Arc h Ene m my he ay M Call an and Sat Respo ut nse ho Wit At War
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pa in an d su ff e r ing k from tragedy
legends bac Mike IX Williams leads the NOLA
july 2014 // No. 117
also
t a n in s ta n
oral history
agalloch autopsy trap them Torche Cretin yaitw black anvil dead congregation vanhelgd
extremely extreme
July 2014 [T117] decibelmagazine.com
60 cover story
eyehategod
Recovery and reinvestment
upfront 12 metal muthas Fruit of the Forbidden
22 dead congregation Press play, not release
13 killing is my business Streaming from heaven and hell
24 we are the damned Rat scabies not included
features
reviews
34 trap them The truth about consequences
73 lead review It’ll take a while to gauge if Tombs have somehow achieved more than totality
36 call and response with
arch enemy
14 grinding it out The amazing spider bite
26 lantlôs New definition of summer madness
15 brewtal truth Out of creative control
28 black anvil Hail to the life thieves
16 cry now, cry later Pics and GTFO
30 yaitw Trust in the crust
40 buzz osborne Receiving total consciousness
18 the 2014 db tour Harm was done
32 vanhelgd The art of war on god
42 agalloch They like coils
20 studio report: cretin The freaks inherit the earth
Don’t take an eternity 38 mayhem Recruiting battle
74 album reviews Records that’ll kick your bitchy little ass, PUNK, including Crowbar, Misery Index, Corrosion of Conformity, WOLD and Ringworm 96 south pole dispatch ’Gon, but not forgotten
46 q&a: autopsy Chris Reifert hacks up the haters 50 the decibel
hall of fame
Teutonic thrash became an invincible force when Destruction launched Infernal Overkill cover and contents photo by daymon gardner
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© 2014 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 : j u ly 2 0 14 : d e c i b e l
www.decibelmagazine.com
extremely extreme
July 2014 [T117]
Publi s her
Alex Mulcahy
Editor -In-Chief
Albert Mudrian
albert@decibelmagazine.com
managing Editor Andrew
andrew@decibelmagazine.com
ar t di rector
Bruno Guerreiro
bruno@decibelmagazine.com
Co ntro lle r
Nicole Jarman
nicole@redflagmedia.com
Patty Moran
cu s tomer se rvice
“Click bait”—if Urban
Dictionary is to be believed— is defined as “an eye-catching link on a website which encourages people to read on.” It’s essentially artificially viral content that helps increase user page views of websites, and the leverage of its owners to secure advertising money. Mind you, it’s nothing new. Newspapers and magazine have been printing sensational headlines for centuries, but the global reach of the internet has made the speed at which these stories spread that much more efficient. These days, click bait links are no longer limited to “stories” like “You’ll Never Guess What Miley Wore Now” or “10 Ways to Get Rich by Farting.” The extreme metal world has been practicing click bait journalism with increased regularity. Back in May, our good friends at Metal Injection posted a story containing evidence suggesting that fast-rising U.S. black metal band Inquisition not only had direct ties to the white supremacist movement, but included third-hand quotes from an ex-skinhead accusing them of white-power behavior he had directly witnessed. All of this was totally fair reporting until MI slapped on the following headline: “Black Metal Band INQUISITION Are Probably Nazis.” Total click bait at best and highly irresponsible at worst, this link resulted in swiftly passionate, wholly speculative, and—in some cases—alarmingly ignorant reactions both in support and condemnation of the band, who, at this point, had not been invited by anyone to actually join this debate. Not that anyone would ever mistake us for real journalists, but we felt a responsibility to contact the accused and the accuser, and provide each with a proper forum on the Deciblog to explain their side of the story. Mind you, this was not difficult to do at all. And since everyone in our little extreme metal universe essentially has the same set of publicity contacts and an internet connection, I don’t suspect the gravitas of being North America’s only monthly metal magazine affords us opportunities that others are denied. I’m speculating here, of course. Even after personally interviewing Inquisition frontman Dagon at length by phone and corresponding with his accuser Daniel Gallant by email before our own Justin M. Norton got him on the horn, I’m not sure I’ll ever really know who said what on that Canadian tour bus all those years ago. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not responsible for at least attempting to find out. Ultimately, in this case, a potential negative turned positive, as Metal Injection’s original click bait inspired all of us in the metal community to help bring an important and complicated discussion to the front burner—at least for a few days, until Dave Mustaine says something fucking stupid again. Anyway, before we resume our regularly scheduled dick jokes, turn to page 96 for John Darnielle’s final word on the matter. albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief
patty@decibelmagazine.com
co ntr ibuting ar tis ts
Chuck BB, Mark Rudolph
adve r tising
Albert Mudrian
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540.878.5756 unde r to nes secti on
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Online Deciblo g editor
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Andrew Bonazelli
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Anthony Bartkewicz Adrien Begrand J. Bennett Shawn Bosler Brent Burton Richard Christy Liz Ciavarella-Brenner John Darnielle Jerry A. Deathburger Chris Dick Sean Frasier Jeanne Fury Nick Green Joe Gross Jonathan Horsley Scott Koerber Daniel Lake Frank Lemke Shawn Macomber Shane Mehling Kirk Miller Justin M. Norton Andy O'Connor Matt Olivo Dutch Pearce Etan Rosenbloom Kevin Sharp Rod Smith Zach Smith Kevin Stewart-Panko Adem Tepedelen Jeff Treppel Jeff Wagner Co ntr ibuting photo gr aphers
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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 ©2014 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. PR INTED IN U SA
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from the editor
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alex@redflagmedia.com
fanbase Reader of the Month develop curriculum for diplomas, masters and doctorate programs across the university, and conduct research in the domain of learning sciences and digital media. I also blast Left Hand Path from my vinyl player in my office as soon as I get in to work every morning—first edition, clear orange color, no less. Can you talk about some of the metalrelated courses you’ve taught at the school, or even some of non-metal courses where you’ve exposed students to metal culture?
Vivek Venkatesh Montréal, Québec
You’re the Associate Dean of the School of Graduate Studies at Concordia University in Montréal. That’s a lot of words, which makes you sound pretty important. What exactly is your role at the school?
Regardless of my role, my present title gives free rein to my wife to call me an Ass Dean. And, there’s more to my title: I am also an Associate Professor in the Graduate Programs in Educational Technology, and beginning June 1, 2014, I will also assume the role of Interim Director of the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance. In short, I help
6 : j u ly 2 0 14 : d e c i b e l
I am presently developing a third-year undergraduate-level course, which will feature work I have conducted in the academic field of metal music studies. The course will focus on the sociocultural and educational effects of the growth of digital and social media. Students will be exposed to some cuttingedge work about how metal forum moderators terrorize users into submission if they dare to argue about sub-subgenres of death metal, as well as a nuanced look at xenophobia in the global black metal scene. In April, you organized and conducted Grimposium, an academic symposium examining the culture of extreme metal—at least that’s what we think it was. Anyway, how did it go?
Grimposium was my ode to the extreme metal scene—I was privileged to have heavy hitters such as Albert Mudrian (of course), Jason Netherton (Misery Index), Dan Seagrave (the one
If you take my course at Concordia, the outline includes Opus Diaboli, Until the Light Take Us and One Man Metal as required film viewing.” and only), Dan Greening (a.k.a. Lord Worm) and a host of my academic collaborators from Canada, the United States and Puerto Rico spend two days debating how we could keep the scene relevant and free from posers such as ourselves. We watched films, heard new music from Rage Nucléaire, launched Netherton’s new book, Extremity Retained, and summoned the dark lord with great gusto. Grimposium was made all the more pleasant because of its alignment with the metal show calendar in Montréal for that second week of April 2014—we saw Carcass, Gorguts, Voivod and Satan in the span of the three days around Grimposium. We could not ask for more. Let’s hear your best “stay in school” pitch to all of Decibel’s readers.
If you take my course at Concordia, the outline includes Opus Diaboli, Until the Light Take Us and One Man Metal as required film viewing. The required reading includes articles which have titles such as: “From pride to prejudice to shame: Multiple facets of the black metal scene within and without online environments” and “Why didn’t the churches begin to burn a thousand years earlier?” Join me in my class, won’t you?
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
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
GWAR-B-Q + DAVE BROCKIE PUBLIC MEMORIAL: INITIAL DETAILS ANNOUNCED
WHAT IS THE BEST SUBGENRE OF METAL? Whatever total consciousness entails in the art of trolling, Sergeant D has achieved it. After helpfully distinguishing himself from the MetalSucks readership (“who I can tell by the quality of their laughable taste and idiotic opinions are newcomers to the metal scene”), our man offers gravely serious breakdowns of metal’s multiple genres, complete with letter grades. Sample, for “Melodic Death Metal”: “If I want melody i will listen to ALL TIME LOW or NEVERSHOUTNEVER. Fuckin lol @ an entire genre in which ur judged by how good u are at copying AT THE GATES. FINAL GRADE: F”
As you’re surely aware, both MetalSucks and Decibel have nothing but love and admiration for the singular, bizarre life that Dave “Oderus Urungus” Brockie led. So, it pleases us to report that the fifth annual GWAR-B-Q (August 16 at Hadad’s Water Park in Richmond, VA) will feature not only performances by Body Count, Kepone and the Meatmen, but a public memorial for Brockie the day before, featuring a “Viking funeral pyre” for Oderus. We agree wholeheartedly with Axl: That’s “pretty much the most metal send-off there is.”
Converge
All We Love We Leave Behind
TAGS: GWAR
Gojira
Born in Winter
TAGS: COCK AND BALL TORTURE, DEAFHEAVEN
OP-ED: WHEN DID SLAYER START TO SUCK? Now there’s a red meat headline. It’s been a little over a year since Jeff Hanneman passed away, and right around that anniversary, Slayer debuted their first new music without him (and longtime overlord Rick Rubin), “Implode,” which was met with mehs across the blogosphere. Vince opines that “I know it’s taboo to speak ill of the dead, but we should all at least contemplate that maybe Hanneman’s best writing days were over long before his untimely passing. Listen to World Painted Blood and Christ Illusion without your SLAAAAAAYEEEEERRRblinders on, and tell me that these songs are really THAT much better than ‘Implode.’” TAGS: SLAYER
PSYOPUS ARE COMING HOME FROM THE FARM Longtime dB readers surely remember Chris Arp’s “Dr. Opus, PhD” column, in which the tech-metal virtuoso—best known for Psyopus and a brief stint in the Red Chord—gave us a glimpse into his imagination, inspiration and technique. Well, after a curiously extended absence, Psyopus are reemerging with three east coast shows this July. Axl asks the question we’re all thinking: “Is there is a new album in the works, or do those of us craving fresh material have to settle for that Grateful Dead cover [‘Touch of Grey’] for now?" TAGS: PSYOPUS
Visit www.metalsucks.net 8 : j u ly 2 0 14 : d e c i b e l
Insomnium
While We Sleep
Autopsy
My Corpse Will Rise Visit the official Decibel channel at Metal Injection http://www.metalinjection.tv/decibel