Decibel #190 August 2020 by Red Flag Media

MUNICIPAL WASTE CRO-MAGS ARMORED SAINT THE ART OF PARTYING HALL OF FAME IN THE STUDIO MODERN HISTORY

REFUSE/RESIST

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AUGUST 2020 // No. 190

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VADER THE GHOST INSIDE WINTERFYLLETH OLD TOWER WOLFHEART RIPPED TO SHREDS TYRANT WAILIN STORMS THANATOS

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August 2020 [R 190] decibelmagazine.com

upfront 8 metal muthas A mother who really understands 10 low culture He’s too young to be a mom 11 no corporate beer Strange brews for strange times 12 in the studio:

armored saint

14 wailin storms Death rattles

20 ripped to shreds They are billions

16 tyrant True metal ever after

20 wolfheart The frozen front

18 vader Solitary refinement

20 thanatos Violence is forever

20 old tower We ain’t afraid of no ghost

20 the ghost inside The price of positivity

20 winterfylleth Brightest before the dawn

features

reviews

34 q&a: cro-mags Harley Flanagan is back to start from the beginning

67 lead review Necrot improves upon perfection with their new death metal benchmark Mortal

44 the decibel

hall of fame Municipal Waste crash extreme metal’s pity party with their crossover thrash masterpiece The Art of Partying

Play to win

68 album reviews Releases from bands who wish they could have been on Elon Musk’s rocket for none of its intended purposes, including Inexorum, Mantar and Vile Creature 88 double negative Better than one

44 None So Vile COVER STORY COVER AND CONTENTS PHOTOS BY ALEX KRAUSS

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, 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, 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia PA 19107. © 2020 by Red Flag Media, Inc. ISSN 1557-2137 | USPS 023142 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. 2 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

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Decibel has never been big on fence-

August 2020 [T190]

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sitting. I mean, you’re essentially paying us to suggest records we think you should listen to each month. Think of us as a Spotify algorithm with the benefit of a few extra dick jokes. But over our 16-year history, I’ve generally avoided using this piece of real estate as a stage for activism. Not because I don’t believe in it, but because there are so many people with something more eloquent, more substantial and way more impactful than anything I have to offer. Plus, In Flames still somehow sell a shit-ton of albums, so it’s not like most of you are heeding Decibel’s advice anyway. But things are different now. If you’re not speaking up in support of—or most importantly—truly listening to people mobilizing, marching, kneeling, raising their collective voice and fighting for racial justice and against unchecked authoritarian power, you’re just another obstacle in their struggle. Real change is going to require even more work, of course. Raised awareness is just the first step. Electing candidates willing to reform organizations and criminal justice systems at state and local levels will actually help channel justifiable anger into sustainable action. And, mercifully, unlike the unwelcome appearance of a new In Flames record, the opportunity to participate in elections doesn’t only occur once every four years. Refuse. Resist. Vote.

REFUSE/RESIST

READER OF THE

MONTH Metal has always been well-positioned to talk about the darker aspects of experience, and I think this can be a powerful tool to fight the Lee Coleman stigma. When San Gabriel, CA Kat Katz sings “Not a Daughter,” they're shining the light on trauma and making it okay You’re a psychologist based in L.A. Mental to talk about. When Jesse [Leach] from Killswitch health issues don’t get their necessary sings “I Am Broken Too,” he’s reminding us that attention in society at large, let alone in the mental illness isn’t something that happens just metal scene. Do you think most metalheads to other people, and that we can help shoulder are uncomfortable addressing mental health those experiences together. issues or that they’re just largely unaware of them and their impact?

I think it’s more about stigma than a lack of awareness. Unfortunately, I think we’re all too aware of how painful the effects of depression, anxiety, suicidality, trauma and other mental health conditions can be, but the whole topic is still difficult to talk about. There’s still a lot of shame in discussing mental health openly. This certainly isn’t unique to the metal community, but I think we have an important role to play in using our art to communicate these experiences and normalize them.

6 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

You were at the Metal & Beer Fest Pre-fest in Los Angeles last year. What was the last show you attended before concerts were postponed and what’s your best memory of it?

Ha! It was actually that same show—my friend James and I showed up early and got a slice of pizza next to the venue. When we sat at the one long table in the restaurant, I saw that we were sitting right next to Cattle Decapitation. It was great to talk with the guys—they put on a hell of a show. I’d seen Cattle numerous times before,

but getting to see Atheist for the first time that night was the highlight for me. The current lineup is incredibly tight, and I can’t wait to hear their new material. This period of sustained isolation can have a serious impact on one’s mental health. What’s your simplest advice to people struggling with isolation?

I’d say my strongest advice is to give yourself permission to reach out even if you might not feel like it at first. I’d put connection on par with food and water—it’s vital, not a luxury. When we can’t have it face-to-face, we’ve got to be okay creating it some other way. We all know that calling, texting and video chats can’t compare to being there in person, but they’re still necessary. Take the time to reach out to that friend you haven’t spoken with in a few weeks— it can make all the difference. Since we’re talking about mental health, I especially want to encourage readers to reach out if they’re dealing with suicidal thoughts. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255, and they’re there for you even in your darkest hour. When this is all over, where’s the first place you’re going for a beer and what are you having?

Lucky Baldwin’s Trappiste Pub in Pasadena has the best Belgian beers around! I’ll be headed straight there for a Trappistes Rochefort 10.

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

NOW SLAYING Wonder what Decibel world HQ has been rocking for the past month? Well, here are the CDs that we spun most while not watching any of your live streams.

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

This Month's Mutha: Carmen Loren Pemberton Mutha of Trey Pemberton of Creeping Death

Tell us a little about yourself.

I was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio. I have been married for over 30 years to one of the smartest people I know. I am fortunate to have to have intelligent, interesting and talented children that I would want to hang out with even if we weren’t related. You were previously an ER nurse and are currently a psychiatric nurse practitioner. How have your day-to-day responsibilities changed under the pandemic?

First, I would like to give a huge shout-out to all my colleagues in the medical community that are getting it done with fewer resources. I briefly considered doing some shifts in the ER during the crisis, thinking it would be a better use of my skill set. Then I noticed an increase in emergency calls from my clients. Previous clients that had improved and were discharged from the practice are back and symptomatic. Many of my established patients are more anxious and depressed. The acuity is much higher, but I am forced to see them remotely, which is not ideal. Being on the front lines of this crisis, is there anything in particular you feel compelled to convey that we’re not paying enough attention to?

Yes, the emotional effects this crisis has had on the elderly. This was their time to enjoy the benefits of years of hard work surrounded by loved ones. Instead they are isolated, many without the technology or understanding of how to virtually connect. They must improvise or rely on the kindness of others to get basic needs met. Most importantly, they are tired of hearing that it is only the old and infirmed who are dying as a rationale to reopen business. For many, this translates as “your life has no value.” 8 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

What sort of hand did you have in shaping Trey’s musical tastes as he grew up?

My husband and I have eclectic musical interests, so our children were exposed to artists across genres. As a drummer, I tend to gravitate to music with my favorite percussionists, so Trey grew up listening to Rush, Led Zeppelin, Slayer, Pantera, Metallica, lots of classic rock. I love ’80s music, and West Coast rap was blowing up in his early years, so both were in heavy rotation within the household. I’m sure it had some influence, but the point of exposing your kids to different styles is to see what they lean into. Even though it might be a while until the next show, what are your impressions of Trey onstage?

I love the unique energy he brings. He injects cool into death metal. But he is not the reason I love this band. I am genuinely a fan of Creeping Death. L.L. [Lincoln Mullins] is one of the best percussionists on the planet, and I tell him every time I see him how he elevates the band. It’s crazy how much Reesey [Alavi] has grown vocally in a short amount of time. Rico [Eric Mejia] holds it down, the perfect mixture of intelligence and artistry. A.J. [Ross] is sweet and humble and soft-spoken, but his alter ego comes out on stage and he shreds. It’s the perfect mix.

Albert Mudrian : e d i t o r i n c h i e f  Necrot, Mortal  Municipal Waste, The Art of Partying  Alice In Chains, Dirt  Quicksand, Slip  Vampire, Rex ---------------------------------Patty Moran : c u s t o m e r s e r v i c e  Shellac, At Action Park  Atomic Trip, Strike 1  Lorelle Meets the Obsolete, De Facto  Dead Skeletons, Buddha-Christ  Murder City Devils, In Name and Blood ---------------------------------James Lewis : a d s a l e s  Clutch, Earth Rocker  Clutch, Pigtown Blues  Clutch, Electric Worry (The Weathermaker Vault Series)  ACxDC, Satan Is King  In the Company of Serpents, Lux ---------------------------------Mike Wohlberg : a r t d i r e c t o r  Carcass, Heartwork  Gaerea, Limbo  Constellatia, The Language of Limbs  Vampire, Rex  Candlemass, Nightfall ---------------------------------Aaron Salsbury : m a r k e t i n g a n d s a l e s  Deaf Club, Contemporary Sickness  Idle Hands, Don't Waste Your Time  Sadus, A Vision of Misery  Phoebe Bridgers, Punisher  Umbra Vitae, Shadow of Life

GUEST SLAYER

---------------------------------Will Carroll : d e at h a n g e l  KISS, Destroyer Resurrected  Suffocation, Suffocation  Cloak, To Venomous Depths  Judas Priest, Painkiller  Loudness, Disillusion

What is something most people would be surprised to know about your son?

I think they would be surprised at his knowledge of random facts. He memorized the states and capitals when he was 5. People in the neighborhood would yell out states and he would respond with the capital. We used him as a party trick. He can intelligently converse about so many things: sports stats, insects, military history, geopolitical issues. It’s really impressive. —ANDREW BONAZELLI PHOTO BY STEPHANIE CABR AL

Excerpts From a Dread Liturgy

Portland, OR’s DROUTH present their encapsulating sophomore effort and Translation Loss debut “Excerpts From a Dread Liturgy”. Five songs of intricate and enthralling black metal. Produced by Fester (Knelt Rote, Ritual Necromancy) and featuring the stunning artwork of DROUTH guitarist & vocalist Matt Stikker (Outer Heaven, Power Trip, Witch Vomit).

Out July 31st V I N Y L / DIGI TA L

MANY BLESSINGS

C Trip A presents their debut in the form of Ozzy Nights... a collection of thought provoking Hip Hop laced with raw blissed out electronics. The release features guest appearances from Alap Momin (ex-dälek) and Colin Marston (Gorguts) with artwork provided by Brian Azer (Jesu/Sun Kil Moon).

E M A N AT I O N B O D Y

The expansive soundscape brainchild of Ethan McCarthy (Primitive Man / Vermin Womb) known as MANY BLESSINGS present their stunning sophomore full length entitled “Emanation Body”.

O U T N OW V I N Y L / D I G I TA L

Out Now V I N Y L / D I G I TA L

Seattle, WA’s now defunct Playing Enemy and their groundbreaking records “Cesarean” and “Ephemera” available digitally for the first time!

OUT NOW DIGITAL

PURCHASE OUR TITLES AND MERCHANDISE FROM OUR BANDS ONLINE, 24 HOURS A DAY! | TRANSLATIONLOSS.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/TRANSLATIONLOSSRECORDS | TRANSLATIONLOSS.BANDCAMP.COM

The Spaghetti Incident few years ago, we acquired a tortoise-

shell kitten who ran in the front door when we were coming home from a Melvins show that I barely remember because some guy wouldn’t shut the fuck up and let me enjoy it. She was a very small kitten and, still today, remains a very small girl. She was a huge point of emotional support for me when my girlfriend was in the hospital for multiple surgeries last year, so this is a story about how I’ve failed as a parent. For some time, we’ve needed to get Spaghetti fixed, mostly due to her awful howling when she’s in heat. Hopefully, those of you playing along at home can see where this is going, especially if you’ve known anything about my life through reading this column or happening upon a picture of me and noticing I’m incapable of smiling. When Spaghetti got loose a few weeks back in the middle of being dick-crazy, I wasn’t surprised; but considering we live in a pretty shit part of town, I was worried. I chased her, but there’s so many fields and fences and abandoned things here that no matter how many months ago I (mostly) quit smoking, there was no way I was going to catch her. Cat dicks have a hook on the head, in case there’s a struggle. You read this column and you learn things. What initially was a chase turned into a search-and-rescue, at least until I had to stop and go to work because I was facing steep disciplinary actions for—and this was a real charge—“not being invested enough in the business.” But I did canvas the neighborhood, coming across other pods of feral cats and broken glass pipes that had the smell of burnt almonds coming off them in the morning sun; not to mention I almost walked face-first into a man hiding in some bushes, who was surprised, but seemed pleased to have a new friend. (This man was taking a shit, if you were curious. In broad daylight, in a bush no more than three 10 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

feet from the road. About a block from a police precinct. He did have a mask around his chin, though, in a show of social responsibility, so good for him and for the bush, for which he selflessly provided nutrients.) I got home from work after dark, so I decided to go look for her since it had been so easy during the day. As you can imagine, my neighborhood is the perfect place to be gazing in between houses and yelling “Spaghetti!” over and over at that time of night. The first thing I discovered was that someone threw a full diaper into my backyard, but since it’s shared with my new neighbors, I figured I’d leave it for them to enjoy. I also walked into at least two drug transactions, but if we’re being fair, I was wandering the alley at night, so it was basically like walking into their storefront like someone’s unsupervised child. You’d be surprised how many house parties were going on during this part of the lockdown, with people spilling out onto the lawn, sometimes beating the shit out of each other. A few hours in, I decided to give up. The next morning, we discovered that Spaghetti was a lot closer than we thought. She shacked up in the crawl space of our house with two males, who took turns fucking her on our neighbors’ porch while she appeared absolutely disinterested—a look I’m used to seeing from women. Finally, in the afternoon, the three were passed out from hours of running away when I’d go outside, only to return to fucking the moment I was inside. With other cats just watching them because innocence is a myth. Spaghetti was extracted and returned home, and is back in her usual spot watching me type up whatever mess I’ve had in between months. I’ll know in a week or two, but I’m guessing that I’m going to be a grandfather; and one of the two males still hangs out on the porch, so I’m glad he’s going to be there for his children unlike some of you fucking deadbeats.

TRAPPIST FRONTMAN crafts a monthly journey through

MORBID ALES BY CHRIS DODGE

When Life Hands You a Pandemic, Make PandemicThemed Beer

s COVID-19 steamrolled across the planet, local independent breweries were immediately flattened by its impact. Fortunately, craft brewers are innovative when it comes to dealing with setbacks, finding ways to make something out of nothing. I mean, shit, they’re already wizards who throw together water, barley, hops and yeast, and then beer magically comes out the other end. Fucking witchcraft! Now they’re forced to rethink the concept of slinging their fermentables, and how to make the best out of the world dishing ’em up a shit sandwich of epic proportions. Yet, brewers have kept their sense of humor, cranking out a slew of new brews with COVID-19-themed names, which at their core are clever rallying cries, and thankfully less akin to the standard, hop-themed dad jokes we’re used to reading on tasting menus. Decatur, GA’s Wild Heaven Beer gave scientific authority a nod with their Fauci Spring pale ale, then responsibly released Don’t Stand So Close to Me German-style lager, finishing on a positive note with We Will Meet Again rye IPA. In the secluded

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DRAFT BEER, FOOD & MORE!

 Storm of the lite beer’s bane (clockwise from r) StormBreaker Brewing helps keep craft brewing alive, Ale Asylum brews what everyone is thinking and Smog City want to keep your gears well oiled

# B A R CA D E

peaks of Estes Park, CO, Lumpy Ridge Brewing bottled their quick-selling Social Distancing Pale Ale. Meanwhile, south in the state capital of Denver, De Steeg Brewing contact-traced a like-minded theme. “Social Distancing IPA was the first brew after the lockdown began [and] was meant to kick off the to-go movement for De Steeg fans,” says owner Ken Klispie. “It was a crash course changing a business model one day before St. Patrick’s Day, the opening of the beer season.” In the depths of downtown Los Angeles, relative newcomers Boomtown Brewery said what we were all thinking during stayat-home orders with their Stir Crazy IPA, while L.A. County’s O.G. indie brewers Smog City jumped into the game with their 6.6% Quarantine Machine IPA out of necessity. “It was March 15th—I call it ‘Hell Day,’” Smog City co-founder Laurie Porter recalls. “Governor Newsom had just issued the saferat-home mandate and we were just about to launch a new series of beers. This particular beer was already named Daily Breeze and ready for distribution when bars and restaurants across L.A. came to a grinding halt. The name Daily Breeze just felt wrong, so we quickly pivoted [and] renamed the beer Quarantine Machine. We released another beer called the New Normal [a German Helles], which sold out quickly, and now we are preparing for the release of the first of our Strange Times IPA series: Best Enjoyed 6 Feet Apart.”

Madison, WI’s Ale Asylum flipped a bird to the virus, releasing both a Pilsner and a Hazy American Pale branded FVCK COVID *Also Hoarders. Proceeds are donated to hospital workers, as well as unemployed locals in the hospitality field. This altruistic theme is also the backbone of Steamworks Brewing’s 7 O’Clock Cheer pale ale, which honors Vancouver’s nightly 7 p.m. citywide salute to frontline warriors. Even more awesome, it’s brewed with local, donated ingredients and 100 percent of profits go to health care professionals and researchers. Down the coast in Portland, OR, at StormBreaker Brewing, their Helter Shelter West Coast IPA “was a total team effort,” according to Dan Malech, who owns the place. They also printed “I Helped Save Craft Beer” T-shirts, “not only as a fundraiser for our folks, but for a big thank-you to all that have supported us and Oregon beer. We will distribute the money as needed, and also use [funds] to keep people employed as we continue this tough stretch.” As small businesses who survived this first wave of the pandemic eagerly anticipate reopening, our beer underground has again proven its resilience and camaraderie, in spite of this microscopic asshole of a virus. “We have more than 25 breweries that got behind our T-shirt idea,” Malech closes, “and we can’t wait to high-five all that wear these in the future—when high fives are allowed again!”

FT BEER & A M E R IC A N C R A A R C A D E G A M E S C L A S S IC

NEW YORK, NY JERSEY CITy, NJ NEWark, NJ PHILADELPHIA, PA NEW HAVEN, CT LOS ANGELES, CA DETROIT, MI

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ARMORED SAINT

STUDIO REPORT

ARMORED SAINT ALBUM TITLE

TBA LABEL

“People have asked what we were going to do differently or STUDIOS [do to] top Win Hands Down,” he El Dorado, continues. “My answer always Burbank, CA, and was that I couldn’t look at various home studios the past. I just have to look at PRODUCERS where we are as songwriters Joey Vera; and the best way to voice that.” Josh Newell Defenders of the faith  (engineer: drums), A standalone piece the new (clockwise from top r) Bill Metoyer album may be, but the fact Drummer Gonzo Sandoval and bassist Joey Vera (engineer: guitars) remains that Armored Saint snap a photo with drum engineer Josh Newall RECORDING DATES and El Dorado owner Phil English while are still Armored Saint: the December 2019 – guitarists Phil Sandoval and Jeff Duncan sort of heavy metal that gets March 2020 track guitars fists in the air via smoldering RELEASE DATE fretboards, rock-solid drumOctober 2020 ming and virtuosic vocals. In the same way there remains a reference to their roots and classic albums Symbol view each record as a snapshot of where we are and a clean slate. Each record has always been of Salvation and March of the Saint, the new album slightly different than the one before it; we haven’t really been guilty of repeating ourselves. also shines on the nostalgia tip. Sort of. In our early career, we wanted to be part of something, associated with a movement and what “The drums were recorded at El Dorado heavy metal was considered in the ’80s. In hindsight, we were doing our own thing the whole Studios,” Vera says. “We actually recorded Symbol time, and that’s what made us unique. That’s something we always want to maintain.” Armored Saint’s Joey Vera is putting a lock on the satisfaction he feels with the band’s eighth (and of Salvation at El Dorado when it was located in West Hollywood. It got moved to this new locastill untitled) studio album. Five years on from the release of Win Hands Down—and following two tion in the early 2000s. Up until 10 years ago, years of writing (“That’s because we did more touring than we had since probably the late ’80s”)— it was still owned and operated by Dave Jerden, the bassist is brimming with confidence. After writing the majority of the album, demoing it, and overseeing drum and guitar tracking before recording his and vocalist John Bush’s parts at his home who produced Symbol. He’s since sold it and it’s under different management, but we thought it studio, he’s ready to hand over the reins. “I’ve always been pretty involved because I have a clear vision,” Vera explains, “but Jay Ruston [Stone would be cool to be like, ‘Today we’re going to do drums back at the same place we did Symbol!’ At Sour, Anthrax] is doing the final mix, because that’s where I start drawing the line. As a matter of fact, least by name, y’know?” —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO as soon as I hang up the phone, I’m going to drive the hard drive with our new record over to his place.

12 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOS BY JOEY VERA • COLOR PHOTO BY GONZO SANDOVAL

Metal Blade

WAILIN STORMS

There’s no shelter from these itinerant doom-punk tempests

ong before landing on Gilead Media’s eclectic roster of noisebringers, Wailin Storms was a solo project for founding vocalist/guitarist Justin Storms. Inspired by Alan Lomax’s field blues recordings, 1950s soul and country murder ballads, the nomadic frontman resided in Berlin and Zurich before moving to New York. ¶ “It was all deeply DIY—bathroom recordings and playing in bars and cafes,” Storms recalls. “I was basically gospel-singing in bars and annoying people.” ¶ But from the project’s Shiver EP forward, Storms created a singular identity of southern gothic doom-punk mixing moonlit melodies with sweltering aggression. The Texan son of a preacher and a journalist whose grandfather was a cowboy, Storms’ blood is imbued with oral storytelling. His lyrics create narratives from fragmented poetry with a cast of broken-hearted ghosts and nocturnal wanderers. That morbidity is fitting considering Storms faced a grim prognosis after complications from ulcerative colitis resulted in a horrific hospital emergency. ¶ “A preacher wanted to read me my last rites and I asked him 14 : AUGUS T 2020 : DECIBEL

to save his prayers for someone who could use them,” Storm laughs. “I thought I was going to hell. Now I obsess about [death] in my songs and art—I can’t help it.” It’s that rebel spirit of raging in the face of near-death that propels Wailin Storms’ new record, Rattle. After Storms relocated to Durham, NC, he found fellow conspirators through an ad seeking musicians interested in Scratch Acid, Nick Cave and other post-punk luminaries. But the grimy underbelly of the blues remains. “Folk music and blues—that’s where it’s at for me,” Storms confirms. “Old field recordings and work songs, with people who are going to die with a hammer in their hands, but they’re still singing? That’s the most visceral, raw, real shit.” The lineup that united for their One Foot in the Flesh Grave and Sick City LPs returns, and their contributions are as furious as ever. From the

record’s first simmering crescendo, bassist Steve Stanczyk and drummer Mark Oates ground the songs with rhythms that dig deep ditches and shallow graves. Meanwhile, lead guitarist Todd Warner’s strings drip with summer sweat as he and Storms belt out haunted choruses. Wailin Storms are stronger as a quartet, and Rattle reflects the tenacity of each member. But themes of isolation are rampant in their music, and sometimes a quarantine is the perfect time to recharge. “[Isolation’s] where all my magic happens; I’ve created a ton of work and songs I thought I never would,” shares Storms. “But going back to that monk-like sort of vibe, I’m sort of a recluse. I’m at least an introverted extrovert, because obviously I can play in front of people. But I prefer a lot of alone time, writing [and] creating, and that time to recharge to not become frustrated with the human race.” —SEAN FRASIER

PHOTO BY ANDY MARINO

WAILIN STORMS

TYRANT

U.S. metal progenitors keep it true with first new LP since 1996

t may be the most basic answer to the question of how a band manages long-term survival, but Tyrant bassist Greg May doesn’t hold back in reiterating the point: “We just stayed busy.” ¶ The Pasadena-based lifers originally formed in 1978, and while circumstances have thrown the band’s public profile into various states of waning, Tyrant never officially dissolved. Come hell, high water, shifting trends, periods of inactivity and revolving drum throne membership, there’s always been the lure of epic, balls-to-the-towering-wall, heavy-fuggin’metal preventing May, guitarist Rocky Rockwell, drummer Ronnie Wallace and new vocalist Robert Lowe from throwing in the towel. ¶ “We’ve always just wanted to do our own thing,” May shrugs. “Even back in the hair metal days, we would take our girlfriends to see Mötley Crüe and Ratt. They’d be down front and we’d end up at the bar, bored. And when grunge hit and everyone wanted to make like they were from the Northwest, we didn’t break up. We kept doing our thing because we dug it.” ¶ Tyrant released a pair of small-c classics on Metal Blade in the mid-’80s—Legions of the Dead and Too Late to Pray—

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before the ’90s grunge/alt-rock obsession made their anthemic mélange of traditional/power/doom metal passé. Germany’s Art of Music Records capitalized on overseas interest to fork out for 1996’s King of Kings, though May describes the label as “inexperienced.” Despite the success of an overseas press junket, actual touring never materialized. In the decade afterward, Tyrant remained occupied by appearing on a number of tribute CDs until an offer from Germany’s Keep It True Festival successfully brought them back to the stage in 2009. “We were besieged by German metalheads,” May laughs. “Everyone had long hair, carrying around our records and singing our songs at us! That sparked us. We thought maybe this hadn’t run its course and that we had a good thing going.” Upon returning home, work began on what would become their latest and fourth album, Hereafter. Rockwell had moved to the Palm

Springs area, but set up a small studio in which writing sessions pieced together 10 songs of new material. Ex-Candlemass and Solitude Aeturnus glass-shatterer Robert Lowe was drafted after ex-vocalist Glen May (Greg’s brother) flaked on the eve of 2017’s Frost and Fire Festival, and old friend Bill Metoyer was hired to bring out their studio best. Recording commenced in early 2019 with Shadow Kingdom working diligently to ensure that Tyrant’s years of perseverance were recognized. “I’d been approaching labels, but Tim [McGrogan] from Shadow Kingdom hit me up,” May says. “When I looked into him, he had good distribution, great packaging and a smaller roster. We’re excited about this album’s potential and felt he could give it a good push. Even Bill Metoyer was like, ‘You guys have something special here.’ This could be our last big run; we want to work hard and have people hear and feel our music.” —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

VADER

Piotr Wiwczarek’s death metal empire enters its fifth decade of rule

hen Piotr Wiwczarek strolls into the second-floor green room of an ’80s Latin disco in Austin, a ball cap bends over his face; his hoodie and jeans scream bar back. Thanks, dude, we’re good on water. Fifty yards later, inside a nearby Mexican establishment where no one’s mother tongue is English, the non-Come and Take It Live employee takes off his hat to reveal snow-blue eyes that flicker and burn over the next 90 minutes of his life odyssey. ¶ “Metal in Poland began after an Iron Maiden performance on the Powerslave tour in Warsaw,” Wiwczarek regales. “The government expected riots. They had no idea a music group could bring out so many freaks. Maiden was shocked, scared. For this movement, everything began after that.” ¶ Named after a blackened Jedi knight the previous year, 1983, Vader attended as a band. Two hours from said capital, their hometown of Olsztyn now strikes the death metal constant as analogous to Tampa, FL, given what manifested there musically after their NWOBHM heroes marched through. 18 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

“In those days, we called it ‘black thrash,’” grins Wiwczarek. “They called us the Polish Slayer mixed with Destruction.” That still fits 37 years and some 16 studio LPs later, including new Nuclear Blast effort Solitude in Madness. Where predecessors Welcome to the Morbid Reich (2011), Tibi et Igni (2014) and The Empire (2016) produced the quartet’s best decade—all of metal balled seamlessly into a whole—their latest hops back to the turn of the century. “The Empire, you can hear some heavy metal riffs in that—some speed metal, some blasting, some melody, some non-melody,” Wiwczarek explains. “The new songs, the new album, is more connected to our most aggressive album, which was [2000’s] Litany. If you like Litany, you should like the new one.” Like that sibling, which receives a reissue in 2020, Solitude in Mad-

ness boils Vader down to the bare necessities. Air raid opener “Shock and Awe” chisels out a solo from the grooves of ’80s wax (“I am dominator, inseminator, creator and destructor / angry god in your house”), while the serrated riffs of “Incineration of the Gods” flat-out swing. “Despair” and “Emptiness” carry over from 2019 EP Thy Messenger, the latter igniting the purest corker off either splatter. “I got letters from Dead—the guy from Mayhem—and Euronymous,” says Wiwczarek, reminiscing about the tape-trading that led him to this 70-degree winter day in Texas. “How they loved the [1989] Necrolust demo. They were selling them in [Helvete]. I had a very good connection with them. I remember getting a letter from Euronymous: ‘Sorry, Dead cannot reply because he’s dead.’ “Then he sent some pictures that had a blown-up head.” —RAOUL HERNANDEZ

OLD TOWER

Dutch dungeon master delivers an ambient escape from humanity

ince emerging from Mortiis’ shadow, the landscape of dungeon synth has expanded to encompass many different themes and ideas—some remaining within genre norms, some completely asinine. Standing above and beyond this intimidating Mount Doom of cassettes and Dungeons & Dragons knockoffs is the Specter and his otherworldly Old Tower. ¶ With new album The Last Eidolon, he’s added deeper layers to the worlds he’s spent the last half-decade creating. “It’s pretty difficult to describe where this album came from,” the Specter admits. “It’s a very personal work, again—perhaps the most personal one yet. I tried to put everything in there that I was going through and experiencing at the time. The overall mood of the whole recording speaks for itself. There’s a lot of meaning hidden inside the album artwork and texts, as well, for the complete experience.”¶ While listening to the new record, you could be forgiven if there are moments that seem to take you off the ground you’re standing on and into a black night sky. 20 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

“I’m not sure if the record is more ‘cosmic’ in the literal sense, but it definitely is more grandiose in its musical approach,” the Specter muses. “I’d say it’s more grounded in nature this time. “But the real vision and experience is, of course, for the listener to decide,” he says when pressed about the more astral segments contained within. The Last Eidolon comes on the heels of three very different 7-inch EPs that, when combined, form the Grim Alchemy Trilogy, a somewhat sparse and bleak experience when compared to the grandiose visions that come with repeated listens of the new full-length. When asked about what comes first, concept or musical notion, the Specter claims, “It’s always the concept that comes first. I try to tell a continuous story throughout all of

my releases, and I always keep this in mind when I’m recording new music. The Grim Alchemy Trilogy was kind of a departure from the main storyline, so to speak, but that was on purpose. I wanted to create something that would fit with the record label, and also to push myself to explore different moods and ideas under the same moniker.” And what is the ideal atmosphere to paint the sounds that bind together each story within Old Tower? “Things need to be calm—in mind, as well as the world around me,” he says. “This gives me the ability to fully immerse myself in the things I’m trying to create. I simply retreat from being human, if that makes sense.” Within his music, the Specter gives us all that opportunity—if only for a while. —NEILL JAMESON

WINTERFYLLETH

WINTERFYLLETH Time is a flat circle on English black metallers’ seventh LP

f for some reason you interpreted 2018’s The Hallowing of Heirdom as Winterfylleth taking the first step toward a Days of the New-esque sea change, I have some good news about The Reckoning Dawn: You only have to wait about two seconds for opener “Misdeeds of Faith” to return you to the comforting realm of distorted guitars, screeched vocals and blast beats. Of course, acoustic instrumentation has always been an important element of the Manchester quintet’s sound, but as vocalist/guitarist Chris Naughton details, unplugging for an entire record taught the band some valuable lessons that they were eager to apply to their noisier creative leanings. ¶ “Originally, Hallowing wasn’t going to be a Winterfylleth album, but as things progressed, we knew it had to be,” he explains. “Our aim was to capture the atmosphere of the band and bring that into acoustic music, which necessitated us writing differently and figuring out how to make certain instruments fit around each other. That definitely made us think more about composition [on The Reckoning Dawn]—

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about how to add lead guitar, melodies and keyboards in ways that bolster the atmosphere rather than compete with it.” Winterfylleth’s decision to shine a spotlight on the nuances of their writing process paid off in the form of an exceptional LP that reverberates with ferocious energy and pushes their melodic black metal sound to new heights—no small feat when you consider the decade-plus of stellar material that preceded it. This level of consistency might seem eternally out of reach for some musicians, but for Naughton and his bandmates, it’s merely a consequence of their collective artistic passion. “I think that when you’re a creative person, there’s always a need to have a project,” he muses. “It’s a flame that never goes out, [even during] the less creative periods of touring and promoting a record. Because of that, it’s not too

difficult for us to create a credible, well-considered album in a two-year time frame. Some of that comes from wanting to keep active and bring new music to our fans, but there’s also so much to comment on in the world.” Indeed, The Reckoning Dawn’s themes of isolation (“A Hostile Fate (The Wayfarer Pt. 4)”), toxic social policies (“Absolved in Fire”) and the reckless pursuit of power (“A Greatness Undone”) hit even harder in our current COVID-19 global society, and although the coincidence isn’t lost on Naughton, he’s quick to point out that such bleak subject matter is hardly uncharted territory. “Even though some of these songs are strange and timely metaphors for what we’re experiencing today, most of our lyrics are rooted in historical events and ancient poetry,” he says. “More often than not, we’re trying to link history to the struggles of the modern era.” —MATT SOLIS

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RIPPED TO SHREDS

RIPPED TO SHREDS Andrew Lee’s death metal war ensemble delivers second offensive

he marco polo bridge incident occurred when Japan invaded Manchuria, which was running as a puppet state [Manchukuo] for Japan,” begins Ripped to Shreds mastermind Andrew Lee. “So, there was obviously a lot of tension between Japan and China after [China] had a part of their country annexed.” ¶ Incensed by the violation of their territorial integrity, Chinese soldiers refused entry to Japanese soldiers to the walled city of Wanping on the night of July 7, 1937. Shots were fired, reinforcements were called and nearly all Chinese soldiers stationed in Wanping were butchered in the melee, resulting in a direct escalation to full-scale war. Indeed, July 7 is alternatively cited as the onset of World War II, rather than Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. ¶ “It just blew the whole war open,” asserts Lee, who handles vocals, guitar and bass in the pulverizing death metal act. On his second album, 亂 (Luan)— which translates to “chaos/war” in Mandarin)—Lee lyrically and visually revolves around the Pacific theater and cultural conflict. Sonically, 亂 (Luan) features dirty, grinding, doomladen death metal interlaced with occasional imperialist synth. 24 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

Mastered by Horrendous’ Damian Herring and mixed by Greg Wilkinson, 亂 (Luan) is an intentionally filthier experience than its predecessor, 2019’s 魔經—Demon Scriptures EP. “Everything is darker, grittier,” asserts Lee. “It’s more like a direct punch to your face. Not every element is super separated, but it has a more direct, more aggressive feel.” The aggressive and gritty elements certainly fit the subject matter; the Marco Polo Bridge incident is both the focus of album highlight “Opening Salvo” and the fiery cover art, immortalized by Chinese painter Guang Yang. Although Lee’s exploration of Asiatic history and identity is a predominant theme in Ripped to Shreds’ output, warfare is a new focus. His 2018 debut, 埋葬, which translates to “burial,” is a concept album revolving around Chinese funeral customs. Meanwhile, 魔經—Demon Scriptures

fixates on Lee’s Taiwanese-American experiences. “War and death is part and parcel with death metal,” Lee observes, “but when you look at all these other historically themed metal bands, World War I, World War II, it’s all the Western theater and the European theater.” Lee was determined to address the imbalance, and does so skillfully with 亂 (Luan). “When you grow up in an American classroom, everything is about America,” he explains. “And I am an American, but I’m also Taiwanese. And [I’d ask], ‘Where do I come from? Where do my parents come from? Where does their history fit into all of this?’ And it’s just something I didn’t have any knowledge of. So, I took history courses in college specifically about Chinese history to try to gain a better understanding of myself and where I come from.” —SARAH KITTERINGHAM

“With Meet Your Maker, Withering Surface are vying for a leadership position, and it’s a place that’s much deserved after all these years”. DECIBEL

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WOLFHEART

Beautiful landscapes beget melodic soundscapes of Finnish death metal

hen our man Tuomas Saukkonen isn’t snow-blasting Nordic aggression and melancholy from the stage, the buff Finn bides his time writing hordes of new songs for his seven-year labor of love Wolfheart. Case in point: new album Wolves of Karelia. From opener “Hail of Steel” and personal favorite “Reaper” to “Horizon on Fire” and the emotionally charged “Ashes,” Wolfheart’s fifth full-length is a blizzard of wicked riffs, deep end, melody, blast beats and heavy-weighted lyrics. Indeed, not only did Saukkonen pen eight pissed-off, overcast songs for Wolfheart, he wrote eight more songs that inspired the resurrection of his former flame, death-doom outfit Dawn of Solace. Where does it all come from? The brutality and beauty of Finnish nature, of course. ¶ “My inspirations are not very musical,” Saukkonen admits. “I barely listen to any music at all; sometimes when driving the car, but never when I am home. I need to surround myself with silence to get inspired to write music. Hard to analyze myself since I write new music constantly if I am not touring. 26 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

It has become kind of a stream of thought and emotions over the years, and I switch my brain to off-mode. Being a Finn and being surrounded by beautiful nature and dark and cold winter has to play a role why my music often is heavy and melancholic.” Wolfheart have been working out—figuratively and literally— since 2018’s brilliant Constellation of the Black Light. Drummer Joonas Kauppinen has been perfecting his blast beat, displayed throughout Wolves of Karelia, but mainly on the expeditious “Hail of Steel,” “Reaper” and “Arrows of Chaos.” The band has also hired full-time Greek guitarist and real-life He-Man character Vagelis Karzis (ex-Rotting Christ) to fill the role vacated by Juho Räihä. Compositionally, Saukkonen has bumped up the presence of keyboard atmospherics on Wolves, the deployment of which is tactful and complementary. Certainly, Wolfheart have no aims to infiltrate

Nightwish or Dimmu Borgir’s theatrical arena, but they’re very aware of the power of keyboards to lend a film score-like hand to Wolfheart’s war-inspired subject matter. “The whole album is focused on the Winter War between Finland and Russia in winter 1939-1940,” explains Saukkonen. “Each set of lyrics is based on stories and interviews of the veterans of that war. I wanted the lyrics to be based on personal experiences. I was born and spent my childhood in a small village in the Karelian region right next to the Russian border. [A] big part of Karelia was lost to Russia, although Finland managed to stop Russia from invading our lands. That short-but-fierce war—which was fought during one of the coldest winters of that era—did not play a role in WWII, but for Finland, it was the moment when we kept our independence. That generation of Finns was the definition of badass!” —CHRIS DICK

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THANATOS

Dutch death metal progenitors eye U.S. raid before returning to the netherworlds

ime marches on. Few in death metal know that better than legend Stephan Gebédi. The helmsman formed the first Dutch extreme metal outfit, Thanatos, in 1984. Inspired by the lowest and most fiery rungs of hell—Possessed, Death, Slayer, Venom, Celtic Frost and Mercyful Fate— Gebédi took his group on the wildest hunts over the next three decades. From the release of debut album Emerging From the Netherworlds in 1990 to 2014’s throat-slitter Global Purification, Thanatos prevailed as the underground’s most consistent dealer of death, destruction and chaos. ¶ Now, prolonged gaps are de rigueur for the Dutchmen. They went silent for eight years in 1992. Thanatos also took four five-year naps in the aughts and the ’10s, right into the ’20s—basically from 2000’s unsung gem Angelic Encounters through new album Violent Death Rituals. It turns out there’s always a reason. ¶ “There are always good reasons why it takes us so goddamned long to come up with a new album,” Gebédi laughs. “This time, they were numerous. First of all, Paul [Baayens] and I were very busy with Hail of Bullets after Global Purification, so we didn’t get a proper chance to write. 28 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

Then, in 2017, our drummer Yuri [Rinkel] told us he was no longer able to play with us; a foot injury he was already dealing with before and during the recordings of Global Purification started acting up again. We even thought about quitting for a while, but then we found a new drummer, started rehearsing with him, played some shows and eventually started writing new songs. I think we seriously started writing new material in the summer of 2018, and exactly a year later, we were ready to record our new album.” Violent Death Rituals is Thanatos’ first album for longstanding France-based indie Listenable Records, but it continues Gebédi’s penchant for old-school death-y/ thrash-y songwriting motifs. Songs like “Unholy Predators,” “Burn the Books of Hate,” “Corporate Indoctrination” and the title track crawl grotesquely out of the early ’90s. But the thing about Violent Death Rituals is that it’s not merely

an extant nod to the past or a rote exercise. No, Thanatos have come to kill on their seventh full-length. The modern edge to the production—thanks in part Dan Swanö’s mix—allows Gebédi’s aggressions to shine through. “We might be an old-school band that is still inspired by our old heroes, but we’re not living in the past, and we don’t want to sound ‘old’ or ‘retro,’” stresses Gebédi. “We have opted for a raw, organic, yet contemporary production.” If there’s one thing left to accomplish after 36 years, it’s Thanatos finally getting their due stateside. Indeed, Gebédi is laser-focused on a U.S. run. “We can feel the flames of Armageddon burning, but before we will burn in hell and are reduced to ashes, we want to bring the band to the States after all these years!” he exclaims. “We’re currently working on it, and if all goes well, we will finally make it to the U.S. next year.” —CHRIS DICK

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THE GHOST INSIDE Metalcore crew overcomes tragedy, embrace PPMA (Positively Pissed Mental Attitude)

his process has often been lonely,” admits Jim Riley, bassist of the Ghost Inside. Staging a second act hasn’t been easy for the L.A. metalcore outfit, but then again, most worthwhile things aren’t easy. ¶ Starting back in 2004 as A Dying Dream, much of their early music reflects the milieu of the time: blending melodeath-y riffs with hardcore breakdowns, and the unmistakable touch of post-hardcore emotional sensibility. Over time, the band advanced to the forefront of modern metalcore with slick, anthem-packed albums like Get What You Give and Dear Youth. ¶ But a horrible tour bus accident in November 2015—resulting in the death of the driver and the loss of drummer Andrew Tkaczyk’s right leg—halted that progress for a long time. “We went from constantly traveling and living in tight quarters to being in separate cities recovering and spending long days in bed,” says Riley. “But we weren’t going through it alone. We were physically in different places, but constantly checking on each other over text and FaceTime, 30 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

and I think we were able to get through the worst days by encouraging each other.” And that encouragement has allowed the band to persevere and create their new self-titled album. As you might expect, the band’s struggles and triumphs play a major role on the record. “The big theme here,” offers Riley, “is still that whatever is placed in your way, you can go over, around or through it, but if you’re determined to get to the other side, that capability is already within you. “The journey of the last almost six years since we released Dear Youth has felt like the defining era of the band, and all of that poured out into this record,” the bassist continues. “If someone asks what the Ghost Inside sounds like, you can hand them this record and it’s all there.” And there’s definitely a lot there, as a song like “Pressure Point”

shows: tragedy, fake sympathy, betrayal and moving forward. But, as “Aftermath” demonstrates, there’s hope to offer as well, as vocalist Jonathan Vigil sings, “I don’t have it in me to sing of defeat” and “Today I woke up to a brand new me.” Indeed, the band has achieved a sense of nuance in their post-2015 attitude: “Our friend Jason Butler from Fever 333 called the band ‘positively pissed,’ and I think that’s the perfect description,” beams Riley. This positively pissed spirit has resonated with the band’s fanbase as well. “Our shows are kind of like an anger management class,” Riley reckons. “One minute everyone is swinging their arms as hard as they can and knocking people over, the next minute they’re crying, and at the end of it everyone has this huge smile and they’re hugging and making new friends. —J. ANDREW ZALUCKY

PHOTO BY JONATHAN WEINER

THE GHOST INSIDE

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interview by

j. bennett

QAHARLEY

FLANAGAN W IT H

CRO-MAGS founder on life during the pandemic, securing the band name and their first new album in 20 years

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ew York is in crisis mode when we reach Cro-Mags founder Harley ation, we can’t even do another [quarantine gig]

Flanagan via Skype. The city has been on Coronavirus lockdown for well over two months, and the fatalities are off the charts. “I’ve never seen my city in this type of a situation,” he tells us. “The only thing that was even remotely similar was after 9/11, and even that was completely different. I have neighbors on either side of my apartment whose families are sick. I’ve had one neighbor die—he was carried out of here on oxygen and died a few days later. I’m doing okay, my family is doing all right, but it’s very real.” ¶ If anything is keeping Flanagan’s spirits up, it’s that he’s about to unveil the first new Cro-Mags record in 20 years. After decades of feuding with former members John Joseph and Mackie Jayson—resulting in two bands claiming the Cro-Mags name and culminating in multiple stabbings of former and current members (including Flanagan himself) at Webster Hall in 2012—Flanagan has secured full ownership of the name and is set to release In the Beginning with a lineup featuring longtime members Rocky George, Gabby Abularach and Garry Sullivan. “It’s 100 percent Cro-Mags, but it’s evolved a little bit,” our man says. “I’ve taken the fundamentals and refined the technique a little.” ¶ The album even features a guest shot from former Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell, the origins of which are very much related to Cro-Mags’ triumphant return. In fact, it’s Flanagan’s lifelong relationship with Lemmy and Co., that’s helping him keep things in perspective during the pandemic. “This isn’t the first time in history we’ve had to deal with things like this,” he offers. “It’s just the first time that we’ve had to deal with it. It’s horrific, and there will be a lot of death, but you know what? We all die. I’m not even going to put ‘Rest in Peace’ on my tombstone. I’m putting ‘KBD’—‘Killed by Death,’ like Lemmy said, because that’s what gets us all in the end.” New York is the city in the U.S. that’s been hit the hardest by the pandemic so far. You mentioned 9/11 earlier, and then there was Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Do you feel like your city has been cursed for the last 20 years?

New York is one of the busiest cities in the world, so it’s kind of hard to avoid it. We have so many people coming and going from all over the world. It’s such a major place, so this is where stuff like that is gonna happen. Just to put it in perspective, we’ve got refrigerator trucks parked in front of funeral homes because they don’t have room to store all the bodies. So, when I see protesters gathering with their American flags and their guns, I gotta laugh. What are you gonna do, shoot the virus? Your flag ain’t gonna protect you from this shit either, so what are you trying to prove? Yeah, it’s ridiculous.

Gathering and whipping your gun out is like gathering and whipping your dick out. Let’s not get stupid, people. We’re all going through a tough time right now. Everyone is suffering financially, whether you’re in a tightly packed city like this where you’ve got people living right up against your ass, or if you’re in the boonies so

you don’t have to worry about getting too close and you’re like, “I wanna get back to work!” Guess what? We’re all going through this. So, when I see people getting aggravated and going after each other, I think they need to take a step back. This kind of thing should be bringing us together, not splitting us up. We all might not have the same beliefs, but we’ve gotta respect each other’s space. You teach jiu-jitsu at the Renzo Gracie Academy. I know you haven’t been able to meet with your students because of the shutdown, but have you been doing online classes or anything? Does that even make sense for a hands-on discipline like that?

I haven’t worked in months. Some of the other teachers are doing stuff like that, but… I hate to say it, but I’m not even computer-literate enough to go into that type of world. But God bless everyone who’s making that effort to reach others. The only thing I’m able to do is to provide some music, which is why we did the Quarantine Show, and that’s why I gave out that free single not long ago. If I could do more free shows, I would; but unfortunately, our band members are spread out all over the place, and because of the current situ-

because, again, I’m not computer-literate. But I’ve been making a lot of music. I’ve been really inspired. Whenever there’s a hardship, it inspires me to write. I don’t know if that’s a fucked-up thing about me or if it’s my way of venting. But when bad shit is happening, I get creative. Rather than wallow in it, I try to draw strength from it. So, I’ll probably have two double albums finished by the time this shit is over with because I’ve already got 27 pieces of new music sitting here. You shot Cro-Mags’ Quarantine Show right after your Webster Hall gig with Body Count was cancelled due to the pandemic. I’m pretty sure you were one of the first bands to do something like that.

Yeah, we may have been the first as far as doing an actual live concert. But it just seemed like the obvious thing to do. We’d been practicing and we were ready to go. We were excited to do the Body Count show—48 hours beforehand, we thought it was still happening. The club was saying it was on. But then Governor Cuomo said no more gatherings over a certain number, and that was it—pow—like 24 hours before the show. So, as relentless as we are, we decided to do the Quarantine Show. How did you put that together so quickly?

I was recently in this movie called Between Wars with [Sopranos star] Michael Imperioli, and because of that I have all these contacts who film and do production and stuff. So, we got a location where we could set up all our gear and make it look like we’re doing a show. We put up our backdrop and called our people to shoot it. It cost us a little money, but I’m glad we did it. I had no idea the kind of response it was gonna have. I think at one point there were like 200,000 views. I was told there was one watch party that had 1,800 people in it, and that only comes up as one view, so who knows how many people saw it? That Body Count show was going to be your big return to Webster Hall after the stabbing in 2012.

Yeah, the scene of the crime. [Laughs] So, it meant a lot to me to be invited back in to do that show. I was so bummed that it got cancelled. But as it turned out, we ended up playing to 200,000 people instead of 1,500 or whatever it is. And I really do think these quarantine shows are going to be part of how things work in the future. A lot of people are starting to do this now. I’m not saying I came up with this great idea—it’s the obvious thing to do. I was just the first person to jump on it because we were ready to go and I had the right people around me. But I think this DECIBEL : AUGUST 2020 : 33

is the way of the future, even when things go back to some sort of normality, because the technology is not going to go away. Why would clubs and festivals refuse the extra money they could get for the people who can’t necessarily make it to the show? I’m sure tons of people want to go to Hellfest, but they can’t afford to fly overseas and they’d love to see the whole thing live from a really good vantage point without having to leave their couch.

When I see [lockdown] protesters gathering with their American flags and their guns, I gotta laugh. What are you gonna do, shoot the virus? Your flag ain’t gonna protect you from this shit either, so what are you trying to prove?

Caveman music  Was it weird playing on Flanagan and co. are ready to give a stage as if you were hardcore a history lesson doing a show, but with no audience in front of you? You guys practice, listening to. There’s a little Sabbath, a little obviously, but not quite like that.

I’ll tell ya, brother—I do practice like that. The only difference is that when we practice I might not sing all the parts because I’m rocking out— and we might bullshit between songs. But there’s not a practice where we don’t work up a sweat, where I’m not half-naked at the end of that motherfucker. [Laughs] But I try not to take too many breaks, because I like to be able to perform at that level live. It’s like training for a fight or a marathon. If you need to go 10 rounds, you gotta train like you need to go 20. If you gotta run two miles, make sure you can go 10. That’s my mentality, anyway. Go hard or go home. Or in this case, stay home. [Laughs] Let’s talk about the new album. Why did you decide to call it In the Beginning?

There’s so many reasons, but some of the obvious ones are that I recently got control over everything with the band, so it’s kind of like a new beginning. And the label I’m signed to, which is Victory, is no longer Victory. It’s now Mission Two. So, it’s a brand new label, the band is starting fresh, and I’m reflecting on everything that I’ve experienced in my life and musically. This record takes me back to where I came from and brings it to where I am now. It’s the evolution of me, as a person, and musically. It definitely seems like all your influences are there.

Obviously, there’s a little bit of Bad Brains and Motörhead and all the things I grew up 34 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

Pink Floyd, a little Melle Mel. Obviously, its roots are in hardcore, but it’s got everything from metal to funk. There’s jazz in there, like the fusion thing I did at the beginning of “We Gotta Know” back in the day. Nobody had done that in hardcore before, but even back then I was listening to Mahavishnu [Orchestra] and Return to Forever. I’ve always allowed all my influences to come into how I write, but I express it through my own vision. I’m never stealing shit. I hate straight-up clone bands. It’s just fucking boring. Get a fuckin’ day job if you’re gonna do that. You mentioned the agreement that allows you to have full control of the band name now. Was that the last piece of the puzzle as far as getting this album out?

Oh yeah, that was the only thing preventing anything. A lot of people don’t realize this, but I always owned the name. Around 2001 or ’02, I invited John back into this band for a few shows, which is how he even got involved again. Long story short, I had two kids back to back and these guys booked a massive Cro-Mags tour. I told them I couldn’t go because I’d just had kids. So, he started doing shows without me. I started sending out cease-and-desists, but this motherfucker knew damn well that I was home trying to work and feed two kids, so I couldn’t afford to take his ass to court. He had some pro bono lawyers, some fanboy shit, so it didn’t matter to him.

This is how this whole thing started, just so everyone understands the full “PMA” behind it. [Laughs] How did it end up working out?

Finally, my wife and I were able to take him to court and shut it down. He’s permitted to use the name “Cro-Mags JM” so there’s no confusion about what’s what. It’s sad that it had to come to that because, up until recently, I’ve extended my hand to all those guys from the Age of Quarrel lineup. I mean, life is pretty short. If you have the opportunity to make thousands—maybe even hundreds of thousands—of people happy simply by not arguing with a few other guys for an hour? [Laughs] That seems pretty fucking easy, man. You’ve got Phil Campbell from Motörhead doing a guest solo on “From the Grave.” How far do you two go back?

We toured with Motörhead in the old days, so I’ve been friends with him since the ’80s. I’ve known Lemmy from the first time they came to America, when I was a teenager. The first time I ever did crystal meth was with Lemmy and Philthy Phil Taylor at the Mudd Club when I was 15, so I know Motörhead well. Lemmy played his own special part in this record, right?

Lemmy actually came to me in a dream. I knew if I took this shit to court it was gonna cost an arm and a leg, so I didn’t know if I could even afford the win. But Lemmy came to me in one of those dreams that feel like they actually happened. The only reason I know it didn’t happen is because Lemmy’s dead. But that’s how real it was. So, he comes to me and says, “Take it back, mate. It’s yours. You started it.” Since Lemmy pretty much got the band back together, I figured I should reach out to Phil and get him on the record. So, I called Phil and told him about the dream, and he was happy to do it. The only special request I made was to put a little slide guitar on it, because nobody does that shit like Phil. And he fucking killed it, man. It’s like the icing on the cake.

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the

definitive stories

behind extreme musicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

definitive albums

story by

adem tepedelen

The Party Rages On the making of Municipal Waste’s The Art of Partying “Does anybody remember laughter?”

–robert plant, ad-libbing in “stairway to heaven”

ay what you will about the state of music at the turn of the 21st century, but metal had become pretty humorless. Grins were out, grim was in. Maybe it was a reflection of what was going on the world, particularly post-9/11, but it seemed like metal culture had forgotten how to bust a chuckle. Thankfully a couple of twentysomethings in Richmond, Virginia—who had grown up on a steady diet of D.R.I., S.O.D., Gang Green, the Accüsed, and other crossover and thrash bands—still had intact senses of humor. Vocalist Tony Foresta and guitarist Ryan Waste (née Ryan Joy) formed Municipal Waste in 2000 to play the kind of crossover thrash that stopped being cool around the time. M.O.D. literally jumped the shark on Surfin’ M.O.D. in 1988. Maybe Foresta and Waste sensed something the rest of us hadn’t, or maybe it was just dumb luck, but the band’s blitzing, irreverent and over-the-top take on the genre found some traction on their full-length debut Waste ’Em All (Six Weeks Records) in 2003. With the addition of a fresh rhythm section— drummer Dave Witte and bassist Phil “Land Phil” Hall—and a contract with Earache Records, the Waste took a big step forward with 2005’s Hazardous Mutation. Five years in, the shows were getting bigger, the tours were getting longer, the crowds were getting crazier and the band was having a blast. It was with this momentum—and the explicit confirmation from metal fans on both sides of the Atlantic that they, too, were ready to turn those frowns upside down and thrash like it was 1985—that Municipal Waste approached The Art of Partying. From the note-perfect title to the unrelenting volley of nowDBHOF188 classic blasts of punk fury and frantic metal riffing, this is the ultimate distillation of what made crossover so appealing in its ’80s nascence. Released on Ryan Waste’s 27th birthday in 2007, the band’s third album found a receptive audience around the globe with both old-school thrashers and younger bangers who The Art of Partying weren’t even born when the first wave of crossover introduced EARACHE metal to punk and vice versa. JUNE 11, 2007 The Art of Partying defined “party thrash” in the new millennium. It not only launched Municipal Waste’s career, but revved Richmond crossover kings make thrash fun again up interest in thrash and inspired a fresh wave of youthful new bands. This one was a Hall of Famer out of the gate; it just took us a few years to make it official.

MUNICIPAL WASTE

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What inspired you to start playing crossover thrash in the early 2000s, when this kind of music had its heyday more than a decade earlier? RYAN WASTE: To me, this was the stuff I grew up on, and I never stopped listening to it. I started the band in 2000 and I’m, like, 20 years old and eager to play fast. As a bassist [first] and guitarist [later], I was just trying to play fast, metallic riffs, but I guess it came across in a more punk style, probably because I was just figuring stuff out on guitar back then. I grew up listening to the Accüsed, Hallows Eve, Razor and, of course, early Slayer, so that stuff was always in the back of my mind. It never went anywhere for me; it was timeless. So, those influences were there; it’s just that [music] wasn’t very popular at the time. I just kind of played what I knew. TONY FORESTA: Me and Ryan got along really well because we were both really into this shit. He saw my [previous] band and he thought my voice sounded like Kurt [Brecht] from D.R.I.—which everybody told me back then. I was really into bands like Gang Green and S.O.D. and stuff like that. But me and Ryan were, like, punks. We were going to house shows and hanging out with all the punks. Whenever we would hang out, we’d bust out the Kreator records and talk about all that stuff, because nobody was really into that shit [then] like we were. And we would joke around about doing a band. I moved to Long Beach [California] for a year and hated it, and when I moved back, we started Municipal Waste a few months later. DAVE WITTE: Since the ’80s, I’d always wanted to play in a band like [Municipal Waste]. When I first moved to Richmond [and saw them], I was like, Oh my god, this band is awesome, I’d love to be in this band. A year later, I was in the band. I’ve always loved thrash music; I could never find the people to do it with up in New Jersey. Moving down here, those guys were doing exactly what I wanted to do.

This was your second album for Earache. Tell us about the time between Hazardous Mutation and when you started working on The Art of Partying.

After the release of Hazardous Mutation, we really started to receive a lot of positive attention from fans, and Earache did a pretty good job of getting us out there as something a little different than what was going on at the time. We were definitely playing a lot of shows, especially in Europe and the U.K. We were really excited to get back in the studio and start working on another album. Everything had a lot of energy and everything seemed really red PHIL “LAND PHIL” HALL:

hot at the time. We could tell that things were starting to snowball a little bit for us. WITTE: The [touring] that we did for Hazardous Mutation was exciting for me, because I had come from another world [musically], and this environment was fresh and fun and real positive. It was fully interactive—all the shows were nuts. So, it just gave us all that confidence and it got us excited to keep going. WASTE: Hazardous Mutation got us off the ground to do bigger touring. Between Hazardous Mutation and The Art of Partying, we went on tour with GWAR in 2006, and that was a big eye-opening tour for us. We learned how to play to bigger crowds and how to work a bigger room, after coming from more basement, DIY shows and small clubs that we were used to. We went to Europe at least once between those records. We were having a lot of fun and we were seeing it grow, and I think it kind of spilled into the music. FORESTA: Things were building. The snowball was building. We were working really hard for Hazardous. We got in the mindframe of how to tour on that album. Being on the road so much, how did you go about writing TAOP?

In those days, Ryan and I would get together at his house with little practice combo amps and kind of hash out a bunch of riffs and have something prepared for when we met up with Dave. We were practicing in a little rehearsal spot off of Chamberlain Avenue. It was kind of a dusty, old, creaky practice space with leaks and stuff. We would bring the riffs to Dave and he would slam out a beat. This was the first album where we started making demos of the material. I had this little Boss sixtrack [machine] and we would use it to record demos so that we could listen to [the songs] and improve on them in whatever way we saw fit

 Early mutations (l to r) Witte, Foresta, Waste and Hall show off their very fresh and rippable faces

and have something to show Tony. He’d listen to it and write some lyrics, and if there was something that he would want to shorten or lengthen, we’d do it for him. You know, he’d have some suggestions here and there. But generally, we’ll have the songs laid out and ready to go by the time he hears it. FORESTA: My thing is usually, “Make this shorter.” [Laughs] I have terrible ADD. There’s a song about it on that album. I would write all of the lyrics for the most part. But there are songs like “Open Your Mind” that Ryan helped me write. WITTE: Back then, we would all get in a [rehearsal] room and just try things out. It was a collective, democratic decision-making process. People would come in with riffs and ideas and song titles. We were in that room all the time working on stuff as a band. It was different back then—everybody in the room all the time. WASTE: It seemed like it was very fast-paced. We’d always be on the road, so a lot of it would be on the fly. It kind of kept the intensity up, too, in that way.

HALL:

AUGUST 2020 : 38 : DECIBEL

Were you pretty well-prepared when it came time to record?

We’d have everything generally prepared before we go into the studio. There might have been a few songs that Tony needed to finish up lyrics for. WASTE: We would never go into the studio until we had a chunk of songs. We even had a little bit extra, I think, that we used for bonus tracks. We usually go in pretty prepared, but then you come up with ideas on the spot. We were all staying together, so, of course, there were times to add little things. HALL:

DECIBEL : AUGUST 2020 : 39

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MUNICIPAL WASTE the art of partying us onstage, slapped the money in my hand and goes, “I gotta get outta here, I’m about to get arrested.” So, we grabbed all our stuff as fast as we could and we were running past the cops, and they kept trying to ask us questions. We just got in our van and hauled ass outta there. [Laughs] After recording Hazardous with the late GWAR guitarist Cory Smoot, you worked with a higher-profile producer on TAOP. How did you decide to go that route and enlist Zeuss?

He actually chatted us up one day. I believe we were playing New England Metal [and Hardcore] Fest, and he showed up and chitchatted with us and told us his credentials. He told us about his facility and he really sold us on the idea of working with him. Previously, we had worked on Hazardous Mutation with the late Cory Smoot from GWAR, and it just seemed like a good time to level up and work with somebody that had obvious skills and credentials. WASTE: He liked the band so much that he basically came and, like, courted us like he was a record label every time we would play up in the New England area. He’d be at every show. He was a speed metal thrasher guy back in the ’80s. That’s what he grew up on. I think he just wanted to hang out and drink with us. He’s a very professional guy and the nicest guy you’ll meet, but he bugged us at every show to record us. We ended up doing two records with him. FORESTA: We picked Zeuss because we heard he was a really cool guy to work with. I’m not really sure who told us about Zeuss, but Hatebreed had recorded there. HALL:

“The promoter ran up to us onstage, slapped the money in my hand and goes, ‘I gotta get outta here, I’m about to get arrested.’ So, we grabbed all our stuff as fast as we could and we were running past the cops.”

TO N Y F O R E STA FORESTA: It’s not how I do it now, but definitely at that time there were songs that I was writing in the studio, for sure. Or when they were tracking drums, I’d have my lyric sheet and would be scribbling on it. I’d usually have about 90 percent of the album done going into the studio.

Did you know going into the recording that you wanted to call it The Art of Partying?

I’m pretty sure Tony was pumped on that and offered that one up. I remember him being real excited about it and his eyes got all big. FORESTA: I’ll never forget the conversation in that practice space. Because during the Hazardous touring cycle, our rep[utation] was already following us pretty big. And there were also a lot of tall tales about us. People were exaggerating shit about us! It would get to the point where we would stay at somebody’s house and they’d invite all their friends over because the Waste is staying there! And we’re, like, “Dog, we gotta sleep, we gotta drive 10 hours in the morning.” There were so many stories like that. So, I’ll never forget us talking about calling it The Art of Partying, and that title came from our buddy Jason from Athens. It was a Suicidal Tendencies nod, of course. Anyway, the topic came up and it was, like, it’s already bad enough with people fucking with us, wanting us to party with them—this is gonna put it over the top. This is gonna make us a party band. Do we wanna open the floodgates? WITTE:

You traveled up from Richmond to Hadley, MA, to record this. How did that go?

We actually played a show on the way up to the studio, just to make a little walkingaround money while we were staying in [Hadley] for two weeks. The thing about this show was that it was in this puppet theater. I believe the whole show is on YouTube. There were literally [puppets] hanging from the ceiling in the backstage area. Of course, as soon as we started playing this show, everyone’s wigging out and the [puppets] start getting thrown around. I think someone in the audience set up a ladder in the middle of the room and people started jumping on each other. It was wild. I’ll always remember that. WASTE: It was in Connecticut, on the way up to Hadley. It was a legit puppet theater. They had all these rare vintage puppets and they just let all these headbangers all around them, so, of course, something’s going to go haywire. People were grabbing things, setting them on fire and throwing them into the chandelier—basically just terrorizing this place. The cops came and it was one of those things where I don’t even know if we got paid. We jetted out the back door with all our gear. We just hit the road. FORESTA: It turns out that those puppets were worth a lot of money and that was some really old stuff. It was not very cool. But that was one of those shows where, when we were done playing, there were a lot of cops. The promoter ran up to HALL:

AUGUST 2020 : 40 : DECIBEL

What was his studio, Planet Z, like?

The studio was a lot of fun. It was right next to this little house that we stayed in the whole time. I brought my bicycle and there was a bike path at the end of the block, so I got to ride my bike a bunch. It snowed, though. That was a pain in the ass riding my bike in the snow. But, yeah, we cooked some food together. It was nice having the house next door as a retreat. WASTE: It felt like camp. We were out there in this little house and we’d wake up and start working on the record. I don’t know if we could do it like that now. Everyone has their own way of getting in the mindset to record, but we were up there as one, just having fun. Dave would cook dinner for us all once a week. FORESTA: Zeuss has a house attached to the recording studio, and we’d never done anything like that before—or have since. We each had our own bed. I had my lyric sheets next to the bed, and I was scrambling to write lyrics at the last minute. It was like a reality show. We were all living together and recording this album. It was a really weird and cool experience. WITTE:

What do you remember from the recording and working with Zeuss?

I remember when he would crank up [TAOP] in the studio and we’d listen to it, I was really impressed by the tones he was getting. He obviously takes a lot of pride in his work and wants everything to be good. He never half-asses anything. The love of it comes across in the music. As soon as we heard the mixes, we knew that it was gonna be pretty good. WITTE: It’s pretty fucking exciting when you get in that room and you hear the sounds, everything coming together. ’Cause you’ve heard those songs a million times in the practice room, but you haven’t heard them all miked up and dialed in. It changes your whole opinion of it; it’s very exciting. WASTE: We were all hyped up on that record. Everyone was raging. I couldn’t believe the speedpicking I was doing on a guitar with such a fat neck. It’s pretty intense stuff, the speed of it. And we never recorded to a click track or anything. It was just like the live feel. It was more just like, Let’s get the right live take and lay it down. FORESTA: It was, like, a real studio! We were overwhelmed with what was happening to our band. HALL:

What did Zeuss bring to the table in making TAOP?

The album’s called The Art of Partying, but how much partying went on while recording?

When one person was tracking, like Ryan, the rest of us would be in the house doing whatever we felt like doing. There were definitely some beers imbibed and some, you know, good times. At that time, we were having such a good time in the band and everything seemed to be snowballing, so spirits were high and we were just happy. WASTE: We had a couple friends up there and it would be like a party every night—just drinking tons of cheap beer. WITTE: I don’t party in the studio at all. Maybe when we’re finished I’ll have some drinks. [When you record] your performance is getting committed to tape for a lifetime. [Laughs] I look at it this way: If someone’s buying that [album], it better be worth it. I don’t want to have a half-ass performance because I had a couple too many beers or was hung over or something like that. You know me—I love beer—but there’s a time and a place for it. Some people can do that in the studio, but it’s never worked for me.

HALL:

“If someone’s buying that [album], it better be worth it. I don’t want to have a half-ass performance because I had a couple too many beers or was hung over or something like that. You know me— I love beer— but there’s a time and a place for it.”

Zeuss was pretty famous for getting a very full sound, a lot of bottom end. I noticed the recording was thicker and beefier than [Hazardous]. Not that [Hazardous] was bad by any means; it was just different. HALL: Working with Zeuss was definitely an eye-opening experience as far as his engineering and seeing how he worked in the studio and the different techniques he used to track [the songs] and make things a little easier. Sometimes tracking can be very stressful, and there are certain techniques that engineers can use to make that not mind-boggling. So, if there was ever a part that seemed ridiculously fast and technical, it never turned into this stressful thing where anyone was wigging out, because Zeuss knew what to do and how to achieve the takes that we were searching for without any fights or anything like that. FORESTA: It was just cool to see how Zeuss worked and how easy he made certain things go. I think Phil learned a lot being there and watching how Zeuss used Pro Tools. We just vibed with Zeuss WITTE:

so well. It felt like he was an old friend of ours. Because he had been in Icepick and had recorded Hatebreed, I was expecting this eight-foot-tall, neck-tattooed hardcore guy. And what I got was the sweetest, chillest, easy-to-work-with guy. WASTE: That was the biggest production we had done [up to that point]. The level of production he brought to the table was the highest at that point. It was new for us, but he was so personable and down to earth that it didn’t seem like that. We were having fun, drinking [Miller] High Life every night.

DAV E W ITT E

When it came time to design the cover, did you have a concept for it or did you just give the artist a title and basic idea and let him go with it?

Andrei Bouzikov was an old friend that played in Deadfall with Scotty [Heath], who does Tankcrimes Records. That was the first cover he did with us. After that record, every little thrash band and their brother picked him up to do their cover art. I remember seeing some of his sketches [for TAOP] and arguing whether the main guy [drinking from the keg] should be fat or not. [Laughs]. Andrei’s roommate Marky— who did the layout for the album—ended up

WASTE:

D E C I B E L : 41 : A U G U S T 2 0 2 0

PARTY… HARDLY Tony Foresta

tells us about the one party

Andrew W.K.

skipped

ndrew W.K. was supposed to

do a song on the album. We had been writing back and forth with him, and we wrote a song [‘I Just Wanna Rock’] and sent it to him. Everything was good to go. So, one of the vocal [recording] days we put aside for him to drive up from New York City. He fuckin’ blew us off the day of the recording. After talking with us back and forth and all this stuff, he just straight ghosted us. I was so mad that he just blew us off like that. If he’d just called me and said he couldn’t do it, it would have been fine. We were bummed. Years later, he and I made up. He eventually, to make it up to me, came down and played this festival I was setting up in Richmond called Best Friends Day. He explained to me what happened was that he had this new manager at the time who was really trying to push children’s shows onto him, and the manager thought we were too raunchy or whatever, or too ‘extreme.’ I understood, but at the time it was a bummer. We had the studio time set aside, and he had literally been talking to me about it the night before. He just disappeared. [Laughs] It would have been cool if he’d been on it. He loves metal and he loves the band. He was just getting pulled a lot of different ways by a lot of different people at that time.” —ADEM TEPEDELEN

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MUNICIPAL WASTE the art of partying

Municipal avengers  Municipal Waste move up from the horrific budgets of Tromaville (l) to the bright lights of Los Angeles

After the release of TAOP, did you guys feel like you now had a reputation to live up to, that fans expected you to be ripping it up 24/7?

Yeah, that was a real challenge, man. [Fans] were like, “Yeah, let’s go, let’s do this! Turn it up to 10!” all the time. We were, like, Damn, what did we get ourselves into? [Laughs] Having a good time is fun, don’t get me wrong, but we kind of put ourselves in that situation, for sure. People just want us to go for it all the time, and the drunker they’d get, the less fun they’d be to deal with. WASTE: We kind of dug our grave, because everyone wants to party with you everywhere you go and there’s only so much of us to go around. I still try to keep it up, but I can’t say forever that it’s going to work like that. HALL: I always thought from the very first time I saw Municipal Waste—even before I was in the band—the atmosphere that Tony brought with him, along with the riffs that Ryan had, was a WITTE:

very unique thing, especially at the time. There wasn’t anything else like it. I felt like the [title] The Art of Partying was such a great way to kind of set the mood for what our band was doing at the time. I thought it was really fresh. There wasn’t anything else like it, so I have nothing but love for The Art of Partying and what it was for us in our career. When TAOP came out in June of 2007, what was the initial reaction from fans and the media?

That’s when we really started to notice a major momentum shift. WITTE: People were hyped on it. It was next-level, for sure. Way more people came out [to shows] and a lot of people bought the record. And there were way more people that wanted to party. [Laughs] WASTE: The U.K. really took it and ran with it. We were on Earache at that point and they were really hyping this party vibe for us, almost to the point where it got annoying. They’d want us to do photo shoots with all this wacky stuff. That’s something that got a little carried away, that I don’t think was ever the band’s intention. But it did blow us up in the U.K. and Europe around then. You could really watch it happening around us when that record came out. I think it hit at the right time. People wanted to have fun. FORESTA: We had this girl Talita who was our press secretary, and she was so passionate about our band. She loved us so much and she pushed us like we were her kid’s band or something. That tour and the ones after that, we never did so much press in our lives. Press people were flying out from all over to interview us, and we were just on a different planet. We had no idea how to do interviews. [Laughs] It was such a crazy time. Everything in our band had like a slow progression to that point, and then when Art of HALL:

AUGUST 2020 : 4 2 : DECIBEL

Partying came out, that was the first time we did a crazy amount of press before the release, and our music videos were coming out on time— shit like that. How did you end up working with B-movie legends Troma on the “Headbanger Face Rip” video? FORESTA: For obvious reasons, the band is highly influenced by Troma. We kind of wanted to be the band version of Troma. [Laughs] So, it was kind of a no-brainer to try to work with them. I don’t think they knew about us, but [Troma cofounder] Lloyd Kaufman, I think he heard it and really dug it. We were really excited about it, but we didn’t know what they had in mind. I look at that video and I think it’s hilarious, because we had no idea what we were doing, but we were also having a lot of fun. HALL: We were doing a short tour at the time and we started the tour with that shoot in New York. It was basically a one-day shoot in front of a green screen. It was so wham-bam and done so quickly, but the end result was that it turned out pretty good. When I watch that video, I have a lot of fond memories of that time period. WITTE: This was our first time with a green screen and all that stuff. It was weird. It was done in some warehouse in New York; it was a whole new experience for us. None of us had really done anything like that. It was kind of awkward and uncomfortable, but exciting at the same time. Then they added footage, like that car crash that’s in every Troma movie, and put us in it. [Laughs] WASTE: We were obviously big fans of Troma, still are, but we went up there expecting it to be a legit video and it’s really just a warehouse in New York City with a green screen and some

RIGHT PHOTO BY RYAN MICHAEL HACKETT

being the model for the guy drinking from the keg. And Andrei is the guy puking next to him. So, two of our good friends are on that cover. FORESTA: We wanted it to be dark. We wanted the idea to be hard and have a dark side to it, because the songs are so ridiculous that the imagery has to be dark to kind of match it up to what we want it to look and feel like. We wanted something that was over the top. It’s hard sometimes to explain that to people. At that time, a lot of people just thought of us as almost like a joke band and didn’t realize how we thought of the band. But Andrei knocked it out of the park. I think it’s one of my favorite album covers. It’s hanging in my living room; I look at it every day. WITTE: Andrei would always deliver. We’d change a few things here and there, but he’s a great painter.

“We kind of dug our grave, because everyone wants to party with you everywhere you go and there’s only so much of us to go around. I still try to keep it up, but I can’t say forever that it’s going to work like that.”

RYA N WASTE

one of them; we play that in every set no matter what. There are several songs [on TAOP] that are gonna be permanent fixtures in the Municipal Waste set list for sure. WITTE: Oh yeah, “Sadistic Magician,” “Beer Pressure,” “Thrashing’s My Business [... and Business Is Good],” “Headbanger Face Rip,” “The Art of Partying”—there are a lot of songs on there that we still play regularly. We play “The Inebriator” from time to time. A few months back, I sat down and relearned the whole album and I went through it a bunch of times. I was such a different player back then. Some of the stuff is so crazy that I had to relearn to do some of the stuff that I did back then. FORESTA: What’s funny is that for, like, the first six years [after its release], I wouldn’t play “The Art of Partying.” I couldn’t physically sing it because it was so exhausting. They always wanted to play it in the middle of the set. If you listen to that song, after the intro it’s just me fucking ranting for, like, two minutes and there’s no breaths, nothing. We’d do it every once in awhile, but if we were on a tour that was, like, four weeks long, I couldn’t do it every night or I’d blow my voice out. It was bumming my bandmates out. I sucked it up and now we play it all the time. [Laughs] What are some things that stand out to you about this album 13 years later?

I think it’s an all-inclusive record. In the lyrics to “The Art of Partying,” we name how everyone can get down to this no matter if you party, if you drink or if you’re straightedge, if you’re a punk or a metalhead. It’s like, there’s an art to having fun, and it’s acceptance. And put in some catchy tunes about ripping people’s faces off, keeping it ugly still and just having a vibe that brings everyone in is what [appealed to] people. I mean, there’s a song about a magician who kills people, and that’s the one everyone likes. [Laughs] It’s got a little bit of everything. HALL: I feel like there’s a certain sort of magic in how everything just fell into place. Every album you make, you want to achieve the greatest album ever, but you never know how it’s going to turn out in the end because there are so many different factors involved. But I feel like all the factors came out in our favor when we created The Art of Partying. I’m just happy that all these years later people are still listening to it. FORESTA: I just have a lot of good personal memories from this era. Yeah, we did open the party floodgates, but I feel like we were able to dial it in and keep it together. We’ve been able to toe the line between being a professional band [and] still being a fun band that rages pretty hard. WASTE:

interns to help us out. [Laughs] It’s a bottom-ofthe-barrel budget production. That’s their thing. We always have a lot of fun with [making videos] and bring our own personality to the table. They had some mops and suits and we all kind of dressed up. I remember being really fucking hot in the New York heat. I’m sweating profusely in the video. We love Troma movies, and the fact that we got to put in all the kills from the Troma movies in the video makes it worthwhile. The video for “Sadistic Magician,” in contrast, seems a lot slicker.

That was great. [The guys who made it] Jeff and Chris Speed are twin brothers that are pretty much my age, but they had their shit together. The whole crew worked for free, but the Speed brothers used every penny of the budget to put into the video, and everyone brought their A game to the table. They had the treatment ahead of time that we approved, a killer location at a waste treatment plant, and everything was just dialed in. We got to do a little acting in our gas masks. The actors were cool. It was just such a good experience working with them. Not that Troma was a bad experience. Troma was a Troma experience.

WASTE:

That was a whole other animal. We flew out to L.A. and we shot on this set that they had shot Terminator 2 in. It was a giant factory that I guess is rented out quite often for different shows and movies. It was very impressive. That shoot we were just going for it every single take, as hard as we could, and that can be very physically exhausting. So, by the end of that shoot, I was just shaking with [fatigue] and all my energy had been completely exerted by just headbanging as hard as I could for five hours straight, or however long that shoot was. WITTE: That was awesome. It was totally a whole other situation. The Speed brothers were totally pro. I’m not saying that Troma wasn’t pro, but this was a whole other thing. We flew out [to L.A.] for it. It was filmed in this huge structure where they had filmed part of Terminator 2, I believe. So, that was pretty exciting. There were actors and extras and catering, all the riggers and all this stuff. It was like a whole other world for us. That was an eye-opener, for sure. HALL:

How much of the material remains in your set? Are there certain songs from TAOP that fans expect or want to hear? HALL:

“Sadistic Magician” would definitely be DECIBEL : 4 3 : AUGUST 2020

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IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT’s

ode to New York City, Alphaville, arrives as the metropolis confronts a pandemic STORY BY Justin M. Norton

PHOTOS BY Alex Krauss

Once ‘free’ in the streets, what then? Fear and panic could destroy the city as much as plague itself. Daniel Defoe

achary Ezrin and his Imperial Triumphant bandmates were in

a New York City studio in December when, 7,000 miles away, a virus that likely originated in a bat latched onto a human in a wet market, changing the world forever. The band was so busy that vague reports of a respiratory virus sickening people in China escaped them. By the start of the year, the images from Wuhan, China, grew increasingly apocalyptic. But the march of progress in New York continued: Wall Street posted record gains, shows continued—from local clubs to Broadway—and subways were packed. ¶ Life would soon be upended as the pathogen known as the coronavirus spread unchecked in America’s most magnificent city. By March, New York was a husk of its former self. Sick patients lined up for COVID-19 tests. Shoppers scrambled and fought for the last roll of toilet paper. Hospitals filled with patients who couldn’t breathe. Governor Andrew Cuomo’s press conferences became a daily occurrence. And once-filled music clubs shuttered—in some cases permanently. At a time when Imperial Triumphant should have been preparing to release their career-best album, Alphaville, Ezrin left his hometown for Massachusetts and his other bandmates hunkered down for months under quarantine. “I made the decision that it wasn’t going to be very chill here for long and just got out,” Ezrin says. “I just packed up, grabbed my guitar and drove off.” DECIBEL •

• AUG 2020

Bassist/pianist Steve Blanco found himself unemployed and left to stay with his family in Sarasota, FL. He is still paying rent on his New York City apartment as his funds dwindle with minimal touring opportunities. Initially, he was able to earn money teaching music lessons online, but fewer lessons are scheduled as students face similar financial hurdles. “I lost all my work overnight,” Blanco says. “My situation looks grim. I’m looking around for remote work at this point—it could be music or maybe something else. I have no idea when I’m going back to New York—it’s basically on hold until further notice.” Drummer Kenny Grohowski is quarantined in his apartment in New York City. Grohowski was touring Europe with another band in March as the coronavirus spread and soon crippled Italy. He arrived home from Europe on March 8, played a show on March 10, and has been home since. “Since we were in Europe, we heard all about what was going on—it was all over the place at that point,” Grohowski says. “Even that far back, my wife was keeping tabs on it and was concerned about me being on tour.” The coronavirus has made Alphaville—an ambitious album about the dark heart of the metropolis—resonate that much more. But Imperial Triumphant’s most potent musical statement comes when the music industry is, by any standard, shut down. Imperial Triumphant won’t be able to tour for the foreseeable future, and the audience for new music is distracted, out of work or white-knuckling everyday life with a virulent virus on the prowl. In some ways, however,

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the band is better prepared for this strange new reality than most. Imperial Triumphant have built their reputation as a somewhat anonymous collective that remains cloaked behind ornate brass masks onstage. Even before COVID-19 ended concerts, they explored other options to present their music and image, such as live streams, graphic novels and social media play-alongs of their most challenging songs. While music remains at the center, Imperial Triumphant is also a vehicle for other creative pursuits. On paper, Imperial Triumphant should have never happened. The band members come from three different generations: Ezrin is 29 and graduated from college in 2012; Grohowski came of age in the 1990s; Blanco is in his mid-40s and remembers when Times Square was a peepshow paradise out of Taxi Driver. The band is also an outlier in a genre where the bulk of musicians are self-taught and don’t read music; all three members attended a conservatory and are as familiar with diminished chords and fake books as they are with foundational metal. That multigenerational knowledge and deep musical grounding was put to use in Alphaville, an album that adds to the diverse field of experimental metal bands with jazz leanings like Norway’s Shining, Gorguts, Portal, Meshuggah and even Animals as Leaders. Like its 2018 predecessor, Vile Luxury, Alphaville is in no way easy listening. Time signatures fluctuate wildly; dissonant instruments ring out and quickly fade; styles are fluid; a musical center is evident only with careful listening. In many ways, that’s the point; the music is more quest than artifact. There’s even the first-ever use of a barbershop quartet in an extreme metal song. Imperial Triumphant have grown to resemble an experimental jazz collective with several permanent members and a seemingly endless list of contributors. On Alphaville, those contributors include Tomas Haake of Meshuggah on Taiko drums; Yoshiko Ohara, formerly of Bloody Panda, on vocals; and trombonist J. Walter Hawkes, an Emmy award winner who in the ’90s composed music for the live-action children’s series Blue’s Clues. Producer Colin Marston, who has worked on every Imperial Triumphant release since the Obeisance EP in 2009 (when Ezrin was in high school), says the band is an outlier in the scene and has continually refined their sound in the past decade. “Alphaville is the result of the cumulative effect of thousands of tiny decisions made by everyone involved,” Marston says. Those tiny decisions include, “Kenny’s selection of drumheads, how a given riff was orchestrated in band practice, how the sound was recorded, the way it was mixed and mastered and paced in the flow of the album.” Alphaville—a nod to French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard’s film on a techno-totalitarian

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city—is a look at how great cities rise and fall, and New York’s slow erosion. While some musicians and artists build worlds out of the struggles of everyday people, Alphaville instead touches on Bret Easton Ellis-style narcissism and the vast chasm between squalor and opulence. “New York’s on the decline,” Ezrin says. “I think that it is definitely a dying place culturally. Still, if you just look up, there is this glorious architecture everywhere designed by people before computers existed. There’s this almost ancient grandeur about the city that really drew me in.” “[Imperial Triumphant] always take risks for the sake of art,” says Swiss instrumentalist and vocalist Andromeda Anarchia, who contributed vocals to both “Transmission to Mercury” and a cover of the Residents’ “Happy Home.” “The music they create is not comforting—it’s very artistic, challenging, disturbing, provoking, inspiring. They want to grow and they do—

Art Deco is something that’s

never really been touched upon in heavy metal unless you count a couple of those Judas Priest covers like Defenders of the Faith. Zachary Ezrin by defining their sound and style with each record. They created a very specific music world: the black metal of New York. A black metal band from here should not try to sound like a band from Norway; a songwriter from the Big Apple doesn’t have the same story to tell as a songwriter who lives in Europe—no matter in which style of music. “New York is the stronghold of capitalism, and at the same time, it’s a highly eclectic art jungle—the epicenter of jazz and avant-garde music,” Anarchia adds. “This city creates different stories and sounds. Great music always grows and travels the world, and great artists know how to give their own touch to it. Imperial Triumphant play with definitions, standards and traditions of heavy music—in a way that New York musicians do it. I think this is what makes them so special: They give a new touch to

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black metal, in a very untraditional way. That’s refreshing, and it reveals new possibilities of artistic expression in metal music.” Adam Bartlett, who released Vile Luxury through his label Gilead Media (Alphaville will be released via Century Media), was always struck by the band’s artwork and aesthetic. “Zachary was in touch for years prior based on my connection to Krallice,” Bartlett says. “I carried the earlier Imperial LPs in my label store, and the screen printing shop I worked with would print shirts for them occasionally. In all honesty, I wasn’t looking to work with any new artists, but everything about it spoke to me in huge ways. Everything about their mission aligned with my label mission. “I expected some crossover interest from the Krallice audience based on the technical nature of the music and [Colin] Marston’s production quality,” he continues. “I did not expect the album to gain the acclaim it did, even though the high praise it received was in line with how I felt about the band and their album. It’s always a gamble with music that is more challenging, music that challenges the concept of what art can be. When you look at records like Dillinger Escape Plan’s Calculating Infinity or Candiria’s The Process of Self-Development, those were albums that truly innovated heavy music and challenged the art form in huge ways over 20 years ago now, particularly when it comes to heavily incorporating jazz influence or composition. Those bands went beyond simply writing something in 13/8 to be purposefully obtuse. I think it’s clear that bands like those, and Imperial Triumphant, are musicians on another level.” While the timing of an album about New York seems uncanny when the city is the center of a global crisis, there was no way anyone could have predicted the devastation that coronavirus wrought. “It’s pretty insane if I actually think about it,” Blanco says. “Obviously, we did not predict this, we had no idea; and like you said, the material was done long before this came into the public. But these things seem to happen here because people are drawn to New York.”

THREE GENERATIONS Ezrin grew up in the heart of Manhattan on the

East Side. From the earliest age, music spoke to him more than his surroundings. When he first heard Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady,” he knew he needed to pursue music. He scoured the racks at a nearby HMV looking for metal albums. “I was just exploring on my own,” he says. “There were no Spotify recommendations at that time. It was just going to the record shop looking for any record that looked cool, hoping it was good.” Ezrin first picked up a guitar at age 7 and never put it down. He started with lessons and soon spent his summers at guitar camp. The earliest lineups of Imperial Triumphant were

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little more than Immortal worship. He wanted to take his music further, but his skills weren’t up to snuff. “I was trying to be as innovative as possible, which is funny when you’re a terrible guitar player,” Ezrin says, laughing. “You can’t even do like a basic three-chord song, and you’re already thinking about what’s coming next.” He bridged the gap by studying music composition at California Institute for the Arts in Santa Clarita. “I felt constrained. I didn’t know enough about music theory or enough about all my options to write,” Ezrin acknowledges. “I just felt like I was in a rut and that the best decision was to just learn everything, and I truly stand by that now. If you want to think outside the box, you have to know what the box is.” He found a mentor in experimental composer Ulrich Krieger, who pushed him past the second wave of black metal bands toward different sounds like Deathspell Omega and added rigor to his practice. “He helped me develop out of that very linear second wave of black metal thinking,” Ezrin says. An ensemble class called Sonic Boom opened Ezrin’s ears to different and unexplored possibilities in metal. “I was able to write heavy metal tunes with a full orchestra at my disposal,” he says. “But it wasn’t like conservatory-style where they’re just drilling you. It’s more pushing you to think in other creative ways, and that helped me because that’s sort of where I live.” Grohowski was immersed in both jazz and classical from an early age. Metal initially didn’t speak to him as much as more experimental music; he tried to listen to it, but it didn’t grab him. “Study-wise, I first got into classical and jazz music heavily,” Grohowski says. “Then I started checking out some rock and fusion.” His earliest exposure to metal wasn’t positive because the albums he found— including some cookie-cutter death metal— were “not very thought-provoking and didn’t stand out in any way.” Once Grohowski found Meshuggah, that changed, and he started taking metal seriously. “I got a double pedal and started studying that, playing to a point where it’s not just something that I just do for fun,” he says. “At first, it was almost like I didn’t know how to listen to metal, had no idea what I heard at that point. I really had no frame of reference for it.” Blanco also drank deeply from multiple music traditions and studied at the conservatory at the State University of New York at Purchase. He started working as a musician for hire in New York almost directly after finishing college. He remembers when New York’s downtown music scene was vibrant and you could be exposed to experimental jazz musicians like John Zorn and a new metal band on the same night. “I remember the downtown music scene back when there was a lot of cool stuff going on,” he says.

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Ezrin is well aware that his background—his father works in finance and his mother is a psychotherapist—is strikingly different from many musicians who are drawn to metal because they feel like outsiders. Metal’s history is filled with stories about weirdos and misfits who found their way in the world through music: Ozzy nearly losing his mind in a car horn factory before Black Sabbath achieved unlikely success; Metallica crowding into a tiny home in the Bay Area suburb as they chased their dreams; sociopathic kids in Europe who reimagined black metal. One less than charitable commenter on a YouTube Alphaville documentary said, “the most pretentious guys in the Times Square Guitar Center formed a band and Trustfunded their way into lame costumes and gilded froofroo [sic] instruments to recreate the annoying, aural drudgery of New York City.” (Most commenters, however, focused on the music.) Not only has Ezrin accepted his background, but he has embraced it; he says that taking a more in-depth look at the ugliness that exists on the flipside of privilege helped his journey. “I can be myself in interviews and onstage, and it feels more natural, and [the music] comes to life stronger,” Ezrin says. “I had to commit myself completely. A lot of my classmates in high school went on to get finance degrees and high-paying jobs in finance. I worked at a pizza shop or proctored the SATs. “I don’t think anyone [in the metal scene] was like, ‘Fuck this guy,’” he continues. “I don’t have this rags-to-riches story. Maybe my character is not compelling as a musician, you know? But I’ve sort of gone my own way.”

MATERIALIZED IN BRASS Back in New York, Ezrin started assembling the

pieces of a new version of Imperial Triumphant. Initially, he performed with drummer Alex Cohen (a high school classmate) and bassist Erik Malave, also at one point the rhythm section for the experimental New York death metal band Pyrrhon. A chance conversation with Tim Borror, a longtime agent and co-founder of the Sound Talent Group, helped Ezrin focus his goals. “One of the things he wanted to know was what my band was about, and I didn’t really have an answer for him, which kind of left me a bit embarrassed,” Ezrin confesses. “So, I started thinking about what I believe in. What do I care about? What is real to me? I don’t genuinely believe in a lot of the heavy metal tropes. I don’t think a lot of other bands do either; they just sing about it because they think that it’s what you’re supposed to do.” He found inspiration for both the substance and style of Imperial Triumphant looking behind the facades that were the backdrop to much of his life in New York. “I started writing songs about the nefarious part of New York City,”

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Ezrin says. “The darkness that kind of hides under these beautiful facades and these golden peaks. There is a lot of evil and a lot of rich evil here, which I think is compelling, dark and interesting. Art Deco is something that’s never really been touched upon in heavy metal unless you count a couple of those Judas Priest covers like Defenders of the Faith.” Ezrin also kept gigging with Imperial, often opening for bands like Car Bomb. One evening, he had a chance encounter that changed his music’s direction when he watched Grohowski. “I’m watching him side stage, and I’m just like, ‘This is the guy I need my fucking band.’ Lo and behold, Alex was friendly with him and said, ‘Hey, you should come on for a song.’” The frontman didn’t initially share his elaborate plans for the band, and shows were a work in progress. “He kind of kept things to himself for a while, but little by little he put stuff together,” Grohowski says. “At one point, we were doing shows where Alex and I were switching on drums and certain songs. That was kind of cool, but kind of clumsy at the same time, and nobody was really digging it.” Cohen and Malave left to focus on Pyrrhon, and Imperial Triumphant were left without a bassist. Ezrin decided to put out a Craigslist ad, hoping they could find the missing piece the same way KISS found Peter Criss and Ace Frehley in Manhattan more than almost five decades ago. “Steve was one of two guys who responded,” Ezrin says. “The first guy didn’t even know the right notes.” Blanco says a friend emailed the listing, which called for a bassist for a “dark” and “technical” band, but said little more. He usually avoided Craigslist postings, but something about the minimalist ad spoke to him. The only issue was that Blanco was primarily a piano player just learning to play bass. “I didn’t pick up the bass to play in a band much before I had the first meeting with Zach,” he says. “I just kind of jumped into the fire. I was like, well, someone has to play bass. I was doing shitty back-by-thetoilet jazz gigs at bars and restaurants.” Other musicians like Anarchia became involved over time. She met Ezrin and Grohowski on social media thanks to mutual friends. “When I came to New York in 2017, I met them both in person and we talked a lot about music,” Anarchia says. “I also went to see Zachary perform a jazz gig. He played alongside Steve, and that’s how I met Steve. All of us have one thing in common: We all love all kinds of music. While Zachary was showing me downtown Manhattan, we talked about bands we love and we got hung up on Nina Hagen, Rammstein and Frank Zappa. I sang a few Nina Hagen song lines and the chorus of Rammstein’s ‘Engel’ while we were walking in the streets. Zachary asked me right away if I would be interested in being a guest

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When you look at records like Dillinger Escape Plan’s Calculating Infinity or Candiria’s The Process of Self-Development, those were albums that truly innovated heavy music… I think it’s clear that bands like those, and Imperial Triumphant,

are musicians on another level. Adam Bartlett

vocalist on Vile Luxury. Somehow, I knew right away that this was the beginning of a new journey. In the meantime, I moved to New York.” As Ezrin began to explore the band’s thematic world, Imperial also worked on a comprehensive visual approach, from outfits to fonts. The most distinctive element of their presentation—the masks—was suggested by Blanco and inspired in part by Fritz Lang’s expressionist masterpiece Metropolis, Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, art deco architecture and New York infrastructure. “There’s a whole visual aspect and a whole cultural aspect to the band,” Ezrin says. “There’s a lot to explore, and so we just slowly started diving in.” The masks were designed by Andrew Tremblay, who also does album artwork and T-shirt designs for Imperial, and then rendered via 3-D by J.R. Patterson. The band thought about making the masks in gold, but it was too expensive and heavy. They settled on brass. “We’ve developed them and changed them to fit our own personalities,” Ezrin says. “They’ve been a progressive work ever since. We wanted to have a visual representation of our music when we walk out onto the stage. We just slowly started building a visual aesthetic to match the lyrics.”

ALPHAVILLE Vile Luxury was a critical success and the

band’s touring profile increased. But Imperial Triumphant were already thinking about what was next. Blanco and producer Marston discussed the next step of the band’s journey on

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Gilead Media

the road. “[Behold... the Arctopus and Imperial Triumphant] actually toured together last year, and had lots of time to hang out and think about the next record,” Marston says. “Steve and I discussed a heavier, less sharp and clanky bass sound than was on Vile Luxury. We also talked about having a generally clearer, more transparent sound to the album.” Alphaville started to take shape near the end of 2018. Ezrin says the fact that the band has worked as a trio for years helped them write: “Ever since Vile Luxury—which we wrote together—there has been this exciting atmosphere within the band and drive to explore this world that we’ve created. So, there was plenty of room to dive into.” Ezrin suggests that writing Alphaville was like shaping a raw piece of marble: The heart of each song always existed, but needed to be honed. “Every song is written in a completely different way,” he claims. “Someone will come in with a completely finished song with sheet music and we just have to learn it, or a song will be born right in the middle of the rehearsal studio. Every song that we write is like a block of marble that needs to be shaped into a structure. The sculpture already exists in the marble and we just have to chip away at it. Then there’s only a few decisions left, and then you’re done. “ Imperial Triumphant tried to honor their improvisational and jazz roots in writing the album. Two sections in “The Greater Good” came from studio improvisation. Technology also

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helped; practices were recorded and then mined for ideas. “We always try to have a video or audio recorder going whenever we do rehearsals,” Ezrin says. “A lot of times, those little chunks end up becoming either a section or a song. “A lot of this music comes from a jazz perspective,” he continues. “We meet, listen to each other and make something out of what’s happening in the moment. I think a lot of people will tell you improvisation teaches you how to play notes and rhythms over certain kinds of chords, but it’s more about how you share and create. Having those other elements from these other backgrounds allows us to tap into certain things that other bands might not have access to, as far as knowledge and experience.” “We absolutely want to put elements of jazz into this,” Blanco affirms. “It’s just natural. We couldn’t help it no matter what we did. It’s going to be there no matter what we write or whatever we come up with, and with the way we play together, it just happens naturally. The place where we’re at now makes me happy because we’ve evolved together as a trio and we can play together and just improvise and really make cool music. Zach developed his vision from this heavily black metal influence into this new thing.” One significant change on Alphaville is the addition of Mr. Bungle co-founder and composer Trey Spruance as a producer. “I was skeptical at first, just because the band is so excellent at producing themselves,” Marston admits. “There’s never been a lack of ideas or confusion as to

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the direction or vibe with Imperial. It turned out to be great having Trey on board. He ended up contributing some really cool overdubs and textures, and a super carefully executed and effective mastering job. When working with him and the band on mixing, it felt very collaborative and constructive.” The complicated nature of the music ensured that not every take was easy. “City Swine,” the third track, was possibly the biggest challenge. “I think that was just the piece they had the least time to rehearse and prepare,” Marston says. “Extreme metal records are a challenge to record and especially mix, and all the instruments fight for all the space in the mix. Everything has to sound loud, but since loudness is fundamentally contextual and only exists when compared to something quieter, that’s a tall order.” In addition to covering the Residents, the band also covered Voivod’s “Experiment.” “They knew I was a massive Voivod fan,” Marston says, “so it was awesome to hear Kenny count off, ‘Cover #1,’ and lo and behold, it’s the first song on my favorite Voivod record. That felt like a gift. And then I ended up getting to play the entire left-panned guitar track on it, too.” Ultimately, Grohowski says that Alphaville came to life because the band has developed a creative understanding that they don’t have with any of their other projects: “Even though we have three very different perspectives on things, we actually see things the same way. It’s just rare, even with bands that I love playing with. I’m sure the other guys have groups that they have been in that they absolutely love, but it’s not always like this.”

POSTSCRIPT: THE NEW NORMAL As of May 29, 20,960 people have died of COVID-

19 in New York City, a good portion of the over 100,000 Americans killed by the illness. While New Yorkers would typically be preparing for their summer, the vast majority of city residents are still lying under shelter-in-place rules. While clichés like “the new normal” are uttered daily, the reality is no one knows when New York will regain its footing, and live music, art shows and gatherings will be allowed. Until there is a vaccine—and the most ambitious estimates are that it will be at least a year—New York won’t feel like New York. The dark heart of the city that Imperial Triumphant writes about—the great city seen below—will remain hunkered down. The city the band wrote about in some ways can only be viewed nostalgically, yet the aspects of the human condition they ponder are timeless. As Blanco looks for work, Grohowski tries to keep his drum chops active using practice pads and pillows. “You basically beat the hell out of your bed because there’s no rebound,” he says. “So, it’s a good workout. As far as actually playing drums, I only have the minimum of a

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I think that everything that’s happened to this band has not been predestined, but has fallen into place perfectly. I wouldn’t want this album to come out last year. I wouldn’t want it to come out next year.

I would want it to come out this year. Zachary Ezrin

drum set, and with the apartment we’re in, I can’t really make that kind of noise. It’s taking its toll not being able to maintain those kinds of chops. But I’m still writing music and working on a couple of new songs for Imperial and a few songs for other projects. I’m not totally vacant of any sort of musical outlet.” The business side of the band—especially with an album to promote—is perhaps even more difficult to maintain than dexterity on an instrument. Imperial Triumphant have sold canceled tour merch and are looking for other creative ways to promote Alphaville. While Bandcamp has been donating all the proceeds of sales to artists on certain Fridays, it’s in no way a good time for a new record. “I reckon this is an opportunity for bands to think outside of the box when it comes to monetizing their products, and also just staying relevant,” Ezrin posits. “If you want to stay on people’s radar, you have to create content. And if you want people to like it, you have to put some creativity into it.” Gilead Media’s Bartlett says that Imperial Triumphant are already ahead of most bands, and could use the recent industry challenges to their advantage. “I don’t know if I’d say they improved any particular aspect of the band as much as the rest of the world caught up and

AUG 2020 •

• DECIBEL

paid attention,” he says. “The band’s overall vision for their aesthetic was apparent when we first began discussing Vile Luxury. To see people latch on to that, and to see the band push it further and grow it into a larger concept, has been great. I’ve been stoked to be a part of their grander vision, which is why I agreed to work with them to publish the graphic novel companion piece we released last year. I look forward to seeing how their overall aesthetic continues to grow in the future. That band means business and won’t rest until they achieve their goals.” Achieving all of those goals might remain elusive for now. But Ezrin says New York will return, as it always has from earlier calamities, like the 2001 terror attacks. What the city will look like in its next incarnation remains a mystery. “I’m sure millions of New Yorkers have said this, but this [city] is always torn down and rebuilt with something else,” Ezrin says. “That’s just the way it is. They’re always going to build it higher, bigger and stronger. It’s something we just have to accept. I think that everything that’s happened to this band has not been predestined, but has fallen into place perfectly. I wouldn’t want this album to come out last year. I wouldn’t want it to come out next year. I would want it to come out this year.”

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INSIDE ≥

56 AHAB We're gonna need a bigger live album 57 BLEED FROM WITHIN They're about to break

ALL THE NOISE THAT FITS

58 HEAD OF THE DEMON It's a grower, not a shower 59 LANTERN Light 'em up 62 SKELETON When you've got to feel it in your bones

Chaos/Transcendence

AUGUST

Future inmates

Future pardoned criminals

Future billionaires who become multi-billionaires

Future Stryper press secretary

Bay area death metallers NECROT return with a sophomore leveler for the ages

uring the inaugural decibel tour eight years ago (!), I had a somewhat lengthy discussion with late Devil’s Blood guitarist Selim Lemouchi about the difficulty of repeatedly NECROT summoning, channeling and projecting power within the context Mortal of a heavy metal show. Typically, he said, it took a great deal of TA N K C R I M E S work to ensure that the “mundane and trivial” details (or lessthan-stellar fest lineups) didn’t dull one’s mindset or attack. “On this tour, though, I only have to watch two In Solitude songs every night and I’m… there,” he continued. “It’s done. Just seeing them electrifying themselves, the audience—creating this opening into the other world so the Devil’s Blood can step right through it. And Watain can step right through that opening… Three bands working up such a malicious maelstrom Behemoth can ride that energy towards their own ritual as well.” ¶ I think about this exchange quite a bit. And not simply because I wish Lemouchi had chosen to, say, write a book rather than commit suicide back in 2014. To me, this idea of reverberating, ever-more esoteric and transcendent portals serving as an explosive to obliterate

ILLUSTRATION BY MARK RUDOLPH [MARKRUDOLPH.COM]

DECIBEL : AUGUST 2020 : 55

the next seemingly impenetrable creative wall is an intriguing one: a heavy metal chaos theory that feels extremely apropos when spinning Mortal, the preposterously fantastic trans-dimensional sophomore offering from Oakland death metal power trio Necrot. Now, it seemed more likely than not that the follow-up to the band’s head-turning 2017 debut Blood Offerings would not disappoint. Merely meet that previously established, refined-yet-stillferal high-water mark and watch the gates of those Top 10 slots fly open. Necrot had something much more adventurous and significant than stasis on their minds over the last three years, however. As Mortal makes exceedingly clear, Blood Offerings was not a blueprint, but a blasting cap; the “malicious maelstrom” it released was not a squall, but a paradigm-scrambling superstorm. Blood Offerings was Necrot “creating this opening into the other world” and then walking their own damn selves through it. All of which is to say, next-level Necrot is exhilarating as a motherfucker. The palette is wider and its nuances more deftly deployed. The flow is improbably natural considering the jams are serpentine and tricky enough to reveal new dimensions with each return. In short, this is the sound of a band chasing enduring greatness rather than the ephemeral bounties of the traditional album cycle. Death metal has had a killer decade, with both young guns and legacy bands turning out oodles of top-shelf blast ‘n’ grind. It’s no small feat to ascend that heap. Yet, Mortal is a king-ofthe-mountain record. The band that dreams of dethroning had better be prepared to tear a new opening in the world Necrot just created. —SHAWN MACOMBER

AHAB

Live Prey N A PA L M

Insert relevant Moby Dick quote here

We all know the literary Ahab’s white whale. Turns out that Ahab (the band)’s white whale is… themselves? At the very least, it’s their 2006 debut album, The Call of the Wretched Sea. The German “nautical funeral doom” act spent a lot of time road-testing those songs after their initial release and felt that the studio recordings no longer represented the true potential of the tunes. Thus, Live Prey. A live document consisting of five songs from one album—not even the full track list of the original record—might seem unnecessary. After all, it’s not like the originals don’t hold up or anything: The Call of the Wretched Sea is still considered a minor classic in the 56 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

genre, and you certainly wouldn’t do a live rerecording if the production was the problem. So, why bother? This performance from Death Row Fest 2017 in Jena, Germany captures Ahab a decade into their career. Their playing is tighter and their sound more confident. Most importantly, both the refined compositions and raw live recording give these songs a more organic feel. The added layer of fuzz takes their dirges from stately to dirty, and reveals thrilling moments that weren’t there before. It’s a much more appropriate vibe for hunting a fish. The wavebreaching a couple minutes into “Old Thunder” alone makes this worthwhile. Yeah, Ahab will always be “that doom band that did the Moby Dick concept album thing that wasn’t Mastodon.” Live Prey makes a strong case for why they’re their own Leviathan. —JEFF TREPPEL

AN AUTUMN FOR 6 CRIPPLED CHILDREN All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet PROSTHETIC

Fell on blackagze

The “blackgaze” craze was bound to break through to the other side of the barrier and become a mirror of itself. Whereas most bands of this ilk take shoegaze, post-rock and post-punk influences, then append them to a highly atmospheric brand of black metal, bands like An Autumn for Crippled Children (say that five times fast) do the opposite, taking the aforementioned genres and adding black metal as a textural framework upon which they build atmosphere. As such, All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet isn’t really a metal record. Sure, there’s distortion and harsh vocals, but that could describe a few Birthday Party songs… which is fine, except there’s this greater delusion that what these bands create is a form of black metal. Is this a decent post-punk album? Sure, but there’s a deeper rabbit hole down which most listeners can fall if they just accept that there’s more to An Autumn for Crippled Children than the “black metal” tag. On the music itself: All Fell Silent, Everything Went Quiet possesses a familiar, shimmering, John Hughes-ian ’80s nostalgia, rife with dancing beats, guitars and keyboards that glimmer, and screeching, inhuman vocals. There was a point where An Autumn for Crippled Children were remotely black metal, but on this record the Dutch band has gone beyond the pale, reversing themselves from post-punk inflected black metal to something much more complex, given their surroundings. But in reality, we’ve heard it all

before. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this album, but… there’s more to music than sounding like your influences. —JON ROSENTHAL

ATAVIST

III: Absolution CANDLELIGHT

Mors mihi lucrum

The hiss of death. The slowmotion high-fall onto a bed of rocks. The realization that shit just got real and there’s only moments of life left, accomplishments and regrets all-too-fleeting as the wind rushes by. U.K. veterans Atavist—featuring members of black metal supremos Winterfylleth—convey all that and more on their third full-length, III: Absolution. While comparisons like Khanate and My Dying Bride have been touted by less experienced pundits, Atavist are more akin to Saturnus if they’d discovered the vaults to Bethlehem’s blackened, leaden madness. Indeed, betwixt prolonged, kingly dirges of gray and grayer, the Mancunians deploy sparsely populated, melancholic think-pieces (with cello/violin) that feel as real as the solitude of one’s last moments. Or, maybe this is what Anathema would’ve sounded like had they gone down the Megiddo path for serious. III: Absolution, in its careful devilish detail and crushing breath, is perhaps a long-lost cousin to The Silent Enigma—the antisocial one from Winwick, not High Wycombe. What makes the four songs on III: Absolution so harrowing, however, aren’t the down-tuned strums of bassist Shane Ryan’s hell-rig or the river-rush of Chris Naughton’s silvery pickings, but the unearthly maw of frontman Toby Bradshaw. There are few out there with scarier projections of life ending. Across 14 minutes of “Struggle,” we can peer into his inky soul and listen to the howls of desolation and contrition. And then another 17 minutes on “Absolution”— with Naughton, Ryan and drummer Callum Cox serving as Bradshaw’s pallbearers. Clearly, Atavist have a vision after a decade on ice, and it’s either the most enthralling thing since Dolorian’s Voidwards or something to spoil the mood after a full unwelcome helping of Evinta. —CHRIS DICK

BELL WITCH & AERIAL RUIN

Stygian Bough Volume 1 P R O FO U N D LO R E

Bough movements

Stygian Bough: Volume 1 is like the sonic parallel of watching a candle slowly burn itself down

to its smoldering nub. It can be a thoroughly introspective practice, inviting a kind of fullbody immersion in the flame’s inevitable, stoic guttering. Or it can be, you know, just sitting around watching a candle burn itself out while trying to coax some circulation back into your feet. The timbre of your own headspace is everything in terms of the value you’ll unearth from this experience. This record will not meet you halfway. That the album is a fully collaborative effort between Bell Witch and Aerial Ruin shouldn’t come as any surprise considering the two outfits’ enduring camaraderie; nevertheless, the breathing holes this partnership punches into Bell Witch’s stuffy chassis is greatly appreciated. Yes, each composition continues to emerge from simple, subtly evolving phrases that can make the listener feel like they’re on the wrong end of a staring contest, but the added delicacy of Erik Moggridge’s (Aerial Ruin) melodic vocals and weeping-willow leads provides much-needed peripheral detail to Bell Witch’s stubbornly fixed gaze. The timid soulfulness in the opening refrain of “Heaven Torn Low l” alludes to harmonic possibilities that

were sadly left unexplored, but the players are careful to offer just enough color within the margins of a narrow framework to ensure that, while Stygian Bough remains conservative, it is unquestionably meaningful. That said, this record must be endured as a piece to be properly experienced; prying it apart by individual tracks simply won’t do. So, light that candle, grab your compression socks and strap on that colostomy bag. And if that last element gives you any pause, don’t fret; where you’re going, you’ll be grateful for the warmth. —FORREST PITTS

BLEED FROM WITHIN

Fracture

CENTURY MEDIA

Great Scott! Eighty-eight breakdowns per hour?

Where’s a metalcore bumper sticker-festooned DeLorean when a band of Scottish shredders really needs it? I only inquire because, while you’ve got to respect the hell out of the technicality, manic energy and conviction Bleed From

Within bring on their essentially flawless fifth full-length, the songs would likely have considerably more impact if the quintet could pull a Marty McFly, go back 20 years, and drop it on some unsuspecting heads at an Enchantment Under the Sea dance in a Boston suburb. (Or, you know, the ghost of the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival.) Alas, here in 2020, the Unearth/All That Remains/Lamb of God influences that make up the bulk of Fracture feel only marginally closer to our present circumstance than “Johnny B. Goode.” Of course, the elementals of that aforementioned cohort might unavoidably be a part of the DNA of a band formed in 2005—you know, jaunty, twisty verse riffs that split the difference between At the Gates and Pantera shellacked with a radio alt-metal sheen; Hatebreedmeets-bedroom djent breakdowns; bad cop/ good cop vocals. But, a) context is context, and whatever their pedigree, Bleed From Within are sloshing out into a very saturated field, and b) there are extremely compelling moments on Fracture (album standout “Pathfinder,” the title track, “Ascend”) in which the band situates its core attack in a multi-layered, industrial-

DECIBEL : AUGUST 2020 : 57

adjacent sound that bounces somewhere between early Stabbing Westward and Fear Factory. Bleed From Within should follow their own damn muse. Still, it’s worth remembering the words of the sage Huey Lewis: “Don’t bet your future on one roll of the dice. Better remember, lightning never strikes twice.” —SHAWN MACOMBER

C TRIP A

Ozzy Nights T R A N S L AT I O N L O S S

Hip-hop adventurers target Philadelphia PD

We have no way of knowing at any given time what sorts of projects Christian McKenna (Hex Inverter, the Brazilian Gentlemen, New Age Grate, etc.) is planning. It’s hard enough to keep track of what the Philadelphian composer/producer/multiinstrumentalist already has in the can—i.e., the yet-to-be released End Christian album with Kevin Hufnagel guesting on baritone ukulele that he mentioned to Decibel a couple years ago. The guitarist doesn’t appear on McKenna’s first full-length collaborative effort with hip-hop artist Anthony Adams, but bandmate Colin Marston (Krallice, Gorguts) is all over the album (recorded in part at Marston’s Thousand Caves facility), working alongside McKenna in pretty much every aspect of the production and engineering process. Marston’s presence is really the only thing about Ozzy Nights that has anything to do with metal; its musical content across the board is experimental hip-hop with the kind of churning alien vibe that gave the first-wave industrial likes of Nocturnal Emissions and Hunting Lodge a lot of their allure early on before getting weaponized with disastrous success by the Bomb Squad circa Yo! Bum Rush the Show. Given Philly’s history, Adams’ emphasis on cops and their fucked-up ways is both understandable and admirable, as is the anger-charged fake deadpan delivery he favors. As for Marston and McKenna, they work together beautifully; the former’s tendency to always seek the optimal outcome buttresses McKenna’s sense of adventure, giving Ozzy Nights a very physical presence it might not otherwise enjoy. —ROD SMITH

FELLWARDEN Wreathed in Mourncloud EISENWALD

A dense fog

Drifting, ever drifting. Rolling over the moors and hillsides, 58 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

Fellwarden’s second album isn’t so much music as it is a dense fog. Atmosphere is key with this kind of folky, droning black metal— harmony takes precedence over melody, and the “big picture” is more important than the little nuances that comprise each song. Spearheaded by Fen’s Frank “The Watcher” Allain, Fellwarden take the post-rock influence that guides his main band and make it more nebulous and obscured, masking it with a folkinspired, romantic inflection. The big issue with music like this is it revels in its own atmosphere so much that it becomes lost. There’s no “big riff” to ground it; rather, the music floats and swirls until the song comes to a close. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the music of deep attention, but for a casual listen, it quickly becomes lost in itself. I’ve made this point before, but black metal is the music of atmosphere. That is to say, atmosphere is inherent and a result, rather than a focal point. Unfortunately, Fellwarden use this cloudy, indistinct approach as an element in their music rather than a goal, and the result is—as stated before—a dense fog more suited for ambient and drone music (something that is expertly executed in interlude “A Premonition”), but maybe not something that requires more active listening. Is Wreathed in Mourncloud a bad album? Not in the slightest—I actually enjoyed listening to this, but not in the way I would generally enjoy listening to a black metal album. If you have a lot of patience, this record reveals itself in many ways, but if you’re looking for a more casual listen, Fellwarden are not for you. —JON ROSENTHAL

HEAD OF THE DEMON

Deadly Black Doom INVICTUS

Familiar voices beckon

Any established fan of Head of the Demon knows that these Swedes move at their own pace, whether it’s on record or releasing a record. After eight years, they continue to stalk both deliberately and very likely with some sort of esoteric significance, considering the head of Head of the Demon is Tehôm from Mortuus on guitar and vocals. But a super serious affair of overwrought Satanic sermons and drab dirges Deadly Black Doom is not. How could it be with a track like the blatantly “Twist of Cain”-inspired “En to Pan”? Instead, Deadly Black Doom, the Swedes’ third album since forming in 2012, sounds like an homage to someone’s earliest metal loves. Several of the songs hit with an initial deja entendu,

especially that aforementioned Danzinger. The most basic influences inspired this funereal swinger, but the genius lies in just how HOTD alchemize those old habits into something somehow both timeless and original. The hypnosis works: The whole record has a dreamy, pulled-from-the-back-of-your-mind aura. But despite its title, Deadly Black Doom never gets too intense, never exceeds or even abandons its long-striding, smooth approach. It’s like a Reverend Bizarre record, except Swedish, and so catchy above all else. Each of these six lengthy tracks begins simply, like a lullaby, then unfolds slowly into a full-blown reckoning. Deadly Black Doom makes for a compelling listen and many rewarding relistens, although it’s probably terrible for your immortal soul. —DUTCH PEARCE

ILLUMISHADE

ECLYPTIC: Wake of Shadows

SELF-RELEASED

Fetch the prom dress

Before you run away screaming, dear Decibel reader, I have to preface this review by stating that at the very least, Illumishade deserve credit for creating a fan experience involving social media interaction, fantasy storytelling and a very heady concept album. Led by Eluveitie members Fabienne Erni and Jonas Wolf, this new project’s multimedia vision fits perfectly with the symphonic metal crowd, which thrives on escapism, gigantic Celine Dion-style ballads, the odd heavy riff, memorable vocal hooks and enough synthesizers to give Mario Mathy a raging erection. True to form, all the right buttons are pushed on ECLYPTIC. Erni leads the way with her exceptional singing, capable of power and gravitas, but at the same time never going too far in either direction. For all the ambition on display—I won’t even get into the convoluted, extraordinarily detailed and semi-confusing storyline—it’s a shame the actual music doesn’t measure up to everything else. Granted, it’s better than the perpetually awful Jinjer, but it doesn’t come close to equaling the grace and charisma of Delain, nor the complete and utter looniness of Nightwish. It just exists, marred by too many instrumental interludes and a lack of dynamics. While there are moments of promise—“Tales of Time” and “World’s End” show how great this band can be—one can’t help but wish they worked as hard on the songwriting as they did the storytelling and social media strategy. Maybe next time. —ADRIEN BEGRAND

INEXORUM

Moonlit Navigation GILEAD MEDIA

The Minnesotan isthmus

Minnesota’s unofficial nickname is the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes (eat your heart out, Finland). Since the moniker doesn’t come from any official office, it can’t be amended by a government official. But if it could, I’d encourage some civic-minded dB reader to try and get it changed to the Land of Ten Thousand Leads. The state’s esteemed black metal exports (particularly Obsequiae and Panopticon) share, among other things, a penchant for memorable leads, and they aren’t alone. On sophomore album Moonlit Navigation, Inexorum go above and beyond the call of duty as far as riffing goes. From opener “Ouroboric State” on, Inexorum triplet-gallop and trempick through eight slices of melodic black metal proudly in the tradition of Unanimated and Sacramentum. Not content to simply fetishize a sound a quarter-century old, the duo’s compositions lean toward the triumphant rather than the melancholic. At their best, Inorexum’s songs juxtapose furious riffs with piercing leads and harmonies that glide across the other sounds like ripples on a still pool of water, as on standout “Signal Fires.” The band shares the crispness of their sound with Obsequiae, which comes as no surprise since members Carl Skildum and Matthew Kirkwold play live in that project. In this case, that clarity comes as a bit of a double-edged sword—the record may fatigue some ears around the third play. Still, better to have the blade be too sharp than too dull, and there’s nothing dull about Moonlight Navigation at all. —JOSEPH SCHAFER

JUDICATOR

Let There Be Nothing PROSTHETIC

You’ll get Nothing and like it

What a Riot. Judicator have found Sanctuary in a new preposterous heavy metal concept album based on an ancient Warlord, who, while grasping his Medieval Steel, saw his Crimson Glory on the bloodied battle fields, seeing off his Attacker no matter the Fates Warning or Omen, and taking a Sacred Oath to quash any Vicious Rumors of his Nasty, Savage mistress. A tale of a true Man O’ War crafted through eight epic Throes of Sanity. If you hadn’t deduced it thus far, Judicator, newly signed to Prosthetic, are an absolute USPM romp, having flown criminally under the radar for four albums in twice as many years. You love

Virgin Steele, right? Well, kick yourself for not picking up on Judicator yet. Forgoing the usual daft battle metal nomenclature, these lads are nerds for history. We’re talking Sabaton levels here, but with slightly less posturing. While the Ostrogoths have normally been left as lyrical fodder for the black metal legions (and classy vintage Belgians), Let There Be Nothing takes a detailed walk through the triumphs and occasional tantrums of some gnarly old general called Belisarius. If painstaking detail about sieges, conquests and cheating wives is your jam, it’s all here. But if you’re into dueling guitars, galloping basslines, soaring vocal harmonies, Euro-metal shredding and ridiculous synths—alongside mind-blowing guest axe from wunderkind Christian Münzner (Necrophagist, Obscura)—then strap in for a wild ride. The band is rumored to have met in queue for a Blind Guardian concert, and sometimes the little facts like that are all you need to know you’re gonna have a good time. —LOUISE BROWN

LANTERN

Dimensions DARK DESCENT

Light this city

Forget electromagnetic radio waves or whatever else SETI is up to behind closed doors—if you want to make contact with E.T. and his wrinkly cronies, you gotta blast some familiar tunes in their celestial direction and wait for the nostalgia buzz to override their better judgment. Based on years of exhaustive research (i.e., dozens of cosmic death metal albums and biannual viewings of Event Horizon), I’d like to nominate Lantern to helm this project. There may be other worthy candidates, but none will ever reach the utterly bizarre heights of “Monolithic Abyssal Dimensions,” the 14-minute juggernaut that closes Dimensions and features an instrumental section that sounds like aliens trying to recreate “God of Emptiness” on their glib-glob machines. Sorry, I don’t make the rules. Indeed, the Finns have been living that weirdo death metal life since 2008’s Virgin Taste of Damnation demo, but from the moment opener “Strange Nebula” blasts off with its deft blend of atonality and rhythmic intuitiveness, it’s clear that Lantern’s third LP is an entirely different beast. Credit a deeply focused hivemind—after spending nearly a decade as a duo, founders Cruciatus (guitar/bass) and Necrophilos (vocals) brought in guitarist St. Belial and drummer J. Poussu to round out their malodorous sound on 2017’s II: Morphosis, and that collective is now operating at peak creative capacity. DECIBEL : AUGUST 2020 : 59

Sure, mind-bogglers like “Beings” and “Shrine of Revelation” owe a few thank-you cards to the granddaddies of twisted riffery, Morbid Angel, but the singular nature of Lantern’s music ultimately leaves Dimensions orbiting a pestilent star of its very own. —MATT SOLIS

MAGICK TOUCH

Heads Have Got to Rock‘n’Roll EDGED CIRCLE

Don’t touch me there

It’s been pointed out to me on more than one occasion that the music that I knew as heavy metal back in the days of yore was actually just “hard rock.” Because, you know, heavy metal as we know it today didn’t really start until the genre fully shed its melody, bad spandex and goofy haircuts. So, the early ’80s remains a tough era to navigate if you’re hung up on these things. Personally, I listened to as much Metallica as Mötley Crüe back then, and even though I had a pretty good grasp that they were musically and visually on different paths, they both scratched the same itch—just in different ways. Norway’s Magick Touch play “hard rock,” if extremely extreme is your thing, but their third album, Heads Have Got to Rock‘n’Roll, sure sounds a lot like all the best parts of American metal circa the mid-’80s. It’s mostly a mid-tempo affair, with the occasional burst of adrenaline, and every tune is properly armed with an anthemic chorus… some of which work better than others. When they load up on the vocal harmony tracks and soar off into hair metal territory, things get a little dicey. The problem is that the catchy choruses don’t always fit with the meaty riffs that preceded them. Songs like opener “(This Isn’t) Your First Rodeo” kick off in a blaze of glory, move to a decent pre-chorus and somehow wind up in Bon Jovi territory. Not every tune succumbs to this unfortunate formula (sometimes the cheese pops up before the badass riffs), but it’s an ever-present danger lurking throughout the 10 tracks. That said, if you just wanna squeeze into your old striped spandex pants and bang your head like it’s 1985, this’ll do just fine. —ADEM TEPEDELEN

MANTAR

Grungetown Hooligans II B R U TA L PA N D A

Grunge for rent, sludge for sale

You’re probably wondering how this compares to the first Grungetown Hooligans compilation. Alas, 60 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

like Leonard Part 6, this is a sequel to something that doesn’t exist. To add to the confusion, the best cover on here isn’t even a grunge song; but, overall, the selection on this eight-song collection of tweaked, fuzzed-out anthems from the ’90s is on point. Grungetown Hooligans II is all about paying homage to Mantar’s influences outside of their own genre, à la Slayer’s Undisputed Attitude, with the same highs and lows. Although Hanno Klänhardt’s raspy vocals are no match for Kat Bjelland’s even more distinctive rasp on the cover of Babes in Toyland’s “Bruise Violet,” the rest of the riot grrrl selections are bangers. Mantar leaves almost half of 7 Year Bitch’s “Knot” on the cutting room floor, transforming it into a tight and effective closer, and both of the L7 tracks from Hungry for Stink work well in this context. Admittedly, the gender politics of two dudes playing “Can I Run”— which is about escaping domestic abuse—is a door I don’t really want to open here, so let’s just say that Mantar came to pair radical riffs with radical empathy. Covers of the Jesus Lizard’s “Puss” (from Liar) and Sonic Youth’s “100%” (from Dirty) show the limitations of the German duo’s guitar-drums format. Both of those are weird choices given how important the bass sound is to those bands; Mantar just can’t capture that level of rhythmic complexity. They play it straight with Mazzy Star’s riff-oriented “Ghost Highway,” and it’s surprising how well “metal” vocals pair with the track. Y’all came hungry for stink, but will need to be satisfied with sausage. —NICK GREEN

MANY BLESSINGS

Emanation Body T R A N S L AT I O N L O S S

Max protection

With Many Blessings, Primitive Man’s Ethan McCarthy inverts his brawling upheavals and channels his never-ending anger into formagnostic noise. Emanation Body is built less on outright harsh noise and more on unsettling drones, rippling bursts and psycho-delic swaths that linger and linger, release never guaranteed. “Invocation” has a malevolent tropic vibe not unlike Dom Fernow’s Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement, hitting like supple drops that look refreshing, yet are difficult to swallow. The menace is enveloping and ever-present, hanging more like rotted sky and less like McCarthy sacrificing his throat to collective rage at a Primitive Man show. Ambient music to submit you to sleep at 4:44 a.m. because [insert past regret here] this isn’t… maybe. Even when Emanation grows louder, McCarthy understands the value of pulling back,

something he isn’t exactly known for (and that’s not a diss!). “Ruina” is the only track that approaches anything like power electronics, and it’s just a bit too subdued to qualify. Instead, it stews disorientation, slowly ramping up the heat exhaustion. Layers almost feel like mirages, a subtle sense of the time-fuckery we’ve become accustomed to. Centerpiece “Pandæmonium” is an agonizing exercise in waiting for the inevitable, horror growing closer; and when it hits, those last four minutes feel all too fleeting. Do you fulfill your masochistic urges with noise? Then it’s all part of the pleasure. Pain is always real—lengths of time seemingly less so. McCarthy knows the score. —ANDY O’CONNOR

MORA PROKAZA

By Chance

SEASON OF MIST

Under a funeral loon

Black metal’s outgrowth from the avant-garde keeps the genre mutating into alternately wondrous and bizarre substrata. Now, Mora Prokaza (from the Belarus capital of Minsk) introduces newschool trappings on third full-length By Chance. Literally. As The Nutcracker meets The Wall to begin opener “WIMG,” a sprinkle of hi-hat precedes the BM assault from duo constant Andrei Shepelevich (Farmakon), whose Slavic woof gives way to a woozy interlude of … blackened trap? Dødheimsgard does Atlanta? We’re not 30 seconds in. “I’m Not Yours” also powers up distinctly. Behind the rootsy ambiance of harmonica, darkwave rockabilly and piano, it ramps up a gutturally percussive chant—“ He Tboë, He Tboë, He Tboë,” which sounds like “yassit taboy, yassit taboy, yassit taboy”—that lodges in the ear like waxy buildup. “Check It” journeys through its own cracked looking glass when the main riff entwines... bassoon and glockenspiel? Hans Christian Andersen gets Grimm. That pattern of bass, drums and BM falling away to spotlight folkloric pointillism becomes the album’s mnemonic device. Like pagan metal, such a juxtaposition still proves unspeakable to some, but the beats and clangs and tings—not to mention expert piano inlay—lend it all texture and spine (“I See It This Way”). Black metal’s theater of the extreme emerged from a heretic base whose roots-driven instrumentation dovetails naturally into musical dramaturgy. After the death-blackened traditionalism of 2016 precursor Dark Universe and the raw basics of Bringer of Plague a year earlier, Mora Prokaza refresh the browser in a manner that their evolution across recent singles didn’t altogether presage. In a reset year, By Chance spooks up a fractured fairy tale. —RAOUL HERNANDEZ

MOUNTAINEER

Bloodletting LIFEFORCE

I got a lot to think about, oh yeah

Mountaineer, featuring exSecrets of the Sky members, have brought in two guitarists from Oakland doomsters Daxma for their third LP, Bloodletting. However, this increase in songwriters has had a mixed effect on their post-metal: While tonally heavier, there’s a lack of stylistic cohesion throughout, which hampers the flow of the album overall. The conceptual ties of 2018’s Passages created an arc to work within, but Bloodletting—while admirable in its attempts to stretch Mountaineer’s sonic parameters further into the slowcore and shoegaze realms—strays off the path of coherent flow too many times. Opener “Blood of the Book” is probably the most musical track from this band to date, mind you; its synthy vocal chorus and the gentle reverie of the post-rock refrains set up a Cult of Luna-esque crush that flows through numerous motifs (some more effective than others). In contrast, more direct highlight “The Weeds I Have Tended” recalls Failure or the Smashing Pumpkins at their overdriven best. “South to Infinity,” with its doomy alt-rock riffs, is the only other song that captures similar intensity, yet a melodic segue of Jesu-drift needlessly curtails it. The album has too many moments where the band pairs disparate passages that grate rather than elevate. Additionally, at times, the choice of vocal lines—from lionlike roars to borderline emo cleans and the odd gothic tenor—can be illfitting, adding to the incoherence, with Mountaineer proving too domineering for indie fans and too wet for metalheads. —DEAN BROWN

PALE DIVINE

Consequence of Time CRUZ DEL SUR

Rock of ages

Maybe it’s because my quarantine-addled brain has morphed into a dowsing rod for human interaction, but there aren’t many albums I’d want to throw on at this particular moment more than Consequence of Time. With its warm, no-frills production and boisterous energy, Pale Divine’s sixth LP sounds like it’s standing right next to you in a packed dive bar, sans N95 mask and ready to headbang the night away. Hell, it could spill beer all over my shoes and I’d still be down for a high-five. Of course, a paradigm-shifting global pandemic shouldn’t be the only reason you find

comfort in this record. After all, Pale Divine have been dropping trad-doom gems for more than two decades now, and with the recent addition of guitarist/vocalist Dana Ortt, the Pennsylvania quartet has managed to refine a distinctive sound into eight powerhouse songs that drip with late’70s swagger and timeless heavy metal bravado. Opener “Tyrants & Pawns” does a serviceable job of setting the stage with its tandem riffs and mid-paced drive, but Consequence of Time really gets going with “Satan in Starlight,” which features a great vocal performance and absolutely ripping guitar work from Ortt and fellow shredder Greg Diener. Unsurprisingly, that’s exactly where the album finds most of its success—whether they’re redlining the engine (“No Escape,” “Shadow’s Own”) or sinking into the grimy depths (“Phantasmagoria,” the title track), Pale Divine are always armed to the teeth with a seemingly endless supply of six-stringed nastiness. Thanks for the company, boys! —MATT SOLIS

REBEL WIZARD

Magical Mystickal Indifference PROSTHETIC

Because the Magical Mystery Tour is postponed

Contrary to Magical Mystickal Indifference’s title, you’ll very much have an opinion on it. It’s hard to classify Bob Nekrasov’s “heavy negative wizard metal”—so many different elements go into Rebel Wizard that a “RIYL” field for the oneman band consists of a question mark. It’s kind of like if Angel Witch got in a drunken fistfight with Dødheimsgard outside of a Haiyano Daisuki show, but that doesn’t begin to capture this infectious brew. After two previous full-lengths and about a million EPs, Nekrasov refined his alchemical formula into one seriously volatile mix. Nekrasov’s secret ingredient? Krautrock. Not just the driving motorik beat that propels each song headlong into the abyss—although that’s pretty great. It’s a philosophy thing. Nekrasov’s “anything goes” approach keeps what could otherwise be a headlong dash exciting. Whether it’s the fusion-y solo in “Dance of the Duchess in the Pale Pink Light” or the noise/grind assault of “Urination of Vapidity on Consciousness,” Nekrasov constantly fires curveballs from his, uh, wizard staff. Even with all the bells and whistles, Rebel Wizard’s third album works because it’s satisfying on a purely visceral level. At some point, Nekrasov may need to mix up his spell book to keep it from getting stale. Or not—bands like Motörhead and Amon Amarth satisfy with a long-term consistent approach. Magical Mystickal Indifference retains everything that made his DECIBEL : AUGUST 2020 : 61

previous work so thrilling while experimenting with the mixture. As the opening track states: heavy negative wizard metal in-fucking-excelsis. —JEFF TREPPEL

SKELETON

Skeleton

20 BUCK SPIN

Big ol’ pile of them bones

Revolution never ceased in Texas, and now the siege returns. Reissued last year by 20 Buck Spin, Iron Age’s 2009 sophomore blindside The Sleeping Eye forged a crossover template that Power Trip currently run with like Herschel Walker. Alongside their Lone Star predecessors, blackened Austin trio Skeleton have been stacking a tidy heap of hardcore under their metallic pivot since 2014. This full-length debut summarily advances the gathering movement’s mob mentality. Eleven songs in 28 minutes, Skeleton slams a thick muscular Integrity. Once the percussive slapdown thrash of “Mark of Death” gallops into the pit, Victor and David Ziolkowski are off to the races (with bassist Cody Combs). Grunge prodigies in ATX skate natives Residual Kid, the two brothers find a whole other stride in their quick convert side hustle. “Toad” neither croaks Cream, nor does “Ring of Fire” spark Johnny and June, which is to say a group’s canon doesn’t simply write itself on one ripping platter. Yet, the NWOBM tempo variation on the latter—its lurch and march and lean— promulgates a gravitas far beyond 2:46. “At War” compresses a similar power keg. “Taste of Blood” tosses off another corker ready-made for a future Power Trip split, but again, when the beat stems that adrenal gush, Skeleton backbones a steel rod anatomy class specimen. As the penultimate exhibit, torque up “Turned to Stone,” which in 2:11 manages what it took most U.K. acts of a certain era seven minutes to accomplish. Last and longest track “Catacombs” best utilizes the blackening effects on bandleader/drummer Victor’s voice for a galvanizing BM/DM thrust from the grave. —RAOUL HERNANDEZ

VAMPIRE

Rex

CENTURY MEDIA

Sworn to the children of the night

The signs were there for anyone paying close enough attention to Vampire’s 2017 LP, With Primeval Force. “Metamorphosis” kicked off with a riff lifted straight from the hand of Jake E. Lee, circa Bark at the Moon; 62 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL

Iron Maiden-esque fervor lurked throughout “Midnight Trail”; and, at various times, the Shermann-Denner twin-guitar attack was summoned—the Gothenburg band brazenly ignoring King Diamond’s warning of “Don’t touch, never ever steal.” Such subsumption of trad-metal’s classicism into death or black metal was not uncommon during the last decade—In Solitude, Tribulation and Chapel of Disease all received (deserved) critical acclaim for doing so. And while With Primeval Force was a spirited affair, and an improvement on 2014’s generic Swedish DMdriven eponymous debut, the greater reliance on heavy metal’s most gilded signature sounds on Rex has elevated Vampire to a higher plane altogether. The tight, energetic, virtuosic guitar interplay feels like Sepulchral Condor and axe-partner Black String have been possessed by the anticosmic energies of Dissection’s Jon Nödtveidt, such is the refined arrangement of fire-on-ice riffs, effervescent harmonized leads and razored solos here. Backed by the propulsive rhythmic thrusts of bassist Command and drummer Abysmal Condor, both guitarists let fly on every one of these equally infectious and impactful tracks, led by the commanding croak of vocalist Hand of Doom—who emphatically ramps up the quota of chantable, fist-bangin’ refrains. Even at a malevolently stomping pace, as heard on “Anima,” these winged metallers lose none of their newfound magic. Rex is their Lawless Darkness moment. —DEAN BROWN

VILE CREATURE

Glory Glory! Apathy Took Helm! PROSTHETIC

Who cares if I don’t write a deck for this one?

An Ontario-based drums-and-guitar duo, Vile Creature list a small army of household pets as honorary band members. They also know how to write an 11-minute sludge song and keep it interesting. The first two cuts on their fourth release each deliver over 10 minutes of bulldozer riffs replete with blood-curdling screams, courtesy of drummer/vocalist Vic for the most part. Guitarist KW’s contributions pack a warm, well-rounded “Dragonaut”-ish bottom end—the type that might make Matt Pike proud. Happily, the gloomy compositions come nicely balanced, with each element audible and given its own moment to shine. OK, so they like cats and scratch the Dopesmoker itch. It takes more than that to stand out these days, which is where the last two songs come in. The bifurcated title track to Glory Glory! Apathy Took Helm! takes a radical, delightful left turn.

Austere choirs by Miniscule and organs courtesy of Bismuth’s Tanya Byrne take Vile Creature to church for the first part. When the riffs and drums kick return for the finale, the collaboration enters full-on Celtic Frost mode, with all the melodrama and grandeur that entails. From a band that recorded their proudly rough-and-raw first record in an ad hoc studio in the basement of an abandoned school, this lush and theatrical conclusion comes as a welcome surprise, and a promise of greater things to come. Here’s hoping Vile Creature figure out a way to pull it off live. —JOSEPH SCHAFER

VOIDCEREMONY

Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional Unravel 20 BUCK SPIN

A new level...

Their name may look unfamiliar to many readers, but some of us have anticipated the arrival of the debut full-length from Voidceremony since the California prog-death four-piece released their Dystheism demo in 2014. Forming from the ashes of their high school band the year before, Voidceremony have put out EPs only up until now. Three of them, in fact, and to witness the band’s growth from one to the next was truly a thing to behold—although nothing compares to the growth spurt they had before recording the album in question. But as the death metal trendscape shifted from death-doom to death-thrash and now to something like brutal death metal, Voidceremony remained dedicated to honing their notquite-technical-but-definitely-progressive sound into something formidable and memorable. Reunited with West Coast drummernaut Charlie Koryn, Voidceremony absolutely reign over their contemporaries on this debut. However clunky the title may be, Entropic Reflections Continuum occupies a new level of modern death metal power. From the very first part in opener “Desiccated Whispers,” which hits like a lost Death or Atheist moment, to the slow unraveling of the record’s tightly wound aggression that occurs at the end of closer “Solemn Reflections of the Void,” this album reeks of perfection. Okay, occasionally session bassist Damon Good (Mournful Congregation, StarGazer) goes a little overboard with his fretless soloing, but as always with Voidceremony, no one part gets too much spotlight before it’s quickly pulled back down into the ever-shifting tumult. When you hear the guitar solo at the end of the third track, you’ll be a confirmed believer. This isn’t just Voidceremony at the top of their game; this is the pinnacle of death metal in the year 2020. —DUTCH PEARCE

I N W H I C H W E R E V I E W V I N Y L I N A N D O F T H E H E AV I E S T R O TAT I O N S BY SHANE MEHLING

VILE HORRENDOUS AERIAL BOMBARDMENT

WORRY

[ N E R V E A LTA R ]

[SELF-RELEASED]

Sovereignty in Rubble 12-inch

Good god. If you thought Insect Warfare were a little too musical, then you cannot skip out on this thing. It was recorded back in 2012, a project by guys from Knelt Rote and Sissy Spacek, and it’s grind with drums and screaming and noise. I’m not sure how they’re making this noise, but it’s piercing, obliterating noise, and if you have one of those tattoos with the musical note crossed out, you should be shipped this for free by the government. Highly recommended.

Wisdom Through Shame 12-inch If you wanna keep the noisy sludge train going, then Worry absolutely do the job. Another trio, their fulllength is more expansive, and they ride riffs into these swirling hypnotic dirges, which either turn into quiet, fragile passages or massive, sour melodies that come with the force of a mudslide. This is the kind of record that makes you feel exhausted by the end and incredibly satisfied.

BEDTIMEMAGIC

Pillow Talk 12-inch

AT THE HEART OF THE WORLD Reaching Perfection, Tasting Death 12-inch [ G LO R Y K I D ]

This duo switches between being one of those pummeling rhythmic industrial bands and one of those grimy rock/industrial bands. That makes for an arguably more interesting record, but don’t be tricked by the opener and expect to get your ears Streetclean-ed throughout these 11 tracks. Featuring vocals reminiscent of Mike Williams from Eyehategod, the songs are surprisingly compact, with most under three minutes. Industrial bands are not often known for their brevity, and this getting-in-and-getting-out approach is kind of jarring, but it absolutely invites you to dive back in.

ASSUMPTION

The Three Appearances 12-inch [SENTIENT RUIN]

The cover of this record looks like some Dream Theater shit (1994’s Awake, to be precise), which is unfortunate because it’s quality death-doom from Italy. Released originally in 2014, it’s got the tempo of doom, but aside from the occasional flourishes, hits with the gravity of a death metal record. Considering what genre this is, your enjoyment of this record is inversely proportional to how much you like keyboards.

DRAINAGE

“The Younger // Older You” 7-inch [BLACK VOODOO RECORDS AND MIDNITE COLLECTIVE]

This sludgy noise rock three-piece had shown a lot of promise with their last EP, and then got a massive production upgrade for this thing. It’s not nearly as eclectic as their previous release, but they make up for it with sheer oppressive ugliness. Three songs, a Floor cover and 45 seconds of just screaming is what you’re getting, and the only wish is that it was longer. Hoping for a full-length soon, but this a great primer.

[ N E FA R I O U S I N D U S T R I E S ]

Now tilting towards just noise rock, this bassand-drums duo sound like a bunch of trash cans exploding at their most aggressive, and the rest of the time expel manic, crude, AmRep pigfuck jubilation. And they still manage to be incredibly catchy throughout. You know what’s up, so go listen.

DYSYLUMN

Occultation 12-inch [SIGNAL REX]

This French melancholy black metal record from 2018 is now on vinyl, and while it’s pretty dynamic, being so mid-paced and long and repetitive makes active listening more or less impossible. It is good, but it just goes and goes and goes. That’s actually a lot of black metal records, though, and Occultation is far better than many of them. Some great riffs and melodies and interesting structures. You throw this puppy on and tidy up your house or belfry or whatever and you’ll be happy you did.

RODENT EPOCH

Rodentlord 12-inch [CLANDESTINE COVEN]

This record comes from the opposite direction, with tight black ‘n’ roll that is the kind of party-time blasphemy many people would appreciate. Even with a song called “Mayhem in the Courtyard of God,” you know this is all about having a good time. Pretty much anything “‘n’ roll” is not high on my list, but if you think what I actually like is shit, then maybe you’ll love this.

DODENBEZWEERDER

Vrees de toorn van de wezens verscholen achter majestueuze vleugels 12-inch [IRON BONEHEAD]

And one more black metal record, just ’cause look at that fucking album title. I don’t know what any of it means and I refuse to learn, but this is a mostly slow, super lo-fi record that sounds like everything was recorded during an intense windstorm. Or maybe it’s how people with tinnitus hear regular music. Either way, this is something you will either be all about or want nothing to do with.

DECIBEL : AUGUST 2020 : 63

64 : AUGUST 2020 : DECIBEL ANSWERS: 1. The two triangles touching the figure’s upper arms are no longer solid 2. There are two extra points on both hands’ glowing FX 3. The middle and bottom masks have switched places 4. At the middle top, the club shaped flourishes have been replaced with diamonds 5. The circles above the figure’s head have been filled in 6. The gold trim around the hood is missing 7. The upper diamond and zigzag patterns overlap the gold border 8. The deep background pattern has reversed 9. There are more spots coming off the white corona around the figure's head 10. The bottom mask is baring its teeth 11. There’s another set of zigzags on both of the bottom diamond and zigzag rays 12. The diamond at the figure’s feet has a darker center 13. The two trios of diamonds at the bottom have rotated 14. The top mask has a speckled chin, not the bottom one 15. The letters “NYC” have been inscribed on the forehead of the middle mask

There are 15 differences in these pictures. How many can you find?

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