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EXHUMED TORCHE NOISEM LORD DYING FULGORA ARMAGEDDON WRETCH ALSO
MAR 2015 // No. 125
E XT R E M E LY E XT R E M E
LIVING COLOUR
EXTREMELY EXTREME
March 2015 [T125] decibelmagazine.com
64 LEVIATHAN COVER STORY
The damage undone
features
reviews
20 heiress Entitlement has its privileges
36 wretch The gates of slumber awaken and reopen
75 lead review SoCal’s Night Demon do the NWOBHM proud
22 fulgora Super grind freaks
38 call and response:
76 album reviews Artists who ain’t bad, despite having their albums unceremoniously dumped in the dead of winter, including Marduk, Blacklisted, Ghoulgotha and Hateful Abandon
upfront 10 metal muthas:
noisem
Let’s hear it for the boys 11 set fire Inside a Carcass comeback set list 12 low culture There’s no social justice, there’s just us 13 brewtal truth Thrash Zone’s extreme mandate 14 cry now Just in case—this is satire 16 live review From the Mandylion’s den 18 studio report:
paradise lost
What’s plaguing them lately
24 lord dying Wiping off the grime 26 armageddon > the Michael Bay version 28 sannhet Undefined variables 30 generation of vipers Cobra commanders refuse to retreat 32 lotus thief Comprehensive strategies 34 mors principium est Pouring out a fifth
exhumed
Inside Death Metal with Matt Harvey 40 torche Restart with heart 42 q&a: cronos Sweat like a pig, die like a fox 44 special feature
the top 20 almost decibel hall of fames Our hall of fails
54 the decibel hall of fame From clothes to chops, Living Colour were a Vivid force in ’80s metal
sub:culture 92 horrorscope Spin the blackest circles 96 south pole dispatch Applied sciences
COVER AND CONTENTS PHOTO BY SHIMON KARMEL Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $29.95. Periodical postage, Philadelphia, PA, and other mailing offices. Submission of manuscripts, illustrations and/or photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Postmaster send changes of address for Decibel to Red Flag Media, 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia PA 19107. Copyright© 2015 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All ISSN 1557-2137 | USPS 023142 rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. 2 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
www.decibelmagazine.com
EXTREMELY EXTREME
March 2015 [T125]
PUBLISHER
Alex Mulcahy
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Albert Mudrian
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PHOTO BY JEF WHITEHEAD
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The result is one of my favorite experiences ever working with an artist on a Decibel cover story, and one I would have never imagined possible all those years ago.
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“I’m not interested in being
in your magazine. At all.” Leviathan’s Jef Whitehead from the editor provided this response to Decibel’s first interview request back in late 2005. To be fair, the appeal came from our J. Bennett, who has a long, hilarious history of poking the often-humorless bear that is underground black metal. And considering that Decibel had only been around a little over a year—and had recently run a cover story on a Christian metalcore band—I don’t know how we could have expected any other kind of reply. Fast forward nine years, and a lot of things have changed (Hey, our last truly regrettable cover is now seven years ago!) More importantly, that same J. Bennett is now a welcome guest in the home Jef shares with his girlfriend Stevie Floyd and their six-month-old daughter Grail. The reason for the visit: Jef’s first in-depth interview about his life; the musical movement he helped birth and legitimatize as an artistic force in the U.S. over the last two decades; and the ridiculously awesome new Leviathan LP, Scar Sighted. If that wasn’t shocking enough, Jef actually proposed the idea to pose with Grail in our photo shoot, and was even kind enough to tattoo our intrepid reporter after their interview (I think you can spot the work in the photo above). The result is one of my favorite experiences ever working with an artist on a Decibel cover story, and one I would have never imagined possible all those years ago. Today, Jef Whitehead is nurturing a healthy family, while the singer of that Christian metalcore band we naively awarded a cover is currently serving a six-year sentence for a murder-for-hire plot to kill his wife. Maybe the “dark side” isn’t so bad after all.
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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., 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $29.95. Periodical postage, Philadelphia, PA, and other mailing offices. Submission of manuscripts, illustrations and/or photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Postmaster send changes of address for Decibel to Red Flag Media, 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia PA 19107. Copyright ©2015 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. PRINTED IN USA
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fanbase READER OF THE MONTH shows are happening. The trick is to find the guy standing outside with a Cannibal Corpse shirt. That guy is always there like a heavy metal beacon. Club FF, DGBD and V-Hall usually have something good happening once or twice a month. The shows are really intense. Cover is usually $20 for five bands, and you get free beer. There are hardcore, thrash, death, doom and black metal bands. Lately, it’s lots of death metal and metalcore. Korean bands put everything they’ve got into their music. Also, with Korea being a homogenous society that stresses conformity, nobody in the scene is just casually into metal. They are die-hard metalheads.
Andrew Whitmore Culpeper, VA
You spent over three years living in South Korea. Did you get a sense that any kind of extreme music was happening there?
It’s really easy to dismiss South Korean music as nothing more than “Gangnam Style” and nine-member girl groups, but there is an exciting extreme music scene happening. You just have to do the legwork (literally and figuratively) to find it. After you’ve spent hours translating fan blogs and message boards to find bands and shows, you then have to walk around the nightlife districts of Seoul trying to find the underground clubs where the
6 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
We understand that you had metal in the household from a young age. What got you interested in metal, and what was the first metal album you owned?
My parents didn’t believe in censorship, so they let me and my brother listen to whatever we wanted as long as we didn’t repeat the bad words. My dad was really into metal when I was growing up, and was a huge influence. In ’88, he went to the Monsters of Rock tour and came home talking about this band that he saw called Metallica. At the ripe age of six, when he played …And Justice for All and I first heard the opening of “Blackened,” I was hooked on the heavier stuff. I have fond memories riding around with my dad, airdrumming to the breakdown in “One,” yelling, “Darkness! Imprisoning me!” I kept asking my dad to make me copies of his tapes, and before long I had an extensive
collection of ’80s and ’90s bands like D.R.I, Slayer, Sepultura and Entombed. The first album that I bought with my own money was a cassette of Schizophrenia by Sepultura. I wanted to buy Beneath the Remains, but it was out of stock at the time. You currently work for the Library of Congress. How does your job influence your music listening habits?
I’m a Film Archivist, and have a variety of different duties that require different listening. The vaults are dark and cold, especially if I’m working back there for a couple hours. If I’m working in the vaults, I usually listen to black metal. While I’m inspecting film, I have to be really focused and gentle. Some of the films are very old and delicate, and that requires finesse while working with them to prevent damage. For some reason, death metal helps me to focus and notice every detail. If I have to do a lot of heavy lifting and transporting of collection items, straight-edge hardcore with lots of jud-jud breakdowns does the trick. Thrash and crust help me to get through the hours of data entry and cataloging of collection items. Jef Whitehead of Leviathan is on the cover of this issue. If you had the chance, what would you ask Jef to tattoo on you?
Most of the tattoos I have are Asian or Irezumi-styled. I would ask for something with that aesthetic. I’ve wanted to get a halfsleeve of an Oni doing battle with a giant squid for a while.
Chuck BB is the illustrator of the graphic novels Black Metal, Vol. 1. and Black Metal, Vol. 2 For more info and art, head over to chuckbb.com
Taake Striden Hus
“Taake’s album’s range in quality from excellent to absolutely essential.” - Stereogum
VOICES london the new album featuring the songs “Hourglass” & “Last Train Victoria Line” “dizzying and jaw dropping” - Ave Noctum
1349
The Candlelight Years
INSOMNIUM
The Candlelight Years
HATEFUL ABANDON Liars Bastards
“adventurous & ambitious” - Cvlt Nation
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FALLOCH
This Island, Our Funeral
“haunting & evocative.” - Terrorizer
candlelight
web gems presents:
f Suckness o s o ie n h Symp In which we recount the most the insane and inspired posts of g blo month from our comrades in
SUMAC’S NEW TRACK IS ALL YOU HOPED IT WOULD BE
FORTY-ONE METAL AND HARD ROCK ALBUMS THAT WILL BE 10 YEARS OLD IN 2015 Who doesn’t love a good round number, specifically the number 10? You know Decibel does, as we just celebrated our 10-year anniversary last year, so this compendium of 41 album covers takes us way back to the glorious, metalcoredriven days of 2005. What up, Chimaira? Como esta, Trivium? How’s it hangin’, pre-incarceration As I Lay Dying? Mind you, some good records came out that year as well. The Red Chord’s Clients was our first perfect-10 review, and Gojira, High on Fire and Napalm Death put out some killer records as well. Anyway, you should own, uh, I don’t know, a third of this stuff?
Flip forward a few pages and you’ll see Kevin Stewart-Panko’s so-so review of this new Profound Lore supergroup, featuring members of Isis, Botch/Russian Circles and Baptists. But since KSP can not be trusted to speak authoritatively about anything, here’s what Vince has to say about “Thorn in the Lion’s Paw” (spoiler alert: it’s pretty much exactly what KSP thinks): “It’s a ripper from start to finish, all eight minutes of it. Unsurprisingly, Sumac sounds much like the sum of their parts, but there are no specific elements you can point to and say, for example, ‘that’s the Isis-like part,’ which is a good thing—Sumac are entirely their own beast. What I’m drawn to most about the track on first listen is the dynamic—‘Thorn’ has all sorts of peaks and valleys, all in the name of moving the song forward without getting too dramatic for drama’s sake. For example, the song proper doesn’t start until more than a minute in, but the intro sets the tone perfectly and feels integral to the story.”
MONSTER MAGNET The Duke
MACHINE HEAD Now We Die
TAGS: SUMAC, ISIS, BOTCH, RUSSIAN CIRCLES,
TAGS: AS I LAY DYING, THE RED CHORD
IRIS DIVINE RELEASE NEW SONG, HAVE RECORD LABEL INTEREST! Go, extreme metal synergy! MS have been championing Virginia-based prog/djent heroes Iris Divine for years, and in late December, our own Dan Lake posted an interview and track premiere on the Deciblog. Everyone wants to see them get signed, and evidently they’re in the red zone. Vince echoes our positive vibes on “A Suicide Aware,” gushing, “It’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from this band—super proggy musicianship wrapped up in a catchy, hooky shell (think: Dream Theater’s more poporiented songs)—only even more refined than ever before. Cannot wait to hear this full album on whatever label will have Iris Divine.”
There’s not really much to add to this 43-second video of a housecat more or less doing what the headline suggests other than the post’s first comment: “If I wanted to watch a pussy sing deathcore, I’d watch Emmure videos.”
TAGS: IRIS DIVINE
TAGS: LORNA SHORE
DESIRE FOR SORROW
Revelation Through Affliction
DEATH METAL KITTY LIP SYNCS TO LORNA SHORE’S “LIFE OF FEAR,” MELTS HEARTS
Visit www.metalsucks.net 8 : M A R C H 2 0 15 : D E C I B E L
LIVING COLOUR
Cult of Personality Visit the official Decibel channel at Metal Injection http://www.metalinjection.tv/decibel