chris Bentley (guitar, vocals), Dalin Jones (bass, vocals), Mike Ramone (guitar) and Donnie Casey (drums)—poured debut Milk, a feral splat of lo-fi cawing, metallic garage punk and redline sonics. Sophomore swipe Totem dials in thicker production, particularly on the singer’s possessed intonations. Oregonian imprint Black Donut featured the group on both its Samhain tribute and another on the Melvins, from whose immortal Houdini Night Goat leased its moniker. “Sister Wolf” bares a sharp, gnarly, ’80s hair metal riff as Mrs. Bentley snarls and barks, and the band lays in like Mick Mars on a bender. “Ghost Sickness” revisits the same decade, its gothic hairspray more Robert Smith than Nikki Sixx, the vocal outburst then pitting the frontwoman against the group, a call and response of the damned that curdles those aforementioned fluids and raises follicles. Waxing by Wax Trax!

“Wendigo” invokes the state’s singular shot across the bow when it screams “cannonball,” the Bentleys thickening, sickening their veneer of midwestern industrial madness. The flipside bites, too (“Rattlesnake”), as all that Night Goat extract begins coating your eyes, ear and nostrils (“Rituals of Antlers”). The Teutonic Twin Peaks march ‘n’ stomp of “Skin Walk With Me” sticks the landing. —RAOUL HERNANDEZ

OVERKILL

Scorched

NUCLEAR BLAST

Mind over matter

Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth might be the most metal name in the world. Just like the birth name Peyton Manning guarantees you should be throwing touchdowns or the name Crighton Dallas Wilton sounds like a remorseless killer, Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth is a metal birthright. Blitz has delivered: he’s been cracking skulls with Overkill since 1980 and even powered past a stroke more than two decades ago. At a time when his peers traffic in nostalgia, Blitz is making new albums and touring. This is completely badass. Scorched is Overkill’s 20th album, meaning Overkill are catching up with the profligate songwriting Beach Boys (29 albums). Scorched is both eminently listenable and instantly forgettable all at once. This, mind you, is a compliment. Does anyone expect a metal band on their 20th album to make something lifeor genre-changing? Of course not (although Napalm Death did it on their 16th album in 2020). Just delivering quality albums at this stage is a huge accomplishment. There is much to admire here from a band four-plus decades in—the energy is consistent and fierce, Ellsworth sounds fucking great at 60-plus, and Dave Linsk and Derek Tailer are formidable and fluid guitarists. “The Surgeon” is a classic Overkill thrash banger and Blitz stretches his voice on “Fever.” The songs are a touch long and some things don’t work, but when the band gets rolling, it’s fun and frenetic. The only drawback is that this is the 20th album from a band that delivered the genre staples Feel the Fire, Under the Influence and Horrorscope, and one of the iconic thrash songs (“Hello From the Gutter.”) Overkill have become a polished thrash machine in the ensuing years, but those early, imperfect rippers will never be matched. This is OK. Let Blitz and friends keep making albums as long as they want—there is fire and fury aplenty, and that will suffice. —JUSTIN M. NORTON

SMALLPOX AROMA 8 Festering Embryos of Logical Corruption I N H U M A N A S S A U LT

Goredick and friends dicking around with goregrind

Let’s just say there’s not a lot of pregame hope when you stumble across a band called Smallpox Aroma, with members sporting the aliases “Goredick” (née Polwach Beokhaimook, drums) and “Septictanklavatory” (née Apirak Treesuksakul, guitar) and a decade-and-a-half-long gore/ pornogrind history. That subgenre’s stagnation (not to mention the progression of good taste and common sense) has made a once-humorous offshoot passé and hardly worth the crusty sock it was blasted off into. “Some people don’t grow up, they just get taller,” a wise man once said, and despite their reluctance to lose the pseudonyms they’ve been using since forming in 2006, the dudes of this Bangkok’s three-piece have certainly matured. Maybe not into fully-formed, monocle-wearing, spats ‘n’ top hats gentlemen—song titles include “Quest for the Missing Head” and “Eleven Corpses Disentombed”—but this collection of 13 ridiculously crushing 90-second windows has bookishly studied at the altar of Rotten Sound, early Napalm Death, old Exhumed, Cretin, Insect Warfare, Discordance Axis and Wormrot. Beokhaimook larrups his pingy, Japanese slam-sounding snare like Frank Mullen’s caffeinated hand wielding a ball-peen hammer, while Treesuksakul summons the spirit of Mieszko Talarczyk to pummel his instrument like fists going through eye sockets. The comparative gentility of bassist/vocalist Pratchaya Chaichana’s nickname (L.S., a.k.a. Laughing Skull) is betrayed by his ferocious growl and scathing roar, which powers the masticated mosh of “Into the Realm of Nothingness,” the pugilistic mathematics of “Oh My Sweet Gruesome Scarecrow” and the coruscating staccato of “Inherited Ritual of Savagery.” And it’s all done without a “Suppurative Scrotum Steak Served With Phlegm Sauce and Cream of Leucorrhoea” in sight. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

SUNROT

The Unfailing Rope PROSTHETIC

Here comes the sun and I say it’s all rot

The fact that The Unfailing Rope was recorded and re-recorded a total of three times before alighting on its final expression could’ve resulted in a stiff, overworked and self-conscious affair. Thankfully, Sunrot’s (mis) trials ‘n’ tribulations have resulted in a carefully

SPIRIT POSSESSION, Of the Sign…

I cast thee back to hell | P R O F O U N D L O R E

Here’s a black metal duo that has the chaos engine all fired up with a full tank of gas to burn. Anyone who had the Portland, OR duo’s self-titled debut from 2020 haunting their turntable will know what to expect—there’s a free-jazz sensibility and raw, squirrelly energy about this style of black metal, like it’s just gone day six of a seven-day ritual and the base amphetamine is enough to keep you wired, but not awake. In such states, with such records, the mind plays tricks on you. You see things. You hear things. Of the Sign… is hardly progressive in a musical sense, but it is complex in its own way, all fizzy crunchy textures and malice. Riffs by the dozen tear out of the speaker, implode and disappear, only for something even more bonkers to appear in their stead. Tracks such as “Inhale the Hovering

Keys” sound like they were once four or five animalistic black metal tracks that all got scrunched up by time itself, or fused together like they were all trapped in Seth Brundle’s telepod. The musicians behind Spirit Possession, Steve Peacock (guitars/bass/vox) and Ashley Spungin (drums/synths), have a long rap sheet for taking black metal into pastures abstract, letting it sup from the peyote, then turning it loose—well, Peacock in particular, whose credits include Ulthar, the wholly improvisational Pandiscordian Necrogenesis and all kinds of what-the-fuckery with solo project Mastery. When you have plateaued out on the diminishing marginal returns of thirdgeneration second-wave black metal, when all else feels too safe, this tornado of the attention span and unresolvable musical ideas will restore the faith. —JONATHAN HORSLEY

wrought—but no less acerbic—record that manages to make subtle improvements to essentially every aspect of the band’s exceptionally good 2017 debut without stooping to any wild derivations or artistic Hail Marys. The band’s sound is as deceptively simple as ever. Sunrot remain nestled in the province of classic Neurosis (Enemy of the Sun) alloyed with majestic allusions to early Cult of Luna. Sure, its roots are captain-obvious, but The Unfailing Rope balances hostility with hooks, stifling tension and wild-eyed zealotry so skillfully that it can square off comfortably against its muses. This isn’t a mimeograph. In comparison to the band’s debut, the production’s a bit denser and has a greater sense of contour. The heavily gated snare tone remains (a quality I generally despise), but here it imbues

the band with an intriguing, slightly mechanistic hue, giving an otherwise atavistic exploit a dour whiff of futurism. And despite three of its tracks treading well beyond the six-minute mark, The Unfailing Rope clocks in at roughly 20 minutes less than its predecessor, affording it a welcome sense of brevity. The result is an album that’s balanced, intense, memorable and just concise enough to have the listener jonesing for another dose immediately at its conclusion. If the record’s penultimate track didn’t devolve at its midpoint to a relatively underwhelming trudge, I’d be hard-pressed to pinpoint any meaningful flaws. Regardless, this represents a serious coup for Prosthetic and a massive achievement from a still young, but extraordinary band. —FORREST PITTS D E C I B E L : M AY 2 0 2 3 : 7 7

TRIBULATION

Hamartia

CENTURY MEDIA

Flawed, but by no means fatal

It came as a surprise when Tribulation co-founder Jonathan Hultén announced his departure from the band in 2020. The Swedish metal group, which formed in 2005, had recently completed recording sessions for 2021’s Where the Gloom Becomes Sound and mindbending three-part opus “The Dhampir” (which was released as a digital single last year). By the band’s own account, they weren’t sure if they’d continue. But Tribulation were no strangers to reinvention; just look at their evolution from their early days as death metal darlings to the formidable occult rock exploration they introduced on 2015’s The Children of the Night. While Hultén’s presence is missed, Tribulation’s new four-song EP, Harmania—their first with new guitarist Joseph Tholl—suggests a change in lineup can’t keep them down for long. The three original songs each explore a different path, yet seamlessly fit together. The hook-driven title track drips with venom and swagger, while the slow-burning macabre waltz of “Hemoclysm” could curdle blood. And if there were any questions about whether Tholl could hold his own, his guitar interplay with Adam Zaars on “Axis Mundi” could make any naysayers bite their tongue. The EP concludes with a cover of “Vengeance (The Pact),” Blue Öyster Cult’s ode to Taarna, the bikini-clad, giant-bird-riding warrior princess of Ivan Reitman’s 1981 animated cult classic Heavy Metal. Tribulation’s take is true enough to the original that I felt compelled to bust out Fire of Unknown Origin when it was over, but there’s no doubt that it could fit well into their live set— especially at the tail end of a sweaty, adrenalinefueled night of metallic indulgence. Whatever tribulations Tribulation have been through in recent years, Hamania shows they’ve come back to the table refreshed. —JAMIE LUDWIG

UNTO OTHERS

Strength II… Deep Cuts

LO N E F I R / E I S E N WA L D / ROADRUNNER

Extra strength

Strength II… Deep Cuts is what happens when band and label can’t agree on the contents of a release. We’re not taking sides here, but according to Unto Others, they envisioned their 2021 release Strength as a double album. Their label, not so much. Which is understandable because of the 7 8 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

extra costs involved. The compromise is that at least some of the songs the Portland outfit was hoping to include on that album are made available on this six-song release. The tunes on Strength II were recorded with Arthur Rizk, and sonically, with the exception of the last two (“Change of Heart” and “When the Hammer Strikes”), which were tracked using different guitars and amps, featured new drum recordings and didn’t have in-depth mixing treatment, they generally have the same feel as the material on Strength. If you dug that album’s seamless blending of ’80s goth and trad-leaning metal, you’ll get more of the same here, as well as a cover of Scorpions’ “Passion Rules the Game,” which sounds like it was written specifically for UO to cover 34 years later. Though these tunes didn’t make the cut for Strength, they don’t feel like a step down in terms of quality. It’s obvious why the band wouldn’t want them to languish on a hard drive unheard by the public. Fans of the band, with this material in hand, can make their own “Full Strength” playlist and perhaps try to imagine where the band might have included this material had Strength, in fact, been a double LP. —ADEM TEPEDELEN

VERMINOTH

Grotesque Manifestation GRAND VOMIT PRODUCTIONS

The time to kill is soon

This pandemic-belched death metal band didn’t display much in terms of standout features on their 2021 full-length debut Primordial Tomb. Repetitious, heard-before riff patterns cycled alongside growled vocals that aped the guitar shred, providing nothing more than a putrid punctuation mark to the solid musicianship. New EP Grotesque Manifestation hardly displays a Butchered at Birth to Kill progression in terms of evolution. (Though to expect such massive stylistic leaps from a young DM band at this stage of their existence would be folly.) However, here and there are small improvements in terms of sharpness and push-and-pull tension between guitarists Zach Nace and Jeff Kormos, particularly evident as the skullfuckery of “Malignant Gestation” unfolds in gruesome B-movie glory. In addition, vocalist Bobby Yagodich has definitely upped his game to match the tourniquet-tight rhythmic abuse (courtesy of bassist Brent Leinheiser and drummer Mark Bixler), heard best on track three of four, “Communication of Resurrected Matter.” Yagodich is definitely born of the brutal subsect of death metal—there had to be meaty

flecks of internal organs bouncing off the microphone during these recording sessions. Yet the dude has character and enunciation skills that, with further refinement (as hinted at on the slamboree of syncopations during the title track closer), could help put this band on the newschool level of acclaim that has landed in the laps of Decibel faves such as Undeath or 200 Stab Wounds. The potential of this Pennsylvanian band is surely almost at its crest. It’ll just take one more refined murder spree to establish the dominance required to stand shoulder to bloody shoulder with today’s contemporary leaders. —DEAN BROWN

VORNA

Aamunkoi LIFEFORCE

Northern exposure

The Aurora Borealis are captivating. When I first saw the atmospheric phenomena some years ago, I immediately thought, “In a time when all you had was your mind, belongings and fellow travelers, how would you interpret this: Spirits? Heavens? God?” Finland’s Vorna rise from a fouryear slumber to deliver a record that embodies the awakening that occurs when a person experiences something as otherworldly as this and attempts to express it in mortal terms. Aamunkoi translates to “Aurora” in English, which is analogous to “The Dawn.” The group’s fourth full-length—and sophomore release for Lifeforce—picks up where 2019’s excellent Sateet Palata Saavat left us: a majestic metal suite that features symphonic and folk accents. From the outset, emotional incantations cast a spell contrasting forward attacks and a fragile atmosphere with aggressive-yet-somber riff work. Like its predecessor, Aamunkoi showcases various songwriting elements, from sparse introspective motifs to the kinetic claustrophobia of death metal shimmering beneath nine tracks of melodeath growls and earnest clean vocals. The result is a tidal listening experience that— much like the Northern Lights—builds, fades, then builds again over the record’s 44 minutes into the climactic closing title track. And then it’s gone. The album’s central theme is survival in the uncertain world where those who witness a new day have a chance to strive for a better future while they still can. Melancholic and sublime, you will dig this journey if you’re a fan of Insomnium, Wintersun, Kalmah, Thyrfing and Whispered. And, if you’re searching for a reflective space with room for triumph and heartache, this could be your new soundtrack. —TIM MUDD

Omen Stones Omen Stones The Trucker’s Hitch demonstrates that not only does the knot community know punctuation, but they know what’s what when it comes to “securing loads or tarpaulins.” Conversely, Richmond’s Omen Stones know what’s what when it comes to writing doomy punky stoner sludge that sounds like bunches of truckers scrapping in a parking lot using trailer hitches as weapons.

I never did Boy Scouts as a kid, but a couple years ago I came across a copy of a zine called Walls of Confinement in which someone related various knots to various bands. Seeing as I know sweet FA about knots (I can barely tie my shoelaces!) and many of you have gone on record saying I know sweet FA about metal, I figured it was high time to do some learnin’ all around. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

Crown of Madness Elemental Blinding According to the knot-obsessed website animatedknots. com, the Blood Knot is a staple of the fly fishing scene, and one of the best for combining two similar-sized lines. This joined-at-the-hip duo hails from waterlogged, fishfriendly Port Coquitlam, BC, and demonstrates a melodic manifestation of said knot by combining Behemoth and Rotting Christ with Gorguts and Ulcerate into an abstruse sonic combination.

Hellevate The Purpose Is Cruelty This Kansas City bunch has taken lessons from thrash metal’s sometimes overlooked masters in the execution of this absolutely brain/barnstorming brilliance. Cues are taken from early Heathen, Vio-lence, Onslaught, Holy Terror and Exodus’ guitar tone to create meaty heaviness and laserfocused precision. The choice, therefore, is obvious: the Two-Handed Surgical Tie.

Lacerated The Vile Domain No one seems to know who Matthew Walker was and why this “secure stopper knot which cannot be untied” was named after him. But given the thickened strands and knotted bulb associated with the Double Matthew Walker Knot, smacking someone with a cluster of ’em would be on par with hauling off on someone with a sock full of quarters, or having these Denver-ites pulverize bones to dust with classic Florida- and Dutchinspired death metal.

No Cure Cursed From Birth The Perfection Knot is a fishing world favorite because it’s “the easiest way to make a small loop in the end of a leader or tippet that will lie perfectly in line with the standing end,” whatever the fuck that means. In our world, Cursed From Birth speaks to the perfection of combining Integrity, Gehenna, Bloodlet and Earth Crisis (including a cover of “Firestorm” and stellar production) into a smoldering mass of virulent metallic hardcore.

Powerdong Powerdong I gotta go with the Single Column Tie Knot here. Why? Because it’s the first knot rope bondage experts learn in their quest towards Shibari masterhood. Also, the visual of porn hunks with monikers like Girth Brooks and Jackson Fillmore tying up their meat ‘n’ veg for another Kink Men shoot when this fantasyland power metal kicks in is now something you will never erase from your mind’s eye.

Sun Years Sun Years This edition of TMAFB has produced a first with the twotime appearance of one person. Erik Larson, in addition to drumming in Omen Stones, plies his rhythmic trade in this psychedelic doom sludge outfit, which, by the sound of it, is big on use of the Tensionless Hitch, which is commonly used in search-and-rescue operations. Like when you neck one too many, follow it with a ’shroom chaser and tumble into the Chickahominy River.

Witches Brew Planet Zero Witch’s Knots have historically been created/tied with the intent of casting a spell; everything from protection and changing weather patterns to empowerment and killing off people opposing the coven. In the case of this mysterious experimental collective, it sounds like they’d tie knots for everything imaginable and end up with a giant ball of string that sounded like Disco Volante, Ornette Coleman and Meshuggah.

Witches Forest Haunting the Woodlands Again with the witchy band names! This one-man bedroom project (or basement, or garage, or toolshed by the barn on multi-instrumentalist Moonwisp’s parents’ back 40) has seemingly created a knot that allowed him to combine the grandiosity of Moonsorrow with the single-channel rawness of early Beherit. Let’s call it the Liekehtivää Kansanperinnettä, which is Finnish for “flaming folklore.”

Witch Rot Live in the Hammer OK, last of the witch stuff and reviews: “The Hammer” in Live in the Hammer is Hamilton, ON, home of loads of scuzzy sketchiness and shady characters. It would appear this psych-doom quartet from Toronto tied a MultiKnotted Witch’s Ladder that allowed them to eliminate every band that doesn’t sound like Electric Wizard, Windhand and Serpentcult. All of the above can be found seeking fame, fortune and free beer on Bandcamp and Facebook.

D E C I B E L : M AY 2 0 2 3 : 7 9

EUGENE S. ROBINSON

THE PHIL ANSELMO

PARADOX thE

dog has whistled,

and it’s whistled with the triedand-true phraseology of the most boring people around, at least in 2023, who say as though they mean something: Cancel Culture. That is, that phenomenon when someone is (perhaps justifiably) called on the carpet for some stupid shit that they’ve done that they believe they should be given a pass on because, hey, well, people do stupid shit all the time. But when your stupid shit makes you millions of dollars, I get why you’d keep talking about it like it’s an actual thing; because to you, that bed of money you cry yourself to sleep on IS quite actual. So, this is not about any of that. Though it is being written on the occasion of the reconstituted Pantera getting canceled at some festivals in Germany. For? For singer Phil Anselmo’s “Nazi” salute and sign off of “White Power” at a concert a few years ago. And: Germany, with a noted and significant history of taking White Power pretty seriously. 8 0 : M AY 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

The “funny” thing is watching Anselmo himself go back and forth between being unrepentant and then quite repentant. Between explaining and offering reasons and explanations and offering excuses. Between being the whipping boy for a genre’s missteps and being its most likely explainer. All of which was in my head when I interviewed Anselmo for a feature for the benighted OZY. The article in question was called “Phil Anselmo + the Unbearable Heaviness of Down” and prior to the interview, though the White Power incident hadn’t happened yet, enough had happened that I had to seek counsel. Scott Kelly, formerly of Neurosis (with problems of his own lately), was my Anselmo whisperer. Were these missteps? Or was Anselmo crypto-Klan? “Phil’s a solid guy,” Kelly opined while offering no real answer. “I think you’ll like him.” And so it was, not part of any apology tour of any sort, that I got Anselmo on the phone. No idea what he had heard about me before he had heard from me, but I think it was highly unlikely that

he hadn’t heard that I was Black. I think he would have also heard that he’d have to work overtime to offend me, even if that was his goal. So, we talked about funk, R&B, so-called Black music, which you can hear in his voice, his singing voice. We talked about fighting, something we were both fans of. And in the end, it was about 45 minutes of singer shit, not stupid shit, and it flowed comfortably over the time we spent. Enough time so that the meditation post-interview was actuated by the last thing he said to me before he hung up. Specifically, “The South is in our bones,” New Orleans-bornand-bred Anselmo says. “And our music. And it’s no understatement to say that how we understand the world and what comes out in our music is going to be just as dark and heavy as it fucking can be.” Which made me wonder how, and why, he continues to pay for that which he once paid and others—Hetfield, Axl, Angus Young and others—get passes. How Araya intones the Minor Threat song “Guilty of Being White” exactly how Ian MacKaye initially meant it

(though there was a later repudiation by MacKaye) and in 2023 we’re still talking about Anselmo’s White Power callout. A situation to me that hinges on whether or not you believe, in actual fact, that Anselmo himself is a racist. Or, alternatively, if doing stuff that can be construed as racist is what makes you racist. Beyond that, there’s a presumption that it makes his music much less valid? Well, for me, it’s animal and involuntary. Elvis Costello goes off on Ray Charles because he’s Black? I just lose interest in Costello. I don’t choose to. I just did. Axl Rose uses not-for-polite-society words for Blacks and Gays? I don’t lose interest in Rose. I don’t choose to. I just did. So it goes with Anselmo, and separating the artist from the art. Sure, Germany has got to cancel him, but I can rock Far Beyond Driven as I write this, and I’m pretty sure that the money he’s gets from me doing this is not funding guys with tiki torches whose most ardent hope is not to be replaced by Jews. Am I making any sense? Aren’t I? ILLUSTRATION BY ED LUCE

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