Decibel #227 - September 2023 by Red Flag Media

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SEPTEMBER 2023 // No. 227

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NORTHWEST TERROR FEST 2023 SEATTLE’S DOUBLE DOSE OF DEATH REVIEWED

ROAD THE NEW ALBUM Produced by Bob Ezrin OUT AUGUST 25

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September 2023 [R 227] decibelmagazine.com

Death is Not the End COVER STORY COVER AND CONTENTS PHOTOS BY SCOTT KINKADE

upfront 8

metal muthas Can’t slow down her love

10 northwest

terror fest 2023 review Because Creepsylvania Terror Fest is just too far

12 low culture Disorder in the court 13 no corporate beer Pilsner? I hardly know ’er!

features

reviews 69 lead review Godthrymm’s sophomore album Distortions needs no marketing obfuscation to wow with its masterful doom metal

14 will haven Because VII, VIII, IX

24 dead heat From coast to coast

32 church of misery Bloody Sabbath indeed

16 godthrymm The art of sorrow

26 ashtar And then there was one

34 spirit adrift Here comes the rain

18 crypta Pain into power

28 nuclear remains Freaking out

20 an autumn for

30 ringworm If it ain’t broke

36 q&a: oxbow Vocalist Eugene Robinson is a lover and a fighter

crippled children As autumn turns to winter

22 1476 What’s old is new again

40 exclusive:

united forces: an archive of brazil’s raw metal attack, 1986-1991 excerpt Stand by for Exciter (and Venom)

44 the decibel

hall of fame

70 album reviews Records from bands that are totally super serious about quitting Twitter this time, you guys, including Blut Aus Nord, Cavalera and Outer Heaven 80 damage ink Blow on

Fully anticipating their final recording, Opeth go all-out and secure their long, storied future with turning-point album Still Life

Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $34.95. 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.

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The Melodic Death Metal Sensation from Finland - With Janne Wirman (Children Of Bodom) and Petri Lindroos (Ensiferum)

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September 2023 [T227] PUBLISHER

Alex Mulcahy

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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Albert Mudrian

albert@decibelmagazine.com

skimming this magazine since 2012, this month’s Horrendous cover no doubt feels like an inevitability. If the glowing review and subsequent placement of their debut LP, The Chills, in our Top 40 Albums of Year list wasn’t aggressive foreshadowing, then 2014’s follow-up album Ecdysis cracking No. 3 (before their Anareta record took home Decibel’s Album of the Year honors only 12 months later) should have shadowboxed your fucking face in. Not long after, they recorded “Sentenced” for the Decibel Flexi Series, which years later I ranked the No. 2 dB Flexi of all time, and that’s only because the No. 1 spot was occupied by Dutch death metal legends Asphyx, who secretly wrote a theme song for the magazine that I can’t pronounce without sounding like I have a severe speech impediment (“Deathibel”). Along the way, we booked Horrendous to open the Charlotte date of the first-ever Decibel Tour in 2012, asked them to perform at 2016’s oneoff Choosing Death Fest, selected them to open every date of the stacked 2017 Decibel Tour and added them to the 2018 Philadelphia edition of Metal & Beer Fest. Then, while we were still disinfecting our produce a few years ago, we responsibly filmed them for our pandemic-induced 200th Issue Extremely Ex-Stream event before most recently asking them to annihilate last year’s Metal & Beer Pre-Fest in Philly. But this road to the tens of dollars in riches that comes with a Decibel magazine cover wasn’t always paved with gratuitous plus-ones and unlimited drink tickets. As the band confesses in Sean Frasier’s revealing and refreshingly self-aware feature, despite the considerable early accolades, Horrendous’ challenging fourth record, 2018’s Idol, retrospectively feels like a lateral move, if not a half-step backwards. This makes what the quartet achieves on new album-of-the-year contender Ontological Mysterium even more rewarding for both the listener and the artists who created it. And for a certain magazine that has been death-grunting their praises for over a decade, the only thing more rewarding than saying “we told you so” is knowing these four dudes deserve all of this. albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief

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Emily Bellino Adrien Begrand J. Bennett Dean Brown Liz Ciavarella-Brenner Dillon Collins Chris Dick Sean Frasier Nick Green Raoul Hernandez Addison Herron-Wheeler Jonathan Horsley Courtney Iseman Neill Jameson Kim Kelly Sarah Kitteringham Daniel Lake Cosmo Lee Jamie Ludwig Shane Mehling Tim Mudd Justin M. Norton Dutch Pearce Forrest Pitts Greg Pratt Jon Rosenthal Brad Sanders José Carlos Santos Joseph Schafer Kevin Stewart-Panko Eugene S. Robinson Adem Tepedelen Jeff Treppel J Andrew Zalucky CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

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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 $34.95. 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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PHOTO BY SCOTT KINKADE

Even if you’ve only been casually

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Abelardo Mayoral Vancouver, BC

You’re the owner of the Invisible Orange in Vancouver. Tell us what that is.

The Invisible Orange is a concert promotion company in which we organize around 40 to 60 concerts each year in Vancouver, lately organizing events in other parts of British Columbia, such as Vancouver Island and Interior BC. I also book cross-Canada or Canadianregional tours for independent bands. It also means that I’m a sadist that likes to torture himself, as if having a day job in health care analytics consulting wasn’t enough craziness. But seriously, it’s amazing. I get to meet many artists that I admire, and discover new ones by constantly being out at live shows. And stay connected with local fans and bands, old and new. I love it. You’re originally from Hermosillo, Mexico. Is that also where you first became a metalhead? If so, was there a significant metal scene there growing up?

Yes, that is where I became a metalhead, together with friends my age in late elementary. We would listen to radio shows [and] MTV’s Headbangers Ball, and browse the metal

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store at the public market together. Back then, we couldn’t afford to have a large collection of albums … so I would always aim to buy albums that I knew none of my friends had, as we would all lend the albums or make copies for each other. There was a solid scene for what I remember— way larger than it is today with respect to metal. Hermosillo is known today for its psych and indie rock scenes, with bands that play Coachella and the like, but almost no new metal bands. Back then, we had so many metal and punk bands that some friends and I created a website in the late ’90s to catalogue [them all]—something like a local Metal Archives, called RockSonora.com. We had gigs every weekend, in backyards, car shops, empty lots, which made up for not being able to access the touring circuit until you were old enough to drive to Arizona for shows. I loved growing up there even when it is literally hell, often reaching 120°F in the summer. Horrendous are on the cover of this issue, and Opeth’s Still Life is the Hall of Fame induction. Tell us one progressive death metal band who hasn’t appeared on our cover yet who should, and one who deserves a Hall of Fame induction.

Oh man, I can’t wait for the new Horrendous. I have it on presale since it’s not out yet at the time of this writing. The HOF album that comes to mind quickly and easily would be Edge of Sanity’s Crimson, as it is quite influential. Underrated in the extended circuits, but certainly very

appreciated by the many artists it touched, and a good number of fans in different circuits. For the cover, I would love to see “Hevy Devy,” Mr. Devin Townsend, who also gives very interesting interviews. You could pair him up with Anneke van Giersbergen, with whom he collaborates a lot, and I will need an extra copy of that to put in a frame. You’ve been lobbying our editor pretty hard about bringing a Metal & Beer Fest to Vancouver. For the rest of us reading this now, make your best elevator pitch!

Vancouver is a beautiful city that would make a great vacation festival destination for metalheads from all corners. We offer beach, mountain, forest and urban landscapes, all of them right in the city. The local scene is very friendly, and we will make great hosts. This is on top of the amazing talent that exists here, which frequently blows my mind. Artists from Europe, Japan, Mexico and many other countries do not require a visa to perform in Canada, so that opens opportunities for some unique bookings by eliminating the sometimesprohibitive visa costs. We have over 70 craft breweries in Vancouver, and over 250 in the province of British Columbia. The craft beer market share in BC is a staggering 30 percent, which is more than twice the USA average and three times the Canadian average! So, to recap, we have a great city, scene, artist logistics, beer options and cheap currency. Bring it on!

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

A start-to-ﬁnish victory of the Heavy Metal titans. U.D.O. in absolute top form, with Udo Dirkschneider and Peter Baltes reunited! NEW U.D.O. ALBUM «TOUCHDOWN» OUT 25.08

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NOW SLAYING Wonder what Decibel world HQ has been rocking for the past month? Well, here are the records that we spun most while preparing to publish half a million words worth of books this year.

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

This Month’s Mutha: Paola Romeo Mutha of Dom Romeo of End Reign/A389 Recordings/ex-Integrity

Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m 71 years old, and I have three children and six grandchildren. I was born in a little town in Italy called Pico, just outside of Rome, but I’ve lived in Toronto since 1964. I like to think I’m pretty hip for a nonna (Italian for “grandmother”)! Is there any truth to the story that young Dom wanted Van Halen 1984, but you told him it was sold out and gave him Lionel Richie Can’t Slow Down instead?

It’s true. Back then, I kind of hoped he’d grow out of the “crazy music” thing. Now, though, so many years later, after all the places he’s been and things he’s done, I couldn’t be prouder of him. Dom had to suspend his label’s operations in 2018 in part due to wanting to have more time with his family. What are your impressions of him as a father?

He’s raised three beautiful children, so that’s definitely his greatest accomplishment. His kids are a lot of fun, too, because he’s worked hard to share his interests with them while helping them develop passions of their own. It’s hard for me sometimes because I don’t get to see them as often as I want. But, like a good Italian son, Domenic calls me multiple times a week. And if he doesn’t, you can be sure he’ll hear about it! Dom famously “wore down” Dwid Hellion with questions about Integrity until he eventually became a member of the band. Does that dogged persistence run in the family?

Does it ever! His father was from Reggio Calabria in Italy, and we call people from Calabria “testa dura,” which means hard-headed. All three of

my kids are stubborn, but Domenic was (and is) probably the most stubborn of them all. The more I told him no about something, the more he’d want to do it. Do you know he managed to hide his first tattoo for MONTHS before my husband or I ever saw it? Still, this “dogged persistence,” like you call it, could get him into trouble. He’d never stop when it came to jokes and pranks, pushing those buttons over and over again. I’m sure a lot of people out there wouldn’t mind smacking him in the head sometimes, including me! He’s also a tastemaker, working with multiple bands who have moved onto bigger labels (specifically Relapse). Do you share his taste in music?

Are you kidding? To me, it’s nothing but a bunch of screaming! Once in a while, these bands would come and stay at our house while Domenic was playing shows with them. They were all nice boys, but that wasn’t music! Give me Elvis Presley or Julio Iglesias over that noise any day. Dom was a big horror movie aficionado in his youth. Did he ever force you to watch any with him?

You know, that’s one thing we actually have in common! My husband always hated scary movies, but I loved them, so I’d watch them with Domenic. When he was young, the first one we watched was The Howling. After that, we would go to the video store every week and rent all the famous ones. As he got older, he would find and bring home horror movies I’d never heard of to watch together. So, I guess he probably got that from me! —ANDREW BONAZELLI

Albert Mudrian : e d i t o r i n c h i e f  Godthrymm, Distortions  Horrendous, Ontological Mysterium  Uada, Crepuscule Natura  Agalloch, The Serpent and the Sphere  Biohazard, Urban Discipline ---------------------------------Patty Moran : c u s t o m e r s e r v i c e  The Black Delta Movement, Recovery Effects  Subhumans, The Day the Country Died  Acid Mammoth, Under Acid Hoof  Adolescents, Adolescents  The Black Angels, Wilderness of Mirrors ---------------------------------James Lewis : a d s a l e s  Horrendous, Ontological Mysterium  Godthrymm, Distortions  Khemmis, Hunted  Agalloch, The Serpent and the Sphere  Cavalera, Bestial Devastation ---------------------------------Mike Wohlberg : a r t d i r e c t o r  Horrendous, Ontological Mysterium  Cannibal Corpse, Chaos Horrific  Kublai Khan, New Strength  The Zenith Passage, Datalysium  Lamp of Murmuur, Saturnian Bloodstorm ---------------------------------Aaron Salsbury : m a r k e t i n g a n d s a l e s  Moonscape / Unarm, Split 7-inch  Godthrymm, Distortions  KEN mode, VOID  Dead Heat, Endless Torment  Khanate, To Be Cruel

GUEST SLAYER

---------------------------------Samantha Mobley : f r o z e n s o u l  Fulci, Tropical Sun  PeelingFlesh, PF Radio  Fluids, American Piquerist XXX  Reaping Flesh, Abyss of Existence  Phobophilic, Enveloping Absurdity

PHOTO BY

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DAVID GONZALES

NORTHWEST TERROR FEST 2023

By the balls  Castrator clinch the first pit of the evening on Saturday’s death metal-forward festivities

NORTHWEST TERROR FEST 2023

ver memorial day weekend, at the corner of 10th and Pike in Seattle’s WHEN: May 25–27, 2023 Capitol Hill neighborhood, the putrid JOHN DONOVAN MALLEY corpse of Northwest Terror Fest rose once again for its annual feeding frenzy. Upon its hunger grounds are two connected venues: Neumos (capacity 750) and Barboza (capacity 200). This year’s menu featured 39 bands over three days, with sets running like clockwork between stages, course after bloody course. Fans didn’t have to miss a single morsel, nor did Decibel. —TIM MUDD WHERE:

Seattle, WA (Neumos and Barboza)

THURSDAY A journey through peak traffic across downtown

Seattle mirrors the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Fittingly, Felsenmirror were there to open the festival, and remind me not only of my impermanence, but the importance of moving beyond that which ails and oppresses. Exulansis cut through the afternoon heat with blast beats, soaring melodies and harmonies, delivering 10 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

three new songs from their upcoming album. Violinist Andrea Morgan was a vision in white within the whirling dervish of her blackened brothers during a performance that set a high bar for the rest of the fest. —TIM MUDD “Thursday is Big Feels Day,” fest organizer—

and Decibel’s own—Joseph Schafer told me. Day 1 indeed brought emotions writ large, from the stoner grit of deathCAVE to abyssal death

metal and black metal from Plague Bearer and Tchornobog, respectively, to doomy pummeling from THRA and Conan. The latter showcased the tempo variation of recent albums, opening up that rare gift, the doom mosh pit; imagine Hellhammer as a well-rounded MMA fighter. The heaviest hands of the day belonged to savage duo Antichrist Siege Machine (winning the fest’s “holy shit, what was that?” award) and Misery Index, whose blistering grind churned up roomwide circle pits. Amidst such top-shelf battering, melody won the day, with Nite crossing black metal malevolence with ’80s shred, and The Silver answering the question, “What happens when goth rockers get metal chops?” In this age of selfconsciousness, it was refreshing to see a metal band wrap itself in rose imagery and go full-on Queensrÿche prog. YOB’s cosmic doom closed the day, with new drummer Dave French’s pocket laying a mile-wide foundation for Mike Scheidt and Aaron Rieseberg to send riffs skyward. —COSMO LEE

 Off with their head(liners)

Autopsy (top) and Ghoul prove worthy of their top spots on Friday and Saturday, respectively

SATURDAY A breathtaking set of ambient doom courtesy of New Mexico’s Lilith lifted Barboza in a communal hum before Seattle’s Solicitor broke out

FRIDAY Welcome to Death Metal Day. Cult Sickness

burst out of the gates with punishing Seattle hardcore, venting rage as an amuse-bouche to Fetid’s unhinged death metal sludge and ReBuried firing OSDM ammunition from their blackened doom cannon. Not to be outdone by the boys, Castrator brandished their brutal death metal for the first pit of the day, and Draghkar delivered melody and darkness before Horrendous grooved upon soon-to-be-classic riffs that included their latest single, “Ontological Mysterium.” Miasmatic Necrosis turned the aggression up to 11 inside Barboza’s chaotic underworld, and with nowhere to go but doom, Bell Witch materialized with a deathly ambiance to reset for the second half. —TIM MUDD I’d wondered about a day packed with so much death metal, but Torture Rack proved the cura-

tion right with chugging, serrated, immensely satisfying DM. Necrot led off a closing trio of Bay Area death metal with a commandingly raging

set. The fan next to me was completely transported, eyes closed, pounding the stage with her fist. Downstairs, Hellshock provided a fitting complement of U.K.-style metallic crust punk, conjuring up early Bolt Thrower and a roomful of raised fists. Impaled, that unlikeliest of institutions, embodied the phrase “in character,” celebrating over 25 years of business (of killing, naturally). It turns out that a nod, a wink and a knife can be joyful—heartwarming even. The stage was set perfectly for Autopsy. I counted at least three bands in this fest with singing drummers, and for my money, they were among the best. My theory is that drummers who sing have to account for space and breathing, making for better music. As OGs of this, Autopsy delivered so rousingly that I couldn’t help but wish they toured more. I contented myself with being a lucky attendee this night, as a bunch of old but extremely skilled dudes provided heaping servings of putrescent death metal, with generous sides of punk and doom. If I kick half as much ass as them at their age, I’ll be golden. —COSMO LEE

the defibrillators, wreaking heavy-speed metal devastation, and an exceptional vocal performance from Amy “Babehammer” Carlson. The one-part vocal anguish to two parts industrial electronica elixir poured by darkwave duo At the Heart of the World proved just disorienting enough for the safe-word-less sex dungeon that materialized in the gelatinous form of Denver’s Pink Mass, whose gimp guitarists were spanked and stapled amidst raw, ferocious grindcore (Metal & Bear Fest, anyone?). Denial of Life had one simple instruction: “We’re from Tacoma—don’t you fucking forget it!” Frontwoman Brenna Gowin whipped up a frenzy, ending their set with an excellent cover of Type O Negative’s “I Don’t Wanna Be Me” before Christian Mistress’ NWOBHM revival fired with Gatling gun precision, dueling guitar solos and powerful beer-and-cigarette-stained vocals from Christine Davis. Like a rancid remnant from Friday, Oakland’s Abstracter spewed oppressive black sludge before dark folk songstress Anne K. O’Neill stunned as Serpentent. Accompanied by Dylan Desmond (Bell Witch), Zach Wise (Hissing), Kakophonix (Osi and the Jupiter, Hvile I Kaos) and Andrea Morgan (Exulansis), the all-star gothic classical orchestra pulled down the sun with three cuts from last year’s Mother of Light, as well as a breathtaking retelling of Katatonia’s “Day.” Drouth reintroduced the weight with blackened death doom before back-to-back pits ring-led by Genocide Pact’s uncompromising OSDM and No/Más’ dissident powerviolence. California thrash punks Cryptic Slaughter delivered a catalog-spanning tour de force of rapid-fire drumming, blistering guitars and sociopolitical commentary that left even the corpsepainted attendees smiling. Closing out the festival, the splatter-thrash theatrics of Ghoul did not disappoint. From the first audience-soaking of “Off With Their Heads,” Neumos erupted in a frenzy of beach party inflatables, stage-diving, emptied gut buckets and… stage-diving and crowd surfing on inflatables. The masked ones careened through classics such as “Dungeon Bastards,” “Maniaxe,” “Nazi Smasher,” “Tomb After Tomb,” “As Your Casket Closes” and “The Graveyard Mosh,” all punctuated with gruesome banter and copious fluids. Sated, the corpse of NWTF oozed into the night, slithering into Seattle’s sewers to slumber until it salivates once more in 2024. —TIM MUDD DECIBEL : SEP T EMBER 2 0 2 3 : 11

NEY ISEM

T BY COUR

Become Everyone’s Problem remind you that you’re under oath.”

The defense’s attorney looked like Great Value Paul Giamatti and had been progressively raising his voice at me for the better part of an hour. It was late spring 2023, and I was suing my landlord because he badly botched the response to our ceiling collapsing. I was a month and change away from turning 45. This is not how I expected my life to turn out. This asshole was grilling me because our landlord’s shiftless cunt of a son said he offered me and my family $50 a night “for a hotel of our choice” while our unit was falling apart. This is something I probably would have remembered, as $50 wouldn’t buy one person—let alone a family of three with some cats—a room even in the most cracked-out of neighborhoods. He asked me why I wouldn’t take up the offer or move my family elsewhere. I calmly inquired if he wanted us to live in my car. He then asked to have any reference to my girlfriend’s history with cancer struck from my testimony because—I shit you not—I wasn’t a doctor and could not make those kinds of judgements. I don’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I was pretty sure this wasn’t it. I’ve been thinking back to summers past and how I thought I’d end up. Ten years ago, I was managing a record store, working 80 hours a week, and the IRS said I owed them a million dollars. Ten years before that, I was sitting on The Black House and making plans to tour the West Coast for the first time. Ten years before that, I was about to enter high school and my father was a few weeks away from dying in a plane crash. I see no discernable direction in any of this, and most of 12 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

it doesn’t even seem like it was real life—just a series of images and feelings. I recently made a 10-hour playlist of various music that defined the summers in my life, and while I still enjoy all of it, it struck me that old songs didn’t really arouse the same old feelings anymore. I was far more interested in finding new music, the same way I don’t really reread the same books, even if I loved them the first time around. I realized that I’m still in search of new art, new feelings and new experiences. That—at squarely middle fucking age—I haven’t given up the idea that there’s things to hunt. That all those articles about people giving up on expanding their palette and buying a copy of Rumours at 35—essentially saying, “Fuck it, I quit,” on what they supposedly loved in life— thankfully did not apply to me at all. I think that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up. It’s a bit revisionist for the sake of this piece, I suppose, but I’m very satisfied with the idea that I’m not done yet—not just with my own shit, but with others’ as well. (I still probably don’t give a fuck about yours, though.) As I shifted around in the witness stand, the increasingly moist attorney was becoming more and more frustrated with me. Over the years, I’ve become comfortable with people yelling at me— either at jobs or in relationships or on the internet—and my greatest strength is my unwavering ability to navigate a conversation (better known as being a “bullshit artist,” though that’s not as snappy on a résumé). Sometime later, I walked out as the winning party and their attorney couldn’t even look me in the eyes. So, I may not have known what I wanted to be when I grew up, but I think I’m fine with the outcome.

Pilsners Aren’t as Simple as They Seem. Get to Know Your Substyles

ew beer styles seem more straight-

forward than the pilsner. It’s just always been there. But more recent trends—beer geeks clamoring for “crisp,” breweries celebrating traditional European styles to the extent of LUKR faucets for authentic Czech side-pull pours— reveal how special and surprisingly complex the pilsner can actually be. As options multiply and your favorite breweries unveil takes from German to Italian, with some curveballs by way of Slovenia, let’s break down what differentiates pilsner substyles and whether it all matters.

CZECH-STYLE PILSNER We can thank the Czech Republic for pilsner’s very existence. While they call it pale lager, we call it pilsner because of its birthplace, the Czech city of Pilsen, where it debuted in 1842. Czech pilsner took off worldwide. After having a pitch-perfect Czech-style pilsner at Compañía Cervecera Hércules’ Lagerbar in Mexico City, I asked their production manager Josh Brengle about the style’s definition. “They can range from slightly bitter and hoppy, ~20 IBUs, all the way to a somewhat high bitterness, ~50 IBUs,” he explained. “The color can range from pale straw to deep gold… Balance is the keyword… It is the perfect expression of all the ingredients used combined.”

Brengle compares this to other regional pilsner substyles that highlight one ingredient, like malt or hops, more than others. Hércules imports Czech malt and Zatec-grown Saaz hops, and uses a yeast strain originating with a known Czech brewery and processes they’ve honed through conversations with Czech brewers. If you see a Czech-style pilsner, look for those Saaz hops as well as Czech malt, and expect balance, with hop character not overpowering the malt.

GERMAN-STYLE PILS The German pils grew quickly as German brewers’ response to Czech-pilsner demand. Thanks to regional water profiles, the substyle differentiated itself as drier and more bitter. It showcases German Tettnang and/or Hallertauer hops, and features crisp crackery malt against floral, herbal, spicy notes. Of course, German pils can break down even further, according to Chris Boggess (3 Floyds head brewer) and Erik Overshok (head brewer at the affiliated WarPigs USA). 3 Floyds collaborated with Decibel for this year’s Metal & Beer Fest in Philadelphia, brewing a German pilsner called Phantom Blade. This was more a “Bavarian pilsner,” Ogershok explains, closer to a Czech pilsner. Meanwhile, “WarPigs’ A Light in the Black is a north German pilsner, which is hoppier. The brewing traditions aren’t that different… it’s the hop varieties that are the most distinct.”

ITALIAN-STYLE PILS An Italian-accented pils was born when Agostino Arioli opened Birrificio Italiano with his brother in the Italian province of Como in 1996. Arioli liked pilsners emphasizing hops, like the northern German Jever, and wanted a way to dial in on them even more. His Tipopils, or “kind of pils” in Italian, set the bar for this substyle with dry-hopping. Dry-hopping is the most referenced distinguisher for Italian-style pils, but Arioli emphasizes a few other factors: It has a shorter brewing cycle, about four to five weeks (A German pils is often lagered for two months or more), resulting in a crisper, thinner, more bitter finish with freshness and a touch of astringency; and it is not centrifuged or filtered. Perhaps it’s no surprise considering how much American craft brewers love cranking up hoppiness, but this style’s taken off stateside, thanks especially to early adopters like Firestone Walker and Oxbow.

AMERICAN PILS… AND BEYOND How hoppy can you make a pilsner? What different aromas can you introduce? American pilsners often incorporate New World hops, getting tropical fruit flavors and more resinous notes into the mix. Sometimes, American pilsners end up tasting like an IPA, while others are a finely tuned balance of European tradition and subtle fresh-flavor spins. Branding is par for the American course, too, which explains some pilsners popping up with regions you haven’t seen before on cans. For its annual Lager Month, Brooklyn’s KCBC brewed a “Slovenian-style pils,” Demon Dragon. This was less a model of some welldefined substyle and more KCBC’s way to name a pilsner using Slovenian hops, says co-owner Zack Kinney. “A lot of the hops we really love, noble hops, are all grown in Slovenia.” This includes anything preceded by “Styrian”: Golding, Dragon, Celeia, Wolf. KCBC uses Styrian Celeia in one of its yearround pilsners; Demon Dragon is a celebration of these hops’ aroma profiles and how well they play in a pilsner. In terms of branding this a Slovenian-style pilsner, Kinney says, “We’re trying to tell a story, and connect the product and thought process from our perspective, relaying that to a customer so they can engage more, ask more questions and appreciate lagers more.” Whether it’s a new substyle named for the hops’ region or a storied substyle plucked from beyond the Czech Republic or Germany, there’s an innate American craft-beer motivation behind proliferating pilsner variations. The treat is leaning into the differences you find, no matter how subtle, and letting brewers tell the story of where those differences come from and how, yes, they do matter.

Hooked on pils  3 Floyds and Decibel teamed up to usher in a refreshingly sharp and new German pils

DECIBEL : SEP TEMBER 2023 : 13

WILL HAVEN

Veteran Sacto sludgecrushers deliver career best LP, hope it’s not their last

ands are often quoted proclaiming some variation of, “This could be our last album.” Sure, any album could be any band’s last because of relationship breakdowns, posttour financial ruin or a devastating global pandemic that wipes out futures and hope across the board. But if Journey can still pack arenas with members publicly rebuking other members’ ties to the Trump organization as accusations of band fund embezzlement are slung around while their frontman openly wonders about his pink slip, others should be able to weather smaller storms. ¶ But what if VII happens to be the final jewel in the crown of eclectic sludge maestros Will Haven’s 28 years? Guitarist Jeff Irwin finds himself clouded with thoughts of the end whenever he sits down to write, “especially now that we’re in our 50s, have jobs [and] families, and can’t tour like we used to.” So, what did the band’s chief songwriter do to acknowledge this possibility? He got fans to contribute to “La Ultima Nota,” the album’s final song. ¶ “The first idea was to have our friends and homies from Sacramento play the song’s last note,” he elaborates,

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“but I thought that if this was going to be our last album, it’d be even better to have the fans do it. So, I posted on social media that if anyone wanted to be on the record to send a G# on any instrument. I got like 300 submissions emailed to me that I pieced together over three days and put on the record. “There’s a violin in there, a flute… but a lot of stuff got buried by all the distorted guitars people sent.” Community participation aside, two telling reasons indicate why VII likely won’t be the final nail in Will Haven’s coffin. First, Irwin has no hesitation in proclaiming this as Will Haven’s finest moment in a long while, if not ever. And while it may be the ultimate artistic statement to throw in the towel after issuing a crowning work, in reality there’s always new territory to explore. “Our goal was to consistently throw curveballs and not be as

predictable as some of our previous albums,” he continues. “I enjoy this record because there are lots of twists and turns. When I look at VII, I hear our entire history gelling. When I step outside of the band, I’m a fan of this record. Usually, once we put a record out, I’m done with it. But I keep coming back to this one. Not because I’m critiquing it, but because I keep enjoying it. That’s a first for me.” Secondly, there’s a remarkably positive post-COVID unity presently energizing the band’s engine. “I love the music and playing, but our friendship is what’s most important to me. There’s a really strong connection between all the members, and we’re super stoked about Will Haven’s legacy, what it means to us and how huge a part of our lives it’s been. Right now, we’re the healthiest, proudest and most excited we’ve ever been as a band.” —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

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GODTHRYMM

Halifax-based doom royals roll out their monument to times past and friends lost

the past three years, bands have come and gone, trends have risen and crashed, records have been flipped and discarded into the bargain bin. Amidst that tumult and frenzy, Hamish Glencross (ex-Solstice, ex-My Dying Bride, etc.) and his band of inveterate doomlayers have painstakingly constructed their sophomore monument. Distortions (Profound Lore) is Godthrymm’s second album since forming in 2017. But the guitarist/vocalist prefers a different metaphor: “If I compare the [band’s] journey to artwork, [the] first EP was preliminarily sketches; then the first album moved into colored pencils; [The Vastness Silent] added ink and more flair; now we’re painting with a full palette of fine oils and blood!” ¶ Looking back on their first album, 2020’s Reflections, Glencross—ahem— reflects, “As exciting as it was enjoying loud fuzzy amps, a more raw sound and a stripped-back lineup, my absolute comfort zone and strength is creating multi-layered music rich in harmony and arrangement, and this ambition deserves care and attention.

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Hence, a lot of critical evaluation and rewriting as required. And a real step up in production values.” Since Reflections, Glencross’ wife, Catherine, has joined the band full-time. “[Catherine] had appeared on the debut, adding some vocals, and then The Vastness Silent single, and not only are her vocals adding some class and beauty to the music, but also I really benefited from knowing that I wasn’t the sole vocal, and that helped with my confidence and in turn my performance, too. It adds so much scope for harmonies; and then by her playing keyboards, too, [it] just means the whole sound becomes more cinematic in scope.” Returning with another pluralnoun album title, Glencross relates how the debut LP’s title “was referring to looking to the past for inspiration and celebration.” He says Distortions is “exactly that initial template, but morph[ed] further

into more extremes.” Of Reflections, he says, “The dark is darker, the heavy heavier, the beautiful moreso and so on.” Perhaps the album’s production took longer than its fans had hoped, but Glencross says, “It is indeed a fairly long gap, and of course part of that was beyond our control, as a lot of our world was put on pause, but circumstance led to almost complete reinvention! Stepping back and reevaluating the music was essential to regaining my inspiration and reconnecting to my musical passion. Too often I’ve wanted to go back and revisit songs and recordings. I’m listening back to this album now and feel a great sense of accomplishment. I want all of us involved in the creation of this album to be very proud of this moment in our creative history. And that includes production and visual arts, too. It’s a complete package.” —DUTCH PEARCE

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CRYPTA

Brazilian death force experiences both emotional and creative breakthroughs

went through a very bad time over the past few years. There was a lot of stuff going on in my life; it was a very dark and painful period. I wanted to transform those very tough experiences into something beautiful, which is my art and what I cherish most. This album is almost autobiographical.” ¶ When we last spoke to Fernanda Lira, she was just coming to terms with the severity of her anxiety disorder diagnosis and emerging from a deep, desperate depression, during which, after parting ways with former band Nervosa, she suffered debilitating anxiety attacks that caused her to question every aspect of her existence, including whether to continue playing music. But following the formation of all-x-chromosome death metal outfit, Crypta; the release of their 2021 debut, Echoes of the Soul; and being able to return the rage to the stage—combined with focused work on her mental health—the bassist/vocalist is back on the attack with Shades of Sorrow, the band’s second full-length. ¶ “For me, it was a journey through pain,” she says. “Every time I went through something new, I learned a new shade of pain

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and that’s why it’s called Shades of Sorrow. People think sorrow and pain is one thing, but there’s more to it. Every track on the album represents one shade of pain: anxiety, rejection, anger, fear and all the feelings I experienced along the path to a better place. “It’s definitely way better now,” Lira enthuses, when asked about turning the corner. “I’ve been in therapy for over two years and haven’t had an anxiety attack in over 18 months. Most of the questioning and awful stories about my career and life my mind was telling me were from anxiety. It’s hard to battle things when it’s your own brain creating them. Also, all that happened during the pandemic when I was sitting at home, which was awful for someone like me who’s a free spirit, loves traveling, meeting new people, experiencing new cultures and playing music every night. My only contact with the outside world was through the

internet, which can be a hostile place,” she laughs knowingly. Also contributing to the detonation of the new album’s streamlined complexity is having all four of Crypta’s members now based in Brazil, with guitarist Jéssica Falchi replacing Netherlands-based Sonia Anubis last year. Despite Shades of Sorrow being mostly completed when Falchi joined, Lira sees the value of having all hands on one deck, how that helps in “trusting the flow of the writing process,” makes the album more “mature” and adds a rosier color to the future. “Having a band member living abroad definitely meant extra planning and costs, which can really become an issue for a Brazilian band,” she notes. “Now it’s way easier; we have the same mindset, come from the same culture, and it’s more fluid. And we don’t always have to do long tours. We can play weekend shows again!” —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

PHOTO BY ESTEVAM ROMERA

CRYPTA

AN AUTUMN FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN

AN AUTUMN FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN Dutch atmospheric black metallers revel in melancholy with possible swan song

TEN

albums, five eps, a steady progression throughout all of this body of work into increasingly subtle and bittersweet, melody-ridden atmospheric black metal; and above all, a curiously elegant approach to the anonymity aspect of the band, which never felt like a gimmick with them… yeah, it feels like a good time to maybe stop and have a bit of a think about it, doesn’t it? ¶ That’s exactly what An Autumn for Crippled Children are doing with their new—and potentially last—album, Closure. “We definitely had a feeling that this is a turning point,” they tell us. And just to be clear, that pronoun is used to describe the main musician in the band, who graciously agreed to talk to us, but without revealing their identity. No, we don’t know who they are, and honestly, we really don’t want to. More than anything, it always felt strangely appropriate that this ghostly, melancholic music appears to exist only floating in the ether, rather than having grubby humans involved in any of it.

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They continue: “Hitting album number 10, there is indeed a feeling of closure. We are uncertain what the future will bring. For now, we will enjoy the ride of this album, but things will be different from now on, be it the music or the name.” Hey, they might even come back under a different form and you won’t even know it’s the same people. How much, we wonder, has this well-kept secret actually been a sort of influence in the equally distant, elusive quality of their music? “Yes, very much so,” comes the immediate reply. “Through anonymity, people are forced to focus only on the music. I find it rewarding that people are into your music and not your persona, your other bands or other things that don’t matter. Having said that, I don’t think the anonymity in itself lends the music a different atmosphere.

The music is pretty honest; it’s all emotion. Love and death. There’s no ‘satanic evilness from the bowels of hell,’ ‘fuck yeah, I’m doing blow on top of this blonde,’ or ‘I’m an orc climbing a Tolkien mountain.’ We have never written about things that are not real. We may have worded the events poetically, but it was never fantasy.” Starting out with an album called Lost and ending (?) with Closure… Has this been a rewarding journey, not only musically, but also personally? “Some things are hard to talk about, and ventilating them through music is a great way to deal with them,” they admit. “I think part of me will always feel ‘lost’; it’s a feeling that never leaves, I guess. But musically, I do think we found the soul of AAFCC after that first album. We will always be involved with music, but this band is our special creation.” —JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS

AUGUST 2023

“Wherever Good Books Are Sold”

1476

ONE

particular musical joy comes from finding records that assemble disparate but beloved elements in unusual ways. In Exile, the latest album from 1476, does just that. The Salem, MA twopiece previously played with atmospheric rock and black metal; both elements are still there, alongside a pronounced emphasis on rhythmic post-punk and pastoral folk. Imagine Ulver at their most reclusive and rustic, trading songs with Killing Joke at their most rhythmic and ruthless—that’s the general idea. ¶ For 1476 singer and guitarist Robb Kavjian, going for something unconventional in terms of the genre wasn’t just a neat idea; it was necessary to pursue something new. “I just remember telling our drummer Neil [DeRosa] before we began, ‘It’s 2021, and we’ve been a band for a decade; what are we doing?’ So much of the climate in music today is focused around nostalgia and adhering rigidly to genre parameters. It was time to really reach deep and go further outside the box than we ever have in the hopes of making something special and new. In that sense, [In Exile is] more anti-zeitgeist than anything we’ve ever done.” 22 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

Kavjian’s stylistic shift on In Exile was a natural extension of his musical journey, which began as a child listening to his father’s early Led Zeppelin records, continued as a teenager discovering Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged, and later intensified as he delved into anarcho punk and crust, black metal, and later Coil and Current 93’s flirtations with both industrial and European folk. On In Exile, Kavjian and DeRosa’s modus operandi was to “follow the ideas that excite us regardless of genre, and trust that if we’re true to those ideas, the result would be cohesive.” But balancing those influences presented a technical challenge as well. “We leaned heavily on the production to keep the sound consistent,” Kavjian says. “This meant using the same instruments, amplifiers, microphones and synths in each song, regardless of style. The acoustic instruments were one classical guitar, a hurdy-gurdy and a mandolin, which we’ve never

used before. The consistency of the mixing was important as well. We worked at Chillhouse Studios in Boston on the mix and master with Will Holland, who’d previously worked with Dead Can Dance, which was the main reason I was interested in working with him.” It’s a unique blend, but not wholly unprecedented: New Model Army and the pre-disgraced Amebix sometimes played in similar realms. But whereas those projects rooted the folkier side of things in their British heritage, 1476 remain fixated on their surroundings in New England for inspiration. “Once you get outside the cities and go to the woods or the old farmlands or the coast, there’s just a magical, dreamy and sometimes haunting quality that I resonate deeply with,” Kavjian remarks. “I try to create music that gives me the same feeling in the hopes of conveying that to others.” —JOSEPH SCHAFER

PHOTO BY JENNIFER KAVJIAN

1476

Salem duo walks its own darkened path to sonic enlightenment

DEAD HEAT

rossover used to be simpler: a little bit of metal, a little bit of hardcore. Boom. Now you’ve got specific strains of crossover reblending with one of the original sources of the subgenre, completely confusing things. Case in point: Oxnard, CA outfit Dead Heat, who just want to make their own crossover rules. ¶ “The band was basically formed in the end of 2015 when our original guitarist, Anthony, hit me up with the idea to start a crossover band in the vein of New York hardcore meets Bay Area thrash,” guitarist Justin explains via email. “I’d say collectively as a band we all love the Big Three in NYC crossover—Cro-Mags, Leeway and Crumbsuckers—and I personally take a lot of influence from Slayer, Sepultura and any heavy metal band hailing from U.K., Europe or Japan.” ¶ Dead Heat, now a six-piece—Chris (vocals), Justin (guitar), Vince (bass), Yogie (drums), Ricky (lead guitar) and Chonch (second bassist)—after Anthony’s recent departure and the addition of two new members, sound more like something outta NYC’s scummy Lower East Side circa 1986 than a bunch of Cali retro thrashers 24 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

on their new Tankcrimes/Triple B EP, Endless Torment. From the oddly specific guitar sound (I can’t help but hear Cro-Mags, Ludichrist and Crumbsuckers) to the breakdowns and the hardcore vocals, these dudes have nailed it. Add a smidge of old-school Bay Area thrash insanity and the picture is complete. Endless Torment also benefits sonically from a sympathetic capturing of the band’s sound by Night Demon guitarist Armand John Anthony. “Chris and Vince have known him for a long time, so the vibes were good,” notes Justin. “He records the 805 metal gods, Cirith Ungol, so we knew we were in great hands.” “He even threw in a guest solo,” adds vocalist Chris. The album was mixed and mastered by Arthur Rizk for the complete crossover package. The Tankcrimes connection was a perfect fit for the new release. The band met label owner Scotty

Heath while they were on tour with Municipal Waste (Heath worked as a roadie or “Vibe Tech” for the Waste) and hit it off immediately. “We pretty much chatted with him everyday and became close,” notes Justin. “He really dug our vibe and was stoked on the promotion we did ourselves for our last record. We had gone and pasted posters up around L.A. and the Bay Area that really got a lot of attention. We had discussed the possibility of a split release with Triple B, and the rest is history.” As for future crossover recombinations and genre-demolishing releases, the band has no immediate plans, but would love to continue to keep the Tankcrimes connection going. “As of right now, Endless Torment is just a one-off release, but who knows what the future holds,” Justin says. “[We’re] hoping to work with Tankcrimes more in the future.” —ADEM TEPEDELEN

PHOTO BY CEZAR SALAS OLVERA

Oxnard crossover upstarts revisit NYC’s mid-’80s mean streets

HOW TO GET FROM THIS...

...TO THIS

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NUCLEAR REMAINS

On debut massacre, radioactive BDM gore-tet become death, destroyer of worlds

rom the wastelands that spawned Nuclear Death, there comes a new pack of irradiated death metal sickos. We first met Nuclear Remains last year when Demo:listen covered the young Arizona-based cannibalistic mutants’ four-song demo, Radioactive Decomposition. Since then, Nuclear Remains have taken some major steps toward their shared dream of total domination. ¶ Guitarist Anthony Fazio and bassist Gabe Villont both agree: “We’re taking this band to a whole new level!” ¶ Shortly after the release of their demo, the band inked a deal with 21st century underground DM kingpin Maggot Stomp. “It was definitely an experience putting together an entire full-length album, getting good artwork and all that stuff. We made the decision to take our time and really plan out this release with Maggot Stomp and give the fans something special.” ¶ That something special? The Phoenix quartet’s allguts-spiller-no-filler debut full-length Dawn of Eternal Suffering. Fazio and Villont lay out how the record came together in a very 26 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

old-school sort of way: “We started recording the first four songs we had done in November of 2022.” The band says after new vocalist Aiden Santelli joined the band, they took some time for everyone to adjust. “At first, Dawn of Eternal Suffering was going to be our second demo/EP/ whatever you wanna call it. So, after we laid down those initial demo tracks at Infrasound [Studio in Queen Creek, AZ], we returned to the bunker to keep writing some more tunes while our buddy Xander Bridge was getting the rough mix for the album. “We came back for a day in December,” they continue, “where we tracked the song ‘Thermobaric Asphyxiation.’ Initially, that was supposed to be the last song for the EP, but once we started working with Maggot Stomp, we decided to extend it to an LP and came back one final time in March of 2023 to

finish recording the album. The process of recording the album overall was great; I think we definitely expanded our creativity a lot more as a band with this release.” To represent their album, the band commissioned artwork for their cover instead of finding a gnarly image, as they had done for their demo. Hence, Dawn of Eternal Suffering’s artwork, painted by Colter Masson, gives Trample the Weak, Hurdle the Dead-meets-Acts of the Unspeakable vibes. While a track like “Eaten by Mutants” beats you over the head with Nuclear Remains’ respect for the pioneers of brutal death metal, the band seems eager to prove that they are “the sickest freaks in the valley,” as they phrase it. “We really wanted to create an experience [with Dawn of Eternal Suffering] and not just have a bunch of repetitive beatdown riffs over and over.” —DUTCH PEARCE

PHOTO BY ADAM GUTIERREZ

NUCLEAR REMAINS

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ASHTAR

hough switzerland’s ashtar originally started as a duo, musician Witch N. found herself alone for the now-solo project’s newest album Wandering Through Time. ¶ “Marko Lehtinen [drums, guitars] and I separated ways in common agreement, and there were personal and creative reasons,” says Witch N. on the lineup change. “It was very different, how I recorded the album this time. Before, we recorded analog live in the studio; now I tried very differently because my budget was not so high and I tried to keep the costs very low. I recorded everything in a home studio and digitally. It was very new and not my preferred way of recording, to be honest, but it was a good experience and the plus is you have control over everything always, and you can work very quickly. You don’t have to work eight hours to have your studio time. I must confess that it was cool to work like this, but I don’t like the sound of digital recording.” ¶ Now channeling her thoughts through a more specific and personal lens, Witch N. also acknowledges that 28 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

Wandering Through Time possesses a musical change for the project, as well, though Ashtar remains in a nebulous place between black and doom metal, something people refer to as “blackened doom metal.” “It’s always difficult because we’re located between two musical styles, but for me it’s very interesting to do this because I like black and doom metal a lot,” Witch N. explains regarding this vague classification. “The audience can be confused, and think I’m too slow for black metal or too blackened for doom metal. I think my sound has evolved more over the last few years, though.” Of course, this type of genre also comes from a place of confusion for the listener, but Witch N. embraces the categorizing to which fans and the press alike imbue Ashtar as a means of familiarity with her music. “Sometimes I was surprised about comparisons or something

like that,” Witch N. says, “but I think what we wanted to create was received correctly. I always felt that people understood.” Now a solo band, Ashtar operates in a more personal realm, with Witch N. looking to a metaphysical realm for inspiration. “The lyrics always came from me, but now I am alone,” she explains. “It is my most personal album lyrically, but they still remain in this dream realm—the other side where dreams come from. The lyrics are often fragmentary like dreams, as well. I don’t like to tell a story or to say exactly what I mean. I am more interested in creating an atmosphere or images with language.” “My source of inspiration is always the same,” she clarifies. “It’s the music I listen to, especially live, as well as my interest in the occult and esoteric themes. The biggest part comes from my dreams. ‘Dreams are our second life.’” —JON ROSENTHAL

PHOTO BY V. NOIR

ASHTAR

Black doom multi-instrumentalist finds herself alone like she began

RINGWORM

Metallic hardcore legends still bring the heat on ninth album

ith the moniker human furnace, you’d better be able to bring the heat. Luckily for longtime fans of ultra-aggressive metallic hardcore luminaries Ringworm, frontman James Bulloch can still deliver the goods. ¶ “Most times I’d say that my musical toolbox is three hammers: a big one, a medium and a small one,” Bulloch shares with a mischievous grin during a sit-down with Decibel. “I don’t try to overstretch what it is I’m capable of doing. I kind of attack everything. People ask if I sing for a band and I’m like, ‘I don’t sing, I just scream and yell.’ I’m pretty good at that.” ¶ Perhaps selling himself short, Bulloch—alongside guitarists Matt Sorg and Mike Lare, newly minted drummer Grady Wessellek (former drummer Ryan Steigerwald is credited on the album) and bassist Ed Stephens—is primed to uncork Ringworm’s ninth studio album Seeing Through Fire, a pulverizing barrage 30 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

to the senses that expertly combines eye-watering speed with earworm catchiness, while never straying too far from their tried-and-true approach to heavy music. “We’ve never been the type of band to venture too far from what we do best,” Bulloch shares of the new record, joking that, “With every record, at some point, you get the same reviews, like, ‘Well, it’s the same old shit!’ That’s fine. If we’re a one-trick pony, it’s a pretty good trick, so let’s stick with it. Nobody wants to hear us do an album of fuckin’ ballads!” Creeping across the three-decade mark, Ringworm have—brick by brutal brick—built a legacy that has endeared them to legions of fans for over 30 years. “It’s been a long road,” Bulloch admits, marveling at seeing

generations of Ringworm fans mosh, sweat and bask in the viciousness of their live performance. “It’s been strange, man, because some people are like, ‘How can you be in a band for so long?’ Well, you just don’t quit. That’s all there is to it. We’ve never made it our job. “It’s weird to sit back and think you’ve been doing something for over 30 years. I mean, we have three generations of fans coming to our shows now. We’ll play a show and we’ll have someone that’s our age or a little bit older that came to see us back in the day, and then we’d see them at a show and they’d have their kid with them on their shoulders with the headphones, and now that kid is at shows with their little kid with their headphones on! We’re like, wow! It’s a total trip.” —DILLON COLLINS

STORY BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ

A Tokyo doom pioneers

CHURCH OF MISERY

reanimate their serial-killing Sabbath worship

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lbert King stood 6-foot-4 and weighed 250. Eldest of

blues guitar’s sovereign triumvirate—Albert King, B.B. King, Freddie King—the Mississippian’s trademark Gibson Flying V weighs eight pounds, so make that 258. Second comp on Stax Records, the Velvet Bulldozer’s 1967 album Born Under a Bad Sign stings, swaggers and sustains. ¶ “Yes, I borrowed this [new album] title from Albert King,” writes Tatsu Mikami. “You got it right! I listen to the blues, but I’m not a blues maniac. Actually, I prefer country music, hillbilly and folk blues pre-World War II. Mississippi John Hurt is my favorite and I also like Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Blake and Fred McDowell.” ¶ The sixth studio full-length for Tokyo’s Church of Misery (not including Vol. 1, the original group’s initially unreleased debut), Born Under a Mad Sign plows folk-blues all right: Sabbath worship. Barbarous, lurching doom almost exclusively documenting serial killers and mass murders, the latest LP erupts Birmingham boom ‘n’ gloom commensurate with every COM note starting at the rainfall opening that first record.

Reverting back to a Japanese configura“Most Evil (Fritz Harmann)” revives the tion, the band’s latest incarnation circles back Butcher of Hanover (1879-1925) with gutting to Vol. 1 intonist Kazuhiro Asaeda, who also riffs and Blue Note-style album cover graphics. “Murder Castle Blues (H.H. Holmes)” tributes its front’s Mikami’s acid rockers Sonic Flower. “We made one album in 1996 and planned titular genre with ecstatic distress and decomposition. Closing killshots “Come and Get Me Sucker to self-release it, but [Asaeda] left the band in 1997, so we stopped pressing it,” details Mikami. (David Koresh)” and “Butcher Baker (Robert “I had many troubles with him. However, in Hansen)” match peak Misery in headbanging 2014, we met again through someone and recchantability and shred, respectively. onciled. After that, he joined Sonic Flower and “I’m a big fan of Bob Dylan [too] and have we made an album together in 2020.” all of his albums, including all Bootleg Series,” Last year’s throttling Me and My Bellbottom continues the bassist and sole songwriter. “[But] Blues makes two. when I write for Church, I try to make the best “Above all, I’m honored to have been best doom music. For me, the standard of everything friends with Tatsu for so long,” messages is Black Sabbath. My previous band was very Asaeda. “Working with him has been the popular in the Japanese underground metal smoothest in my career. A unique melody is scene. Salem played technical thrash metal, but born naturally.” Even so, the ultimate get goes Church was completely different. The audience was confused. It was only natural since no doom to Eternal Elysium beacon Yukito Okazaki, who handled mad shows had been played in axeman duties on Japan back then.” Born Under a Mad Sign. “I’ve known Tatsu for Among Japanese metal more than 30 years,” “pioneers,” the guitaremails black metal pioist’s emulsifying psych neer Mirai Kawashima. remains peerless. Here, “I got to know him right his tone radiates lumiafter I started Sigh. We nescence throughout. even put together an “His guitar is underground [concert] magic,” agrees named Art of Filth in Mikami. “Okazaki is an the early ’90s. I was born old friend. I've known and raised in Tokyo, so I him since pre-Church like this place a lot, but bands. At that time, I don’t think there’s a he had already formed ‘scene’ here. How many a doom band called Japanese metal bands can Eternal Elysium. you name?” I got their first demo Boris, Coffins, Defiled! tape and it blew “Of course, I know my mind. He is the [Tatsu] very well,” corTATSU MIKAMI Japanese Doom Guru.” roborates Defiled death “When I was 10 or 11, dealer Yusuke Sumita. “He is one of the pioneers my cousin let me listen of the Japanese metal scene. His previous band to Sabbath,” checks in Okazaki. “It was a shock: Salem successfully toured the U.K. before Defiled the singing, the instruments. The playing was started in 1992. He used to work at Disk Heaven, great, but the guitar tone stuck with me the a metal shop and hub for underground metal most. [Tony Iommi] is not only the pioneer for communities in Tokyo. I used to hang out there metal; he is a genius at taking influences from and asked him to put up a flier to recruit memthe blues, jazz and something more, and transbers for Defiled. When I started the band, he forming them into a simpler form.” gave me lots of advice about how to run it.” Three decades of Church of Misery loomBorn Under a Mad Sign follows a series of platters ing—two-thirds the lifespan of his favorite as knockout as manhole covers. Proper 2001 bow band—Tatsu Mikami considers a career/cataMaster of Brutality uncaged bullroarer Yoshiaki log corollary between the two doom constants. Negishi, then triptych The Second Coming (2004), “I’m amazed my band has been around 30 Houses of the Unholy (2009) and Thy Kingdom Scum years,” he acknowledges. “It’s great to be able (2013) paved a summit under “I, Motherfucker to communicate with people all over the world (Ted Bundy)” howler Hideki Fukasawa. And Then thanks to this long career. If we are Black There Were None… three years later enlisted all Sabbath after Ozzy, I love the Gillan era, which U.S. mercs, including Repulsion mic strangler was more aggressive and hysterical than Dio, Scott Carlson. [so] BORN AGAIN.”

I’M AMAZED MY BAND HAS BEEN AROUND 30 YEARS.”

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YOU

CAN’T

BRING HIM DOWN SPIRIT ADRIF T

mainman Nate Garrett wields his power (metal) for the greater good story by JAMIE LUDWIG

very time something significant happens to Spirit Adrift, it rains. ¶

Frontman Nate Garrett and drummer Mike Arellano rattle off a few of what they attest are hundreds of examples of uncanny precipitation throughout the Texas metal band’s history: A downpour that started just as Garrett hit creative gold after battling writer’s block. A spontaneous thunderstorm as they prepared for tour. And last fall—during their final practice before Garrett and Arellano drove to Chicago to track drums for their fifth studio album, Ghost at the Gallows (Century Media), with Sanford Parker at Electrical Audio (they finished recording with Jeff Henson at Red Nova Ranch)—a gale knocked out the power of the entire block of their rehearsal space. ¶ Today, Spirit Adrift are back in Chicago. Tomorrow, the four-piece—which also includes steadfast bassist Sonny DeCarlo and lightning-hot ex-Carcass guitarist Tom Draper— will play their third local show in less than a year, opening for Ohio hellraisers Midnight at Reggies Rock Club. Next month, they’ll fly to Europe, where they’ll play festivals alongside their childhood heroes in bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden. Once they return home, they’ll release Ghost on August 18. ¶ Tonight, though, Garrett and Arellano have joined me on the patio outside a neighborhood watering hole/coffee bar. The sky is clear, but between their stories and the unpredictability of Chicago weather, it feels like the clouds could open up at any minute. SE :E DLE C I B E L 34 : A PP R TI LE M 2 0B2E1R: 2D0E2C3I B

“I’m very much an evidence person—I’m a skeptic, 100 percent,” Garrett stresses. “But there are things that happen to me repeatedly that are as consistent as something that could be proven with a scientific method, [if we’d] developed a way to scientifically prove them. It’s just, certain things have happened in my life—a lot of which are connected to this project—where it’s just undeniable.” Take the intermittent windshield damage, a phenomenon that’s followed Spirit Adrift from album to album. “When we were working on Curse of Conception [2017], I was on my way to the studio, and a rock hit my windshield and cracked it. Divided by Darkness [2019], same thing. Enlightened in Eternity [2020], same thing,” Garrett says. It happened again in June 2021, while Garrett was en route to meet Arellano for the first time at a jam session with mutual friends. They’d intended to start a crossover thrash project until they realized they shared a broader musical vocabulary. “I started noticing that any riff I played, this dude knew the whole song,” Garrett says. “We were supposed to be jamming together, for sure.”

Arellano agrees. “I feel, from my experience, that everything happens for a reason,” he says. Soon enough, he officially joined the band. Fate may be smiling more brightly on Spirit Adrift than it has in a while, but you couldn’t argue they haven’t worked their asses off to shape their destiny, too. Arellano is a Texas hardcore veteran (playing in Indisgust and M.O.D., among others) who was raised on hard rock and metal thanks to his father, who immigrated to the U.S. from Central Mexico in the late ’70s. “Music, rock ‘n’ roll, that was his escape. His dream was to see a rock show in the States,” Arellano says. At age 3, Arellano’s dad took him to see Judas Priest and Van Halen. Witnessing Alex Van Halen solo as the riser elevated from the stage amid flashing lights and fireworks changed his young life. “My dad would bring home buckets from work, and I’d get sticks off the trees and use them for drumsticks,” he says. In his early teens, he purchased a drum set from a kid from his church. “Then it was game over,” he says. Garrett has spoken candidly about launching Spirit Adrift as a solo project in 2015 to help him stay sober after detoxing from alcohol addiction; it’s helped him navigate every up and down since, including relocating from Arizona to Texas in 2020; the pandemic; and losing loved ones, friends and his beloved dog, Lizzy (whose image is on the Enlightened cover). “Leading up

to Spirit Adrift, I wasn’t really developing as a person because of the things I was doing to myself,” he says. “I feel like I’ve had more personal development in the past eight years than I did in [my first] 27.” Spirit Adrift has developed musically, too, morphing from formidable doom project into one of the most crushing traditional metal outfits around, though the proliferation of subgenres in modern music sometimes casts them as the odd band out. “There’s not a lot of just straight-up metal bands in our generation, and the few that are are kinda retro-sounding,” Garrett says. But Spirit Adrift aren’t going for trends, fads or nostalgia; they’re going for timeless. A short list of their influences—Dio, Dimebag, Phil Lynott, Tom Petty, Muddy Waters—suggests they believe charting your own path and writing good fucking songs are the keys to rock ‘n’ roll immortality. That’s the impression they make on Ghost, too. In September, when I visited them at Electrical for a Decibel studio report, Garrett told me the record was cultivated over two and a half years, and was “fully a result of death and grief and loss.” The final result is heavy as fuck, but rather than sink into total negativity, anguish and darkness, tracks like “I Shall Return” and “Death Won’t Stop Me” explore resilience, strength and maintaining connection, even beyond the grave. It’s real-life adult struggle laid bare, and anyone

who’s been through the wringer could find something to relate to. Taken with Spirit Adrift’s blistering riffs and copious hooks, the effect can be downright uplifting. “I’ll think that I’ve written a really heavy, brutal, emotional song, getting all this really difficult stuff out,” Garrett says. “But it seems like when it reaches people on the other side, they’re experiencing it as this triumphant thing, which is cool.” These days their fanbase is increasingly diverse. As it turns out, plenty of metalheads get that expressing vulnerability can be far more brutal than waxing on about sacrilege and nihilism. Arellano says his hardcore friends dig Spirit Adrift as much as the military veterans who have told them their music has gotten them through hard times. “It’s tough for artists—or anybody—to talk about pain, but I think when you do, you let other people know, ‘Hey, you’re not alone,’” he says. For Garrett, reaching others is the ultimate goal. “I’m trying to help people,” he says. “The bands that I grew up listening to helped me not kill myself… I’m trying to pass that forward. If you’re in a metal band to make money these days, you’re delusional, straight up. So, what’s your motivation? Good music? Well, what’s good music? To me, it’s music that makes somebody feel something, and I want to make people feel like they can have a good life.”

DECIBE DLE C: ISBEEPLT:EAMPBREIR L 2023 1 : 35

interview by

QA j. bennett

W I T H

OXBOW frontman on love songs, his upcoming memoir and the band’s best album yet

36 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

very day in every way, better and better.” This is essentially the

way Eugene Robinson has answered the question “How are you?” every time I’ve asked him over the course of the last 20 years. And while it’s likely that those words weren’t exactly true sometimes, this time I totally believe him. For one, the Oxbow frontman is almost fully recovered from surgery for something called Haglund’s deformity. “The bone inside my Achilles tendon was cutting the tendon from the inside, and it was about 50 percent detached,” he explains. “Because I was running hills with bags of gravel.” ¶ He’s also finally free of his long-running editorial job at Ozy Media, a news and entertainment site that very publicly imploded when the New York Times reported that Ozy COO and co-founder Samir Rao had impersonated a YouTube executive on a call with Goldman Sachs. Rao and another Ozy executive were later convicted of fraud, while co-founder Carlos Watson was recently arrested and pleaded not guilty to the same. All three currently face a civil suit from the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission, which claims they lied to investors. Meanwhile, former employees—including Robinson—have come forward to expose the company’s toxic work environment. (Full disclosure: I wrote several articles for Ozy prior to the pandemic, including at least two or three of which Robinson oversaw as editor.) “I’m glad it finally all came out, because I’ve been complaining about the place for a decade and people always thought, ‘Oh, that’s just Eugene complaining,’” he says. “But no—it was really that bad.” ¶ As if that weren’t enough, Robinson’s memoir, A Walk Across Dirty Water and Straight Into Murderer’s Row, is being published by Feral House in August. Plus, the latest and possibly greatest Oxbow album, Love’s Holiday, is upon us. Believe it or not, it’s comprised entirely of love songs. “This is a dark record, but I don’t think it’s bad dark,” our man says. “These are grown-up takes on love. If you want something else, you gotta go to Bryan Adams or some shit like that. I don’t know. But this is for grown-ups.” Love’s Holiday is fantastic—maybe Oxbow’s best album thus far. Not many bands are putting out some of their best work 35 years in. What do you attribute that to?

I remember being in bands where it’s like, “Oh, this is the Iggy part.” You don’t hear that stuff in Oxbow practices, and you haven’t in about 20 years at this point. It’s embarrassingly difficult because we’ll do interviews where we’ll be asked for antecedents or fellow travelers, but our musical information, connected to now, is sort of sparse. I used to think Sting was ridiculous when he was asked what he listened to at home and he said, “I’ve got so much music in my head that I don’t listen to anything.” I thought, Okay, that’s Sting, and that’s garbage. I do listen to a lot of current music that I believe I should listen to, but when it comes to making music, it’s never at this point a journey to discover ourselves through other people. It’s a purely concentrated version of discovering ourselves through ourselves. PHOTO BY PHIL SHARP

The album is nothing but love songs. How did we get here?

It’s where we’ve always been. If you listen to “The Stabbing Hand” [from Oxbow’s 1995 album, Let Me Be a Woman]—although the title might throw those of less sturdy intelligence—that was a love song. Even though I’m talking about, “I bent that man in half.” Wire magazine reviewed it and said, “These songs seem to be created as a result of an unspecified disaster.” [Laughs] I said, “Well, we’re gonna spend an entire career trying very specifically to specify that disaster.” And in ways that nobody seemed to be doing. It gets very easy to mythologize love when you write about it, but my objective lyrically was to get you to understand it without making you understand it. When you go to school, it’s a process of people making you understand things. I’m much more interested in getting people to understand. I think it’s much more personal and lasting and useful. The people who tend to listen to Oxbow over the years tend to be, much like us, obsessive.

This being Oxbow, they’re not really the kind of love songs most people think about when they think about love songs.

When I hear people who are known to do love songs—and I’m not talking about the people who do it really well; like, there’s always been a romantic veneer to what Nick Cave has done—it always feels like Wayne Newton to me. Or, alternatively, it’s very tempting to get seduced by early-stage takes on love—the giddy thing. Half the love songs that are written about that first six months. They don’t talk about when it turns. They don’t talk about the long-lasting thing. And they don’t talk about the long-lasting thing that you lose when you lose everything. I’m talking about stuff that’s much heavier than anything I could’ve come up with at the age of 26. “Icy White & Crystalline” is one of my favorites. It has a rock ‘n’ roll feeling—is that where you’re coming from on that one?

It’s funny because Niko [Wenner] has done interviews where he’s said one of the influences for him on that was a very specific section of a Van Halen song, which I had no idea of. [Laughs] I never would’ve made that connection, but apparently it’s something that got in his head and he worked into the body of the song. Lyrically, it has rock antecedents with … [laughs] I gotta be careful about this… there’s somebody I know— and this is an inaccurate way to talk about her, but she’s a Pamela Anderson celebrity imitator. And not only that, but her boyfriend at the time was a Tommy Lee, uh… interpreter. And they both lived in L.A. And she was sort of the lyrical inspiration for that. I guess in its rendering, with Van Halen in Niko’s head and Mötley Crüe in my head, this is what those bands sound like after they’ve been Oxbow-ized. “The Second Talk” is another one that jumps out. You’re saying a bunch of extra stuff in there that isn’t printed on the lyric sheet. To me, those words are a bit sinister, but they also seem like a story within a story. Am I on the right track, and why did you decide to leave that part off the lyric sheet?

Yeah, there’s a story within a story. I know that streaming services are also supposed to be providing the lyrics these days, but I can tell half the time nobody’s reading them. So, I view lyric sheets as kind of a guide for those who are interested, but I’ll by no means be restricted to what I’ve written. The other thing that happens is that I’m a chronic over-writer, and, like Harold Pinter, I don’t allow editing of my stuff. On Serenade in Red, I went nuts. You couldn’t possibly fit it all. With the new one, I wanted to economize with the lyrics, but standing at DECIBEL : SEPTEMBER 2023 : 37

 No love lost

Oxbow’s Robinson (r) spares no feelings in his work, especially yours

There’s some heavy stuff in the section you sent me. Did you wrestle with what to include?

the mic I felt the need to explain and extract. I did not expect you or anybody to ask me about it. But at the same time, there are a lot of moving parts here. The album is a very public artifact, and I’ve got kids. I’ve got a wife and an ex-wife, and other people I’m solicitous of. [Laughs] So, there’s a need sometimes to conceal while revealing, if that makes sense. Speaking of revealing, you’ve got a memoir coming out in August. Why did you want to write one?

I didn’t—at all. Adam Parfrey, who started Feral House, wanted me to do it. He’d seen an interview I’d done with Anton LaVey in my zine, The Birth of Tragedy, and hired me to do a foreword for a Screamin’ Jay Hawkins book. He’d been asking me to write a memoir for years, and I turned him down repeatedly for the same reasons I leave out some lyrics to Oxbow songs: I’ve got kids, and they read. Then Parfrey died unexpectedly, but the people who continued Feral House upped the ante by showing up in San Francisco and taking me to dinner. They said they felt my story was compelling, but they didn’t want a 500-page book. They suggested I cover birth through age 27, which is basically birth through the creation of Oxbow. Which I thought was really cool, because that was before I lost my mind. [Laughs] Oxbow was the beginning of me losing my mind. But I’ve got good stories from before that—my old band Whipping Boy, my problems with the Manson Family, the fistfight with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There’s a lot of cool stuff that happened. Once they talked you into it, did you look to any other memoirs for guidance?

Not really. Lydia Lunch had one called Paradoxia that I thought was phenomenal. Another friend of mine, a bass player named Adam Smyer, did a fictionalized thing called Knucklehead—it’s a novel, but it’s clearly drawn from his own life. It’s just good writing. 38 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

I enjoy a good memoir, but you have to tell the truth—insofar as you are capable of doing that. What’s that saying? There are three types of secrets: the ones that you and I keep, the ones I keep from you, and the ones about future events as yet unknown. So, if I’m involved in bullshitting myself to a certain degree, that’s the only thing that should be on display. But telling the truth was a relatively easy thing to do. And you were instrumental as well, Mr. Bennett. What?

[Laughs] Yeah, that thing you told me by proxy when you did an interview in Decibel a couple years back. You told someone that you have a friend whose opinion you value and wish he’d bring it to bear on some of these race issues, but he’s just not interested. And that was part of Feral House’s pitch to me: They wanted to hear from me in this regard because it’s not a book that Henry Rollins or Ian MacKaye could write. So, I thought, okay: It’s like that scene in The Godfather where Michael Corleone says, “This one time, you can ask me about my business.” So, in the memoir I talked about race and got it out of the way early. So, thank you for motivating that. [Laughs]

Give me an example.

[Laughs] The size of Henry Rollins’ penis. It’s not really germane to my story, but it wasn’t me that described it. I haven’t spent much time dealing with his penis. But someone he slept with told me about it. But hey, that was her take. That’s what was said. Who cares? He can cry in his mansion. You publish a weekly Substack newsletter entitled Look What You Made Me Do. Has that been a proving ground for any of the material in memoir?

No, the newsletter was done because I was suddenly aware of the fact that I had a ton of stuff I had written for Ozy that they were never gonna publish—stuff that I like. The first piece I wanted, which is in the memoir, has to do with me witnessing a rape when I was 10 or 11 years old. They were like, “Fuck no. Do whatever you want with it.” So, I wrote about it in the Substack, and they discovered it maybe three months later and told me, “You’re moonlighting. You can’t do that.” I told them I had an email from them saying I could, but they said, “Whoever told you that is wrong, and you’re wrong for doing it.” They were really aggressive about me pulling it down, but I liked it enough that I wasn’t gonna do that. When they fired me, I turned everything over to the lawyer. So, the newsletter is a forum for stuff I have no other forum for.

My pleasure. I noticed that you addressed it early and dispensed with it quickly, which didn’t surprise me. Do you think your disinterest in talking about racial issues puts you at odds with other Black writers?

You’ve included plenty of autobiographical material in articles you’ve written over the years—including for Decibel and in your Fight book. If you hadn’t written so much autobiography already, would the memoir have been a harder sell for you?

I don’t know. Laina Dawes, who wrote What Are You Doing Here? about being a Black woman in metal, just did a two-hour interview with me for the cover of The Wire, and she didn’t bring it up. But she probably knows me well enough at this point that it’s just not something I’m interested in. I don’t wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and go, “What kind of Black guy shit am I gonna get up to today?” [Laughs] It’s unusual for you, maybe—it’s not unusual for me.

Well, it’s a different thing. There’s a certain anonymity. I don’t know what Decibel’s readership is, but my mom doesn’t read it. My kids don’t read it. [Laughs] Yeah, maybe there was a testing of the waters regarding people’s level of interest, but I get remarkably little from Albert by way of feedback. I’m not one of those writers who needs constant validation, but I am spending a little bit of time on this—does anybody give a shit? And he goes, “Yeah, people seem to love it!” I guess I’ll take that as a call to continue.

PHOTO BY PHIL SHARP

I don’t wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and go, ‘What kind of Black guy shit am I gonna get up to today?’ [Laughs] It’s unusual for you, maybe— it’s not unusual for me.

There was only one point where the old politician in me was like, “Man, this is gonna hurt somebody’s feelings. I should maybe edit it.” It was a crossroads moment. But I was like, “Whatever. What are you gonna do? Beat me up?” [Laughs] I’m trying to be as even-handed as possible in my take on things, but there’s no point in writing a memoir if you’re gonna go mealymouthed. So, I might hurt some people’s feelings. But that’s okay—they don’t have to be my friend.

ecibel presents an exclusive excerpt from Bazillion

Points’ new, massive, 528-page United Forces: An Archive of Brazil’s Raw Metal Attack, 1986-1991, by Marcelo R. Batista. Read on to revisit the mid-’80s in Brazil when Ratos de Porão were boycotted by punks for turning too far towards metal, Venom and Exciter finally descended upon the country, and mayhem ensued when headbangers stole each other’s T-shirts.

 A bone to pick Zhema (l) and Angel of Vulcano backstage at Corinthians Gym in 1986

40 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT

Ready to explode  Zhema (l) and Zé Flávio summon the evil chords of Bloody Vengeance, Vulcano’s first studio album, circa 1986

a mark with their debut album, Silêncio Fúnebre. Like Descanse em Paz, Silêncio Fúnebre showed a band trying to break musical boundaries without giving up a unique, highly charged sound. Punk and headbanger gangs became plentiful

in São Paulo, and the rivalry between the two groups was growing huge. Their fights could be very violent, resulting in a number of people being injured and even killed. There were also constant internal hostilities within the groups. Among the bangers, for example, there was a need to constantly test everything. To stand out among their peers, kids would trash something like the bathroom of a concert hall, or assault and rob another headbanger who didn’t belong to the same group. Everyone had stories about having their records taken when leaving a store, or even losing the T-shirts off their back at a concert. In the minds of the “takers,” it wasn’t “honest” for someone to buy a record or wear a T-shirt of a band they knew little about. To be “worthy” of such items, one needed to have in-depth knowledge of the bands and what they represented. Regardless, quite often no amount of familiarity with the bands was enough to avoid having records or T-shirts taken by those who insisted on this delinquent behavior. Apart from these dark moments, 1986 was a magical year for Brazilian metal. Following the good response to their 1985 record Live, Vulcano released Bloody Vengeance, their first studio album. Also released in 1986 were Antes do Fim by Dorsal Atlântica; Ao Vivo by Korzus; and Signo de Taurus by Taurus. The Cogumelo label from Belo Horizonte released Morbid Visions by Sepultura, and the first edition of the compilation Warfare Noise, introducing Mutilator, Holocausto, Chakal and Sarcófago.

Brazilian record labels also began distributing more titles from foreign bands. The Enigma Discos label released Seven Churches by Possessed, Bonded by Blood by Exodus and Darkness Descends by Dark Angel. Woodstock Discos, the label started by the popular Woodstock Rock Store in downtown São Paulo, brought us releases from Grave Digger, Kreator, Chariot and many others. Meanwhile, the more hardcore-oriented New Face Records released the To the Ends of the Earth EP by English Dogs and the compilation album Afflicted Cries in the Darkness of War with the Swedish groups Anti-Cimex, Rövsvett, Fear of War and Crude SS. Bands such as Onslaught, Crucifix, English Dogs, Sacrilege and Corrosion of Conformity, which merged metal with hardcore—but sounded dirtier than most American crossover— were gaining more and more Brazilian fans. On their Descanse em Paz album, local heroes Ratos de Porão made that trend clear, charting the path they would follow for many years. For their trouble and pioneering attitude, however, Ratos de Porão earned the title “traitors of the punk movement.” In interviews, the band members questioned the intolerance and incomprehension of the public that used to follow them. RDP reinforced their crossover position by writing a manifesto intended to be published in punk fanzines. None of this worked. Ratos de Porão ended up being boycotted by the more conservative punks. At the same time, they influenced younger people with a more open mentality. The band Armagedom had already been treading the same path and made

----On Wednesday, December 10, 1986, Venom and

Exciter performed at the Corinthians gymnasium in the eastern district of São Paulo. Upon our arrival, my friend Ricardo and I were faced with thousands of headbangers on the verge of insanity. Unfortunately, ignorance was also on full display. I saw more than one fan being surrounded and having his T-shirt ripped off by other headbangers. One of our colleagues had his sneakers taken by force. While standing in the monstrous entry line, I spotted a large group from Osasco. They had chartered a bus to go to the show. Near the entrance was a big uproar, with the police beating up the crowd. No one was allowed to come inside while wearing studded rivet belts or bracelets. That night was my first time seeing Vulcano, the opening act. The band, from the coastal city of Santos, rarely performed in the interior São Paulo metropolitan area. Lots of rumors circulated about Vulcano following a story that ran in Veja magazine. The article claimed that their then-drummer Laudir Piloni was regularly robbing graves in a cemetery, digging up human bones to use as drumsticks. According to a newspaper article—reproduced in the band’s publicity newsletter—Laudir ended up being indicted because of that story. The newspaper headline read something like “Metaller Uses Human Bones to Play His Macabre Rock Music.” Opening for Venom and Exciter, Vulcano delivered a really intense show, but the equipment D E C I B E L : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 3 : 41

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT

seemed poorly controlled and the volume was low. The band had changed its lineup a month before that show, so this was a new formation with vocalist Angel, guitarist Laércio, bassist Zhema and drummer Sérgio. Sérgio had been the drummer for Vodu from São Paulo, while Laércio had played in bands from Osasco such as Totem and Metargon. From where I sat on the bleachers, I could see the whole scene before me. The place was huge—organizers said 10,000 people were there. Before Exciter went onstage, I saw many small fights. In one case, someone tore off a guy’s cap and discovered his Mohawk cut. After taking many slaps and punches, the poor punk guy was all covered in blood. The police came to take him out of the place. Soon, Exciter performed. Their show was precise, and they played several well-known songs and completely pleased the crowd. Even though they weren’t one of my favorite bands, I was impressed from beginning to end. The most anticipated band of the night was clearly Venom, who had a veritable legion of fans in Brazil. When the stage lights went dark, the expectation only increased. A few minutes later, a huge demon backdrop became visible. Then they entered the stage: Cronos on bass and vocals, Abaddon on drums and, to our astonishment, two newbie guitarists standing in for Mantas. This shift in personnel caught a lot of people by surprise and generated discussions that last to this day. The volume was very loud. Several songs were played much faster than on the original recordings—sometimes so fast that the songs sounded garbled. Still, nothing could ruin the moment. Venom’s performance went well, but before the end I heard people murmuring that Exciter had stolen the show. Even Ricardo couldn’t stop repeating that, which irritated me a bit. Afterward, we hitched a ride home with the charter bus guys, who dropped us on the border between São Paulo and Osasco. Since it was the wee hours, Ricardo and I had to walk several miles all the way back to our neighborhood. This hike in the dead of night took us well over an hour, but the harshness of the march was lightened by the fact that we had just taken part in a unique experience in our lives. Back at the steel mill the next morning, reality was much less exciting. I changed the machines’ dirty oil, carried and organized the parts as they were produced, and swept the floor of my section. At lunchtime, I used to sit at the foot of a gigantic lathe. I began to quietly wish that the company would go bankrupt so I wouldn’t have to go back to that place. On our own time, Ricardo and I expanded our involvement with the underground. We had greater access to material from many different Brazilian bands, but this was not yet reflected in the pages of United Forces. We merely published whatever we could absorb by reading magazines 42 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

Genuine copy  United Forces Issue No. 2 with some of the author’s personal bootleg tape collection

and other fanzines, along with what we could collect in the record store circuit of downtown São Paulo. We spent every Saturday wandering between Woodstock Discos and Grandes Galerias. We met other people who were also regulars at those places, which often led to spontaneous exchanges. Someone was always there willing to talk, or wanting to sell or trade something. To us, records, tapes, photos, posters, magazines and fanzines were all extremely precious. Some of our treasure was probably unique to Brazil. For instance, we would buy pirated photos that were sold in the hallways or even in the record stores of Grandes Galerias. Some guys would photograph pages from imported magazines and then sell the developed photos. These enterprising dealers had everything: Slayer, Metallica, Voivod, Celtic Frost, English Dogs, G.B.H., Destruction, Kreator and so on. Selling photos of pictures from magazines was very common at the time. Another regular practice was the trading of home-recorded or pirate tapes. Imported records were quite expensive and therefore hard to access by penniless fellows like us. Our solution was to buy copied tapes so we could hear new records and stay updated about what was being released abroad. Some of these tapes became so special to me that I made handmade covers for them. I would type the titles of the songs on the inside and sometimes put a “pirate photo” of the band on the outer part of the case. Some of these tapes looked pretty cool, if I do say so myself!

Our salaries as apprentices in the metal factory were not enough to both help with our household expenses and buy the material on which we based the fanzine. In order to make some extra cash, we also worked some weekends delivering real estate pamphlets in the wealthy neighborhoods of São Paulo. In our own neighborhood, many streets weren’t even paved—so when it rained, we had muddy sneakers. We worked hard on the second issue of United Forces. We really wanted to enhance the layout and presentation. We bought new pens, found new sheets of dry-transfer letters of different types, collected more photos, and then we put our artistic flair to work. From comic books, we copied demons, skulls and other creepy creatures, which we used to fill any empty space on the page. In the page margins, we drew cobwebs, dripping blood, bricks, thorny plants and anything else our imaginations allowed. We also improved the general appearance of the fanzine by assembling the text in two or three columns instead of running one single column from margin to margin. For the cover, we chose a picture of Tom Araya, the bassist and vocalist of Slayer. Above him, we placed the phrase “Metal for Maniacs Pure,” taken from the lyrics of Venom’s “Black Metal.” United Forces: An Archive of Brazil’s Raw Metal Attack, 1986-1991 is available now from Bazillion Points.

the

definitive stories

behind extreme music’s

definitive albums

Survival Horror the making of Opeth’s Still Life SEPTEMBER 2023 : 4 4 : DECIBEL

joseph schafer

BOY

meets girl. Boy falls

in love with girl, but when boy meets girl’s family and friends, they definitely don’t love him. So, boy and girl try to run away, hijinks ensue, yadda yadda yadda, people wind up dead. It’s a tale as old as time, one that’s been interpolated by storytelling masters like William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet), Oliver Stone (Natural Born Killers), and also Opeth singer and guitarist Mikael Åkerfeldt, who spun star-crossed lovers meeting their gruesome demise into prog metal gold with 1999’s Still Life. Still Life marks the beginning of Opeth as most of their listeners have come to know them. It’s their first record with bassist Martín Méndez, whose addition solidified Opeth’s classic lineup. It’s also their first collaboration with Travis Smith, who has produced all their album covers since. At the same time, it captures a band undergoing a transition both musically and commercially. Disparate songs like the utterly moshable “Serenity Painted Death” and the romantic ballad “Face of Melinda” expand on both the dark and light pieces of the chiaroscuro style the band innovated with their Hall of Fame-inducted debut Orchid. Opeth haven’t utterly committed to both extremes on the same record since. It’s also their first and only release with Peaceville Records; their swift entry-then-exit from that roster is as harrowing as Still Life’s plot. With Still Life, Opeth entered their imperial phase. It’s also the album that elevated them from European curiosities to a global phenomenon. Opeth’s first show in the United States, a simultaneously fraught and triumphant set at Milwaukee Metalfest, came after Still Life dropped. Thereafter, Åkerfeldt, Méndez, guitarist Peter Lindgren and drummer Martin Lopez became critical and commercial successes. Without Still Life, they never would have made its beloved immediate follow-up Blackwater Park (also a Hall of Fame inductee). Moreover, if Still Life hadn’t bloomed, Opeth probably never would have made anything else. The band created it while at the end of their collective rope, with their future in doubt and virtually without rehearsals— or any finished songs, for that matter. To hear them tell it, the album was a Hail Mary at making something—anything—work for them. Its tumultuous production was a hazy nightmare. Still Life tells a love story, but making the album was a horror story, one they’re proud to tell as we induct this classic into the Hall of Fame.

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What was the general mood in Opeth when the writing process began on Still Life? MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT: People don’t know this, but Still Life was the last hurrah for us. We’d done three records before that, all of which we were happy about, but nothing really happened with the band. For Still Life, we had a new record deal, and there was some excitement about that, but nothing was working. I didn’t have a penny to my name. So, I thought if Still Life was going to be the last record, I was going to do it as bombastically as I could. PETER LINDGREN: At that point in our career, we felt like nothing much was actually happening. This was the early internet days, so whatever recognition we had, we didn’t know about. Later, after Blackwater Park, somebody told me, “You sold 100,000 albums,” I was like, “What are you even talking about?” We didn’t know. No one told us. MARTÍN MÉNDEZ: Still Life was my first album with Opeth in the studio, and I was so happy about it. I came into the band a week before they started recording My Arms, Your Hearse, so I didn’t have the time to record. I was excited to start playing because I had been in the band for a year or two, but we didn’t do any live shows— or anything else. Still Life was the first big thing I did with a band.

Is it true this is the first Opeth album where any songs were demoed? ÅKERFELDT: There were no demos as such,

but Anders Nyström from Katatonia had a four-track portable studio. We were heavily into video games, and I used to spend time at his place. At night we would play Silent Hill 2 together and record riffs. Some of the riffs we recorded wound up on the album, but there were no vocals or bass; just a guitar and a drum machine. They weren’t songs. There were not more than 10 minutes of music on those recordings; the rest I kept in my head. Most of the record was written on paper: “Cool Morbid Angel riff, four bars,” etc. What I recorded at Anders’s place did help me feel that I was onto something. LINDGREN: Mike recorded stuff, but he recorded to remember the riffs. We never took a demo into the rehearsal room because we didn’t rehearse. It’s not that we were not a rehearsing band; we just shifted from rehearsing loads. For the first album, we would rehearse six times per week. We even rehearsed in darkness because we wanted to be tighter. For the first two albums, we had a lot of material, and we would just go into the studio and record it. On My Arms and later, we had a recording slot, but no material, so we just flipped the process to book first, write later, and then record and tour.

“People don’t know this, but Still Life was the last hurrah for us.”

MIKA E L Å KE RF E LDT MÉNDEZ: I think we only rehearsed once, and the

only things we rehearsed were small parts from two or three songs. “Face of Melinda” was something we rehearsed because I remember writing the bassline in my head on the way to the studio while we were sitting in the car. MARTIN LOPEZ: The songs were demoed, but I don’t think we rehearsed them before going into the studio, or at least I can’t recall us doing that. Still Life is a concept record. Why did you make that choice, and how did you come up with the narrative for it?

I was piss-poor at the time, and the concept behind Still Life was so different from my situation; it didn’t come from my personal life. The idea of a guy being banished from town because he’s a heretic coming back for his love is a simple concept that’s been done many times in different shapes and forms; Still Life was just my take on it. It was a love story; I could relate to that. It’s not a super original plot, but who was making concept records in death metal at that time? I don’t know anyone.

ÅKERFELDT: The idea was it would suck you in in

This is the first album with Martín Méndez playing bass. How did he join Opeth?

a different way. I was always a big King Diamond fan, and most of his records are concept albums. I was heavily into Abigail, “Them,” Conspiracy and The Eye, and I wanted to do something like that. I did it before with My Arms, Your Hearse, and that worked, but it was the first step into that territory. Still Life clicked. The odd thing is I can’t remember how I came up with the idea. There was no direct inspiration from a book or film.

ÅKERFELDT: Peter and I were like brothers when we did the first two records. Then, we put an ad in the music shops around Stockholm; that’s how we got in touch with Lopez and Méndez, who were also like brothers. They lived together. Méndez was fresh from Uruguay; he didn’t speak Swedish and barely spoke English. They were younger; they were hungry. Méndez moved from Uruguay to Sweden to play in a death metal

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OPETH still life loved the combination they had of aggressive death metal, but also softer parts. That really attracted me.

band; that was his purpose. They loved the band as well; they’d seen us live a few years earlier. The most critical musician we needed in the band was a drummer, and Lopez was that drummer. We didn’t want two camps in the band— myself and Peter on one side and the Martins on the other—and that’s why I played bass on My Arms, Your Hearse. We played a few shows supporting that record, and that’s when Méndez came in. We thought, “Oh, he’s fucking awesome. He stays.” So, Still Life was the first record where that classic lineup gelled. MÉNDEZ: I had been living in Sweden for just 10 months when I met Mikael for the first time. I was in school studying Swedish, but at the time, I couldn’t really speak it and could barely understand anything. To this day, I still think about how amazing it was that Mikael had the patience that he had. He could have picked anybody else. We had met a couple of times before we played together for the first time, so I guess he thought maybe I was a cool guy. It was tough in the beginning because we couldn’t communicate much. Actually, we couldn’t really communicate at all, but music can communicate for itself, in a way. What did Méndez specifically add to the music? ÅKERFELDT: We had a pretty elaborate bass player prior in Johan [De Farfalla], who played on the first two records. He wasn’t the typical bass player in a death metal band who would follow the guitars. I was a little annoyed with Johan’s elaborate funky slap bass parts. But it was also cool, and I could see that it helped set us apart from other bands. Martín had more team spirit in a way. He didn’t just want to push his own instrument, but he was well-versed enough to do something different. He didn’t want to be Jaco Pastorius. Méndez never asked questions—in retrospect, I think maybe that’s because he didn’t speak the language. I would ask him, “Can you play this?” and he would just nod. He never wanted to add slap bass, but when he would noodle on something, I would always say, “Awesome, play that.”

Is it true that Martín moved to Sweden specifically to join a death metal band? MÉNDEZ: I didn’t have any other intentions

with the purpose of moving to the other side of the world. I didn’t know anything much about Sweden at all. I didn’t know how it felt to be at minus 15 degrees. I didn’t know how the language sounded at the beginning, but I knew there were great bands there because I was listening to some of them, and one of them was Opeth. That was the only thing that inspired me to move to the other side of the world. Opeth was the perfect band for me to join because I

Still Life adds more sophisticated guitar playing and percussion to Opeth’s initial sound—some have clumsily called the drumming “Latin.” Do you think this album is more intricate than its predecessors? LINDGREN: We weren’t able to reproduce all the nuances or unique aspects of the album, for better and for worse. For example, the acoustic guitars on this album are more complicated than any other acoustic guitars [in Opeth]. That’s probably a good thing because otherwise, it would be too hard to play that stuff live. There’s hard stuff on all Opeth albums, but here specifically, it’s almost too much. We could have gone down that path and become too complicated, which is not [good]. There needs to be simplicity to things to make it sound good. LOPEZ: I agree. I personally think every album felt like a step forward. I guess playing together, touring, and Mikael having more time to develop his ideas made this album better than its predecessors. MÉNDEZ: I was always trying to add something in my style. Maybe the style of music that [Martin and I] used to play when we grew up gave it a little touch of [Latin] influence, but not in the compositions because Mikael was the composer. It’s funny because one of the most popular bits about the drums in Opeth is when they’re not “in touch” [vocalizing syncopated percussion]. We did that a lot in the beginning, but that was Mikael. It wasn’t Lopez or me. Of course, we all touched the songs, and in that way, I can maybe say yes. Maybe the way that Lopez played and I followed him gave it a little extra Latin touch. You always add something when you’re styling music.

Opeth’s always had acoustic songs in its discography, but Still Life has two, and also more emphasized acoustic bridges in the death metal songs. Why is there more acoustic guitar on this record? LINDGREN: Through the years, how we wrote songs shifted. None of us in this classic quadrate is a founding member. Mike and I knew each other before we started [in Opeth], but in the lead-up to Still Life, we found that we could write and think about music in similar ways. What we brought to the songwriting table was a great relationship. Somebody played a riff, and then we built on top of that. It was a dynamic, live writing style; that was how we wrote the first two albums. What happened over time was that Mike—who’s a way better songwriter than I am, though our ideas worked best when we worked together—sat down and wrote all this great acoustic stuff. In the end, it turns out that he wrote the whole album. We SEPTEMBER 2023 : 4 8 : DECIBEL

wrote on acoustic guitars before, too, but then the idea was, “If it sounds heavy on acoustic guitar, imagine what it will sound like if you put distortion on it later.” When we wrote together, we created dynamics with two guitars. The guitars on Still Life are great acoustic parts played by one person, not the dynamic style. I think Mike worked in an acoustic guitar store for quite some time. And I think in that environment, the acoustic guitar became the main instrument. He became really good at playing the acoustic guitar, and that was the foundation for the songs. That’s why so much music on that album is acoustic guitar-focused. The song from Still Life that Opeth has most often played is one of the ballads, “Face of Melinda.” Also, Mikael named his first daughter Melinda. What is the significance of that song? ÅKERFELDT: We’ve played “Face of Melinda” quite a lot. I was looking for beautiful names, and I remembered the Tim Rose song “Come Away, Melinda” [originally by Fred Hellerman and Fran Minkoff], which Uriah Heep covered on their first record. That’s where the name comes from. The main character has no name. In fact, Melinda is the only personal name on that record. It just stuck with me. Still Life came out in 1999, and when my daughter was born in 2004, it was clear as day: That’s Melinda! Of course, for different reasons now, I think it’s the most beautiful name in the world. MÉNDEZ: “Face of Melinda” is a proud moment for us. I love the style of that one, a jazzy touch in a heavy song. We still play it. It’s a tough one to play as a band, but it’s fun. I was also challenging myself because I played fretless bass for the first time in that song. That wasn’t new for me because I had that bass for three or four months before I recorded the song, but on a fretless bass, you have to practice a lot to get the proper intonation. I was happy that I managed to play that song right. LOPEZ: “Face of Melinda” and “Serenity Painted Death” are still my favorite songs from that album. “Serenity” just because the main chorus riff with the vocal line is as groovy as death metal can get, and “Face of Melinda” because it has a very Pink Floyd-ish vibe, which I love.

This was your first record for Peaceville. How did you get connected with that label? ÅKERFELDT: My best friend then and now is Jonas [Renkse] from Katatonia. We spent all our time together. We signed to Peaceville at the same time. For us, Peaceville was a label that could rival a major in terms of respect. Peaceville, Geffen Records—it was all the same for us because they had Paradise Lost, Darkthrone, Autopsy, My Dying Bride and At the Gates. Jonas and I went to England at the same time to meet Hammy [Paul Halmshaw, Peaceville Records founder] and his wife Lisa, who ran the label from the top

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“When the border police asked us what the purpose of our visit was, we said, ‘We’re going to Milwaukee Metalfest to see a band called Opeth.’ They’d never heard of us and let us through.”

M IKA E L Å KE RF E LDT floor of their house in Yorkshire. They were just crust-punk hippies. Hammy didn’t come across as a guy who would like us. He wanted to sign Katatonia first, and we grabbed onto their tail and wound up signed as a nice gesture. We felt secondary in terms of his interest. But he treated us well, and he was happy when he saw the feedback that came in after he signed Opeth—that there was an audience for us globally. We signed this big, fat contract with academic language that you couldn’t understand as a halfdrunk teenager, which is what we were used to at the time. We signed it without knowing what we signed. The contract, in so many words, was shit. I was surprised when people told me later how much [Still Life] had sold. I thought, “That’s great—where’s the money?” I wasn’t happy about it, but now I don’t care. Hammy did many nice things for us. LINDGREN: The record deal with Candlelight lasted three years. [Candlelight founder] Lee Barrett was a good friend of ours, but it was a small label and Peaceville was a big label to us. Hammy and I only met rarely. He was actually after Katatonia first, but then Mike and he met. They had a conversation and some promises were made in terms of how this was going to work, so we said, “Let’s do it.”

How was Still Life composed in-studio if there were almost no demos or rehearsals? ÅKERFELDT: At the time, I had Martin Lopez, who is a very inventive drummer. He and I would record everything in parts. We did the whole record like that, recording 30 seconds of drums, pausing, and then figuring out what came next. I had rough guitar recordings in the studio that he would follow with a click track. The rest was done spur of the moment. That’s one of the beautiful things about that record and the three or four after it: We left a lot to be sorted in-studio. There was no set production; only the drums and the basic song structures, which we then embellished with EBows and acoustic guitars. It was fun to record, but also a bit scary because we tended to forget what we did the day before. By the time the record was done, we wondered, “What’s in there?” It was mostly happy surprises when we listened back to it. LINDGREN: It was a mix between us not having a plan and also wanting to experiment more in the studio. The vocal tunes were written and recorded in the studio, and it’s fun to write a guitar solo when you have good sound and all that. We had the basics in place, but transforming that into an album of this class took a lot from Mike, from the band members. Considering SEPTEMBER 2023 : 50 : DECIBEL

all the struggles that we had in the studio, it is a miracle that we ended up with an album. Still Life was partially engineered by Fredrik Nordström, but it was primarily recorded at Music Maestro studios rather than Studio Fredman. What do you remember about the recording sessions? ÅKERFELDT: We spent a lot of time in the studio because it was our first record with Peaceville. At the time, we thought, “This is a label that will pay for us to spend 45 days in the studio!” Eventually, that came out of our cash. But we also needed the time to complete everything, so in retrospect, I’m happy that we took those risks and that we didn’t know how record contracts work. We also produced it ourselves. We didn’t have anyone to help us. Frederik wasn’t there much of the time. He just set up a good studio sound and then left; he had a boat he was fixing. That’s just how he worked at the time. Unless you were In Flames or At the Gates; then he would show up. We didn’t really ask him to, either, once he taught us how to operate the tape machine. That’s the other remarkable thing about Still Life: It’s all recorded to two-inch tape. We did all the punch-ins and overdubbing ourselves. We

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OPETH still life

weren’t in Studio Fredman because it was being rebuilt. He put us in a studio called Maestro Music, where we recorded the foundations of the songs. We only did the vocals and some lead guitars at Fredman. When [Nordström] came back to do the mixing for Still Life, he was quite impressed with the nature of the music. It didn’t sound like any other bands he recorded. LINDGREN: We had recorded once in Gothenburg, and the idea was to go back, but for whatever reason, Studio Fredman was booked and we ended up in Maestro Musik. The idea was to record there and mix in Fredman. It was run by an alcoholic. When he would talk about his studio, he would say he was going to build a bar. We were like, “Why don’t you build a fucking kitchen? We want to eat!” He didn’t know anything about metal at all. It was on the mountainside, so there were no neighbors and we could record whenever we wanted, but we were always behind schedule. The problem was this guy didn’t have control of his own setup. Things disappeared, and we lost stuff. The studio was a nice, cozy and creative environment, but technically and structurally, it was shit, and the alcoholic didn’t help. Sometimes he wasn’t there and we would find him asleep at the bar. We were worried about what would happen if there was an accident, like if he spilled beer across the board. We couldn’t trust him. He wasn’t evil or anything; he was just a bum. There was no structure. We were left on our own, basically. The disciplined people on the team were me and Mikael. We were the grown-ups; Martín and Martin were like kids. It worked, but it also put a lot of strain on the two people driving it. I felt stressed. We spent four weeks out of seven there, then called [Nordström], to take us back to Studio Fredman and save the recording. It turned out good, anyway. I think we had talent writing and recording stuff together, but I think it was also a bit of luck. Things could have gone way worse. MÉNDEZ: We recorded each of the instruments one at a time, starting with the drums. We were there for a long time, recording drums… maybe for two weeks. We were living in the studio for a while. Later we had an apartment in the city, close to the studio, where we went to sleep. We were there all day long, recording and putting together the songs. It was fun. I was young; it was my first album. For me, everything was so exciting, but I don’t think I would do it that way today. We were in the studio for two months— that’s a long time. We had to finish all the songs in the studio, taking every instrument from zero to what it became. It was [recorded] in chunks. I would listen to the drums first and then write the bass. We learned two riffs at a time, then jumped to

the next ones, but Opeth songs can sometimes be 20 riffs, so it took a while, maybe one song a day. Mikael was tough; he wanted every take to be perfect before we moved on, but I liked it because I’m a perfectionist, too. It was good for me. I didn’t know anything about how Mikael’s voice was going to sound, either. When he recorded the vocals, he was by himself. Maybe Pete was there. I wasn’t there, and Lopez wasn’t there either. We went home after one and a half months once all the guitars were recorded and the music was done. [Åkerfeldt] stayed to finish the lyrics and then record the vocals. When they got the mix done, they drove to a house where I was living and dropped off a copy. For me, it was magical to listen to that album as a finished product because I didn’t really have a clue how the finished thing would be. I loved it. I think I listened to it five times in a row. LOPEZ: I honestly don’t remember much about the mood when we got there. What I do remember is that we played Resident Evil for many days without doing anything else. It was a mess. Files got lost and people were too drunk to do their job. It’s a bit of a miracle that the album got finished. This was your first album with Travis Smith, now your go-to cover artist. How did you come to work with Travis, and what is the story behind the cover? ÅKERFELDT: [Kataotnia] had found Travis when he did the cover for Tonight’s Decision. We didn’t know anyone—what were we going to do, lease a painting from the national gallery for a million pounds? No. So, they sent us to this guy living in San Diego doing artwork. I sent him the storyline to Still Life. I knew I wanted it to look gothic, bleak and dark, but beautiful. The figure of the Madonna on the cover was my idea; that’s Melinda. Travis put together the rest. This was the time of the dial-up modem, so downloading a picture he sent us would take two hours. When I saw his idea for the cover with the cross with a crow sitting on it and its inverted reflection in the water, I said, “That’s it.” He’s done every record since ’98, which is awesome.

This was also your last record for Peaceville— how did you come to leave the label after this? ÅKERFELDT: [Peaceville] was distributed by Music

for Nations, who at the time was a pretty powerful independent label. They obviously saw what Opeth could do just as much as Hammy did. Andy Black was the boss at Music for Nations then, and he forced us over by threatening Hammy. He said, “If you don’t give us Opeth, we will not distribute any of your records. We will end the whole collaboration.” He threatened to kill the label [Peaceville], basically. I’m not sure what happened to Andy Black after, but he was a special guy. He looked like [Andrew Scott] who SEPTEMBER 2023 : 5 2 : DECIBEL

played Moriarty in Sherlock—he dressed in black, had black hair with piercing black eyes, like a shark. He was super intimidating—but tiny! I was upset because I was tight with Hammy, but I couldn’t help also feeling excited because Music for Nations was a step up for us. It was the label that put out Metallica, Anthrax and Mercyful Fate in Europe. Lo and behold, with the next record, things started to happen for us. Music for Nations secured a distribution deal in the United States for us, which Peaceville didn’t have—Still Life was import-only outside of Europe. Opeth’s first show in the United States was at Milwaukee Metalfest, supporting Still Life. What do you remember about that show? ÅKERFELDT: I had never been to the U.S., and it was a hassle to get in. It still is. The promoter [of Milwaukee Metalfest], Jack Koshick, offered no pay, but covered the flights. He said we needed to travel on a tourist visa, and he told us when we talked to the border agents to say we were tourists, not musicians. We couldn’t travel with instruments, either, because that would give us away. So, when the border police asked us what the purpose of our visit was, we said, “We’re going to Milwaukee Metalfest to see a band called Opeth.” They’d never heard of us and let us through. We traveled with Katatonia, who were also there as tourists, who were going to see a band called Katatonia. We sent a gear list over to Jack, but nothing was there. There were a few amps and Fender Stratocasters, which were not our guitars of choice at the time; we preferred techier guitars. That was it. We didn’t even have our pedals. Same for Katatonia, who was onstage right before us. Anders handed his Stratocaster to me, I walked onstage and we just went with the flow. My bigger concern was: Would anyone know who we were? We were a small Swedish band. Coming to the U.S. was a big deal, let alone coming over and having an audience waiting for you. And we did! There were a lot of people in that room, and they were fucking loud. The show was probably shit, but it didn’t matter; we were there, and they’d been waiting for four albums and 10 years. They knew the songs. It felt like we had arrived, so to speak. Ever since, we’ve treated not just the U.S., but North America as our main scene, and Milwaukee Metalfest and Still Life did that for us. LINDGREN: If the recording for Still Life was unprofessional, that trip was over-the-top unprofessional. The eye-opening thing was that there were a lot of fans screaming for us. “Where are we again? Milwaukee?” It’s not in the middle of nowhere, but it’s far from Sweden. The last tour that we did prior to that was us supporting Cradle of Filth. You can say whatever you want about them, but that was not our crowd. All of a sudden, you couldn’t hide

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OPETH still life

“Considering all the struggles that we had in the studio, it is a miracle that we ended up with an album.”

P ET E R L I N DG R E N

the fact that there was a crowd that wanted to see us. We didn’t know! Prior to the recording, we were like, “Should we even do more albums? Maybe this is it. If it doesn’t work, then it doesn’t work.” All of a sudden that shifted into, “Oh, it’s actually working.” MÉNDEZ: That was interesting for us because we didn’t know how people were going to react when we played. Was anyone going to be there? We didn’t have a clue what was going on in the U.S. It was very interesting because people were completely mad about us. The room was packed, and I heard there were people outside the room. They were shouting so loud; we’d never experienced that before. It was amazing, and we were so happy. Still Life seems to have gained a reputation as a fan favorite. What do you think is the record’s legacy? ÅKERFELDT: Its reputation is soaring. It’s been a long time coming for this record. When it came out, we didn’t get much feedback, but I thought it was great. We play those songs often, but not always. On our 30th anniversary tour, when we played “The Moor,” you could see something happening in the crowd. It’s a quite complex record. Those songs aren’t as instant as our other songs, but the album has a very good reputation. It’s the predecessor to Blackwater Park, and I think it comes across as a little cooler to prefer Still Life. It’s a bit more connoisseur-ish. It’s a bit more eclectic than the prior records and perhaps the ones after it, as well.

LINDGREN: Still Life is a tricky album. I like it, but I have to practice liking it. It takes longer than most other albums, but it grows on you. Looking back, there was a big shift. My Arms, Your Hearse was a big step forward, and Still Life was another big step soon after. The transition to Blackwater Park wasn’t as big as the shift between My Arms and Still Life. It didn’t come across as a great success to us because it was during the low point of our perceived career. It seems to be in between a lot of things. So many new aspects of the album, like Travis Smith doing the artwork for the first time, were necessary for what would happen later. MÉNDEZ: It’s the beginning of my whole history with Opeth. With Still Life, the compositions got more complex, but it was also more put-together. Morningrise is a bit softer, and My Arms, Your Hearse is a little harder. Still Life is a perfect mix of everything. It’s an important point in the history of the band because the sound the band still has today started there. It’s a fan favorite because either Still Life or Blackwater Park are usually the albums where people start to listen to the band. We’ve played almost every song on the album live at one point. And it’s still fun to play those songs. For me, it’s special. I can still listen to the album from beginning to end.

Is there anything you’d change about the record now? ÅKERFELDT: There are some technical things with that record that we managed to fix for the reissue. There was some channel dropout; I SEPTEMBER 2023 : 5 4 : DECIBEL

think it’s in “The Moor.” Everything gets thin at one point. The mastering guy didn’t hear it. Peter didn’t hear it. Nobody heard it apart from me. That was one thing I never liked. It’s also a bit too rich in reverb. I’m no enemy of reverb, but I thought the drums could have been a bit drier. I’m not one of those guys who wants to do a re-recording, but when Jens Bogren did the new mix, the acoustic guitars were missing. They were gone. They weren’t on the tape. We must have done them in some other format, like ADAT or something. I had to relearn and re-record all the acoustic guitars for the reissue. So, it’s partially a re-recording, but one that’s very faithfully done. LINDGREN: My spontaneous answer is no. It turned out really good. I would have shaped up the studio setup if I were in the situation again. That would be one thing. Even before that, we should have rehearsed. It’s actually after playing a song live that you realize, “This riff goes on way too long.” Maybe that’s what I would change—to rehearse, to get a feel of those songs and make them tighter—because later, after playing them live, the songs became better. MÉNDEZ: The record is great. If I could change anything, I would bring the bass up a little more because I think it’s great bass playing. You can hear it in the mix, but not as much as I would like. It could come up just a little bit. Other than that, I think Still Life is great as-is. LOPEZ: No, I wouldn’t change anything. It’s still a great album, and it was a huge step for us at the time.

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It’s technically untrue that this is the first cover story for Horrendous.

Back in 2017, vocalist/guitarist Damian Herring’s face appeared on the 150th issue’s cover along with Obituary’s John Tardy, Kreator’s Mille Petrozza and Midnight cult leader Athenar. ¶ That cover appearance capped the band’s three-year sprinting ascent. First, the band released their breakout sophomore album Ecdysis, which achieved No. 3 on Decibel’s year-end list. Just one year later, they emerged with Anareta. From the first abyssal howl of “The Nihilist,” the record is an evolutionary genre achievement. ¶ In Decibel’s 10-out-of-10 Anareta review, Matt Solis wrote, “Horrendous play a new strain of OSDM that pays homage to genre kingpins like Death and Obituary 56 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

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while incorporating idiosyncratic elements from every corner of the known universe, like Morbus Chron or Execration feeding their riffs through a Chuck Schuldiner filter and catching the first rocket to Callisto.” Accolades poured in. The perfect review score was a precursor to Anareta being named this magazine’s top album of the year. The story of Horrendous begins with two teenage brothers—drummer/vocalist Jamie Knox and guitarist/vocalist Matt Knox—playing skate punk in their parents’ basement. Initially inspired by bands like NOFX and Zeke, the Knox brothers’ need for speed intensified as they geeked out over golden-age Metallica and Megadeth. They pushed each other to play faster and faster, with their punk morphing into crossover thrash.

H O R R EN DO U S evolve while dissolving death metal conventions on their fifth LP, Ontological Mysterium story by S E A N F R A S I E R photos by S C O T T K I N K A D E

“We lived in a small town, and nobody listened to any music that was even remotely underground,” Jamie recalls. “We didn’t play sports much, we rarely went out with friends and we didn’t go to parties. We sat in that basement and worked, dreaming that eventually the band would become something.” Two years older than Matt, Jamie enrolled at the University of South Carolina. You know the sly nod you get when another metalhead quietly approves of your shirt? That’s basically what launched the friendship with Damian Herring. Once Matt also decided to attend the same college, he inherited Herring as a friend. Soon after, Herring was beckoned to jam with the Knox brothers. The trio rented out a public storage space that doubled as a rehearsal shed. Matt calls it a

“sweltering public storage tin can” that felt like a sweat lodge on balmy South Carolina nights. It was there in the cramped confines that the band’s melding of styles first developed. While the Knox brothers favored classic metal, Herring inspired them to dig deeper into metallic extremity. Matt has jokingly referred to Herring as “the Great Corrupter” because of the underground music he unearthed for them. Edge of Sanity. Tiamat. Gorement. And that’s just cherry-picking the Swedish influences on the band’s debut album, The Chills. “The best part of this story, though, was my devious scheme to force our hand at becoming a real band by signing us up to play live—without consulting the other two, of course,” Matt reveals. “I basically came to practice one day and

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let them know that we had three weeks before a local battle of the bands event, so we had to finish the few songs and scattered riff ideas we had laying around.” The first iteration of their band was briefly called Phallacy. The moniker was a hurried afterthought to appease the battle of the bands before the name Horrendous stuck. As for the songs played at their haphazard debut, they eventually became the band’s Sweet Blasphemies demo released on CD-R at the tail-end of the Myspace era in 2009. The band toyed with theatrics while finding their footing as a live unit. They brewed homemade blood and swigged it generously from a goblet, offering sips to revulsed crowds. But the sanguinary rituals didn’t last beyond

DECIBEL : SEPTEMBER 2023 : 57

I feel on this record, there are no connective parts.

E VERYTHING IS NECESSARY, EVERYTHING IS ESSENTIAL AND EVERYTHING IS VITAL . –JAMIE KNOX– those early appearances. They were just part of an anything-goes search for identity while the project took shape. If you’ve seen Horrendous onstage past that first year, they’re exuberant and expressive. No grim posturing or infernal scowling. Just an authentic passion for playing that’s detectable as clearly from the back of the venue as the front row.

– FA L L E N I D O L S – The last time I spoke to Horrendous was in 2016.

We packed around a table at the Sidecar brunch spot in Philadelphia. They just rolled into town after a headlining show in Brooklyn the night prior, and Herring’s voice was shot from a head cold and an evenin’ of screamin’. Bassist Alex Kulick was a recent recruit, joining the band before they headed out on their first long run of shows with Tribulation. As the band enjoyed Vietnamese coffee with their breakfast, we discussed the upcoming Decibel Magazine Tour. Our long chat was packed with talk about the untitled fourth album in the works. Pressed for info about 58 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

the next record, Matt Knox revealed that his thoughts were already quantum-leaping deeper into the future. “I’m thinking of the fifth album right now,” he confessed. “I kind of did away with the next album already. It’s not done by any means, but I think the vision of the fourth album is pretty complete.” Flash forward seven years. Instead of establishing a road dog mentality, the Decibel Tour reinforced that Horrendous do not operate as a full-time traveling band. There’s no shame in limiting the physical and mental wear-and-tear of touring. Three weeks in a van is a demanding grind, not a vacation. The untitled fourth album mentioned at brunch was Idol, released in the autumn of 2018. After the success of Anareta, anticipation for the record swelled. The band graduated from surprising phenoms to year-end top album fixtures. While they takes pride in writing for themselves first and foremost, there was no denying the internal pressure to deliver a bigger, bolder effort. “Everyone really loved [Anareta], so we were trying to one-up ourselves,” Matt admits. “And I SEP 2023

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think maybe in some ways, the pressure of oneupping ourselves made it kind of difficult.” “A lot was happening at that time,” Kulick adds. “In all of our lives, and in the world. I don’t necessarily think life’s gotten any less chaotic for all of us. But I think that there was a particular weight in the air at that time.” Idol is a damn good album. Only 27 albums were ranked higher in Decibel’s Top 40 that year. “Soothsayer” remains a killer single. The first half of “Devotion (Blood for Ink)” is some of the most ferocious riffing in the whole Horrendous discography. That song’s back-half goes to some wild places, with ethereal clean vocals surrendering to a burst of guitar heroics. But for whatever reason, the album didn’t resonate as deeply with the fans, critics or the band themselves. Recording was a challenge. The high playing difficulty of the songs was a challenge. Everything felt more difficult. Matt uses Sisyphus as an analogy for recording the record: It felt like Horrendous were doomed to laboriously push the boulder up the mountain, praying the chore was almost complete. As the newest member, Kulick has the most subjective view of the band’s creative arc. “On top of the chaos of life, there’s also this sort of generative energy between all of us,” he offers. “With all of our different musical tastes, all of our different approaches to songwriting, we have so much fun together as a band all the time. “But there’s this thing, the topic of the song ‘Ontological Mysterium,’” he continues. “When you have something that’s so generative, it can become a danger. I think that you can kind of feel a compression effect on Idol. I think writing for Idol that we’re still learning how to deal with as a [four-member] unit, as like a new team of songwriters. And so, we got to—and this is not to knock Idol at all—but now we got to explore that energy. Now we know what’s possible as a unit. “Now how can we streamline that?” Kulick asks the universe. “How can we pull in some things that maybe got lost in the madness of how generative the building of Idol was? So, that’s a long-winded way of saying that this is stage two of this version of Horrendous’ creative journey, in terms of writing records.”

–IMMANENTIZE– THE NEW AEON While the writing for Idol’s successor began well

before, the bulk of the material was generated during the pandemic. COVID basically pressed pause on the music industry for an entire year as everyone combatted the economic crush and social isolation. But the Knox brothers were able to meet in Matt’s basement and jam out the unsculpted compositions that would transform into the band’s fifth record.

KIND - Close encounters coming this august

Band photo: Coleman Rogers

“KIND definitely master the science of fuzz-dripping riffage like no one else.” – The Heavy Chronicles

www.ripple-music.com DECIBEL : SEPTEMBER 2023 : 59

“Matt and I do most of the work creating the skeletons and central ideas of the songs, and we further develop the songs together as a full band,” Jamie explains. “During the pandemic, when we were trying to finish writing what became Ontological Mysterium, he and I worked on Horrendous stuff together probably three times a week.” Freeform jamming is commonplace for the band. Their songwriting sessions permit room for unscripted creation and unexpected dialogues between instruments. Over time, the improvisation has become more of a feature of the band’s creative chemistry than some flippant proclivity or warm-up exercise. “Whenever we get together to play, it almost always starts with someone just playing a random riff or idea and everyone else joining in,” Jamie confirms. “Honestly, a lot of our earlier material when we all lived in South Carolina manifested in this way—a random riff would twist and turn into something that ultimately showed up on a record after a little polishing. “As the years have gone on and we’ve delved into genres of music that are more focused on improvisation,” he continues, “we’ve gotten a lot better at it, and expanded our perspectives on how to make a song. Whereas in the past, these jams would lead to a riff that was then used as a part of a song, we are now creating entire songs that are actually just extended jams that we recorded, streamlined and added some layers to.” With the world shut down and restrictions abounding, the brothers liberated their songwriting whims. The whole band wanted to bury whatever residual negativity lingered from Idol by focusing on making an expansive new album. “There was a time early on, when the pandemic was going on, I was really only seeing Jamie,” Matt recalls. “I remember us working, and every song was like 11 or 12 minutes long. We almost thought this record was gonna be four 12-minute songs, just to illustrate how many twists and turns there were in the writing process and where things went. “We were kind of like, ‘We have to go bigger than we had,’ which I do think we did,” he adds. “I think that the initial thought was like, ‘We have to do bigger in terms of how far the songs spread out and how sprawling and epic they are.’ But then we had songs that were fucking 12 minutes. And I just remember this breaking point where I don’t think any of us were that happy with it at the end of the day.” There’s a sequence at the end of Walk Hard where the struggling musician Dewey Cox goes off the rails while writing a failed magnum opus. While parodying Beach Boys mastermind Brian Wilson, Cox threatens to add 50,000 didgeridoos to the trainwreck of a song. Instead of addition, 60 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

Horrendous opted for subtraction. Like William Faulkner once wrote, “In writing, you must kill all your darlings.” Or cut out half of a song. “I remember sitting on the couch when we were rehearsing,” Matt recalls. “And I don’t remember who had the idea, but they said, ‘What if we just like cut this whole fucking sixminute section out of the song and go straight to this part?’ And I feel like that, for some reason, that was a touchstone moment. For this record, going bigger doesn’t have to mean the songs are really long and bloated.”

–MOWING DISCORD– Subterranean Watchtower. I’ve always loved

the imagery that the name of Damian Herring’s studio conjures. Watching over a hidden world, overlooking unmapped chasms. The shadowcloaked sentry protecting underground metal from invading forces. Apart from engineering all of the music for Horrendous, Herring has worked on records by Hellripper, Ripped to Shreds, Sentient Horror and dozens more. Despite knowing better, I pictured the studio as some candlelit bunker surrounded by stalactites. To my ludicrous disappointment, Horrendous recorded Ontological Mysterium in a cozy carpeted basement space at Herring’s parents’ house. The space was large enough to accommodate the whole band, especially during the diciest points of the pandemic. For safety purposes, the members remained secluded at some sessions to avoid the family’s shared living space. As the social distancing measures relaxed, the familial setting became an idyllic environment for recording the new album. “I think there’s an important difference between [recording] in an apartment, versus at [Herring’s] parents’ house in the lush woods,” Matt mentions, comparing it to Idol’s recording process. “We get to hang out and relax, and we love his parents and there’s a good rapport there. And I think just being under this loving roof the whole time affected the record’s soul and direction in ways.” “My parents have always been very supportive and accommodating,” Herring agrees. “For example, we’d record at all hours, even recording drums late into the night and early morning hours while they slept, and they never complained. It’s been that way since 2009 for five albums and a demo. In fact, I remember during Anareta, Matt essentially lived at our house for two weeks while he and I finished all of the recording after Jamie was done with the drums.” The recording sessions were intensive rendezvous focusing on a single song each weekend. Spreading out the process across so many different dates is a luxury afforded to a band with a trusted engineer with home studio access in the ranks. “I think the general wisdom is that bands get together in some musty basement or rehearsal SEP 2023

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space somewhere, and they write a record,” Kulick summarizes. “And once they’re ready, they go into a studio. and they record it top to bottom. Maybe there’s extracurriculars, maybe some small things get changed. But mostly you’re just taking what was in a room and you’re putting it on tape.” The process isn’t that cut and dry with Horrendous. The wealth of extra recording time encouraged the band to indulge their penchant for improv in ways that led to unpredictable musical alchemy. Kulick, residing in New York for school the past few years, recorded most of his parts remotely. He was routinely surprised by the unexpected fruits of the band’s creativity. New sections. New outros. Old songs rescued from a graveyard of deleted files. “Once we hit the recording process, crazy things happen,” Kulick shares. “The songs come to life when we start recording them in ways that I don’t think any of us have a preconceived notion of before we start hitting that [recording] stage. So, for us, the writing process is a lot more dynamic than just sort of writing material, then hitting the tapes. It’s like an ever-changing beast at all times.” Since the band has constant access to Herring and his engineering tools, the threat of manipulating the songs for months on end certainly exists. While that adds another level of stress for Herring, it’s a challenge he welcomes. Herring has never had his music mixed by another person, and surrendering that control would be more stressful than putting in the extra witching hours in the studio. “It does provide an element of freedom,” Kulick notes. “Since Damian is at the helm, we consult him endlessly on things we want adjusted, perhaps to his chagrin.” “One could almost work for months on end…” Matt playfully trails off. “Work can put a man in his coffin, for sure,” Kulick laughs. “But you know, it’s a special gift to have a certain level of comfort [with the engineer]. I wouldn’t be comfortable asking for a lot of the things that I was comfortable asking Damian for in the mixing process, because we have a rapport and we have an understanding. It does allow for a special kind of musical intimacy that is maybe not available to everyone.” “Just like Alex is saying, because Damian records everything we get to have a lot of fun once the barebones tracks are done,” Matt concurs. “There’s so much room for experimentation. Adding weird layers or weird vocals. And I think these layers occur because of the joy of tinkering. Sometimes they come out stupid and we delete them anyway. But it resulted in some really huge, wonderful moments.” While Ontological Mysterium shape-shifted in that basement, reminders of the outside world kept the band out of the quagmire of artistic

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I’m pretty sure Damian [Herring]

DID MORE VOICE STYLES THAN KING DIAMOND on this record. – M AT T K N O X–

obsession. At night, the nocturnal frogs croaked lullabies. On Sunday mornings, the smell of homemade French toast wafted from the upstairs kitchen. Late-night viewings of John Carpenter’s The Fog. Occasionally, there would be a forced recording break as Herring’s father revved up the lawnmower for yard work. Then after 12 hours of recording, the band would celebrate with a hot tub soak and clinking wine glasses. Now five years after Idol’s release, it’s time to uncork another bottle and welcome their fifth LP to the galaxy.

–ONTOLOGICAL– MYSTERIUM When intro track “The Blaze” ignites Ontological Mysterium, it aesthetically echoes the opening moments of Ecdysis (“The Stranger”). But once Kulick’s bass slithers into the mix, the song detours into triumphant radiance. Think Brian May’s classic harmonies in Queen. This is death metal that isn’t inclined to remain exiled in darkness. The album ventures into the light because there’s more to explore there. In “Chrysopoeia (The Archaeology of Dawn)” alone, Horrendous notably expand their vocal approach. Death metal vocals are better known for perfecting the extreme than variation and modulation. On Ontological Mysterium, Horrendous treat the human voice like a complex instrument rather than a blunt-force growl carrying a message. At one point, Matt smiles about his accomplice and half-jokingly praises, “I’m pretty sure Damian did more voice styles than King Diamond on this record.” By recording one song at a time, it encouraged feral vocal takes from every contributor. When you don’t 62 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

have to smash through 10 tracks in a weekend, you can let it rip and apologize to your vocal cords with tea and honey later. “I don’t think the record is necessarily faster than other stuff we’ve been doing recently,” Jamie considers. “But I think it feels like the pace is quicker, because there’s no downtime. I think another thing that contributed to some of that variation, and maybe like conciseness, is… that each song got our full attention all at once. And I think that also resulted in us cutting and changing some parts. We were really thinking of the songs as individual units and sort of completing them before moving on.” Maybe the band isn’t playing remarkably faster on Ontological Mysterium, but “Neon Leviathan” is still a speedy beast of muscle, sinew and mathy riffs. The lead hook from “Preterition Hymn” was written by Herring a decade ago, gathering dust like a cryptic relic. Now the song finally breathes outside of the rehearsal room, complete with a mellotron addition that’s more than a flourish. “It’s like, okay, this song is this idea, and we’re gonna make it perfect,” Matt explains. “And it might be short, it might be long, whatever it needs to let that idea breathe and be itself and develop its own personality. Listening to this record, it feels like there’s so much variety because none of the songs are really that similar. They’re all kind of doing their own thing. They’re all approaching their own arena of sounds. “I think that helped us regain some catchiness,” he reasons. “It helps us hone in a little bit more on the ideas that were in hand. A little more aggressive, a little more fun. I think part of that was abandoning the Herculean pressure SEP 2023

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to be like, ‘We’re going to write these suites that are ridiculous and contain everything.’ Now we’re back to just kind of having fun with things and seeing where they lead.” “Sometimes you get into this songwriting hole,” Jamie poses, “where it’s like, ‘All right, I have this part that’s really amazing. And this other section sounds amazing. How do we connect them? How do we make that happen?’ And I just feel on this record, there are no connective parts. Everything is necessary, everything is essential and everything is vital.” The record’s B-side is just as dynamic as the first half. “Cult of Shaad’oah” is an empowering headbanger that declares war on creative oppression. The seed of “Exeg(en)esis” was borne from a jam, growing into a thorny sci-fi expedition. Later, “The Death Knell Ringeth” closes the album with a defiant charge against metal’s orthodox self-limitations. (More on that later.) The title track references the Garden of Eden before torching it with magma and miasma. That’s appropriate since Horrendous build and obliterate worlds with equal fervor. For Horrendous, it’s not enough to slash through genre tropes. They already do that. With Ontological Mysterium as their forged steel, Horrendous seek to pierce the shield of the universe. “The ironic thing is, it’s more terrifying not to have musical boundaries,” Matt stops to consider. “I think we still have some. But every step of the way, I think each record is like taking a little magic eraser and taking a little bit more [restriction] away, like seeing how much we can deal with it. It’s like, all right, we took this away. We’re alive. We can step outside

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further now. You know, it’s like, progressively lighting this endless expensive land. It’s like, all right, should we light up the next torch? Are we ready to see what’s there?” The album’s mind-bending cover art was created by recurring collaborator Brian Smith. His artwork has adorned every album from Ecdysis on. He doesn’t often work with bands, and his taste in music doesn’t get much heavier than Black Sabbath and Deep Purple. But his phantasmagoric art feels like it exists in a world co-founded by H.R. Giger and H.P. Lovecraft. It’s perfect for artists interested in changing death metal’s DNA from the inside. “Damian found me on Facebook about 10 years ago and asked about doing an album cover,” Smith reminisces. “I checked his profile, and his banner picture was Molasar from [Michael Mann’s horror film] The Keep. That’s a pretty obscure ’80s movie, with all kinds of interesting, dark metaphors, messages and underlying weirdness. So, I figured me and him probably had some similar ideas about art and music.” Smith nailed the Ecdysis concept on the first try. Anareta was more demanding and frustrating, requiring several revisions before the band felt their vision was captured. Ultimately, Horrendous selected previously completed paintings for Idol, and again for Ontological Mysterium. This time the result is almost like Dan Seagrave’s Altars of Madness artwork conceived in a Clive Barker nightmare. “These guys wanted what they wanted, and I completely understood and respected them for sticking to their guns and holding out for the right piece,” Smith comments. “I think that’s what set them apart—not in terms of other bands, because I’ve never worked with anyone else like this—but I mean in general. I can relate to that level of obsession, commitment, attention to detail or whatever you wanna call it.”

–T H E D E AT H – KNELL RINGETH Earlier I mentioned the album’s closing track and execution strike, “The Death Knell Ringeth.” As I listened the first time with a grin, it transported me via time vortex back to 1992. Megadeth receives their second of 12 Grammy nominations (and counting). Vulgar Display of Power sells a Texan shitload of copies. Death is fresh off Human. Atheist and Cynic similarly push death metal towards influences alien to extreme metal. “Death Knell” proudly reflects heavy metal’s history without succumbing to mimicry. It’s not a nostalgic grab bag. Instead of trying to grave-rob the sounds of ’92, the song captures the spirit of those seminal albums. It might be the most accessible track on the record, but it’s 64 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

We’re following our creative whims and trying to see where that takes us.

BUT THAT ALSO LEAVES US KIND OF WITHOUT A NET. –A L E X K U L I C K– a future setlist staple. And it happens to be the band’s most full-throated declaration of what Horrendous represent. While chatting for over an hour, we only utter the words “death metal” a handful of times. At one point, Matt mentions, “I feel like death metal is the genre that we are tagged as playing today—which I barely agree with anymore.” He shrugs away the thought. Because the answer doesn’t matter. “We are people who love music,” says Kulick. “We love learning new things. We love trying new things. We also love classic metal. We also love punk. All of us are huge fans of improvised music and jazz. We’re doing something a little different. We’re following our creative whims and trying to see where that takes us. But that also leaves us kind of without a net. “Sometimes we have gripes with being called progressive metal,” he continues, “because there’s a lot of bands that use that label that couldn’t sound any more different from us. But we’re also not like a death metal band playing slam riffs in drop-C. We’re also not an esoteric metal band that’s playing dissident stuff all the SEP 2023

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time. And it’s sort of like, what are we left with? The world doesn’t have a corner that we fit into.” Ecdysis most explicitly introduced the band’s lyrical themes of personal growth and expansion; molting your past self and emerging anew. The title itself is a reference to the process of shedding old skin. Numerous lifeforms cast off their outer cuticles, like snakes, spiders and cicadas. For Horrendous, Ontological Mysterium is the shiny new skin, tough as armor and ready for battle. “Lyrically, we truthfully just kind of wanted to write almost like a ‘fuck you’ song where we’re triumphant at the end and riding away,” Jamie answers. “But ‘fuck you’ doesn’t quite capture it. It’s more like, ‘We’re going to do what we want to do—and do it proudly.’” “I just think there’s such a constraining energy in the death metal scene, and in the metal scene in general,” Matt opines. “It’s almost like there’s a rulebook that everybody follows. This is how it sounds. This is how it looks. This is how the production is. These are the types of riffs that go on it. These are the bands that

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you should sound like from the past, but not these other ones. And I think [‘The Death Knell Ringeth’] is just this culmination of like, ‘Fuck all this, we’re just going to be us.’ “I might be misconstruing Jamie’s ideas,” he says, “but [the song] is almost this defiant shout: No, this is what we’re doing. And it sounds nothing like you. And we are wearing everything that we love unabashedly on our sleeves.” Reactionaries may misrepresent Matt Knox’s thoughts as some sort of elitist attack on traditional death metal. But his words are a plea for authenticity and invention, not a dismissal of your favorite band. He talks about Horrendous’ music being a sledgehammer swung against preconceived rules and structures, not hammersmashing their foes. It’s about reflection, not rejection. “[Heavy metal] is entrenched in so much legacy and history, it’s almost like that becomes a veil you can hide behind,” Matt critiques. “I’m extreme like this, and it will be accepted because this has been done for the past 20 years. And everybody hears a scream and everyone loves it, because it reminds them of what happened 20 years ago and it makes them happy. And to me, this record is like stepping away from the veil. We’re still using these tools. But now it’s my tool. This is my voice. This is my guitar. And it doesn’t sound like someone else.”

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– ॐ–

The symbol above is the Sanskrit representation

of the Om, one of the most sacred and significant symbols in Hinduism. It represents many things. But among those is a pursuit of absolute consciousness; accepting our place in the cosmos. The title translates to the “mystery of being,” and the search for those answers could take a lifetime or longer. With the abbreviation O.M., Ontological Mysterium represents part of the band’s search for peace more than answers. “None of us wanted to go into appropriative, weird territory with it,” Matt mentions, “but I think it works well as a subtle symbol. Because to me, as I was saying earlier, it’s like [Idol] was this moment of flailing beneath the waters of our own creative forces.” “Earlier, Alex used the word despair, which I thought was good,” Jamie interjects. “I think now there’s this peacefulness, almost a stepping into oneself, stepping into one’s ability.” While Horrendous have purged their Sisyphean curse, this album doesn’t represent the top of the mountain. It’s not a victory cry. There will always be obstacles and tragedies and self-doubt and a million nagging anxieties. But Ontological Mysterium returns power to the creator. The journey inward can be as expansive as the one outward. As “Cult of Shaad’oah” reminds us with a snarl, “Remember, you are the mountain.”

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“There is still a darkness [in the album],” Kulick confirms. “There’s still something scary sort of like lurking in the cracks of these other triumphant moments. It’s not just a pure victory record or something. But all of this is woven together, and these elements sort of coexist in a way that gestures to what Matt was saying about this kind of peacefulness. A kind of comfort with all the different energies that are present in the band.” As time passes, the only constant is change. A nameless trio in a metal storage unit evolves into a quartet with a furious sense of peace. As the quartet faces the future, they have renewed appreciation for their unique fusion of abilities. In an ever-changing universe, the band’s artistic mission remains steadfast. Their bond is built on brotherhood, both honorary and literal. “I think one of the hardest things to find as a musician is a group of like-minded collaborators, and I’ve been blessed essentially since I picked up my instrument to always have my brother as a co-conspirator,” Matt says. “[Jamie] really is a master of composition, and the ideas he also brings to the table complement mine so well. I’ve been astonishingly lucky to have someone I love so much always in my musical corner—always ready to scheme, dream, collaborate and build something. And, even more rare, to share a unified and singular musical vision.”

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INSIDE ≥

70 AGRICULTURE Split with Botanist when? 72 CAVALERA To send souls back to hell 74 DRIPPING DECAY Regurgitated guts 76 EVILE Off to never-ever listen again land 79 THE ZENITH PASSAGE The Soulless

ALL THE NOISE THAT FITS

Into GODTHRYMM the Flood Again

SEPTEMBER

British vets prove they’re not just men (and women) in the doom metal box

Old folks sounding old

New folks sounding old

Old folks sounding new

New folks sounding estatic

THE 9

setup to distortions has been particularly understated. No hype stickers—that’s still a thing, I guess. No bikini try-on videos on TikTok. No spurious taglines like, “Meet the new Peaceville GODTHRYMM One!” Godthrymm and their acclaimed Canadian label, Profound Distortions Lore, are sort of letting the music do the talking. The two veiled P R O FO U N D LO R E lead-up singles, “Chasms” and Decibel Flexi Series “In Perpetuum,” don’t even appear on Distortions. Yet, they define an exit from its 2020 predecessor, Reflections, and the pathway to the band’s unprecedented growth—as songwriters—on Distortions. ¶ Yes, Godthrymm features Hamish Glencross and Shaun Taylor-Steels, both former members of several West Yorkshire greats. And yes, this is doom metal, epically forged over decades of experience. But this isn’t simply Warning or Solstice warmed over and worn out. Glencross, who also hosts wife Catherine on keyboards and vocals, as well as bassist Bob “Sasquatch” Crolla, imbues his old-man spirit and dry British wit/wail

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into his version. That means eschewing norms while embracing them, such as on the 11-minute opening track “As Titans,” which pushes mountainous Candlemass-isms into Reverend Bizarre’s boneyards. This complements (or rather the reverse) follow-up track, “Devils,” a rug-cutter of Sabbathian vintage festooned with Layne Staley-like vocal grit and heft. “Echoes” is processional. Circuitously, it reminds of something Pallbearer might’ve conjured while whiffing old My Dying Bride and Paradise Lost T-shirts procured off eBay. But here are Godthrymm, expertly harnessing all the feels as if they’re writing their last record. The double-bass coda is extra special. Likely, Distortions’ best track is “Obsess and Regress.” The big riffs that open it are absolutely shattered by Catherine’s siren song vocals. She haunts the song without operatic charade. When Hamish comes in, he slows down the tempo, working as a tension agent. This isn’t a cute duet by any measure, but rather a doleful cry to the lost. That it’s tailed with a no-vocal death metal— think: The End Complete-era Obituary—conclusion is kinda brilliant. Former My Dying Bride bandmate Aaron Stainthorpe appears on the 12-minute “Follow Me.” He’s added more for textural color than full-on guest star, and that’s kind of the way it needed to be. The focus is, as always, on Hamish’s riffs, mournful harmonies and overall songcraft. Of course, this song isn’t so much hooky—unlike “Obsess and Regress”—than it is movement-oriented. Distortions goes offbeat on “Unseen Unheard.” The mélange of styles employed peaks about halfway through. Spiked with heaving eccentricity, replete with a 13-second At the Gates vignette, it’s Glencross at his most expansive. The dovetail into closing track “Pictures Remain” is nearly perfect in its Beggars Banquet label ephemera, courtesy of carefully placed guitar and bass interaction, as well as Catherine’s delicate handling of the subject matter. That it segues into the third part of Hamish’s Visions trilogy—the next album is called Projections—is kind of like Bauhaus closing out The Sky’s Gone Out with “All We Ever Wanted Was Everything.” OK, they almost did. Distortions’ heart and self-determination is always at the edge of its potential. Listening to it is like hanging out with Hamish and Catherine in their living room as they rifle through their record collection, beaming as they pull out classics and unsung gems with equal fervor. There’s no pretense here, no prefab assumptions and certainly no indication that Godthrymm are at the end of their proverbial rope. Quite the opposite, in fact. —CHRIS DICK 70 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

AETHERIAN

At Storm’s Edge LIFEFORCE

Chance of greatness in the forecast

It’s cool to be totally focused on your own art and ignore critics and other opinions, but sometimes maybe you really need to listen. Aetherian sure did, and all power to them for that. Actually, we don’t know if they did—maybe it was just some really effective self-criticism that led to massive improvement—but whatever. There were things wrong with their The Untamed Wilderness debut, they fixed them, and that’s great. The vocals were terrible, for instance, lacking any kind of depth or expression, and now, a mere six years later, they seem like they’re coming from someone else. They’re not. It’s still Panos Leakos—he just dropped the bass since then, and maybe the extra focus did the trick. It’s still not Mikael Stanne-esque melodeath brilliance, but they’re much fuller and more powerful, and they actually fit the music. We can also hear better that they fit, because the production doesn’t sound like the band playing inside a bucket full of lethargic wasps anymore. On At Storm’s Edge, it’s much easier to enjoy the wonderful things that were already apparent on that first album, which is to say the exceptional songwriting talent above all else. The Insomnium comparisons make even more sense now, with stuff like the chugging “Advent Dreams” offering an epic feel akin to Rotting Christ’s Theogonia in parts. The delicate light and dark balance of “Soulriver” is simply marvelous, giving us a little bit of hope that this whole genre isn’t entirely stagnated and completely dependent on a couple decades-old bands to keep surviving after all. Not every song attains peaks like these, but the ones that do—coupled with the immense quality jump from the debut—really make us stoked for the future of this band. We’re listening! —JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS

AGRICULTURE

Agriculture

THE FLENSER

Roads from Judah

It’s almost too perfect that a band playing what they’ve dubbed “ecstatic black metal” hails from Los Angeles, the land of kaleidoscopic energy crystals and glamorous murder cults. But Agriculture aren’t hippies, or even hipsters. Though fans of early Deafheaven and Liturgy will find plenty to love here, the band’s four

members aren’t interested in playing copycat, or in “transcending” black metal’s borders. Cinematic opening track “The Glory of the Ocean Pt. I” wafts into earshot on a cloud of dreamy pedal steel guitar, then crashes into a wave of warped post-black metal loveliness shot through with glinting tremolo. Its sister track is pure wrath, keeping that pretty picking throughout, but racing between frenetic, icy aggression and heavy, disorienting dirge. “The Well” stands out immediately with its plaintive, cleanly sung vocals and sparse instrumentation; save for some light distortion, it’s about as far from traditional black metal as one can imagine. It’s immediately followed by “Look, Pt. 1,” which repurposes the same melody, but buries it beneath a maelstrom of aggressive howls, diamond-sharp riffs and a brief, bewildering scream of saxophone. Most of Agriculture’s members have done time in the neoclassical and/or experimental noise worlds, and it shows; “Look, Pt. 3,” the album’s most challenging section, is a heavenly car crash, seeming to collapse in on itself with a heap of squealing tremolo, shrill strings, buckets of distortion, smothered howls and manic percussion that fades into a stultifying tattoo. It’s utterly overwhelming, and yes, ecstatic, in a great and terrible way that feels more like madness than enlightenment. That’s Agriculture’s point on this release— “ecstatic” can mean all manner of things, from the sheer joy of playing music with your friends to the wild hope of a desperate man seeing god in a desert. Agriculture have carved out a comfortable place for themselves within the chaos. —KIM KELLY

BLESSED CURSE

Pray for Armageddon M-THEORY

American thrash at its most Kreative

If you’ve been listening to thrash metal for the last 40-odd years, you’ll know that as rigid as the subgenre is—palmmuting! speed! sleek harmonies! shredding!—what set all the great artists apart from each other was that they each brought something unique to the table. When it comes to the younger generation of thrash acolytes, the challenge is twofold: They must match—or top, if they’re good enough— the ferocity of the sound’s progenitors; and at the same time, it’s imperative to give seasoned listeners something to latch on to. It’s all well and good that you can replicate Destruction or Exodus step for step, but can you put your own personality into the music? Just a few seconds of Blessed Curse’s new album are all it takes to realize that these

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Sacramento dudes are for real. Their sound is irresistible to thrash fans’ ears, ticking all the requisite boxes and bursting with personality. Interestingly, the boys don’t channel Bay Area thrash as much as the German sound, most notably Kreator, which you can instantly hear in Tyler Satterlee’s gravel-gargling snarl. The rampaging riffs are super-tight and very hooky, but the overdriven guitar tone approaches the filthiness of present-day titans Midnight—or old-schoolers S.O.D., frankly— which adds just the right amount of edginess to the sound. The constant give-and-take of melody and fury makes such standouts as “Subspecies,” “Skinned Alive” and “Graveyard World” so damn riveting. Pray for Armageddon is the kind of record that wastes no time earning respect from the old guard, which, in metal, is a high compliment. —ADRIEN BEGRAND

BLOODLETTER

A Different Kind of Hell W I S E B LO O D

Better than A Different Kind of Truth

Considering that Kreator are still putting out some of the best records of their career—hell, the audience went nuts for a set of almost entirely post-millennial material when I saw them a few weeks ago—I dunno if we need another Kreator. And Bloodletter aren’t Kreator, exactly, but they sure share a lot of the same DNA, down to Peter Carparelli’s Petrozza-style snarl. Thankfully, third full-length A Different Kind of Hell finds its own identity, even if you gotta look real close to find it. The secret weapon in these Chicagoans’ arsenal is actually melodeath. A lot of these riffs would feel right at home in the golden age of Gothenburg—“Bound & Ravaged” has some serious Whoracle vibes. Still plenty of thrashing for sure. And it’s not entirely one-note thrashing, either. “The Howling Dead” and “The Darkness Damned” demonstrate their own killer sides of the slasher spectrum. Unfortunately, the drumming makes the tunes feel a little same-y in the middle section—you can click between “From Hell They Came” and “The Last Tomb” and not necessarily notice a difference, which isn’t ideal. That’s always been a danger with this stuff. It’s just also a problem here. Still, they do their damnedest to give the listener a metal thrashing mad experience, and they deliver. The pitfalls they hit are ones more endemic to their chosen genre than anything. This won’t exactly replace your copy of Hate Über Alles, but it’s a nice companion piece. —JEFF TREPPEL 72 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

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Disharmonium – Nahab DEBEMUR MORTI PRODUCTIONS

Viva la BAN

It seems like only yesterday that Blut Aus Nord released a new album. A sequel to last year’s Disharmonium – Undreamable Abysses, Disharmonium – Nahab shows these French weirdos moving further into the realm of relative comfort, at least in the form of very, very unsettling black metal. The band’s 15th (!) proper album, Disharmonium – Nahab is a discordant, slinking beast, one that presents this long-standing act as the masters of their own style. Mastermind Vindsval, alongside bassist GhÖst and drummer W.D. Feld (who I am partially convinced are made-up “bandmates”), has been making oddball black metal for a long time—an early adventurer through the world of dissonance, a champion in the post-Mysticum era of industrial black metal, and a connoisseur of bizarre ambiance in an exceedingly experimental setting, this multi-instrumentalist songwriter’s latest effort is an attempt at outdoing the redefinition found on his last album. This means a few things: 1) the album is impenetrably thick, 2) the album is impossibly weird, and 3) the album is incredibly singular. In short: Disharmonium – Nahab is not for casual listening, nor is it for impaired listening. This is something you absolutely need to sink your entire brain into in order to fully appreciate it, though it’s also important to note that it’s completely unlistenable in any other setting. This isn’t to say the album is bad—it’s very, very good—but you have to really dedicate yourself. It’s the only way; otherwise, it simply isn’t worth it. —JON ROSENTHAL

CADAVER

The Age of the Offended NUCLEAR BLAST

Sorry not sorry

It’s pretty amusing that even titling an album The Age of the Offended— which is an accurate contemporary societal observation—will no doubt offend somebody. Norse death metal veterans Cadaver care not about such delicate constitutions, however, and rightly so. Led in fits and starts by guitarist/ vocalist Anders “Neddo” Odden since 1988, this is the second studio album from the band since reforming in 2010, and also the second featuring the power and technical flair of drummer Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, ex-Soilwork and a thousand other acts).

Like 2020’s Edder & Bile, The Age of the Offended gives the grisly sound nailed on Cadaver’s early-’90s classics—Hallucinating Anxiety and …in Pains—a modern slant in terms of tighter performances and sharper production qualities. Odden’s coarse caw sounds ancient from the moment it appears on the disorientating squall of “Postapocalyptic Grinding,” the near psychedelic effect of which is heightened by trippy lead work. “Scum of the Earth” is more blunt in its attack, groove-laden and instantaneously infectious. The title track’s Slayer-gone-sludge opening riff gives way to fierce DM syncopations pushed in various directions by Verbeuren’s punishing tempo shifts. While, save for a blistering solo section, “The Shrink” is a midpaced stomp that sounds too simplistic overall. Thankfully, though, the back end of the record—from the queasy “Crawl of the Cadaver” to the Scandi-thrash of “Deadly Metal” and the jolting blasts of “Freezing Isolation”—is consistently strong, hooky and diverse enough to retain the attention of diehards while perhaps also enticing some new followers into the morgue. —DEAN BROWN

CAVALERA

Bestial Devastation NUCLEAR BLAST

CAVALERA

Morbid Visions NUCLEAR BLAST

This is no Conspiracy

Directly on the heels of Voivod’s space-battlin’, nostalgia-fête Morgöth Tales, the Cavalera brothers have likewise gone all watery-eyed ‘n’ sentimental on us via this contemporary do-over of Sepultura’s seminal output. C’mon, grandpa, take your maudlin energy to the rumpus room; you’re bumming everyone out! Both of these re-recordings smoke, but Bestial Devastation weathers Cavalera’s muscular fidelity just a tad more gracefully. The source material’s Tormentor, Sodom and early Frost affects have thoroughly fertilized the Cavalera power grid, and the result comes off more like late-’80s crossover in the vein of Carnivore’s sophomore record or a far superior iteration of fellow countrymen RDP. Gone is all that crummy drum-sharting, as well as Max’s teenaged facsimile of Mille Petrozza. This is unmistakably Max and Iggor Cavalera at the zenith of their authority, and it’s thrilling to hear “AntiChrist,” “Necromancer” and the eunuch-making “Warriors of Death” buffed out to this level of clarity and aggression. The original was Remedial Devastation at best. This is properly Bestial.

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If you ever feel the need to listen to the original release of Morbid Visions, listen to Dorsal Atlântica’s ’86 Antes do Fim album instead; it’s a vastly superior interpretation of the same stew of influences. This rerecording of Morbid Visions harmonizes its source material with the Bestial Devastation redux so that there really isn’t any distinguishing factor between them; these tunes just aren’t quite as worthy. “Show Me the Wrath” continues to sound like it was carjacked from Haunting the Chapel and, honestly, Schizophrenia still boasts the best version of “Troops of Doom,” but, hey, this remains an incredibly fun and scathing outburst. (Max even bothered to tune his guitar for this one. What a guy!) No, this ain’t cvlt; Morbid Visions circa 2023 is much heavier than that. Get over yourself and check it out. —FORREST PITTS

CRYPTA

Shades of Sorrow N A PA L M

Under a pale gray sky

The pandemic splintered Crypta core Fernanda Lira and Luana Dametto from Brazilian thrash ambassadors Nervosa during the silent spring of 2020. Three genre-staking albums from the quartet (who landed on the cover of this clarion mag the following year) paved ample runway for the bassist/singer and drummer’s death metal bow on 2021’s Echoes of the Soul. Sophomore banger Shades of Sorrow smacks down the sequel. Blind taste tests wouldn’t tip off Lira’s X chromosome count. All bassy gut roar, serrated mid-tone and witchy peaks, the lead reaper modulates words and emotion with a knowing expertise that rarely betrays the singer’s sex. That asset remains a razor’s edge herein and throughout metal. Difficult for dudes to pull off the same feat in the opposite direction, but obviously, few concern themselves with the gender orientation of gooseflesh levitators. Lira forces you to care, pulling focus alongside the lyrical twin blades of guitarists Jéssica di Falchi and Tainá Bergamaschi. The same can’t be said of the material, sadly. The engine room runs smooth and hard: iron throne riffs, accelerator cohesion and cardiac delivery. Only missing, then, is their “Arise,” the anthem indoctrinating instant adherents. Beyond the piano nervosa introducing and closing Shades of Sorrow and the acoustic picking touching off “Lord of Ruins,” only the all-toobrief solos spice the stewed proceedings. Standout “Stronghold” points the way forward, rising near the midpoint in perfect touch, tone and melancholia. With ’70s guitars tolling 74 : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 3 : D E C I B E L

like the Hammersmith Odeon, it airs out deep and lofty. When Lira later hums “Lullaby for the Forsaken,” Crypta converts immediately arise anew. —RAOUL HERNANDEZ

DRIPPING DECAY

Festering Grotesqueries

S ATA N I K R O Y A LT Y

Rotten to the gore

In an age where it seems as though all the best death metal band names have been taken, out from the ooze come grindin’ gorefiends Dripping Decay. The name chosen by these four worshippers of old-school extremity—guitarist/founder Neil Smith, vocalist Eric Stucke, bassist Jackson Jordan and drummer Jason Borton—has a classiness to it that stands in direct contrast with the intentionally garish artwork of their full-length debut, Festering Grotesqueries. However, the latter’s blindingly colorful, cartoonish horror imagery does in fact fit the late-’80s B-movie appeal of the music, as well as song titles like “Gut Muncher,” “Autocannibal Ecstasy” and “Barf Bag.” From throat to tail, this LP is more The Beyond than Rosemary’s Baby. When chunky flecks of Repulsion, early Carcass and Regurgitate slosh ‘n’ slam against loose-limbed DM pulled from the slop buckets of Autopsy, Scream Bloody Gore-era Death and an offal-laden smorgasbord of Finnish sounds, it’s clear that Dripping Decay are at their best when they lean hardest into their grindcore influences. With the scene currently busting at the seams like an engorged corpse dragged from a canal, the ripping grind stylings of this foursome really helps distinguish them. Sure, all of the tracks found between the basic horror-synth intro and outro that bookend this record contain nothing a seasoned DM/grind head hasn’t heard before, but such lack of invention is hardly cause for criticism in a genre that thrives on old flesh. Dripping Decay are feasting hard on Festering Grotesqueries, and this debut marks the Portland band as ones to keep a beady eye fixed on. —DEAN BROWN

ELDER DEVIL

Everything Worth Loving PROSTHETIC

A lot to love, but not everything

Black metal, sludge, grindcore: three ingredients that way more often than not create a hearty stew of good music. Elder Devil agree and have done an admirable job on their second

full-length, even if a couple other elements are lacking. What the quartet does best is move between genres quickly and seamlessly, mixing them together at times to create hybrid parts for maximum ugliness. Peter Ruacho’s drumming is exceptional, and the comfort he has playing all of this is a big part of why everything congeals. The riffs have a punk approach, but are also more creative and (occasionally) melodic than they have to be, and Stephen Muir’s vocals have the corrosive cynicism of a young, less fucked-up Mike Williams. The two missing elements that could have probably moved this from good to great, though, are noise and bass. With the former, the penultimate track is a noise piece proving the band knows their way around a box of screws and a busted Metal Zone pedal. On the next listen, it’s hard to not pick out plenty of spots that could’ve used another disgusting layer which would have elevated the whole thing. As far as bass, while the production isn’t bad, it’s a little too aimed towards the non-sludge genres and ends up stealing too much from the low end. Maybe Elder Devil will tinker with their recipe for the next release; either way, Everything Worth Loving still has enough of the good stuff to satisfy. —SHANE MEHLING

END REIGN

The Way of All Flesh Is Decay RELAPSE

Supposed to rot

At some point this summer, End Reign will be referred to as a supergroup. The reason is that collectively the band members have been part of multiple Decibel covers (Integrity, Pig Destroyer, All Out War and Noisem), along with other worthy bands. While it’s easy to use this term when it comes to extreme music, it’s a misnomer. A supergroup is when millionaires form bands to add to their retirement fund. End Reign? This is a bunch of vets of tours in the back of smelly vans getting together to make new music honoring old music they love. It’s a good thing, not a cash grab. Domenic Romeo (Integrity/Pulling Teeth) formed End Reign to write material that touched on favorites like Bathory, Slayer and Cro-Mags. He then enlisted Mike Score (All Out War), Adam Jarvis (Pig Destroyer, Misery Index and Lock Up), Art Legere (Bloodlet) and Sebastian Phillips (Exhumed and Noisem). The result is a gnarly and caustic, yet graceful review of a legacy of brutality. “House of Thieves” sounds like someone spliced Slayer’s “Black Magic” with All Out War. Other tracks have a distinct mid-’90s

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Earth Crisis vibe. The album never settles on an approach, but juggles these different sounds and influences. Romeo and Phillips trade solos throughout the record, adding a touch of virtuosity often missing from extreme music. The supporting cast is another selling point; the album features vocal cameos from Dwid Hellion (Integrity) Dylan Walker (Full of Hell) and Ed Ka-Spel from the Legendary Pink Dots. At points, The Way of All Flesh Is Decay becomes an extreme metal Zoolander 2, with cameos coming so fast and often (Sting? Bieber? Vera Wang? John Malkovich? Some dude in a hardcore band everyone forgot?) that you lose sight of the marquee names. Romeo says the album was “like riding a roller coaster in a theme park based on all the extreme music I’ve enjoyed throughout my life,” But roller coaster rides end, and you go home; albums are forever. The Way of All Flesh Is Decay is better thought of as a love letter to a lifetime of extremity that deserves to be read by future generations. —JUSTIN M. NORTON

EVILE

The Unknown N A PA L M

The Charcoal Gray album

Erstwhile U.K. thrashers Evile haven’t hung around for nearly 20 years and released five previous albums (on both Earache and Napalm) for lack of talent. The Huddersfield quartet, now fronted by lead guitarist Ol Drake since his brother Matt left in 2020, were one of the leading faces of the thrash revival in the early aughts. But from our perspective, they have been plagued by wearing their influences—cough, Metallica—a little too obviously on their collective sleeves. Latest effort The Unknown is certainly no different, and sounds like a very detailed love letter to Metallica’s self-titled fifth album. For a band that led the thrash resurgence two decades ago, Evile don’t get to an actual thrash song on The Unknown until fifth track “Sleepless Eyes.” The first four lumber along on heavy, simple riffs punctuated by personal, introspective lyrics. Sound familiar? Unfortunately there’s not a “Enter Sandman” or “Sad but True” (or anything close to such quality) in the bunch here. There’s no shame in a band trying a new, different approach, but it feels like Evile are frequently susceptible to letting whatever unique identity they may possess be subsumed by their influences. There’s no way you can listen to this album and not immediately be reminded of the unexpected stylistic change Metallica dropped on us in 1991. This too is unexpected, but not in a good way. —ADEM TEPEDELEN 76 : SEP TEMBER 202 3 : DECIBEL

GRAND CADAVER

Deities of Deathlike Sleep

M A J E S T I C M O U N TA I N

“Stabbed With Frozen Blood” also a good one

When a bunch of older death metal dudes start a new band together, it’s usually prog or really cheesy AOR—I mean, I love me some Night Flight Orchestra, and someday I will finally pull together enough other writers to make Albert include them in the Top 40, but I’ll admit they ain’t the hippest cats. Grand Cadaver went the opposite direction. These veterans of notable acts like Dark Tranquillity, Tiamat and Katatonia got bored during the pandemic and jammed out some quick, nasty throwback OSDM. If a new generation can do it, why not them? And it turns out that, divorced from the expectations of their main projects, they’re really good at it. Deities of Deathlike Sleep is their second stab. It’s along the same lines as their first: Swedish death metal done the right way. Even though Dark Tranquillity provide the most members, there’s more Stockholm grime than Gothenburg slickness—but fans of The Gallery won’t be disappointed. There’s still plenty of melody and, considering that Mikael Stanne provides the growls, more than a little DT DNA in GC. It’s discomforting comfort food for sure. Even the most Tranquill track is called “Serrated Jaws.” Elsewhere, “Funeral Reversal” may be the most subtly funny death metal song title I’ve heard since the last Carcass record. What does it sound like? You guessed it! Usual caveat at the end here: nothing original, but deathlike deity is this satisfying. If you like melodic, gnarly Swedeath (and who doesn’t?), this is your jam. —JEFF TREPPEL

HALLUCINATE

From the Bowels of the Earth CALIGARI

Prodigal fun

Upstart weirdos Hallucinate must’ve dosed on acid tabs in the lead-up to their debut full-length, From the Bowels of the Earth. Combined with a healthy diet of unorthodox death metal—from the distant and recent past—the juncture the German outfit has arrived at is brutally kaleidoscopic. Think tie-dye colors tripping balls against a wall of dissonance, dingy groove, insect-like buzzing and attentive melody. That Robert Andersson (Sweven, ex-Morbus Chron) guests on From the Bowels of the Earth kinda indicates Hallucinate’s headspace. That means, if Atrocity’s way underrated Todessehnsucht had a back-alley tryst with Voivod’s Nothingface, it

might come out the other side of the prismatic orifice like “Black Smokers,” “AION” or the dreamlike “Paracletus.” What’s remarkable about From the Bowels of the Earth is that it’s a grower. On first blush, Hallucinate appear idiosyncratic, but after some dedicated jams, the disparate parts— ambient sitars, early-’90s brute riffs, oddly timed rhythms—come together. Other highlights include “Blackened Gills,” with its stunning solo, “A Universe Obscure” and the aggressive stutter of the closing track, “Crimson Rain.” Vocally, Persecutor, who also moonlights in NoFi death metallers Graveyard Ghoul, has a coffin-dry growl, powerful and distinguished. When he sings—focusing on the standout track “Paracletus”—it’s reserved, almost lilting. Not sure who produced From the Bowels of the Earth, but it’s handled with the right amount of DIY care. The blasty bits protrude while the shroomed-out introspective parts resonate. Hallucinate are the newest kids on the block. It’s just not apparent when they’re busying themselves in the savage skronk they’re levying with such heaviness. —CHRIS DICK

KATAKLYSM

Goliath

NUCLEAR BLAST

More is less

Look, we’re not asking them to do Sorcery again or anything. That sort of wishful thinking never works anyway, not even if the band members themselves believe they should get back to their halcyon age. If it did, surely all the energy that has been expended by fervently wishing Metallica would do another Puppets (by now, even another Black Album would be unreal, but I digress…) would have gotten us something, anything. So, yeah, we’re already cutting Kataklysm some slack. We have been for about 20 years now, to be a little cruel about it, but the rewards have been constantly dwindling, and it’s getting harder to justify this steady decline. And it’s not like they’re totally clueless, or putting out openly shit music, or even not caring anymore. Goliath is Kataklysm’s 15th full-length. They’ve never gone more than three years without one. There’s usually a whole concept for every one of them. They try, they care. There isn’t a St. Anger in Kataklysm’s catalog. You will be able to put this record on and nod through it, as its competent, polished, contemporary death metal unfolds predictably, without being offended or openly hating anything other than perhaps the production, if you’re very fussy about your old-schoolness. There’s a couple of good riffs. But that’s it.

nearly seven-minute feast of tectonic riffs that’ll rattle your fillings. It’s like if those Savannah, GA bands were back writing songs meant to melt Grammys instead of win them. Despite Jimbob’s myriad accomplishments, he has never really gotten his due. Hard to know if Silverburn will be what earns him those welldeserved accolades, but Self Induced Transcendental Annihilation is certainly good enough to do it. —SHANE MEHLING

SPINE

Raíces CONVULSE

Feel good death metal hit of the summer | R E L A P S E

Outer Heaven and Relapse should get their heads together for this release and consider shipping the gatefold with a crate of beer, because the audience could really use some to wash this audio enlivener down. If you caught this Douglassville, PA quintet’s debut, Realms of Eternal Decay, back in 2018, you know what kind of death metal you’re in for. It’s gory, macabre, sci-fi death metal, almost slam-friendly. But no sportswear, please. Come as you are. Stand at the back. Launch yourself off a wedge monitor. The choice is yours. Don’t be late. Infinite Psychic Depths is no evolutionary miracle, but it is tighter, catchier, super entertaining and packed with action. Songs stop short of hyper-blasts, yet sound quicker and more intense for doing so. Those riffs sure hit the spot—the appeal of this is nigh-on

psychotropic. Some tracks, such as “Soul Remnants” and “Fragmented Suspension,” bear the hallmarks of Rob Barrett, others Evil Chuck. The Sunshine State’s mid-’90s cultural exports have a lot to answer for. Now, the darkness sounds imported from Finland, but this is U.S.A. all the way, box-office DM with cameos on the mic from Pig Destroyer’s J.R. Hayes, Morbid Angel’s Steve Tucker and Undeath’s Alex Jones. Dave Suzuki (ex-Vital Remains) checks in to drop some lead guitar on standout track “Rotting Stone/D.M.T.,” but truth is, guitarists Jonathan Kunz and Zak Carter have this sound perfected under their own steam. Their solos open portals in the imagination like unexplained lights in the forest at night. And just look at Matt Stikker’s cover art. It’s a goddamn mood board for the whole subculture, telling us exactly how this will sound. Is that beer cold yet? —JONATHAN HORSLEY

To use a thematically appropriate analogy, it’s like watching the Spartacus TV series. There’s all the blood and violence and pleasantlooking human bodies in acts of intercourse and a plot that you can follow and okay acting—it’s good to kill an hour on the couch, but ultimately, you know that it’s all average, plastic entertainment you’ll forget about the minute it’s over, and you move on to the stuff that really matters. —JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS

outfits, and he’s put out some near-classic prog-sludge with his bands Hark and Taint, the latter of which started nearly 30 years ago. Silverburn is his solo project, and full-length debut Self Induced Transcendental Annihilation, is an excellent example of how getting older doesn’t always mean getting softer. This is, in fact, Isaac at the heaviest he’s ever been. A more angular and skronkified version of his modus operandi, it’s a dive into the metalcore that had its heyday around the new millennium combined with his pulverizing, tar-drenched aesthetics. The last minute of “Vita Potentia Animus” has the kind of chugging mathematics that will charm the pants off Knut fans (which should be everyone), while there are more than a handful of nods to noiseniks like Botch and Deadguy. Yes, this is heavy and chaotic, and Isaac sounds like he’s trying to collapse his lungs, but his gift for the rock lick is still there, and these hooks refuse to be ignored. “Etheric Crush” is a

SILVERBURN

Self Induced Transcendental Annihilation MSH MUSIC GROUP

Silver’s just another gold

Jimbob Isaac is one of those if-you-know-youknow kinda guys. The Welshman’s striking, lush artwork has long been used by metal/rock 78 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

Roots bloody roots

This powerviolence quartet comes barreling out of Kansas City with a cache of eight releases in their rearview earmarked by a sound and aesthetic rooted in the ’80s. But try as they might, they’ve made it a goal to incorporate vocalist Antonio Marquez’s Cuban-American heritage into the mix with bilingual bellowing and snippets of dusty-sounding Latin music. Expanding the boundaries of any genre is a good thing—especially the self-important, navelgazing world of powerviolence—but when the musical diversions are age-old samples and not a product of the band itself, the result seems disjointed and clunky. Not that it happens enough to totally derail the proceedings—and we’re sure there’s some connection between Marquez’s heritage and the rumba abruptness that sounds like it’s emerging from the speakers of a 1950s Edsel—but the disconnect is noticeable and mildly detracting. What’s also noticeable and less detracting is how this beast rockets by. Sounding like it was tracked on a primitive Fostex in a shitty garage “studio”—which some contend is the way hardcore should sound—Raíces rages like the missing link between Die Kruezen’s debut and Siege on one end, and Dropdead and Weekend Nachos on the other, with half-time sludge and mosh part breakdowns providing the caveman dynamics. Marquez barks like a feral wolf and guitars underpin a distorted, blower bass as the clatterbang drum sound and Dillon Bendetti’s ability to remain in the pocket while playing a halfmillion miles an hour provides structure to the chaos, especially given that song development is limited by their sub-minute lengths. The only reason you’ll remember a single note of any of these 12 songs is because the riffs are already scattered throughout various parts of your record collection. But when pieced together with this amount of powerhouse punch, the violent flourish of Raíces is worth experiencing. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

PHOTO BY SCOTT KINKADE

OUTER HEAVEN, Infinite Psychic Depths 8

SULLY

The Tony Demo H O R R O R PA I N G O R E D E AT H

Credit where credit’s due

Featuring Erik Burke and Adam Frappolli (Psyopus), these Rochester grinders purport to take themselves as seriously as an episode of The Standups. It is to wonder, then, why they selected their moniker in salutation of the traditional dictionary definition of the word sully, and not, for example, the pilot dude who saved 155 lives by landing a disabled jet in the Hudson River a few years back. Or at least as a homage to the life and work of Tom Hanks. What the quartet—completed by rhythm section Alex Perez and Ed Jusko—are paying homage to are grind and grind-adjacent favorites like Discordance Axis, Brutal Truth, Pig Destroyer, Burnt by the Sun and Rorschach. They’ve done so with four succinct open-handed sonic slaps that scratch the surface of early2000s lurching metallic hardcore (“Dredge the Lake”), the hypnotic high-speed waver of Burke’s years in Brutal Truth (“Circle the Drain”) and even a bit of the impenetrable tech-metal Lethargy made Rochester infamous for back in the ’90s (“Tinker’s Dam”). I don’t know who Tony is, but as this demo appears to have been made in his honor, he’s probably one heckuva a cool dude, as the sound reeks of plug-in-and-play tonal warts, off-thecuff living room takes and “grip it and rip it” urgency. Unfair or biased as some may see it, we’re obviously giving Sully an early jump into the spotlight based on who’s in the band. But deep pedigree produces results, as they say in the worlds of sports and literature. And if they already haven’t been saying so in the world of underground grindcore—take a gander at Burke’s lengthy résumé—they’d be wise to start with Sully. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

URNE

A Feast on Sorrow CANDLELIGHT

Over the flows

Joe Duplantier doesn’t produce a lot of records. Outside of his own band’s albums, the Gojira frontman only has four full-length production credits in his discography—most notably for Car Bomb’s 2016 mathcore opus, Meta. That gives his cosign of the proggy U.K. trio Urne a lot of weight. Though the band initially only wanted to use his studio to record drums, Duplantier insisted on producing their second album, A Feast on Sorrow. The result bears some distinctively Gojirian fingerprints.

Like Gojira, Urne sit somewhere on a spectrum that runs from sludgy metallic hardcore to crystalline prog, though they don’t quite share the Frenchmens’ pop sensibility. Urne’s songs tend to be freewheeling and discursive; two cuts from A Feast on Sorrow stretch past the 11-minute mark, and they earn every second of their runtimes. “A Stumble of Words” emphasizes the band’s emotive, post-hardcore-leaning side, while album closer “The Long Goodbye/Where Do the Memories Go?” is a towering, multi-part epic cut from the same cloth as Mastodon’s “Hearts Alive.” (Both tracks incorporate a palate-cleansing dusting of traditional Celtic folk sounds.) It’s on those two songs that Urne sound the most in command of their powers, and where A Feast on Sorrow really shines. Elsewhere, the songs don’t quite live up to their potential. The genre buffet approach means leaner tracks like “To Die Twice” and “Becoming the Ocean” don’t cut to the bone the way they should. A Feast on Sorrow is an emotionally wrenching album, dealing unflinchingly with disease, death and grief. On those shorter tunes, it feels like the music could stand to be as direct as the lyrics and Joe Nally’s heart-on-sleeve vocals. Urne’s next challenge will be to become as convincing in shortform as they are when they stretch things out. In the meantime, there’s plenty to chew on here. —BRAD SANDERS

WEREWOLVES

My Enemies Look and Sound Like Me PROSTHETIC

And a good day to you, too, sir!

My Enemies Look and Sound Like Me is half an hour of hellfire and zero mercy, jams to get the neanderthal speed freak’s heart rate up, to circumvent the brain, to undo whatever socialization we’ve undertaken in our lives. It’s hard to swim against the tide, difficult to resist being swept away in the ecstatic physicality of it. No question, this Australian trio extracts a great pleasure from playing their aggro thrash death metal with the foot-to-the-floor, three-minute tornados musing upon underground scene posturing, misanthropy, societal collapse, regressing to oblivion and—perhaps inevitably—coprophagia. There’s a giddiness to the helter-skelter “Bring Me to the Kill” and “Neanderhell.” More often than not, that fuck-everyone attitude hits you right between the eyes. There is one change of pace. “Destroyer of Worlds” divides its time between being discordant in a slack tempo and gnarly weirdness. Otherwise, this is a focused and targeted strike. There’s no denying the thrills to be had. The

question is whether these tracks have a shelf life, whether they have enough to have us coming back for more. That is often the hardest trick to land in extreme metal, and all the more difficult in a fundamentalist outfit like this, and it either calls for hooks or, y’know, more music—be that instrumentation, dynamics or simply something to make the wildest material stand out. But then, guitarist Matt Wilcock and vocalist/bassist Sam Bean have the Antichrist Imperium to go epic. This project is more about the rewilding of themselves, a place to put their hate, a place to be bestially transformed no matter the lunar phase we find ourselves in. —JONATHAN HORSLEY

THE ZENITH PASSAGE

Datalysium

M E TA L B L A D E

Server overload

It’s arguable whether metaldom is in the twilight years after hitting peak tech-death. Just when you think all scales and rudiments have been used and abused, something like a pandemic comes along and gives the remarkably talented neurodivergents who function best in the confines of home studios using cobbled-together recording rigs in spare rooms (rooms that could be being rented at exorbitant amounts!), giving them an excuse to shine where they shine best: away from the sweat of the stage and the light of the public eye. The post-pandemic result has been more notes per minute, more 13/8 (or whatever chiropractic adjustment-needing time signatures get worked into the music) and more songs that amaze with showmanship, but fail to make lasting connections with majority-stake listeners. If you take a pass on Datalysium’s opener, “The Axiom of Error,” and dive straight into the wiry, clipped guitar clatter of “Algorithmic Salvation,” “Lexicontagion” and “Deletion Cult,” it would appear the Zenith Passage have discovered the secret sauce to emerge above their contemporaries. The songs move in the same creepy, gangly manner a daddy longlegs spider prances across the room when you’re trying to obliterate it with fuzzy slippers. “Divinertia II” takes similar skittish steps towards making the overwhelming everything palatable—the wellphrased solo and parts that sound like they’re playing music notated from the Cygnus Constellation help massively. However, unsurprisingly, much of the rest is either widdly-woo weariness or angelic attempts at yacht prog that sound way too much like Between the Buried and Me. Datalysium almost gets the Zenith Passage over the hump, but not quite. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO DECIBEL : SEPTEMBER 2023 : 79

EUGENE S. ROBINSON

PETER BRÖTZMANN +

THE MACHINE GUN OF PETER BRÖTZMANN

eavy metal saved my life.

Literally, figuratively and most expressively when Fuckfest, the record I first did— done as a musical suicide note—was at first embraced, then abandoned by the alternative community. Or maybe it wasn’t so much the music but the penchant for a live show that included violence and nudity, all in the body of the same person, him being the one that just wrote this. Be that it as it may, that trail had gone cold, and if there’s anything sadder than an unread (or unlistened to) suicide note, it’s doing one for a dwindling community of people who’d rather be listening to No Doubt. Or Offspring. Or Linkin Park. Or any band from back then whose name I’m just picking out of a hat. But the metal community, while not necessarily co-signing all of the above, kept listening. Here and in Europe. And Japan. Well past when we could legitimately play Gilman Street and still be appreciated by someone (anyone). You see, the metal

80 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

community had ears; and whatever ears it had, it shared with me. Most specifically when I got dragged to a show in Porto as part of Amplifest. It was to see Peter Brötzmann’s Tentet. It was in a classy theater in Porto. The kind where you might hear classical music. A healthy assumption until the stooped figure of Brötzmann appeared, with his 10-piece band, raised his saxophone to his mouth and started to blow an unholy squall that absolutely crushed, killed and destroyed. You see, it was free jazz. Or somewhat free. Peter Brötzmann’s Machine Gun—his second record, which he released in 1968 on his own label— did as machine guns do. It mowed down everyone in its path. Which is what his Tentet was doing in Porto: murdering people with sound. When intermission hit, the season ticket holders that had filed out did not file back in, leaving only the lunatics and those in love with sonic extremes. Grinning like devils. Which is precisely what I was doing when the Moers Festival asked

Oxbow to play, and not only play, but to play with Peter Brötzmann. We agreed in as much time as it took to agree, showed up, and on the strength of one rehearsal day, posted up to play. But there was a catch. Because, well, there’s always a catch with Oxbow. “You can’t use the big stage.” A 16-piece band needed it. Where were we to play? On a small platform in the middle of an audience of 1,000 or so. Four of Oxbow and Peter Brötzmann jammed into a space surrounded by seated Germans. More wary and informed than the Porto audience, we ripped into our song “Angel” to—if the eyes and faces of those surrounding us were any indication—wide and wild joy. And through it all, the constant and continual surprise of Brötzmann’s playing—equal parts savage and then tender, matching the song about the murder of a husband and wife by an outshone lover—Brötzmann, himself, while not the tallest man, suddenly loomed large purely on the basis of the sound out of his horn.

Not many saxes in metal—Bruce Lamont from Yakuza, Steve Mackay from the Stooges, Derf Scratch from Fear come most quickly to mind— but sonically, Brötzmann and the horn of Brötzmann was as formidable as anything ever hammered out onstage or on record by a band calling themselves metal. And at the time of the concert with Oxbow, 2018, Brötzmann was 77 years old. Let that shit sink in. Moreover, my favorite Brötzmann story of all time was when he was staying in New York, went out and got drunk, and wandered around one of Brooklyn’s worst neighborhoods. He was stripped naked and robbed, but when he was found by his hosts, he was standing in a doorway, as happy as could be. Hardcore indeed. The Moers concert was recorded and released this year as An Eternal Reminder of Not Today. But last night Peter Brötzmann died. At the age of 82. He will be missed. So, throw up the horns. Peter Brötzmann is gone. ILLUSTRATION BY ED LUCE

MU S I C P R E SE N T E D B Y

BEER P R E S E NT ED BY

2 02 3

D E NV E R , C O

F E AT URI NG B E E R S F RO M

S P ONS O R E D B Y

FO R MO R E I NFO R M AT I O N V I S I T

rivers of heresy

the debut album

out 1st september cd • lp • digital • cassette