Decibel #202 - August 2021 by Red Flag Media

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AUGUST 2021 // No. 202

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Lightning Strikes COVER STORY

COVER AND CONTENTS PHOTOS BY AMJAD FAUR

upfront

8 metal muthas Filling the void with love

14 hannes grossmann Marching to his own (blast)beat

10 low culture He’ll never order a bagel with cream cheese again

16 midwife Heaven can wait

11 no corporate beer Diversify your palate

18 graveripper Radiating excitement

12 in the studio:

exhumed

20 flotsam & jetsam Never watered down

Friends who slay together stay together

22 i am the night Hi the Night, I’m Dad

features

reviews

24 king woman Baby blues

32 withered Let’s get physics-al

26 drawn and quartered History repeats

34 hammers of

65 lead review Are things looking optimistic for Swedish death metal gods At the Gates’ pessimistic new album The Nightmare of Being?

28 oxygen destroyer Godzilla vs. Death Metal 30 craven idol History re-repeats

misfortune

The bastard son is all grown up 36 q&a: fear factory Guitarist Dino Cazares shares the latest patch notes for Fear Factory 2.0 40 the decibel

hall of fame USBM lightning rod Nachtmystium craft the psychedelic sound that would send them on their long, hard road to hell with Instinct: Decay

66 album reviews Releases from bands that believe black is the new black, including Amenra, Mayhem and Xasthur 80 damage ink October rocks

Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $29.95. Periodical postage, paid at Philadelphia, PA, and other mailing offices. Submission of manuscripts, illustrations and/or photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Postmaster send changes of address for Decibel to Red Flag Media, P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia, PA 19107. © 2021 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All rights reserved. ISSN 1557-2137 | USPS 023142 Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. 2 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

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REFUSE/RESIST

August 2021 [T202] PUBLISHER

the pandemic, I went to the fridge—as I had done each night since the first week of the pandemic—and reached for a beer. I don’t remember what all the options were, but one was a big 13.5% ABV stout called Finally Legal from one of my favorite breweries, Weyerbacher. I’d been saving it for a couple months, waiting the right moment when I could actually enjoy it, and that evening I decided I would drink that fucking beer whenever it was safe to hold live events again. For over a year that solitary bottle sat untouched like a postponed concert ticket in my family’s refrigerator, prompting my wife to ask, “what’s wrong with this beer that you refuse to drink?” This might seem like an oddly specific declaration to any rational person, but back in March 2020, like most of you, I was reeling badly from the pandemic’s now well-documented impact on live music. While all of us at Decibel were extremely fortunate to have been overwhelmed by other mountains of work, the void from the lack of shows was still conspicuous. And it didn’t get any closer to shrinking as I rebooked new lineups and rescheduled dates for Metal & Beer Fest: Philly twice, both of which were scrapped well before they could be announced to the public. In late 2020 when we eventually miraculously secured the September 25-26 dates for Philly, we were—like every other single person booking live events then—basing our decision on an unappetizing cocktail of guesswork, projection and hope. As the early months of 2021 unfolded and vaccinations rose and COVID cases plummeted in the United States, I quietly solidified yet another festival lineup. The dream wasn’t dead. In late May—over 15 months after we slammed the breaks on 2020— Decibel finally announced the full Metal & Beer Fest: Philly lineup. While all of our event announcement days are special occasions for our team, this one was borderline euphoric. And the fact that ticket sales were absolutely bonkers made the bottle of the appropriately named Finally Legal I cracked open that evening that much sweeter. Or maybe it was the cocoa nibs. Either way, get vaccinated and come punish me in three months about the fact that you preferred the unannounced festival lineups. albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief

Alex Mulcahy alex@redflagmedia.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Albert Mudrian

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Vince Bellino Adrien Begrand J. Bennett Dean Brown Louise Brown Chris Chantler Richard Christy Liz Ciavarella-Brenner Chris Dick Sean Frasier Nick Green Raoul Hernandez Jonathan Horsley Courtney Iseman Neill Jameson Sarah Kitteringham Daniel Lake Andrew Lee Shawn Macomber Shane Mehling Duhr T. Norton Andy O'Connor Dutch Pearce Forrest Pitts Greg Pratt Jon Rosenthal Joseph Schafer Rod Smith Matt Solis Kevin Stewart-Panko Eugene S. Robinson Adem Tepedelen Jeff Treppel J Andrew Zalucky Bradley Zorgdrager CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

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To order by phone: 1.215.625.9850 (10 a.m. – 5 p.m. EST) To order by fax: 1.215.625.9967 To order online: www.decibelmagazine.com Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $29.95. Periodical postage, paid at Philadelphia, PA, and other mailing offices. Submission of manuscripts, illustrations and/or photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Postmaster send changes of address for Decibel to Red Flag Media, P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia PA 19107. Copyright ©2021 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. PRINTED IN USA

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One night during the second week of

READER OF THE

MONTH

Austin, TX

Decibel knows plenty of tattoo artists, but no tattoo removal professionals. How did you get into this field?

I had just received my nail technician/artist license in December 2019, but COVID hit and shut down all the salons before I could find a good job. Schools here opened up before salons did, so I looked for options to expand my knowledge in the beauty industry. I wanted to come out of the pandemic with something a little more and not just sit on my ass. Spas offer a wide range of services, so I found an academy to learn laser hair and tattoo removal, along with a few other courses. However, when salons opened back up, the first job I found was at Pigment Dermagraphics and Laser. I’ve been there since October. It felt like fate the way it all fell into place. I absolutely love my job; I make my own schedule and the shop is a positive and supportive atmosphere. I was even encouraged to explore MORE, and as of April, I

6 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

became certified in permanent cosmetic tattoos, lip blush and eyeliner. All while still doing nail services in the evenings from my home studio. I get high from making others feel good about their bodies. What is the worst tattoo you ever removed from a client?

This started a great conversation at work. Mine, in particular, wasn’t a badly done tattoo; it was very much professional heavy black ink (requires multiple sessions), but more just really poor placement. A client wanted to remove his ex-wife’s name, which seems like no big deal, but her name was directly above his “member.” You’re based in Texas, which is a state that “opened up” earlier than most this year. Have you caught any shows yet, or have you been sitting tight?

Small local shows started at outdoor venues started back in November here in Austin; I’ve

Wolves in the Throne Room grace the cover of this issue and Nachtmystium are in the Hall of Fame and on the flexi disc. Where do you stand on the USBM genre?

I love it! I saw WITTR at the first Psycho Las Vegas, and many times since. [Guitarist] Kody [Keyworth] is a good friend, so this is serendipitous. Finding them took me down a road of music discovery I have really come to enjoy. I really get into dark ambient energy. I was able to catch Panopticon at Austin Terror Fest 2019. I’ve seen Deafheaven a few times now as well. Goatwhore is also a staple—I’ve seen them too many times to count. I feel they also fall into that genre. I could go on, but those are a few of my current favs. I’m pretty damn stoked on that flexi!

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

PHOTO BY TYLER LAGALY

Andrea Michelle

caught a few. I just traveled to Arlington to see Frozen Soul play at Division Brewing. They released a great new beer called FrostHammer, with the label art designed by [bassist] Sam [Mobley] herself. The show was nuts—just epic, so many emotions. Honestly at a loss for words to describe what it felt like to be a part of that again. They played one for Riley Gale, too. Can’t wait to see them again, along with Creeping Death and more in July at Wrecking Ball Metal Madness!

NOW SLAYING Wonder what Decibel world HQ has been rocking for the past month? Well, here are the records that we spun most while appreciating 15 consecutive months without a single guest list request.

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

This Month's Mutha: Juanita Pearce Mutha of Jason Pearce of Temple of Void

Tell us a little about yourself.

I am a short, loud Italian woman who loves to cook, go to the casino and swear! I grew up in West Virginia. then moved to Detroit and married my partner in crime. We are going strong at 63 years of marriage! I raised two wonderful sons. I have four grandkids and three great grandkids. I love feeding and taking care of my family. Don’t mess with them or you’re going to have to deal with this feisty Italian! What was Jason like growing up?

Jason was a normal kid growing up—you know, a smart mouth know-it-all! He played soccer and football; he was really no trouble at all! No matter what he was doing or where he was going, he would be listening to music. I would yell at him, “You’re going to go deaf!” When did he first start to exhibit an interest in drums? Were you supportive?

Jason started at a very young age. At 5 or 6, he tapped on everything. He made a drum set out of my pots, pans and the garbage cans! I bought him his first set of drums at the age of 8. We supported him fully! Our neighbor was a drummer and Jason would go to his house and watch him play drums constantly. Mike Alonso [the Christpunchers, Flogging Molly] was a major influence in Jason’s life and drumming career. Jason played in bands starting at the age of 12. They would practice in our basement, and when his father would come home, I would flip the light switch to [signal him to] stop! 8 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

Temple of Void’s last album was their first to make our annual Top 40 list. How does Jason deal with the accolades his band is starting to receive?

Jason is very proud of his success. He is a very humble man. He loves the band and his bandmates, and especially all of the fans! The band has worked very hard to get where they are. I am 82 and I proudly wear a TOV hoodie! Temple have been busy over the last year writing their much-anticipated fourth album. How have you passed the time during the pandemic?

I have been busy playing slots on the iPad, cooking and constantly cleaning; that’s what us Italians do! It’s been very difficult during the pandemic not being able to spend time with family and worrying about Jason working at the hospital. The positive aspect is I created a few new dishes. I’ll have to invite you over for dinner! What’s something most people wouldn’t know about your son?

Jason is a registered nurse. He is a very compassionate and loving son, always there for us, and a great father to his son Anthony. He’s very generous and caring; you can always count on him! Don’t let those scary, mean pics he takes for the band fool you! I am very proud of the man he has become! —ANDREW BONAZELLI

Albert Mudrian : e d i t o r i n c h i e f  Wolves in the Throne Room, Primordial Arcana  Hooded Menace, The Tritonus Bell  Cave In, Until Your Heart Stops  Enforced, Kill Grid  Incantation, Diabolical Conquest ---------------------------------Patty Moran : c u s t o m e r s e r v i c e  Rage Against the Machine, Rage Against the Machine  Helmet, Betty  10,000 Russos, Distress Distress  Ty Segall, Reverse Shark Attack  Night Beats, Hell in Texas ---------------------------------James Lewis : a d s a l e s  Wolves in the Throne Room, Primordial Arcana  Panopticon, …And Again into the Light  Dismember, Like an Ever Flowing Stream  Atheist, Unquestionable Presence  Burst, Lazarus Bird ---------------------------------Mike Wohlberg : a r t d i r e c t o r  Bo Burnham, Inside  Tvær, Uvær  Wolves in the Throne Room, Primordial Arcana  Perturbator, Lustful Sacraments  Ghost Lode, Terrestrial Bodies ---------------------------------Aaron Salsbury : m a r k e t i n g a n d s a l e s  Gravesend, Methods of Human Disposal  Knoll, Interstice  Blood Incantation, Live Vitrification  Various Artists, City Baby Attacked by Bats!  WAKE, Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow

GUEST SLAYER

---------------------------------Knox Colby : e n f o r c e d  Take Offense, Tables Will Turn  Belbury Poly, The Owl’s Map  Depeche Mode, Black Celebration  Rim Kwaku Obeng and KASA, Too Tough/I’m Not Going to Let You Go  Mortician, Chainsaw Dismemberment

PHOTO BY MORGAN PARRISH

Y ISEMAN

TNE BY COUR

Parenthood Is Absurd round 4:30 this morning, my daughter woke me, as is her habit, because it was, of course, an hour before my alarm was set. This morning was special because she somehow undid her diaper while in her PJs and proceeded to fucking soak herself and her surroundings with piss, because babies are fucking disgusting. I moved her to my lap while seated on my side of the bed to take her bedsheets apart and get her cleaned up, to which she responded by pissing on me and soaking my side of the bed. Did I mention it was 4:30 in the fucking morning? She was born on the last day of winter, with the day starting with a small snow shower to mark the occasion, ending in a warm, spring(ish) day. She ended up being a C-section because her head was angled weird. When they yanked her out, they brought her briefly around the sheet to show us. “Here’s your baby!” the nurse said excitedly, but I wasn’t ready for what she had in her hands. My daughter was smushed down, like a Buddha statue—looked like John Goodman (mid-period Roseanne before they bought the diner) covered in cream cheese. Then they had me go stand at the baby trough they dropped her in, facing my girlfriend, so my view was either the staff putting her intestines back in or this wiggling, greasy mess whose eyes were going seven ways at once as she experienced the comedy of existence for the first few minutes. I’ve been in some surreal experiences (mostly drug-related) in my life, but nothing prepared me for seeing the organs of the mother of my child, or my child coated in a waxy sheen, looking as startled as I was. Thanks to the mistake that is social media, I’ve watched several people involved in metal and punk shit out and dress up their children over the years, so I started figuring out how I 10 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

wanted to parent due to whatever I saw that irritated me, sort of like how I started writing. One thing that always irked me was people trying to immediately push their kids into whatever subculture they themselves were a part of. It struck me as immensely narcissistic, which, in fairness, having a child generally is anyway. Would it be cool if my kid was into shitty black metal and overly wordy French literature? Sure. But more often, having your parents obsessively push their identity onto you just breeds resentment (on both sides) and divergence. My father tried to beat football, country music and faith into me. My girlfriend’s mother wanted her to marry a doctor. I rest my fucking case. We’re trying to guide our daughter into learning what she likes and wants to become by showing her a multitude of genres and experiences. Will we play her the metal we’ve grown with? Absolutely. I mean, we all have memories of the music our parents played that resonates within some warm recess in our subconscious. But the idea of trying to drill in some shit like pop music, is fucking cancerous, just asininely stunted. It’s the musical equivalent of D.A.R.E., and we’ve seen how well that worked out. Our children are not us, and it’s unfair for us to believe and act otherwise. For a subculture that’s so judgmental on mainstream/reality show culture (rightfully so), that sort of behavior veers awfully deep into that lane, just with a (subjectively) better soundtrack. Having kids with them inheriting a world that is such a continual shitshow already is selfish (and something for which I already carry guilt), so there’s no reason to try to make it worse for them by making them listen to your band’s shitty demo or, once they’re old enough, sending them a request to like said shitty band’s Facebook page, you absolute cretins.

Better Late Than Never

CRAFT BEER IS DOING ITS DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION WORK

aking up the torch passed by leg-

ends Adem Tepedelen and Chris Dodge—who set, then raised the bar on how to discuss the ways craft beer intersects with metal—is no small challenge. Not least because, where to begin—or pick up? Before diving deep into can art that could just as easily splash the front of a blackened death album, or catching up with brewers who shred, it feels like the right time to check in on beer at a crucial turning point. The infamous quote that beer is “99 perccent asshole-free” (courtesy of Dogfish Head Brewery’s Sam Calagione) has gotten a lot of mileage lately, as many stop and reflect on how true that actually is. Craft beer is built on community as much as it’s built on quality liquid—or it’s supposed to be, anyway. A welcoming atmosphere and breweries’ involvement with charity and social causes are often just as attractive to drinkers as juicy IPAs or crispy pilsners. For far too long, though, despite being an industry with that kind of reputation, craft beer has lagged woefully behind in efforts to improve diversity, equity, inclusion and representation. Less than 1 percent of America’s 8,500 breweries are Black-owned, and frustrating statistics abound for people of color, women and LGBTQ+ people in brewing or management roles. This stems from the fact that craft beer has frequently failed to make many groups feel welcome as consumers in the first place.

To the pint  Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver (center) is helping make the world of craft brewing a more colorful place through the Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling

Now, craft beer is waking from its pastry stout-induced stupor, and the outlook finally seems bright. Across the country, breweries, guilds and individual employees/fans are organizing initiatives to bulldoze barriers of entry that have kept this scene too homogenized too long. Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garrett Oliver launched the Michael James Jackson Foundation for Brewing & Distilling (named for the seminal English beer writer), awarding scholarships to people of color. An offshoot of the New York City Brewers Guild’s DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) efforts led by a team representing DaleView Biscuits & Beer, Randolph Beer, Rockaway Brewing Co. and Fifth Hammer Brewing, the Lovibond Project is establishing a sustainable internship program with a direct path to employment. Bronx Brewery has teamed up with Beer Kulture to create a paid internship; Beer Kulture works tirelessly to improve diversity in beer through internships, scholarships and mentorships. Elsewhere in NYC, Interboro

Spirits & Ales’ digital marketing manager Abby Fried has established Beers With Queers, a meet-up group welcoming LGBTQIA+ to different breweries. Eugenia Brown founded the Road to 100, partnering with the Cicerone Certification Program to help women of color establish careers in beer. Massachusetts Bay Brewing Co. and the Massachusetts Brewers Guild started Hop Forward Equality to provide tangible steps that breweries can make to welcome all groups as patrons and employees. In San Diego, Carmen Favela and Esthela Davila launched the Mujeres Brew Club to help everyone—especially women and Latinx people—learn about brewing. These initiatives, plus many more, join the ongoing work of DEI consultants like Dr. J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham and Ren Navarro, and diversity groups like the Pink Boots Society for women in beer. Watching this industry commit to doing the work for a more equitable future, where even more people can enjoy craft beer, feels pretty metal.

DECIBEL : AUGUS T 2 0 21 : 11

EXHUMED

IT’S

STUDIO REPORT “Someone pointed out that studio owned and operated by the members of Exhumed, and we did our first rehearsal demo guitarist/vocalist Matt Harvey is plowing through a bowl of and played our first show in ALBUM TITLE cereal while giving us the scoop on the follow-up to 2019’s Horror. 1991,” Harvey explains, “so, to TBA “We did most of the tracking of drums, rhythm guitars and my vocals when acknowledge that, we hit up everyone was here for a week or two,” he says. “I think I finished all my guitars last old members and asked them PRODUCER night, but I have to go back and listen. Sometimes you play a solo and think it’s to write songs for the new Alejandro Corredor great, but the next day you’re like, ‘That is not great.’” [Laughs] record. There’s a song by Mike STUDIO The band’s forthcoming 10th album is special, and not only because its Beams, who played guitar on Darker Corners, San Luis Obispo, CA, planned 2021 release marks Exhumed’s 30th anniversary. Despite guitarist the first three albums; a song and various Sebastian Phillips and bassist/vocalist Ross Sewage gearing up to record addiby Leon del Muerte, who’s home studios tional parts at their respective homes in Baltimore and Oakland, it allowed the played with us multiple times RELEASE DATE boys to hang for the first time since plans and tours were cut short because of throughout the years; a song TBA you-know-what. from our old guitar player/ LABEL “When you’re used to spending four to six months a year with the same dudes, projectile-vomiting bassist Bud Relapse not seeing them for over a year is really disconcerting,” Harvey admits. “There Burke; and a song from our old were definitely a couple nights where it was like, ‘Let’s have a couple beers.’ Next bass player Matt Widener, in thing you know, it’s 4 in the morning and we’ve got nothing done. Luckily, we own our own studio!” addition to Ross’s, Sebastian’s and my songs. It’s Exhumed had already gone down the “re-record an older release” path back in 2015, commemorat- kind of an extended family effort, and [it was] ing their Gore Metal debut. So, this particular celebration made an entirely unique step that involved cool that everyone was willing to get involved.” the band’s extensive ex-members list. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

the morning after a late-night session at Darker Corners, the

EXHUMED

STUDIO SHORT SHOTS

DOOM DERELECTS MORTIFERUM BREATHE DEATH INTO LP #2 Olympia, WA-based cemeterians Mortiferum are currently holed up in Seattle’s Soundhouse Studios with Andrew Oswald, hard at work on their sophomore full-length. It’s expected to drop in October, says frontman M. Bowman, who points out that it’s the same time of year their debut album, Disgorged From Psychotic Depths, came out two years ago. After recording that debut, Mortiferum sent the album to Oswald for some “remixing after a few production hangups,” Bowman explains. Once Oswald

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“brought it all together so perfectly,” Mortiferum “immediately knew we wanted him to do the next record.” What Bowman calls “the result of hundreds of hours of writing, rehearsing, driving, [and] debating” comes down to a 12-day recording session (so far) described as “one of the most challenging, exhausting, but enriching experiences of our time as a band.” An oil painting by guitarist C. Slaker will once again provide the cover for their new album. And according to Bowman, Mortiferum also “used Kurt Cobain’s amp that he played on Bleach. “Couldn’t get a crushing death metal tone, but I’ll bet you can probably guess the spots where it was used after a couple listens.” —DUTCH PEARCE

HANNES GROSSMANN

Death metal drummer extraordinaire continues to balance and keep time

rummer hannes grossmann may be familiar as the man who once rumbled proficiently as the engine room of Necrophagist, Obscura and Hate Eternal. While his artistic endeavors have transitioned to luminaries like Triptykon, Alkaloid, Blotted Science and Eternity’s End, the perpetually busy Bavarian is also the author of Extreme Metal Drumming, the visionary behind lauded instructional DVD Creative Concepts for the Modern Metal Drummer and chief sound magician at his studio, Mordor Sounds. That Grossmann has time for a full-fledged solo project—new album To Where the Light Retreats is his fourth—absolutely boggles the mind. Truly, if the word prolific had a picture next to it, it’d be an artful shot of our guy. If you’re reading between the (Phrygian-dominant) lines, Grossmann isn’t merely a drummer, but a genuine songwriter who just happens to kill behind the kit. ¶ “I wrote a big part of [Obscura’s] Omnivium,” Grossmann reminds Decibel. “I’ve always written, actually. Originally, the idea behind my solo project was to get songs out of the way of Obscura. I had to ask myself, ‘Do I want another band?’ I already had Alkaloid, 14 : AUGUS T 2021 : DECIBEL

Blotted Science and Obscura. I thought, ‘This is madness! Why not just come up with a band using my name?’ I’m the person behind it all. I know people don’t like it when a drummer has a solo album—I’m not Bruce Springsteen— but that’s the way it is. I mean, I prefer my name to something like, say, Generic Torture.” That’s how Hannes Grossmann—the one-man band—was born. It wasn’t out of hubris or the desire to one-up his death metal-minded colleagues (many of whom have played or are playing on Grossmann’s independently released albums). Rather, Grossmann writes. Awake, asleep and states between, he’s (de)composing high-quality, technically-forward death metal. To Where the Light Retreats is proof that the songwriter’s profuse plight continues unabated. Songs like “The Great Designer,” “The Symbolic Nature of Terms,” “Dhaulagiri” and the aqueous “The Fountain” expand upon the greats

of old—Cynic, Atheist, Voivod— while establishing Grossmann as a tour de force innovator. “With my solo work, I don’t really think about the song structures,” asserts Grossmann. “I write the songs and let them live. There’s more freedom in that. More fun.” To Where the Light Retreats does have its non-grunt moments (courtesy of Dark Fortress/Alkaloid’s Morean), as well as a more strategic focus on velocity—previous album Apophenia was rife with “Rutanisms”—and harmony. No less of an offering to egg-headed deities of tremendous musical talent, on To Where the Light Retreats, Grossmann’s new songs serve a wider purpose. “Apophenia was more tech-death,” Grossmann says. “This album is open to people not so much into tech-death. The song and vocal structures are catchier than my previous work. That’s the difference. But I will say it’s not mainstream by any means.” —CHRIS DICK

MIDWIFE

or someone who categorizes her delicate webs of distortion and downer melodies as “heaven metal,” it feels like an extraordinary act of self-rebellion for Madeline Johnston to spend four minutes meditating on the Offspring’s soaring, catchy chorus, here turned into a narcotic shoegaze mantra: “It feels like heaven is so far away.” But that’s exactly what she does on Midwife’s “2020,” a truncated spiritual cover of the California pop-punkers’ “Gone Away.” Elsewhere on this year’s conceptually loose Luminol, Johnston’s waiflike croon reports, “I can’t kill the evil thought. I can’t turn it off.” And a couple minutes later, “My body is an army; my body’s out to get me.” All of this is whispered around tightly controlled layers of keyboard and guitar interplay. ¶ “I’d honestly love to do something more wild and unhinged in the future,” Johnston admits when asked about her artistic tendency toward restraint. “I love heavy music, I love experimental performance, I love noise. Most of all, I love the raw energy, the power. Quietude often feels like a choice simply based on my limitations as an engineer and performer.” ¶ Sherrill, drum constant Phil SanGiacomo, and 2019 bass replacement Philippe Arman kept distanced at the start of COVID-19,

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but established a pod several months in and remained productive. Notably, the latter’s addition to the band allowed harmonic expansion from the debut, Until the realization of that hazy possible future, though, Midwife’s hypnotic output over the past several years is sufficiently addictive all on its own. Just last year, the Flenser dropped her extraordinary Forever, and now we’re graced with the deceptively dynamic Luminol, born—as so many current and forthcoming records were—of the undeniably weird experience of being alive in the COVID times. “As an action, making music becomes a kind of filter to internalize the external world, as well as externalize my internal world,” says Johnston. “[It’s] actually a bridge between the two worlds. Making Luminol was a trip, because in 2020, we didn’t have much of an external world to feed us. Because there was

‘no world,’ I was definitely forced to look inside myself for some kind of clarity. I would say I mostly drew from internal experience when I was writing the album. I got into some of the heavier topics I’ve never really shared in my music before, like higher power, self harm, control and the secret desires of my heart. Honestly, I sort of felt like Bubble Boy in 2020, and in turn made what I think is my most personal collection of songs to date. Luminol is a diary entry from a person on an island alone.” Johnston reports living in various locations in Colorado and New Mexico during the writing and recording of Luminol. “I was writing new songs in every city, which I’m sure had an impact on the process. It’s possible that moving around many times kept me more inspired, carrying a feeling of impermanence and reinforcing my identity as an artist in a transient landscape.” —DANIEL LAKE

PHOTO BY CHARLIE BREWER

Transient solo artist Madeline Johnston provides another special delivery

OUR PLACE OF WORSHIP IS SILENCE D I S A V O W E D, A N D L E F T H O P E L E S S

Uncompromising and utterly bleak, OUR PLACE OF WORSHIP IS SILENCE present their newest offering and sophomore TL follow up entitled “Disavowed, and Left Hopeless”. Seven songs of cripplingly depressing blackened death. Recorded, mixed and mastered by Erol Ulug (Teeth) and featuring artwork by Jon Zig (Deeds of Flesh, Vile, Disgorge).

O UT AUG US T 27th VINYL/TAPE/DIGITAL

Brooklyn NY’s blistering indie rockers JUDAS KNIFE present their Translation Loss debut entitled “Death is the Thing with Feathers”. Recorded by Kurt Ballou (Converge, Dylan Carlson) and featuring members of the beloved 90’s bands Into Another and Garrison (both of Revelation Records).

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Serena Cherry (Svalbard) presents her new black metal project NOCTULE with their debut album “Wretched Abyss”!

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•L A MENTING A DEAD WOR LD• Denver, CO's doom/sludge trio ORYX present their mesmerizing new album and Translation Loss debut “Lamenting a Dead World”! Mixed and mastered by Greg Wilkinson (High On Fire, Graves at Sea, Necrot) with artwork by Ettore Aldo Del Vigo!

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HELLISH FORM R

The Vermont-California two piece known as HELLISH FORM present their Translation Loss debut full length. The combination of crushing funeral doom intertwined with beautiful drone soundscapes. “Remains” features the stunning artwork of Cauê Piloto with mastering by James Plotkin (Khanate, Scorn, Zombi).

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GRAVERIPPER

GRAVERIPPER Toxic waste-covered black/thrashers have a glowing future

raveripper come ripping out of the gate on Radiated Remains, their second EP and first for Indiana label Wise Blood Records. Built from a devotion to classic German thrash and Norwegian black metal (with a healthy dose of sleazy black ‘n’ roll à la Midnight), Graveripper carry the black-thrash torch with a healthy respect for the genre. ¶ “My goal with Graveripper is to seamlessly blend black metal and thrash metal together,” explains guitarist/vocalist Corey Parks. “So, the riffs are kind of a blend of each genre, but one riff will be a little more leaning toward thrash metal, while another will be leaning toward black.” ¶ If Joel Grind helped open the floodgates for modern black/thrash’s nuclear meltdown, then Graveripper are the eager disciples rising from the toxic waste. That isn’t an accident, but rather by design—Radiated Remains was mastered by Grind, a fact that’s evident by the guitar tone and general sharpness of the record. ¶ Parks recalls discovering Toxic Holocaust shortly after they released 18 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

An Overdose of Death... and becoming enamored with the band’s sound. The same week that Graveripper announced Grind’s presence on the EP, a laughing Parks says he received a Facebook notification that exactly a decade earlier, he made a post calling Grind his hero. “Everyone was blown away with Toxic Holocaust when they came out,” Parks says. “It was that ‘thrash is back!’ feeling, so it was so cool going back a decade ago... and then 10 years later, ‘Oh my God, his name is on my album.’” Despite Grind’s influence and the EP title alongside the bright yellow cover, Parks stresses that Radiated Remains isn’t a post-apocalyptic-themed album, nor is it political like many thrash records are. Instead, he says the band covers a wide range of topics and often lands within fantasy. “It just happened to work out like that,” Parks says of the art and

name choices. “We got that awesome artwork, I put it on yellow, I was like, ‘Well, this is bitchin’!’ and then the dude looked like nuclear fallout.” (Parks says he landed on the word “Radiated” and wanted to use alliteration in the title. Thus, Radiated Remains.) Those previously unfamiliar with Graveripper will also have the chance to hear the band’s first EP, Complete Blinding Darkness, since the two come packaged together. Radiated Remains features a new lineup, which Parks says has allowed for more collaboration in the band’s songwriting. Radiated Remains is a ripping EP and proof positive that Graveripper can run with the pack, regardless of previous experience. The Indianapolis thrashers are ready to continue taking it up a notch, as long as they survive the nuclear fallout. —VINCE BELLINO

HE L L HA MM E R RECO RD S P RE S E N T S

From the ashes of cult underground metal stalwarts ACHERON comes the debut release from VINCENT CROWLEY.

COMING JULY 2021 LIMITED EDITION CD HAND-NUMBERED EDITION of 500 featuring 2 EXCLUSIVE TRACKS

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FLOTSAM & JETSAM

FLOTSAM & JETSAM Power thrash legends escape their past by ruling in the present

IT’S

gotta be discouraging: Thirty-five years after Jason Newsted understandably left Arizona thrashers Flotsam & Jetsam to join Metallica, the band’s former bassist is still coming up in non-nostalgic conversation. ¶ “For a few years, we were carrying a black cloud around, feeling like underdogs or in Newsted’s shadow,” laments guitarist Michael Gilbert. “We probably didn’t deserve that title, but we had it. But we’ve definitely been on the right track with the last three records, and fans are finally starting to figure out it’s not Jason’s band.” ¶ Original members Gilbert and vocalist Erik “A.K.” Knutson have taken the public’s entirely incorrect assumptions in stride, leading the band through 14 full-lengths, including the current apple of their eye, Blood in the Water. The album further stokes the flames of a revival they trace back to 2016’s Flotsam & Jetsam. ¶ “I gauge these things in Europe,” analyzes Gilbert. “A few years before, we were on tour there and playing new songs, and people would be like, ‘No no no. No new songs! Only classics!’ But after the self-titled album and [2019 follow-up] The End of Chaos,

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they were asking for those songs. For people to be requesting new songs from an old band… we must be doing something right!” “We used our entire career to find ourselves, and we’ve found ourselves on the last few records,” interjects A.K. “This is what we should be making and what we should be doing.” “It’s been an amazing re-emergence,” picks up Gilbert. “[It] comes down to a chemistry that allows us to make consistent records that sound like we’re still progressing.” That chemistry includes the addition of a new rhythm section— bassist Bill Bodily [Contrarian, ex-Toxik] and drummer Ken Mary, who has a wealth of playing and production experience with Alice Cooper, Accept and Megadeth. “You’d think that stepping into a room with him, you’d be intimidated,” Gilbert offers, “because he’s sold millions of records, is a monstrous drummer, a great producer and songwriter, and I am [laughs], but he’s the most down-to-earth dude.”

Luckily, Gilbert and the rest of F&J (rounded out by guitarist Steve Conley) have shaken off any intimidation with Blood in the Water’s classy take on classic thrash where orchestrated riffing, massive choruses and A.K.’s top-shelf vocals lead the charge. “For me, how good this record was going to be hit right at the beginning,” exclaims the frontman. “The first couple songs I heard got me excited, and the excitement grew with every song we worked on after that.” “There were a couple songs at the beginning I thought would make it onto the record,” adds Gilbert, “but we ended up writing songs that kept getting better. Being able to throw away songs and replace them with something better was great. You always want your records to be perfect, but being completely happy is hard to achieve. Having said that, I’m happier with this one than any other album we’ve done.” A tall order—and confident statement—when you’re 14 albums in. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

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“Snider himself is in the form of his life” - FIREWORKS UK

TWISTED SISTER icon DEE SNIDER melds a masterpiece of modern rock & classic metal!

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I AM THE NIGHT

I AM THE NIGHT Finnish graveless souls are black wizards of the second wave’s cosmic key

uring the darkest days of the global pandemic, guitarist/songwriter Markus Vanhala felt a long-forgotten urge rise from the depths. For years, the Finn plied his trade in lauded melodic death metal acts Omnium Gatherum and (later on) Insomnium. But something changed as the dark cloud of COVID-19 gripped the globe. The nightside romanticism of ’90s black metal blazed across Vanhala’s proverbial northern sky with vengeance and fury once more. The time before time—when the axeman and fellow conspirator Janne Markkanen donned corpsepaint and took grainy black/white photos—was now. Enter I Am the Night. While the formation of I Am the Night may be credited to the addition of drummer Waltteri Väyrynen (Paradise Lost) and vocalist Okko Solanterä (Babylonfall), it was Vanhala’s live stint in cult black metal act Vornat that had sparked the fire that burns today. ¶ “Early black metal is my black metal,” says Vanhala, referencing the heyday of the earlyto-mid-’90s. “I Am the Night is a nostalgic trip to that realm.

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I Am the Night doesn’t wanna sound modern or fresh—we are doing the good old recipe our way. We were listening to and wondering how the hell Dissection got the bass sound on Storm of the Light’s Bane in the studio. It was the perfect reference for the single track ‘Hear Me O’ Unmaker.’ Then, I remembered my good ol’ buddy Dan Swanö had recorded the album. So, I called Dan. Mystery solved. “I wrote these songs as therapy,” Vanhala continues. “I felt a need and an inner urge to do something other than my ‘working bands.’ I felt that somehow my time was running out. Better to start doing the things on life’s to-do list. I Am the Night is one of the more important ones. All surroundings in this band happened naturally. The project grew and started to live as its own entity very quickly.” Hear Me O’ Unmaker is but the start—fingers out of the coffin, so

to speak. I Am the Night have in their midst a full-length coming this fall via Svart. Titled While the Gods Are Sleeping, the short but devilishly good offering expands upon Vanhala’s pitch-black interests in and influences from across the Nordic spectrum. Actually, the full-length wasn’t planned at all, but somehow emerged in a horrid flash between crepuscular and aurorean fights. “I am proud and excited the album even happened,” says Vanhala. “And that it came out this good! I’m finally doing something different on my own. I’m excited this album isn’t melodic death metal. I’m excited this album doesn’t have any guitar solos. The album is also short—it doesn’t consume too much of your time like many albums these days. It is a damned good piece of honest and true black metal art at its finest. If you disagree, then you’re wrong!” —CHRIS DICK

KING WOMAN

Doomy singer-songwriter loses paradise, finds catharsis

IT’S

funny that i’m accepted by [the metal] crowd. They’ll send me messages and stuff, and I’m like, ‘Well, this person looks like they can kill me.’ Thank you, though. I’m glad that you love my record!” ¶ King Woman’s Kristina Esfandiari laughs. “I don’t know, it’s sweet. It’s kind of weird when people call my band metal sometimes, because I don’t really know what to call it. Is this record a metal record? I don’t really think so. For some reason, that community has embraced King Woman, and I’m grateful that they support what I do.” ¶ While the Iranian-born/New York-based Esfandiari’s music isn’t exactly metal, it’s definitely understandable why the extreme music community digs her work. Her brand of singer-songwriter doom fills a similar role to the one that Nick Cave occupies in the more traditional rock space. In the case of her sophomore full-length, Celestial Blues, it centers on a childhood near-death experience and her struggle with her Charismatic Christian upbringing, using Milton’s Paradise Lost as a framing device. 24 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

The striking cover art even depicts her as Lucifer with ripped-out wings. In other words: pretty damn metal. “A lot of what I write is pretty personal,” she acknowledges, “but some of it I really wanted to tell these different characters’ stories from their own perspectives. A lot of these stories tie into my own personal mythologies and experiences that I’ve had, so they have dual meanings, but a lot of it is based on really personal shit.” With lyrical refrains like “I could drain my blood, but it’s not enough,” Esfandiari definitely has some darkness to wrestle with. Still, at this point, exposing her innermost feelings on record is just part of the job. “I feel like a lot of artists feel like this, but when my records are about to come out, I’m like, ‘I hate this, no, I don’t want it to come out,’’ she admits. “I kinda want to bury my

head in the sand and forget it happened. I just have this embarrassed moment like somebody’s reading your diary or something. If it’s any good, it’s going to feel pretty vulnerable.” That said, it’s been worth it. Esfandiari says that working out a lot of her difficulties through music has been a greatly cathartic experience. “I think a lot of [King Woman] in the past has been me processing a lot of childhood trauma, exploring themes of my religious upbringing, and also tapping into my Iranian roots with some of the sounds,” she muses. “But it’s definitely morphing into something else after this record, because I feel like I’m—I can’t say fully, but for the most part—done with that. I feel pretty peaceful in my life. I feel like I’ve worked through a lot of the traumas I have related to my religion.” —JEFF TREPPEL

DRAWN AND QUARTERED

Seattle death vets are also well-versed plague vets

the world of dark, ominous and haunting death metal, Drawn and Quartered are master craftsmen. Working in their blast furnace of hellish might, the band weaves thundering guitars, scorching vocals and explosive rhythms into living nightmares. As the world descended into fear and madness last year, the band set to work on their latest tome of terror, Congregation Pestilence. ¶ “The plague cleared our calendar!” says Herb Burke, the band’s vocalist and bassist. “Most of the lyrics on the new album were written, or at least begun, before the plague; the title track is the only one written during the pandemic. However, most themes present are ones we’ve been using throughout our existence.” ¶ Guitarist Kelly Kuciemba adds that “we have been using the themes of disease and plague for 30 years.” A scanning of the band’s excellent back catalog certifies this, including 2004 classic Return of the Black Death. ¶ Getting more specific, Burke notes that the album’s themes reflect on 26 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

“the charlatans packing churches full of infection and the sheep who willingly submit and lie to themselves that they’ll be fine.” Kuciemba brings these thoughts to the present, saying it’s “also amazing how religion played a part in how people responded and continue to behave and gather, regardless of the risk of infection.” At the same time, he still takes a nuanced, philosophical tack on these matters: “It is interesting to see certain people need to be able to know better than everyone else, when in reality they are cherry-picking facts to suit their narrative.” The appearance of a new album is heartening to see, as it’s clear the band has kept up its creative momentum. According to Kuciemba, “It helps that I’m a recording engineer for our records; we can do most of our work quite comfortably with little fuss or stress.”

It also helps that, as Burke says, “The four songs which are new were written about four years ago, although we had rehearsed them on and off. The other five are re-recordings of songs from the [2016] Proliferation of Disease demo.” It’s also inspiring to see a group of death metal maniacs still full of fire after playing together for so long. Burke puts it in the clearest terms possible: “I basically just want to make music that I would want to listen to. Also, what else are we going to do?” Kuciemba elaborates: “We do it because we love to do it. Fostering relationships with people and developing skills to facilitate your creative expression with no commercial pressure, allowing the art to exist without hesitation or influence from whatever happens to be popular at the moment: This is the greatest reward I could hope for.” —J. ANDREW ZALUCKY

BORN FOR HELL

SIEGE

SKINNED DEEP

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The worldwide Blu-ray premiere of both the theatrical & extended versions of the ‘80s canuxploitation shocker.

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CLOSE RANGE + SAVAGE DOG

SCOTT ADKINS DOUBLE FEATURE

Action-Packed Double Feature starring Scott Adkins!

ROYAL DECEIT

THE RINGMASTER

A fallen king. A son’s revenge. The thrilling adventure of murder, passion and revenge!

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INCARNATION Source Code meets Looper. AVAILABLE ON DVD

HOWL FROM BEYOND THE FOG

SHARKS OF THE CORN

The Most Important Kaiju motion picture of the last 20 years.

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FLIGHT TO MARS (1951) [SPECIAL EDITION]

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OXYGEN DESTROYER

Seattle death crew throws a giant monsters headbangers ball

eavy metal has long taken inspiration from the charismatic megafauna of filmland, going back to Blue Öyster Cult’s beloved “Godzilla.” The King of the Monsters that lends his title to that tune is the originator of the quintessentially Japanese style of creature feature known as Kaiju Eiga (translation: “monster movie”), and his influence on metal has only grown over time. Gojira took their moniker from his Japanese name, and Godflesh titled a song after his frequent opponent Mothra, for example. ¶ As beloved as Kaiju Eiga is in metal circles, there’s only one band totally devoted to those films as a theme: Seattle’s Oxygen Destroyer. While that source material might seem corny, the band’s music is anything but. This beast is a chimera made from militant Teutonic thrashers like Sodom and Destruction and howling death-dealers like Vader and Pestilence. Their sound has mutated into a deadlier form on their sophomore album, Sinister Monstrosities Spawned by the Unfathomable Ignorance of Humankind. ¶ “I think the new songs are catchier for sure,” writes singer, vocalist and primary songwriter Lord Kaiju, comparing his new output to

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Oxygen Destroyer’s 2018 debut. “Most of the songs on the first album were written in 2015; these latest tracks are our most recent work, and we did the best we could to surpass Bestial Manifestations of Malevolence and Death.” Sinister Monstrosities hit the top of Bandcamp’s metal chart on the day it was announced. “I think it’s because our music is basically a combination of two different fandoms: the metal community and kaiju fans,” Lord Kaiju speculates. “I’ve met a handful of people who’ve told me we’ve filled a void for them, that they’re excited to see their two favorite things combined. I’ve also met people who’ve said they got hooked on giant monster movies because of us, and we’ve even converted a few Kaiju fans into metalheads.” It doesn’t hurt that Oxygen Destroyer is hitting at a time when Kaiju Eiga is experiencing a renaissance thanks to new American

Godzilla and Kong films. “It’s awesome to see Kaiju Eiga getting more popularity and recognition than ever,” the frontman enthuses. “It’s crazy that so many new movies started coming out around the time Oxygen Destroyer formed, too. Some of our fans even go out of their way to wear their O.D. shirts when they go to see the new movies in theaters.” Like the films that inspire him, Lord Kaiju laces a subtle environmentalist message through his work: “If I’ve learned anything from these criminally underrated films, it’s that this world is the only one we have, and we need to take care of it. We live in dark times and people can be cruel, but it’s not too late for us to make things better. Our music and the monsters we write about are a representation of the grim future that awaits us all if we continue to destroy ourselves and the planet we live on.” —JOSEPH SCHAFER

CRAVEN IDOL

British black thrashers’ mythical tales of corrupt powermongers don’t seem so mythical after all

hether it’s a symptom of our burgeoning ADHD, eroding intelligence or interest in mythology screeching to a halt once Teletoon stopped airing reruns of The Mighty Hercules, our knowledge of ancient Greek sagas and literature amounts to little more than nil. So, when Immolator of Sadistik Wrath, guitarist/vocalist in London’s Craven Idol, lays out the thematic basis and creative license he’s taken on forthcoming third album Forked Tongues, it feels like a broadsiding by Thor’s hammer, as one might expect when trying to follow the whys and what-fors about a conflict between a hundred-headed hydra and a corpulent power-hungry wreck. ¶ “I’m a keen student of mythology,” he asserts via email. “Antoninus Liberalis’ rather crude collection of Transformations drew my attention to Typhon, the fiercest of all titans. In a last attempt to prevent the rise of the Olympians, the old gods birthed Typhon, a hundred-headed hydra to take the fight to Zeus. The Earth shook, the seas turned into scorching tsunamis, mountains were uprooted and hurled across nations. Forked Tongues acts as part two to the ancient tale as Typhon emerges from Mount Etna, under which he was imprisoned by Zeus. 30 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

In our tale, we find Zeus, a bloated wreck spoiled by luxury, called to action… with poor results. The subject matter was tailored for an album!” However, even with head spinning, our ability to sniff out shadiness and corruption is a reliably tuned skill. The present-day parallels of Forked Tongues’ narrative are crystal clear, especially in this age of grifters masquerading as elected officials, astounding corporate greed and misinformation spreading like wildfire. “Craven idols and their forked tongues betray and deceive,” Immolator continues. “Zeus and Typhon are sociopaths whose battle for universal supremacy sets the world ablaze: destroying cities and killing millions in a global, egotistical game of king of the hill. The record is a warning of all craven idols, of corrupt prophets with perfidious intentions.” We may know nuthin’ ’bout mythology, but we are confident in knowing rip-roaring blackened

thrash when we hear it. And Forked Tongues spits it out with the aplomb of Bathory, Sarcófago, Sodom and Master’s Hammer circa-1987 thrown into a fire accelerated by the remaining fuel from the Challenger disaster. “We spent 10 intense days at Southport’s Vagrant Studios,” Immolator explains. “We hadn’t worked with [producer] Tom Dring before, but he turned out to be perfect! We consciously went for a rawer live sound. Instruments are generally more balanced, but turned up to 11. We wanted to combine our tone with the ferocity of live performances. Just like Typhon, Forked Tongues is the ‘father of all monsters’… our magnum opus, a classic third album, a combination of everything with added fury and better songwriting. On top of the blackened thrash elements, there’s all the heavy metal and doom touches like previous records, as there’s nothing more important than preserving identity. Some of these songs wouldn’t sound out of place on the first demo.” —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

DECIBEL : AUGUST 2021 : 31

Quantum Quantum Quantum Wave functions, blast beats and Greek Orthodoxy form an unlikely union on WITHERED’s fifth LP

/// by MATT SOLIS /// photo by DAVID PARHAM ///

you’re like me, you don’t remember a goddamn thing from high school physics, but thanks to the proliferation of the internet over the past two decades, a universe of mind-melting theorems and equations is a mere Google binge away, if you’re so inclined. You don’t need to tell Mike Thompson that—Withered’s founding guitarist/vocalist loves exploring heady subjects in both his free time and his band’s recorded output, so when it came time for the Atlanta-based black/death/ doom metal quartet to start working on Verloren, their first album in five years, he was all too keen to dive down the existential rabbit hole. ¶ Take the record’s seismic closing track, “From Ashen Shores.” It’s an eight-minute smasher that glides between disgustingly angular sludge riffs, unnerving clean guitars, Byzantine chanting and frantic blast beats, all while the lyrics probe philosophical and metaphysical quandaries that seemingly would take several days to fully explain. Thompson wouldn’t have it any other way, though—the mental aspect of Withered’s material has always been an important driving force for him. ¶ “There was a lot of synchronicity when I was writing that song,” he says. “I had this idea [to explore] the concept of the higher self’s counterpoint, [which is] along the lines of Carl Jung’s shadow self. The protagonist actually discovers and communicates with his shadow self, so it’s about descending into this lower realm and becoming your own God to achieve transcendence. I also employed [Erwin] Schrödinger’s ‘particle and wave’ theory, 32 : AU PR G IULS2T022012:1 D: EDCEI B C IEBLE L

which explains how protons are in a wave state until there’s an observer and they switch to behaving like particles. And the symbol that Schrödinger used to represent the wave state is the Greek psi, which is the ‘W’ in the Withered logo!” Of course, creating such intricate content is made substantially easier when you have bandmates who share your intellectual motivations. Thompson has worked with numerous heavy hitters over Withered’s 18-year career, and even though Verloren’s lineup looks noticeably different than previous album Grief Relic (Rafay Nabeel is in for Colin Marston on bass and exLeechmilk frontman Dan Caycedo takes over guitar/vocals from Ethan McCarthy), he’s quick to point out that the changes have done nothing to impede the band’s creative process. “Ethan really raised the bar with his vocals, so it was tough because we didn’t want to take a step back in the talent or aggression category, but ever since [original guitarist] Chris Freeman left, Dan has always been in the back of my mind as a candidate,” explains Thompson. “I knew

There’s something about Withered that speaks to people who are carrying trauma with them. When we started talking about this stuff,

WE DISCOVERED THAT WE SHARE A BOND [BECAUSE] WE EACH HAVE PTSD OVER A SIGNIFICANT LOSS. —Mike T hompson he had the throat for it, and I couldn’t think of anyone better, so I called him to see if he was up for it, and thankfully he was. And I’ve known Rafay since he was 16 years old. He has a philosophy degree, so he and I can go head-to-head with concepts. The Verloren concept is actually his. The word ‘missing’ kept coming up to him as a general theme, and it really harkened back to my initial inspirations with Withered.” Thompson is referring to a formative time in his life when death seemed to follow him at every turn. In the early 2000s, he found himself attending so many funerals for friends and loved ones that he became numb to the entire notion. But when his father tragically passed away a short time later, he knew he had to channel his compounded grief into a positive creative outlet, and Withered was born. “Toward the end of that period, I felt like I was being conditioned for a big blow, which turned out to be my father’s unexpected death,” recalls Thompson. “I was very close to him, and that’s one of those paradigm-shifting ‘shake you to your core’ sort of things. I got obsessed with mortality concepts, and that spilled over into existential thinking.” Withered came out swinging with 2005’s cerebral, emotionally devastating Memento Mori, and the project has continued in earnest through lineup changes, personal hardships and, most recently, a reality-disrupting pandemic. Thompson and his bandmates started writing

the songs that would become Verloren in late 2018, after the Grief Relic touring cycle ended, and once they solidified their riffs and began discussing potential lyrical themes, the intention of the record quickly took shape. “There’s something about Withered that speaks to people who are carrying trauma with them,” offers Thompson. “When we started talking about this stuff, we discovered that we share a bond [because] we each have PTSD over a significant loss. Once we realized that, we were like, ‘Well, that’s definitely the theme of this album.’ We took each of our traumas and piled them into the songs.” Indeed, Verloren is swarming with the raw energy and emotional heft that can only come from personal experience, from the menacing atmosphere of “By Tooth in Tongue” to the beautiful agony of the instrumental title track. To add a certain gravitas to the proceedings, Thompson reluctantly decided to incorporate an element that has never been explored in Withered’s catalog: clean singing. “For the longest time, I said we would never do clean vocals, but ultimately, it’s whatever is going to underpin the vibe that we’re going for,” he says. “With those [clean vocal] parts, I wanted it to be a funeral doom kind of thing— dark and morose. I don’t have a very deep voice so I couldn’t ‘Peter Steele’ it, but I did my best My Dying Bride impression to accomplish what we wanted.” D EDCEI B C IEBLE:L A: UAGPURSI L T 2021 : 33

Bay Area prog metal heroes

Hammers of Misfortune celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut masterwork STORY BY

SARAH KITTERINGHAM

34 : A JU ULY G U 2S0T2210:2D 1 E: CDI E B CEILB E L

he ’90s were undoubtedly a bad time for tradi-

tional heavy metal. The once massive hair metal wave had been reduced to a puddle by the grunge explosion; extreme metal was notably erupting in Norway, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.; major labels were quickly dumping all the indie artists they had greedily plucked up, citing failures of projected sales. Not many acts were toiling on with the classic heavy metal format, following a tidal wave of speed, power and thrash throughout the ’80s that had similarly been reduced to a trickle.

Of course, a few diehard fans in the United States were still carrying the torch, including a young guitarist/vocalist named John Cobbett. A crust punk aficionado, he’d been voraciously diving into the emerging Norwegian black metal sound, but was determined to keep clean vocals and progressive melodies relevant and celebrated in San Francisco, where the metal scene had all but died. Despite cutting his teeth in “AbsoFuturist Metal” act Thunder Chimp (selfdescribed as a “combination of Venom and Devo,” with a stage show featuring “amazing, elaborate props and costumes”), Cobbett yearned to make something more aligned with the “dangerous and exciting” Norwegian scene dominating headlines worldwide. Enter his roommate, who handed him a CD titled The Lord Weird Slough Feg. Released in 1996, the delightfully obscure and unpolished gem by the (then) maligned band of the same name contained both progressive segments and clean vocals. Thanks to that record, Cobbett did what any self-respecting musician would do: He marched straight into Lord Weird Slough Feg mastermind Mike Scalzi’s place of work and asked him to make a “black metal opera.” “He was very blunt about it,” recalls Scalzi. “It was good. I liked it. He said, ‘I’m starting a rock opera. You want to be in it?’” The guitarist joined Cobbett’s emerging project Unholy Cadaver. That band operated from 1995 until 2000, and released one demo in 1998; its third and final track was “Hammers of Misfortune,” which became Unholy Cadaver’s namesake in 2000. Cobbett would also join Lord Weird Slough Feg, who would release renowned albums like Down Among the Deadman (2000), Traveller (2003) and Atavism (2005) before he departed. (The outfit continues to operate with Scalzi at the helm; their most recent album was 2019’s New Organon.) “I had Mike do some guest vocals on [‘Hammers of Misfortune’],” Cobbett explains. “That song was the birth of Hammers of Misfortune, not only due to the name of the song, but the fact that it was a 13-minute thrash trilogy, and it was the first instance of me experimenting with extreme metal in a sonata form.” Indeed, Cobbett had studied classical music and was developing a Wagnerian opera concept around Joseph Campbell’s monomyth of the hero’s journey. With an all-star lineup of San Francisco musicians that included drummer Chewy Marzolo and bassist Janis Tanaka (previously of iconic American punkers L7), The Bastard tells the tale of a prince who swears an oath in hell to a dragon goddess to obtain a legendary blood-axe, which he uses to murder his father, a tyrannical king. Also inspired by the popular 1970 musical Jesus Christ Superstar, The Bastard merged black metal, traditional metal and progressive metal to stunning

effect. Released by Andee Connors’ tUMULt in 2001, the album is almost comical in its ambitious and varied scope, simply because there’s a blatant disregard for genre demarcations. It’s earnest, ambitious, self-aware and tongue-in-cheek in a way few albums have been since. Its utter originality was hard-earned and -achieved. Initially conceptualized and recorded by Cobbett, Scalzi, Marzolo and bassist Erica Stoltz (now of Metal Blade act Sanhedrin), Hammers initially recorded in 1998, only to scrap their output. Stoltz departed, to be replaced by Tanaka. Then drummer Marzolo had “a pretty nasty little accident where the tip of one of my fingers got chopped off.”

The Bastard was bursting with so many ideas, it was kind of like

a cell about to split. JOHN•COBBETT He elaborates: “We recorded a second time in 1999 in a small, sweaty, fuliginous rehearsal room with our old pal, Rich Morin. He recorded the entire record on his 8-track recorder, and the fact that The Bastard still sounds great is a real testimony to how really brilliant and skilled Rich is as an engineer… He literally made a Dagwood sandwich out of an hors d’oeuvre. From a performance standpoint, I can still hear so much emotion in everyone’s playing and delivery. From a personal perspective, I had something to prove because my drumming career was nearly cut short, and this was my personal rebound and resurgence. Between pain and high volumes of tepid coffee, I threw my whole body and soul into that record. I remember when Rich and I were mixing the drums in the isolated overhead mics, we could hear me grunting and primitive battle cry whoops and hollers. “I was like a one-man medieval battle! I won!” At this point, Hammers of Misfortune were a fully actualized band. And the commonalities between them and Thunder Chimp are numerous, right down to the tongue-in-cheek approach.

“In my mind, everything in metal is tonguein-cheek,” opines Scalzi, who has long integrated humor into his musical output. A part-time philosophy professor by trade, he is known for his absurd bedside manner, wonderfully garish stage clothes, massive overarching concept albums (such as Traveller, which is about “a dog taking over the universe”) and steadfast commitment to classic, true heavy metal. “That’s about the dumbest story,” Scalzi says, laughing. “It works in a dramatic sense, and in Hammers of Misfortune as well, you make arbitrary choices [that work with] dramatic lyrics and songs and landscapes and peaks and valleys, and the story usually takes a secondary role to what’s important, which is the dramatic flow of things.” He continues: “Humor is an important factor. Metal is so ironic and hackneyed and trite. You have to have some sense of humor about it. Something that’s been forgotten by a lot of bands is that metal originally had a sense of humor.” The Bastard is a magnificent example of metal with a sense of humor—but don’t conflate humor with a lack of quality. Voted in the top 40 releases of 2001 by the late Terrorizer, and an underground favorite to this day, it kicked off a band that continues to operate, was directly responsible for the creation of both Ludicra and Vhöl, and went on to unite the songwriting duo responsible for Lord Weird Slough Feg’s best offerings. Over two decades after its release, The Bastard is finally being pressed to vinyl for the first time by Italian label Cruz Del Sur, which released Hammers of Misfortune’s second album, The August Engine (2003), as well as 2006’s The Locust Years before the band was snapped up by Profound Lore for their 2008 double album Fields/Church of Broken Glass. “It’s bursting with ideas. I was trying to go all directions at once with it,” muses Cobbett, who has numerous memories associated with the creation of The Bastard (ask him about the Mayhem show he booked in 1997 in San Francisco with critically acclaimed American black metal outfit Weakling sometime). “Classic heavy metal, death metal, progressive black metal—I was trying to do everything.” Cobbett claims that he formed Ludicra after the release of The Bastard to further explore black metal tropes that didn’t properly fit within Hammers of Misfortune. Indeed, Hammers’ second album, The August Engine, is devoid of the black metal themes sprinkled throughout The Bastard, making it a standalone entry in the discography of a band that flew the flag of traditional metal and experimentalism in a time when few were brave enough to do the same. “The Bastard was bursting with so many ideas,” Cobbett concludes, “it was kind of like a cell about to split.”

D E CDI E B CEILB :E A L U: GJU USLY T 2021 : 35

interview by

QA j. bennett

WI T H

FEAR FACTORY’s sole survivor on stray bullets, legal battles and the departure of vocalist Burton C. Bell 36 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

ear Factory have been through the wringer in the last four years.

The industrial-metal futurists finished their latest album, Aggression Continuum, in 2017, but its release was put on hold while guitarist Dino Cazares and vocalist Burton C. Bell battled it out in court with former members Raymond Herrera and Christian Olde Wolbers over the rights to the band name. After finally securing the rights in 2020, Cazares launched a GoFundMe campaign to remix the album and add live drums. Last September, Bell announced his departure from Fear Factory after 30 years with the band. Now, Aggression Continuum is finally seeing the light of day—with Burton’s vocals intact. ¶ “I’m hoping fans can respect what we’ve done over the past 30 years—because that history is always gonna be there—but I also hope they’re looking forward to what’s to come,” Cazares tells Decibel from Fear Factory HQ in Los Angeles. “I’m very excited about the future. When it comes to creating music, I believe in myself. I’ve believed in my idea since day one, and I don’t fear change. We’re going to create a whole new chapter of Fear Factory.” How have you been holding up during the pandemic?

I’ve been holding up pretty well and keeping busy. I’ve been working on Fear Factory stuff and my personal Patreon page, where people have been logging in to see my play-throughs and breakdowns, where I teach you how to play the riffs. If people have certain guitar software programs, they can download some of my tones and patches. I’m psyched I get to do it, because I get to connect with the fans who enjoy the guitar stuff. Back in January, a bullet struck the windshield of your car. Were you driving at the time?

No, it was parked behind my building. We found out it was a stray bullet that came from a park about half a block from my house. I guess some guy shot into the air and it hit my car. But when we first found it, we didn’t know where it came from. So, the cops came out and saw that it was a .45 slug and they asked me a series of questions like, “Do you have any enemies? Do you know anyone with a gun? Do you know anyone who wants to shoot at you?” And I told them, “Yeah, I do have a couple enemies.” So, I gave them some names. [Laughs] But two weeks later, they found the guy and it had nothing to do with me.

Aggression Continuum has been done since 2017, but you’ve had a ton of setbacks. How have you coped with that?

A lot of things happened that are public record at this point, so we just had to play the waiting game. But it’s not the first time this has happened. It also happened a long time ago when we were working on our very first record with Ross Robinson. That album was supposed to come out, but because of certain legalities, it didn’t. That was a couple years of waiting before we were able to go and re-record it as Soul of a New Machine. So, we kinda started our career this way. How did the problems start this time around?

We finished the record in 2017, but we couldn’t call it Fear Factory because we were under dispute for the trademark with Raymond and Christian, the ex-members. It was held up in court, so we weren’t even sure if this was going to be called a Fear Factory record or not. In 2020, I won my court case and was able to retain my 50 percent share of the trademark. Burton was still going through his case, and eventually he lost his 50 percent share, and it went up for auction. The court put it up for auction so they could pay off Burton’s debts to Raymond and Christian. So, anyone could bid on it?

During that two-week period when you didn’t know the story, did you think that maybe someone was sending you a message?

Not necessarily. But I did feel like, “Holy shit. What if I was standing there?” If that bullet had hit me, it would’ve done some damage. Or anybody, you know—my neighbors, whoever. That’s totally scary. It gave me a little PTSD for a few weeks there, because I’d look up in the air, like, “I better get in the car quick.” [Laughs] PHOTO BY STEPHANIE CABR AL

Yeah—and so did I. And I ended up winning and buying Burton’s share of the trademark. But that money actually went to Raymond and Christian to pay off Burt’s debt. How was Burton in a position to owe them money?

He owed them over $900,000 because of the contract that was signed in 2010 to pay those two guys. So, he lost the trademark and owed the debt.

That must have something to do with why he left the band.

I don’t know. I can only go by what he wrote in his departure speech. I haven’t spoken to Burton since late 2017, after we did the record. Were you guys getting along when you recorded the album?

I thought we were. But in late 2017, he decided to cut off all communications with me and the Fear Factory management company. He just disappeared. But it’s not the first time he’s done that, so we thought, “Okay, let’s give Burton some time. Maybe he’s dealing with some personal issues. He’ll come back.” You know, we’ve been around each other for so many years, maybe he just needed a break. So, we gave him some space. But three years went by, so it was past giving him space. We took it as he quit the band. I mean, if you had a job and your boss called you, like, “Where you at?” and you didn’t respond for three years, you’d either be fired or they’d assume you’d quit. That’s how we looked at it. What happened next?

Let’s back up for a second. When I won the auction, I was able to retain the full rights to the Fear Factory name. I bought it with the intent of moving forward with Burton, but he decided to part. We don’t understand because he never spoke to us about it. But it still boggles my mind the way he chose to handle his departure, because there was a lot of misinformation that he put out there to confuse people. To me, he didn’t have to quit. So, I have no idea what happened. If he had any issues, he could’ve reached out to any one of us. But he chose to go a different route. It sounds like you weren’t expecting him to split.

No, I was definitely not. Well… I can’t say I was or wasn’t because, like I said, he’s done this in the past. He quit in 2002. I know he pretty much stopped communication with the other two members way back when all three of them were a different version of Fear Factory, when they continued without me. I know there were some problems there because he asked me to come back and rejoin him. That’s how the whole early lawsuit started to happen. So, Burt’s been doing these kinds of moves for a long time. You started a GoFundMe to make some changes to the album. Why was that necessary?

By the time we got the rights to the name, the record’s been sitting there for three years and I wanted to give it some improvements. DECIBEL : AUGUST 2021 : 37

Is he still in a position to benefit from this record financially?

He benefits from this record. That debt is only past debt—not future earnings. That’s why I was surprised that he’d try to sabotage this record. Now you’re in this awkward position where you’re putting out a record with vocals by a former band member who isn’t going to tour on it.

He’s not even advertising his own record on his own social media. He completely just said, “Fuck it—I’m outta here.” Did you consider re-recording the vocals with a different vocalist?

Of course. But that’s not what the record label wanted. They wanted a record with his vocals on it. And I agree. I didn’t have any issue with that until he started spreading all this stuff on social media and in the press. You’ve been looking for a new vocalist, though. Have you found one?

Some people were attacking me, but I get it—it was all caused by the negative comments [ex-vocalist] Burton [C. Bell] was putting out there. It was unnecessary public drama. I wanted to get some real drums on it because it had programmed drums. I wanted to get Andy Sneap to remix it. I wanted to get my friend Damian Rainaud, who’s been working with us as an engineer since The Industrialist in 2011-2012, to do some work on it, and I wanted to get Rhys [Fulber] back in the band. This was gonna cost a good $25,000 to get all that done, but we had already depleted all our resources with the record company. But the label did give us permission to go ahead and make all these improvements—I just had to do it on my own. So, I started the GoFundMe campaign. And there’s some drama with that.

When I started the GoFundMe, Burton went out of his way to damage my reputation and career by promoting lies on his social media, saying that the Fear Factory GoFundMe was a scam. Regardless of all the negative things he said, the 38 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

campaign was successful thanks to all the fans who contributed to help make this record come out with all the new elements. What he did was very unprofessional. It was a character assassination because his comments were on all the metal sites. It’s not easy handling all that negative attention, and fans were confused and pissed off. They wanted answers. Some people were attacking me, but I get it—it was all caused by the negative comments Burton was putting out there. It was unnecessary public drama. I’m very active on social media, so I’m answering the fans and trying to do damage control and be positive about the new record because it’s an amazing new record. I didn’t run and hide from the issue—I took it head-on. It’s the only way I can be. I just don’t understand why he would try and sabotage the album when all the improvements I made benefited everyone involved— especially him.

I can’t answer that right now because I gotta save stuff for announcements. I gotta make it suspenseful. [Laughs] But the main focus is getting this record out and getting people hyped on it. You’ve said you were thinking about giving a completely unknown singer a chance to front Fear Factory. Can you at least tell us if that’s what’s happening?

[Laughs] Well, it’s unknown to you because you don’t know who it is yet. Fair enough. Why did you decide to call the album Aggression Continuum?

Because it represents the past, the present and the future. On the album cover is an automaton in the shape of an FF, but also in the shape of an X, which is Roman numeral 10. It’s our 10th studio record, which is the present. On the bottom right side of the automaton, you can see a serial number that’s FF10-31-90, which is the date we started, the year that the machine was born. That’s the past. And the future, the continuum—the relationship between humans and A.I. is going to continue, and so is Fear Factory. The last song on the album includes dialogue from the “fear is the mind killer” scene from Dune, which links back to your 1993 remix EP of the same name. What’s the significance of including it here?

One of the lines in that speech is, “Only I remain,” which is saying that I’m the sole remaining owner of Fear Factory, and I don’t fear going into the future with it.

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE CABRAL

Hardwired to Reconstruct  Cazares (center), along with the remaining members of Fear Factory, are ready to unleash version 10.0

SHIRTS

E V I S U L C X E

P A T C H E S

NSORSH IP *S M IL E FO R CE

F L A G S BEANIES

the

definitive stories

behind extreme music’s

definitive albums

justin m. norton

Chosen by No One the making of Nachtmystium’s Instinct: Decay

the late ’90s, black metal’s

became one of metal’s hottest comsound was uncompromising modities. Blabbermouth said that Judd and dogmatic and dictated “has pushed his creative and crushing by the European tastebrand of USBM to new heights.” Pitchfork makers who launched the claimed the LP’s “expansive sound is revesecond wave of black metal. latory.” Decibel ranked Instinct: Decay the Within a few years, that changed. A coterie No. 4 album of 2006. Nachtmystium later of American black metal bands overlooked signed with Century Media and released by the global scene began to personalize three widely praised albums in succestheir music and draw on influences that sion: the Black Meddle concept albums went far beyond tradition. This is espeAssassins and Addicts, and Silencing Machine. cially true of Nachtmystium, a ChicagoThe band’s ascent likely peaked around area band formed by a teenage Blake Judd 2012 when they were asked by Vovoid to DBHOF200 that might have been one of America’s first perform Instinct: Decay at Roadburn. bedroom black metal bands. Instinct: Decay proved an eerily proIn 1996, Judd was one of the kids who phetic title. Judd’s fall was as rapid as saw a Spin magazine story on the infahis ascent was meteoric. In 2013, Judd mous Norwegian black metal scene and was arrested for misdemeanor theft, and Instinct: Decay decided to dive deeper. Judd’s earliest reports emerged that he scammed friends BAT T LE KOM M A ND Nachtmystium material, like Reign of the and former associates in the metal scene M AY 30 , 20 0 6 Malicious, was little more than Darkthrone/ to fuel a drug habit. He quickly became Burzum worship—competent, but derivaa pariah in a movement where he’d been The damage done tive. But Judd’s interest in a broader a fixture just a year earlier, and ended sound palette—and his ambition to play up homeless for a time. Judd resurrected for a large audience—took him back to the Nachtmystium several times with differclassic rock he loved as a kid. By the time ent members over the next six-plus years Nachtmystium broke from the pack with and recorded new albums, but accusathe Eulogy IV EP in 2004, their music was packed with hooks and tions and rancor followed him. He put the band to rest for good in 2020. recognizable songs, not to mention a catchiness that eludes most Despite the dysfunction, bad blood and bad decisions, you cannot look black metal entirely. at the story of USBM without looking at Instinct: Decay. Albums are a snapInstinct: Decay is when Judd—along with guitarist Mike Le Gros, bassshot in time, and this record is a special moment. Instinct: Decay is among a ist Neill Jameson of Krieg, drummer W. Obscurum and producer/fifth handful of records that changed the direction of black metal and opened band member Chris Black—fully channeled influences like the Allman the scene up for bands that just years before would only have reached Brothers, Pink Floyd and arena rock into black metal to create something small audiences. Without Instinct: Decay, it’s hard to see metal embracing interstellar travelers like Oranssi Pazuzu or Deafheaven. For these reaexceptional. Instinct: Decay was a lysergic Syd Barrett-esque madcap romp sons—and for its primal power and melancholy lyricism—Decibel welcomes of sound and self that even touched on dark wave bands like Fields of the USBM pillar Instinct: Decay into our Hall of Fame. And as a bonus to deluxe Nephilim and Killing Joke. It was revelatory for listeners 15 years ago and subscribers, this issue contains a previously unreleased recording from is still influential today. the Instinct: Decay recording sessions called “Chemical Catharsis,” available Judd and his friends used smart guerilla marketing and press outreach exclusively via the Decibel Flexi Series. to give Instinct: Decay an even bigger push, and Nachtmystium quickly

NACHTMYSTIUM

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DBHOF200

NACHTMYSTIUM instinct: decay

What was happening with Nachtmystium in the run-up to Instinct: Decay?

My whole life was changing. Right before Eulogy IV was recorded in 2004, I turned 21. That opened up the world. I was able to play over-21 clubs, and I got a job at a local metal bar as a DJ where I did a shitload of networking. That ended up being a major reason the band became more visible: I was more visible. I was out there hustling. Chicago as a city caters to metalheads. There was a cool little community of metalheads and a record store called Metal Haven where both Chris [Black] and I worked. All of this conveniently coincides with what was going on creatively. Eulogy IV was a step outside of the traditional style. Chris kept telling me that the record was something new, something fresh. He got me convinced that what we did with it was almost like our first demo, the first time we sounded like our own band instead of Burzum or Darkthrone. He said it was important to make another strong record and focus on songwriting. He figured out then that I was no virtuoso guitarist, and what I was best at, and helped me exploit it. Chris said to get focused, and that led to Instinct: Decay. CHRIS BLACK: Somehow, the Eulogy IV release turned out really well. I think it opened some doors for Blake as far as he could put more dynamics in the songs. He started thinking in terms of extra guitar tracks and more musical applications of basic effects like reverb and especially delay. He also seemed very open to the more rock-oriented song structures I was pushing toward, where we would focus on a chorus, maybe attempt a guitar solo, use some real “sentimental” chords. So, we had a good thing going in terms of the studio collaboration. Then Southern Lord did a U.S. release for Eulogy IV, which shocked me. They had also gotten a good response from the Twilight album, which included Blake and Neill [Jameson]. Meanwhile, Moribund Records offered to sign Nachtmystium, but then it looked like Blake would go with Drakkar from France; but then his own label Battle Kommand was picking up, too. MIKE LE GROS: I joined in 2004, I think around the fall. I remember Blake was picking up steam and getting things going at that point. I’d seen Nachtmystium perform and knew Blake from when he worked at Metal Haven. So, I was already following the band. Before Nachtmystium, I was in a death metal band called Disinter since about 1994. I started jamming with Blake and Disinter’s bassist [Zion Meagher] played with Nachtmystium before Neill joined the band. BLAKE JUDD:

“The title came when I was working as a barback. I remember watching the same people out night after night doing coke and drinking beers and destroying themselves. I remember thinking, ‘Their instinct is to decay.’ I also saw myself as a part of this.”

B LA KE JUD D Demise and Eulogy IV received a lot of positive feedback in the underground scene. Blake wanted to keep that momentum rolling. Instinct: Decay was recorded a little over a year after Eulogy IV. It was time to strike while the iron was hot. Between 2002 and 2006, Nachtmystium released four albums and an EP. You can see how fast the music was shedding traditional black metal elements.

W. OBSCURUM:

So, Instinct: Decay wasn’t written in one spell… it took place over some time?

I started writing what would become Instinct right after we finished Eulogy IV in the summer of 2004. I had a bunch of other shit going on in my life. BLACK: Possibly over an entire year. Blake and I had a demo session at his parents’ house in August of 2004, which included early versions of “A Seed for Suffering” and I believe “Keep Them Open.” In January of 2005, Blake had another writing/demo session with a drummer named Dave Swanson, which encompassed still more of what would end up on the album, including “Antichrist Messiah.” JUDD:

AUGUST 2021 : 4 2 : DECIBEL

How did Neill Jameson of Krieg get involved in the project?

I wanted so badly for Nachtmystium to be a band. The whole one-man-band thing was a pain in the ass. Neill and I had also become close. I could have bought a guy from Chicago from a lesser-known band. Neill wasn’t a particularly good player, but he was in Krieg and was part of our circle. It was like our exclusive gang. I also wanted to challenge Neill a little bit. Neill had only been in Krieg, and you can only get so far playing by yourself. Playing with Jef [Whitehead of Leviathan] made me grow a lot. OBSCURUM: I’m not sure exactly how that came about. Blake and I recorded some Krieg tracks with Neill around 2002. I think that was the Songs for Resistance [Krieg’s 2002 demo] session. They had a working relationship for a while before Instinct: Decay. It seemed inevitable that they would collaborate. Blake created a very incestuous mix with members of Krieg, Superchrist and Cult of Daath joining forces. NEILL JAMESON: I was the bassist for a three-day West Coast run first. Blake brought in a bunch of session people for the shows, and JUDD:

SKEPTICISM

Finnish Funeral Doom pioneers Skepticism celebrate their 30th anniversary with the release of their sixth full length album “Companion”. “Companion” takes the listener on a journey from Skepticism’s gloomy past through to a monument of a band that has weathered their liturgy for 3 decades of mournful service. On “Companion”, Skepticism further refine their signature sound to engulf the listener in a cavernous heavy wall of organ and guitars laid to rest under an ominous cascade of hammering drums.

COMPANION LP/CD/Digi | September 24, 2021

DECIBEL : AUGUST 2021 : 43

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Joe [Van Fossen] from Noctuary was on guitar. We did the West Coast shows with Sunn O))) and Boris. That was the first time I heard some of the new songs. You could tell Blake was bringing in more of his younger influences like Allman Brothers and Pink Floyd. He was becoming a lot more open and thinking about pulling in a lot more outside influences. I could see where he was headed, but I didn’t pick up the scope of it until I was asked to join the band for Instinct. Was taking this direction antithetical to what USBM was at that point?

I wasn’t thinking in terms of the black metal scene because there was so little of it. I set the bar pretty high for myself. I always wanted to put myself up against the pros, who at that point were the European bands. I wanted to be different from everyone, whether they were in the States or Europe. At that point, Leviathan was the only black metal band that was taken seriously by the press. I was trying to make music that was as good or better than the music I was listening to. I think I said at the time, “I’m trying to make an album I don’t have in my collection.” That was a personal goal of mine, and it still is. BLACK: From my limited point of view, no—not musically, anyway. What was antithetical to the underground spirit of black metal was the fact that Blake was a very motivated and extroverted bandleader who craved the rewards of touring and media exposure. He decided Nachtmystium was going to be a real band, not an isolation project. As far as I know, it was a lot of the same kind of riffing and patterns as always, so I don’t think Instinct: Decay was any kind of musical revolution in itself. But it was shortly after that Blake fully embraced his rock ‘n’ roll ambition, so maybe that got somewhat conflated with the music. LE GROS: Every song that Blake wrote was an evolution and a natural progression of his talents. That’s one of the things I admired about him at the time and why I was happy to join the band. He was pumping out songs he felt good about, and I don’t think he tried to follow any set direction. JAMESON: I did the Velvet Underground cover on [Krieg’s] Black House a few years before. So, I was already interested in different directions, and I appreciated he was pushing the genre at the time. At that time, very few of us were interested in looking outside of the “box,” so to speak. JUDD:

What do you remember about the recording sessions?

It took 14 months for everything to come together. That’s the longest period I spent on a Nachtmystium album. Everything was so haphazard. It was chaotic because we were working

JUDD:

without a budget and when Chris had time. The cool thing is that we had a lot of time. That’s why the album is so intricate, even if it’s sort of muddy-sounding. We did the first sessions in July 2005, and we picked up and finished them in December. We had almost six months to listen to rough mixes and complete them. There were three sessions over a few different weekends. The first location was the house of a married couple who had a home in Aurora, the fictional location for Wayne’s World. We set up in the living room and recorded all the drums. You can’t set up live drums in an apartment, and Chris and I were working on a no-budget scenario. We did like 10 or 11 songs in one day, and this was when everyone drank beer all day. We were still able to get shit done because we were young. [Obscurum] never rehearsed for any

“For that first [recording] session, we borrowed some space in a house that belonged to some friends, including their daughter, who was 3 or 4 at the time. She was mostly shy, but also thought it was hilarious to hear Blake do his vocals, especially that falsetto holler at the end of ‘Eternal Ground.’”

CHRIS B LACK Nachtmystium album he played on. He learned the songs and would lay them down. We also did rhythm guitars at the house. At my apartment, we did guitars and bass and overdubs. We had to go back to the house to do the vocals because we couldn’t do them in my apartment. BLACK: For that first session, we borrowed some space in a house that belonged to some friends, including their daughter, who was 3 or 4 at the time. She was mostly shy, but also thought it was hilarious to hear Blake do his vocals, especially that falsetto holler at the end of “Eternal Ground.” I also have a clear memory of Blake holding a small wastebasket during “Chosen by No One” since he was planning to do that coughand-spit thing at the end, and I guess he didn’t want to spit on the floor. The [winter] session was at Blake’s apartment in St. Charles, IL, and AUGUST 2021 : 4 4 : DECIBEL

we did Neill’s bass while Rebecca [Clegg] painted the album cover in the next room. I tend to think we did the overdubs and Mike’s guitar a few weeks later. In any case, we’re talking about four or five days of total recording time at the most. Then I mixed it later at home. That summer session was chaotic, but the winter part was very laid back. Neill, I knew mainly as a vocalist, and so I wasn’t sure how the bass would go, but he was very well-prepared and pretty much cruised right through. I remember he also gave Blake some Stridex pads for his birthday, which was very thoughtful, much like Blake not spitting on the floor at the other place. LE GROS: We recorded at a few different locations and started with drums. One of my songs will be on the Flexi, and the other two weren’t recorded and were reformulated for other projects. We recorded most of the guitars and bass at Blake’s place over the course of a weekend. I didn’t record any of my tracks until Sunday—I handled secondary guitar. OBSCURUM: The Eulogy IV session was a blast. It was recorded in a cabin in the dead of winter. It was snowing, and the atmosphere was perfect. It was a memorable night. The drums for Instinct: Decay were recorded in some basement. I don’t remember where. It definitely did not have the atmosphere of the prior session. I remember recording a bunch of songs that day. I was exhausted—it felt like the day would never end. My drum tracks were always wrapped up in a day. I came prepared and I didn’t waste anybody’s time. JAMESON: I recorded at Blake’s apartment in St. Charles. It was no different than doing other underground recordings in a rehearsal room. It showed me that as long as you have someone talented at the helm like Chris to drive that vision, the location doesn’t make a difference. I wish I could say I had some amazing stories about recording in Blake’s apartment. But we would just get up, have breakfast and coffee, and then start working for the day. Can you talk more about the lyrics?

Neill and I were always drawn to each other like magnetic forces. Lyric writing is not my strong suit and never has been. Chris realized that, too. I had a little bit of writer’s block, and I had written the lyrics I needed to, like “A Seed for Suffering.” Whatever I couldn’t [write], I asked Neill to handle since he was already playing on the album. JAMESON: I think I wrote about half the lyrics. Blake was one of the people who realized I had a knack for lyrics and knew I could write in other people’s voices. So, he would give me the subject matter. He was always incredibly encouraging of that aspect of my artistic life. For as many negative memories as I have about the band, I also crafted lyrics that more people were reading JUDD:

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NACHTMYSTIUM instinct: decay made sure to come prepared. I didn’t drink or partake in any substances at that time. That’s why there were never any hiccups during those sessions. That’s how it worked for the three albums and the EP I did with them. Could I have done more? Absolutely. I wish we could have rehearsed as a band before recording. It would have taken things to another level. But in the end, I think everything turned out quite well. JAMESON: I was obsessed with Joy Division, Interpol, Killing Joke and a lot of post-punk. I approached my playing from that perspective more than black metal. At the time, bass wasn’t utilized much in any kind of black metal. So, I just tried to go in and give it a post-punk feeling. I’m not a very technically proficient player, but Blake and Chris were good at making me feel comfortable to add my own bits. How were you able to get the sound you wanted out of some austere circumstances?

 Sowing the seeds Instinct: Decay-era photo featuring Judd (l) and Le Gros

or listening to than ever before. I was just recovering from a nervous breakdown and things were pretty chaotic. So, I would write about what I was experiencing mentally and emotionally. Some of the ideas Blake had were similar: emotional trauma he was going through at the time. I might just express it differently. We did the same things with the early Twilight material and would see which one could express something most appropriately.

JAMESON:

Where did the title Instinct: Decay come from?

LE GROS: We rehearsed together for a while. I’d go by Blake’s house or he’d come to my place. We jammed together for several months on the songs we recorded, so I knew going into the session where things were going and why. OBSCURUM: I never rehearsed with Nachtmystium. Blake would give me a cassette tape with some finished songs and extra ideas, and I would flesh out the parts from there. I just

The title came when I was working as a barback. I remember watching the same people out night after night doing coke and drinking beers and destroying themselves. I remember thinking, “Their instinct is to decay.” I realized it was a great title and wrote “Instinct: Decay” on a bar napkin and brought it home. I also saw myself as a part of this.

JUDD:

Even before the stories that everyone knows, Blake has always been a self-destructive person. He realized that pretty early. So, Instinct: Decay was his concept of a natural force driving him towards fucking his life up. On a grand scale, it was that humanity had an instinct to destroy itself.

How did you approach your instrument within the mix? Was everything laid out for you, and how did you work yourself into the songs?

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BLACK: My Nachtmystium recordings were done on an Alesis ADAT, which is basically an eight-track machine that was very popular in studios in the early ’90s, but by 2005 was way out of date and honestly kind of laughed at by professional engineers. As a complete amateur, I was fine with my ADAT setup, which basically I would just take to whatever basement or cottage or rehearsal room and rig it all up. For Instinct: Decay, I bought a second ADAT so we could do 16 tracks. I also had an Alesis mixing board and monitors—again, very Guitar Center-grade stuff, more of a board you would find at a bar stage rather than in a recording studio. Plus a handful of ordinary mics, maybe two effects units, and that was really all. It was enough for what Nachtmystium was doing musically at the time and for their genre’s production standards. JAMESON: Chris was just really good at being able to zone in and make it sound good regardless of circumstances. Chris is kind of a shaman who can guide people so they can channel their most creative selves. He’s also good at finding ways to differentiate small parts so repetition doesn’t get mind-numbing, and he has a really good ear to provide interesting flourishes.

How were the melodic sections and some of the solos and hooks worked out? BLACK: Blake had a lot of ideas of his own in that regard, and he had gotten an E-bow, which added to the possibilities somewhat. He was open to my ideas as well. But it was all simple stuff too—rudimentary in a way, but that can be what makes something catchy, like those two notes in “Here’s to Hoping.” This wasn’t like being with Sanford [Parker], a wizard with the synthesizers and effects. It was quite honestly two stoned dudes on a couch with an E-bow and a delay pedal. There was only so much we could manage, and it either sounded cool or we moved on. That said, there were a few

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times we tried to cover up some intonation problems on the rhythm guitars with even more atmospherics. One of the very last things we tracked was Mike playing an extra rhythm guitar track down on the whole album, and that may have saved the day, too. Charlie Fell (Lord Mantis/Cobalt/ Nachtmystium) mentioned in the USBM book that, in addition to songwriting, Blake was good at finding the right people to realize his vision. Was that the case on Instinct: Decay? BLACK: Yes, and no. Blake changed band members constantly, so only a few lineups were together long enough to reach their potential. There was never a steady studio lineup either. Before recording Instinct: Decay, the live drummer was Dave Swanson, and I know Dave and Blake workshopped some songs together. But it was always more productive to start with Blake’s own stuff and let other people add their parts, rather than the other way around. JAMESON: Blake was good at pulling together people to complement his vision of Nachtmystium. But on this record, he did the majority of the songwriting. The only thing I thought was collaborative was what I mentioned earlier: lyrics. Nachtmystium was firmly his voice at this time. It was still a solo project with additional hired hands.

Instinct: Decay turned Nachtmystium into a visible band in the metal scene.

It did remarkable things for my career. I can look at it now and realize why it stood out when it came out. Greg Anderson of Southern Lord helped get Battle Kommand records to major distributors. That’s how Instinct got into major chain stores. I also made it a point to have a marketing sticker with the Southern Lord logo, because they were super hip at the time. I was pushing the album with Earsplit PR, who also did press for Twilight. They are one of the big reasons the album made the splash that it did. So, the fact that it was [embraced] was absolutely the result of a lot of hard work. BLACK: Things went into high gear during 2006. Back then, Blake’s chaotic nature could still be an asset in many areas. He had a lot of media friends, and his distribution arrangement through Southern Lord was a big plus. [Chrome Waves frontman] Jeff Wilson came into the picture definitely by 2007, and so the band was touring actively, and that’s when the record companies started to notice. Blake never had much use for contracts, so I was helping a lot in that area. There were offers from Century Media, Metal JUDD:

“Here’s the thing that I wrote a lot of lyrics for and put a lot of effort into, and people were really getting into it. And yet, I was no longer a part of it. Our work was about to take this ride, and I would not be in the car for the ride. I was on the side of the road.”

NE ILL JA ME SO N Blade and Earache. The band held a strong position because Blake had a back catalog he could bargain with. Even Instinct: Decay was up for grabs. We spent hours on conference calls with Earache at the time, negotiating and fine-tuning a deal, but when they sent the paperwork, it was just their same old standard contract and a verbal “you can trust us.” So, we said have a nice day and then hired a professional to get us the rest of the way through the process. A bit unpoetic that Earache ended up with Instinct: Decay much later on, but whatever. LE GROS: I remember the band getting bigger with each release and then blowing up. I knew my time was limited with them at that point because I was becoming a father. I did get to do some tours and a few shows. Once I stepped out, I was proud of Blake for achieving his hopes and dreams with his music. JAMESON: I think I’d already been kicked out of the band. I remember being proud of it. It was slightly bittersweet. Here’s the thing that I wrote a lot of lyrics for and put a lot of effort into, and people were really getting into it. And yet, I was no longer a part of it. Our work was about to take this ride, and I would not be in the car for the ride. I was on the side of the road. AUGUST 2021 : 4 8 : DECIBEL

In the 15 years since its release, many artists have claimed that Instinct helped broaden U.S. black metal and allowed it to draw from a much broader set of influences. Do you agree?

That is a huge compliment. My goal in writing and recording that record was to leave a mark. I felt like I had something to prove, more to myself than anything. I needed it to not just come out and be mediocre. It needed to come out and make a splash. I’m glad it wasn’t labeled a gimmick record, because it could have been. OBSCURUM: I think Nachtmystium in part helped usher in the post-rock/prog influence in the American black metal scene. Nachtmystium signed to Century Media after Instinct: Decay, which of course turned on a whole new group of people. In the early-to-mid-2000s, you started to see more punk/indie fans getting into black metal. I think this is a big reason why bands like Deafheaven and Liturgy came about. Black metal was really shedding its traditional violent and barbaric sound. JAMESON: I’m not saying this record broke the shackles, but it was definitely a part of it. It was a time when so many bands used different influences and created something that wasn’t noisy, bestial black metal that Americans JUDD:

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Standing on eternal ground  Worldfall-era lineup featuring Zion Meagher, Judd and Jean Graffio

were known for. You could look at Instinct, [Leviathan’s] Massive Conspiracy Against All Life and what Scott [Conner] was doing with Xasthur as part of it. Has everything that has happened in the Nachtmystium story changed how you feel about Instinct: Decay?

The whole heroin thing didn’t start until 2010. We were so busy touring before that I didn’t have free time to spend my money. That all started happening around the time we made Addicts. This album was a moment in time before a whole lot of shit happened. There was a lot of poisoning to Nachtmystium, even before the drugs got out of control. We became sort of ingenuine once the money came in. Instinct: Decay was the last record I made from a place of struggle. I didn’t want to stagnate after making one decent recording. It was an interesting, pivotal moment for the band. But I try not to look back on Nachtmystium these days. Everything became fucking fake, and I didn’t give a damn about anything or anyone, and that’s how I was

JUDD:

able to deteriorate and let a drug problem spiral out of control. BLACK: Nope. I thought it was an average record back then, and I think it’s an average record today. It never moved me like the EPs that came before and after. The EPs were always so much more manageable. LE GROS: It hasn’t changed how I feel about it. I was in the band in the “pre-needle” days. I tried to talk Blake out of his curiosity. When he walked down that path, I felt bad for him. He seems like he’s made it back from that place. JAMESON: I remember it for what it is. I try to judge everything I’ve been on as a recording, not for what happened before or after it. What is the legacy of Instinct: Decay?

I think it was one of the first American black metal records to get good international press. A lot of people laughed at American black metal for a long time. It was one of the records that changed that. I also like to think of it as the first psychedelic black metal record. I remember coining that phrase for marketing stickers so hipsters in the

JUDD:

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record store would see it. I wanted to see how that worked out, and it worked out pretty well. LE GROS: It was a pioneering effort for U.S. black metal. Blake had a lot of vision, and his songs set the tone for other U.S. black metal bands to follow. I was happy to be a part of it. OBSCURUM: It’s been about a decade since I listened to these albums. It’s been interesting revisiting them with a fresh pair of ears. Say what you want about Blake, but you can’t deny that he created his own sound. He wasn’t trendhopping or letting the band stagnate. At the end of the day, I can say that I am proud to be a part of these recordings. JAMESON: It’s the first commercially successful American black metal record. It opened many doors for bands that would never admit now that they came in on its coattails, and it helped them reach large audiences. Instinct: Decay is a benchmark record that did a lot for other bands, but because of the last 10 years, I’m not sure it’s going to get its due. No one would admit now that the reason their band could get on a big festival is Nachtmystium.

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Wolves in the Throne Room

CLIMBED MOUNTAINS AND LEARNED TO CHOP AND SCREW, JUST SO THEY COULD RIDE THE LIGHTNING story by JOSEPH SCH A FER • photos by A MJA D FAUR

lack metal as a genre is no stranger to diarchies. Celebrated acts including Enslaved, Satyricon and Darkthrone have sculpted notable and fascinating careers for themselves under the steady leadership of creative duos. ¶ Add Olympia, WA’s Wolves in the Throne Room to that pantheon of partnerships. Brothers Aaron and Nathan Weaver have been releasing expansive black metal since 2004. Like Raijin and Fujin, the traditional Japanese gods of lightning and storms, respectively, the Weavers are a mercurial pair who add excitement to the world while reminding mortal men of nature’s destructive power. With his thunderous drums, Raijin is a fitting analog for the drummer and elder brother Aaron; and Fujin, with his bag of winds, translates nicely to guitarist and vocalist Nathan. Together, their music has blown around the world like a divine gale. ¶ Their body of work—equally atmospheric and riffbased—has global appeal and is among the most significant in the genre to be written by Americans. Their seventh and newest album, Primordial Arcana, both encapsulates their sound in its most distilled, energetic form and shows Wolves in the Throne Room at the peak of their ambition. 5 2 : J U LY 2 0 2 1 : D E C I B E L

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“Wolves in the Throne Room are A-listers,” offers Daniel Lake, fellow Decibel scribe and author of USBM: A Revolution of Identity in American Black Metal, which devotes plenty of space to the now three-piece. “The band name became synonymous with the sound they defined; they’re the Meshuggah of their version of black metal.” That version of black metal, folkloric and ethereal, draws from the tradition of Norwegian BM bands with a pastoral flourish (such as Ulver and Windir); but in the Weavers’ hands, it has a unique ability to evoke the natural landscape of the Pacific Northwest, where the brothers have always called home.

THUNDER from a CLOUDLESS SKY

It isn’t as if Wolves came out of nowhere, though. The Weavers were part of a larger, but often underappreciated pack founded by Weakling, and later including peers like

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Ludicra and Agalloch—though their take on the genre most encapsulates the Cascadian aesthetic. “The band arrived on the scene during a kind of metal renaissance, after the late ’90s and early ’00s,” Lake says. “They remained committed to their original vision without clinging desperately to any of that old mystique, which could have been a goofy look in 2010 and beyond.” The esteem with which Lake holds Wolves is shared by the band’s peers as well. “Wolves in the Throne Room opened for our very eclectic Ashes Against the Grain record release show in Portland around early 2006. They were fantastic and had a strong stage presence even then,” remembers Don Anderson, former lead guitarist of Agalloch. “They’ve demonstrated how USBM has its own sound and can compete with the best black metal scenes in the world.” “They have definitely been outside during a winter’s night before, as we say here,” writes Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved, who brought WITTR as direct support on the 2018 Decibel Magazine Tour. “In their case, it is also literal—they are very close to nature and have zero rock-star crap attached to them.” According to Bjørnson, Wolves in the Throne Room’s legacy is already secure “for representing a distinguished, soulful and powerful soundscaping, laden with meaning and forgotten truths. While actually being able to not only sing about nature and hunting—but to also to be what they are singing about. No small feat.” But the two Weavers aren’t just big-name hunters; they’re also survivors in a genre with a high attrition rate. Forebears like Weakling, in addition to well-known allies Ludicra and Agalloch (as well as should-have-been-bigger upstarts like Embers), have come in from the cold—for now. In the words of emcee Aesop Rock, the heavy-hitting Cascadian black metal population has gone down from a huntable surplus to one. “We were all just hiking metal punks,” remembers Aaron Weaver, speaking to Decibel while sitting behind Owl Lodge. Wolves rarely granted interviews at the beginning of their career, but one wouldn’t know it while talking to Aaron. He’s game to answer any question with warmth and a wealth of anecdotes. “We were a bit lucky,” Aaron says regarding Wolves’ success. “We were there when the lightning was striking and the portal was open, and we stepped through it.” But crossing the threshold is only one step up the mountain that is building a career. Continuing the journey, for Aaron, was a family matter. “I think having Nathan and me as the core of the band helps because we have a united vision for what the music should sound like, so we have not had to deal with creative differences as much,” he muses. “Now, with Kody [Keyworth] in the band, it’s more powerful and focused because we’re all drinking from the same well, so to speak.”

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UNWOUND

JOINING the PANTHEON

The aforementioned Keyworth is the third and newest of the clan. He plays guitar opposite Nathan on all of Primordial Arcana, the first Wolves LP that prominently features his writing contributions. “My old band from Portland, Fall of the Bastards, played shows with Wolves back in 2004 or ’05,” Keyworth writes. “We were all part of the same West Coast underground music scene at the time. We usually played with crust or grind bands who were pretty confused about what we were doing.” In contrast, the Weavers played with a clarity of purpose that struck Keyworth: “It was hard to find bands to play with back then [that] I related to, and Wolves really stuck out to me, as they were very emotive, sincere and played hard.” From the beginning, the Weavers have been the only steady members of the band, choosing to fill their live lineup with session players. However, the Weavers’ powers are always at their peak with a third pack member—namely a second guitarist. Most notably, axeman Rick Dahlen joined the Weavers for their debut album, Diadem of 12 Stars, which this magazine named one of the best black metal albums of all time, and equally essential sophomore effort Two Hunters. Keyworth went from fan to live member in 2010, and toured with the band for seven years before being inducted into the fold. He’s credited on their previous record, 2017’s Thrice Woven, but that album was written before he could contribute. Primordial Arcana is the first Wolves album with his input, and he brings an energized sensibility to it that contrasts with its statelier predecessor. He’s also got a healthy sense of humor—a welcome contrast to the seriousness that black metal often demands. “My primary function is to create music that projects the listener into a mythical, oddly familiar, somewhat foreign world beyond the contemporary earthly realm,” he suggests. “Also, make sure you can headbang to it. Or bang to it.” It’s not difficult to see why a third perspective brings something extra to the band. The Weavers’ brotherhood has lent Wolves stability, but at the same time, an unrelated member that doesn’t intuitively know what one of the other brothers is thinking can throw a curveball—and you need curveballs to rock ‘n’ roll. “In alchemy, you need sulfur as an activator. You have two elements that are inert, but potentially explosive, and a third element that potentiates or amplifies them,” Aaron explains by way of metaphor—the gist being Keyworth is the sulfur of the group. “I see Kody’s essence as a container that allows the magic to unfold more fully.” AU G 2 0 2 1 •

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With Keyworth fully positioned in the band, Wolves’ magic indeed unfolds, but maybe it also unweaves. While Primordial Arcana is a logical continuation of the band’s sound, it also marks a departure from—or reaction against—the dry and sometimes folksy sound of its predecessor, Thrice Woven, which made No. 9 on Decibel’s Top 40 Albums of 2017 list. “From the beginning, our intention was for Primordial Arcana to have a very different sound than our past records,” writes Nathan, the more nocturnal of the brothers, who prefers to communicate via text and never grants phone interviews. “[2011’s] Celestial Lineage and Thrice Woven were both very earthy. We wanted this album to contrast these records.” His brother, unsurprisingly, shares his assessment: “[Thrice Woven] was consciously drawing from our home soil. For me, it’s very much the patch of forest that we live in. It’s very personal and a bit humble.” On the other hand, Primordial Arcana is aspirational, intentionally reaching for great heights—metaphorical and actual—while still drawing from Wolves’ landscape. “On the new record, we wanted to channel the power of the high mountains,” Aaron continues. “If you hike in the Olympics and the Cascades, once you get above 3,000 feet, everything changes. The stones change. The feel of the air changes; there’s different plants and animals up there. It’s a different atmosphere, a different energy. “You can’t build a city on top of a mountain, you can’t drive a car to the very top of a mountain; you have to go there on foot,” he continues. “That’s the place where the old spirits are still alive and can be accessed and communicated with.” Weaver’s conception of the mountain as a source of divine power, much like his music, draws on ancient mythological traditions—the Greek gods lived at the summit of Olympus, the same mountain that colonizers harkened to when they renamed the mountains around western Washington. In the occult tradition, the act of climbing a mountain represents a journey toward greater spiritual enlightenment; Aleister Crowley, for example, was an accomplished mountain climber, and saw ventures such as trying to climb K2 as part of his mystic practice. Considering how prominently the Cascadian and Olympiad range dominate Washington’s landscape, it’s almost surprising that Wolves haven’t followed the old ones to higher altitudes sooner—then again, conquering the stone is no easy task. “Some people hike a mountain, others choose to climb the craggy peaks, and some dig deep into the center to gain its secrets,” Keyworth writes. “All methods can bring you the knowledge you didn’t have before when you take the time to immerse yourself in the environment.”

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into a hard rock idiom—it was written in large part through sampling. “Sampling is my primary workflow these days,” Aaron affirms. “We make our own piece of music, sample it, then twist it and degrade it, and take it into a more shadowy realm.” He also composed riffs himself by pitching samples up and down—a zither, audible in “Spirit of Lightning” was his weapon of choice.

We were there when the lightning was striking and the portal was open,

AND WE STEPPED THROUGH IT. Aaron Weaver

IN THE HALL of the MOUNTAIN KINGS

The environment that Keyworth and the Weavers immersed themselves in for Primordial Arcana was Owl Lodge, the recording studio that the Weavers built for themselves in Nathan’s house. Aaron recorded, produced and engineered all of Primordial Arcana there, without input from anyone outside the band. “We really wanted to keep things in the cult on this record, starting with the production,” Nathan explains. “We recorded and mixed this record unassisted. It’s a really pure distillation of only our ideas and only what we want to put into music in a way we haven’t done before.” One might think keeping the production inhouse was a necessary concession to the COVID19 pandemic. But according to the band, their home-brewed approach came from the advice of a wise master and old friend. “I credit Randall [Dunn, longtime Wolves producer] with empowering us to do it,” Aaron affirms. “After Thrice Woven, he said, ‘You need to do [the next album] yourself; you have all the technical acumen. Just get the gear and do it.’ So we did.” Said gear informed the basic workflow that Wolves employed while crafting Primordial Arcana, as did the added time and freedom that working

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from home provides. Every band member mentioned that they felt at liberty to innovate and explore while creating this record—primarily via vintage electronics. “I suppose the first element of the songwriting really was the production we crafted because all the guitar and synth tones ended up inspiring quite a few song ideas,” Nathan writes. He and his brother implemented a surfeit of vintage samplers and rackmounted synthesizers to create the album’s basic elements. “Aaron went pretty deep into old ’80s samplers. My weapons of choice were my wide array of ’90s ROMpler rack synths, the kinds that would be used for the Dune soundtrack and old Swans albums. You just can’t recreate these ethereal and magnificent tones with plug-ins.” Since the beginning of Wolves’ recorded output, the Weavers have used synthesizers, often as atmospheric effects and a substitute for bass guitar. Their experimentation peaked on their electronic ambient album Celestite in 2014. That record caused a few Wolves fans to scratch their heads, but in retrospect, it’s a telltale sign of where the band would go on Primordial Arcana. While their latest isn’t another electronic diversion, it folds electronic songwriting approaches AU G 2 0 2 1 •

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“We created our own samples and based some of the riffs off of somewhat off-key samples,” Keyworth adds, describing a songwriting style reminiscent of—here’s one of those rock ‘n’ roll curveballs—DJ Screw. “I would write riffs, rewrite them backward, or would chop them up into chaos and rebirth them as fresh material. It was a completely different approach.”

LIGHTNING in a BOTTLE

Despite this unconventional approach, Primordial Arcana is one of the most riff- and songoriented albums in Wolves in the Throne Room’s discography, and contains some of the most rollicking rhythms the band has committed to wax. “The new songs came together quite naturally, and we weren’t trying to make traditional heavy metal anthems or anything like that,” Keyworth writes. “Well, traditional heavy metal anthems to welkin at dusk, maybe.” Some of Primordial Arcana’s vitality comes from its relative brevity, both in overall runtime—“It barely squeezes onto a single LP, somewhat miraculously,” Aaron says—but also individual compositions. At the start of their career, Wolves often composed quarter-hour songs. Only one piece on Primordial Arcana breaks the 10-minute mark. “We found ourselves ‘trying’ to write all long songs. Trying too hard.” Nathan writes. “Following the same path from our older

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contributed bass for the entirety of Primordial Arcana. He also contributes melodic vocals on “Through Eternal Fields,” filling the imitable shoes of predecessors Von Hauswolff and Jessika Kenney. While he may not be a full member of the band, it’s hard to listen to the album without imagining some of his hardcore swagger informing its raucous energy. “We’ve had bass players in the past, and we’ve had synth bass, but I’ve never had a really killer bass player to work in the low end with,” Aaron says of playing with Baudhuin. “It’s such a new experience, and it’s so fun to have someone holding it down like that.” Primordial Arcana is the first Wolves record to feature bass guitar since 2009’s Black Cascade, and Aaron admits that the two records have a similar rock ‘n’ roll energy. “Every record comes out of a time, and [2009] was a time when we were touring really hard, and you can hear it in the music; it’s very live and raw, it has less psychedelic ambiance, and it’s more about the power of the riff.” Wolves’ recent bombast goes deeper than just Baudhuin’s four-string attack, though. While the album was written in the Weavers’ homes, it arose after an intense three-year touring cycle wherein Wolves brought their metallic returnto-form to the stage across America as part of the Decibel Magazine Tour, as well as internationally supporting black metal heavy hitters like Enslaved and Dimmu Borgir.

albums felt very safe and easy, and also a little boring. Writing some shorter-length songs was much more of a challenge for us and more exciting.” “The songwriting is totally driven just by feeling and gut instinct,” Aaron says. “We won’t put together a demo, listen to it, and fool ourselves into thinking this 20-minute epic feels good. If it doesn’t feel good, it doesn’t make the record. I could see a return to the long-form songwriting, though. ‘Masters of Rain and Storm’ is fairly epic in scope.” He speaks the truth. The penultimate track, “Masters of Rain and Storm” is the album’s highlight, opening in the pastoral territory that was Wolves’ calling card at the beginning of their career, then transitioning into an energetic, galloping climax courtesy of Keyworth’s riff. Its metamorphosis from atmosphere to attack reads like a summation of the band’s evolution up to now.

LEGIONS DESCEND

Another significant departure from past endeavors is Primordial Arcana’s short and relatively insular list of guest contributors. In the past, Wolves have adorned their records with performances by their peers and heroes.

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Notable guests in their court include Steve Von Till of Neurosis and acclaimed organist Anna Von Hauswolff, who made significant contributions to Thrice Woven. In keeping with the homegrown ethos of its production, Primordial Arcana has a more private guest list. Yianna Bekris, the sole musician behind Olympia atmospheric doom act Vouna (Wolves’ own Artemisia Records released her debut album), contributes synthesizer and acoustic guitar on one track apiece. “The music just didn’t call for many guests,” Nathan writes. He explains that high-profile collaborations are “something we’ve done quite a few times with our older albums, and we were tempted to do it again just because we felt that maybe ‘we should,’ but it felt right to keep this one within the Wolfcult.” “It’s hard to top What Steve [Von Till] contributed on Thrice Woven,” Aaron agrees. “The record also didn’t need it; it stood on its own.” The big exception to that rule is Galen Baudhuin, the guitarist and singer behind chronically overlooked progressive black metal band Infera Bruo, and former bassist of wicked hardcore luminaries Trap Them. Baudhuin has toured as Wolves’ live bassist since 2019, and AU G 2 0 2 1 •

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666 INTERNATIONAL

As impressive as Primordial Arcana is, it’s one studio achievement among many—and many other black metal bands have been able to find excellence in recording, even with minimal funding, time or equipment. However, many of Wolves’ most esteemed contemporaries and influences have not translated live, either because of lineup instability or by choice. On the other hand, Wolves have always thrived onstage, despite their fair share of turnover and experimentation. Additionally, the same international audiences that are sometimes skeptical of American black metal have embraced them. “It is true that we’ve done well in Europe, and our tours over there have been on par with our American tours from the very beginning— which was a pleasant surprise for us,” Nathan writes, reminiscing on those early gigs where Wolves made a connection with their foreign fanbase. “I remember our first European tour for Two Hunters sometime around 2007. I hadn’t been to the Old World since I was in high school, and I had never been to a European metal show. It was amazing to look out into the audience and see so many metalheads wearing leather and spikes, combat boots and camo. I had never seen a room full of people windmilling before, and it was glorious.”

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Wolves in the Throne Room

VOICE of the SOUL

In his book The Art of Dramatic Writing, playwright Lajos Egri makes a case for the purpose of creative expression. To make a short book shorter, his thesis comes down to this: Narrative art is about presenting a worldview to other people for them to evaluate. This applies to myths, too. When Odin hangs himself on a tree in exchange for writing, then gifts it to humanity, the worldview is that it’s worth making tremendous sacrifices in exchange for enlightenment... so long as you share that enlightenment. Which begs the question: What worldview is the band trying to convey? It’s apparent that love and admiration for nature lie at the core of Wolves in the Throne Room as a project—

“To be fair, Wolves don’t get a pass from everyone,” says Lake. “Some Europhiles dismiss the band’s sound as a rip-off of the Scandinavian frozen forest vibe. The eco-spiritual bent chafes for anyone who expects metal to be a vehicle for pure evil, and others think they’re dabbling without going far enough. But it’s this feet-in-both-worlds quality that has grown their audience. The Weavers connect authentically to their natural surroundings, but they also write legitimate metal bangers more than stream-ofconsciousness rituals. In answer to almost any complaint about the band, there’s a song you can play to silence the detractors.” “I don’t think anyone should be too preoccupied with being accepted in Europe or whatnot,” says Bjørnson. “I have myself never had an issue with listening to U.S. black metal in any different way than I would a Norwegian, Swedish or French or Czech or San Marino band. But if one is to care about the Euro-U.S. thing, and I might be wrong as I often am, [but] there seems to have been a lot of internal ‘strife’ in the U.S. about what is ‘real’ and not.” The trick to this whole international genre boundary, according to Bjørnson, is to relax a little. “Black metal is easy: It goes with the ideology. The people doing it know if they are behind it. Why spend time and energy policing the others?”

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To Bjønson’s point, and Lake’s, Aaron sees Wolves’ ability to cross cultural boundaries stemming totally—and maybe paradoxically—from their connection to the Pacific Northwest. “We were absolutely the exception, and I know exactly why,” Aaron says. “Because we were drawing upon our own landscape, we were drawing upon our own forests, our own trees, our own gods, our own ancestors. “Our intent was so clear. There was never any ambiguity with what we were doing,” he continues. “At the same time, we paid homage to the European creators of the genre with great respect. I think we walked that line very gracefully. We honored the originators by doing our own things, not by wearing corpsepaint and singing about Norwegian mythology.” Keyworth agrees that the core of their appeal, the thing that lets Wolves speak to people who know little about the Cascades, is, paradoxically, how quintessentially tied to the PNW they are. “The music speaks to [listeners] in that it evokes the mountain peaks, towering cedars, endless rain, ferns unfolding and moss growing out of the Pacific Northwest,” he says. “People are yearning for music that connects them to nature in an honest way. Whether the natural landscape is completely foreign to them or familiar, they feel it.” AU G 2 0 2 1 •

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My primary function is to create music that projects the listener into a mythical, oddly familiar, somewhat foreign world beyond the contemporary earthly realm. Also, make sure,

YOU CAN HEADBANG TO IT. OR BANG TO IT. Kody Keyworth

but the love of nature is a theme, not a worldview. So, what are the Weavers and Keyworth offering for us to evaluate? (Beyond sick riffs, of course.) “My worldview is atavistic,” Aaron says with great earnestness. “The earth is a living entity, a benevolent entity, and the mountains and rivers are literal spirits that have a selfhood and a personhood, and the plants and the animals have a spirit to them, and by honoring and working with these spirits that you contact through music, or imagination or dreams, great benefit or wisdom can come to you.”

A R e volu tion of identit y in A mer ic A n Bl Ack M e ta l by DA N I E L L A K E foreword by TOM G A BR I E L WA R R IOR

AvAi l aBle exclusively at

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Wolves in the Throne Room

Both Weaver brothers stress that their music is meant to deliver a spiritual message, not a political one. Even so, viewing streams and forests as spirits with personhood does gesture towards real political endeavors, such as conservation efforts or, more controversially, guerilla forest defense—an activity that some fans associated the band with early on. This is likely where some readers check out on Wolves—as Lake hinted earlier, their ecospiritual bent isn’t traditionally tough in the way some metal bands portray themselves, but neither does it lend itself to direct action the way more overt acts do. But let’s take their premise on its merits. Though the Weavers insist that they don’t mean to preach, their music presents their convictions magnetically and forcefully—so convincingly that it’s easy to see it as an invitation to join them in unabashed adoration of the wilderness, even if it doesn’t neatly graph onto causes, policies or initiatives the way other green-inclined metal like, say, Gojira, does. That’s black metal’s core strength as a style—it projects worldview better as a rule than any other style of metal does, albeit somewhat messily. For Aaron’s part, as convinced as he is of his beliefs, he refuses to judge the beliefs of others or more empirical interpretations of the world. “I am very aware that this is my own personal belief system expressed through the music, and one can take that and do anything they want with it,” he says. “I don’t think it’s any more or less real than any other way of living life. I don’t think a hardcore rationalist or realist is wrong—I see that worldview, and there’s a lot of beauty in it.” To Aaron, belief is something people ought to opt into, rather than just be subjected to, and in an often ideologically dogmatic world, that’s a radical notion. “I think as human beings we can choose what we want to see, what we want to believe, and this is what I choose.” Making that choice hasn’t just brought Wolves into the popular imagination of metalheads internationally; it’s also brought the Weavers some degree of happiness as people. “There is ancient primordial wisdom that is in the earth,” Aaron says. “No matter what unknowable mysteries the earth descends into, there’s a peace in touching that wisdom and feeling it in your heart. It’s provided me a lot of guidance.”

TWILIGHT of the GODS

There’s also tangible benefit in making the same choice that the Weavers and Keyworth have. Current climate science points to the earth’s ecosystems approaching an impasse, after which humanity will no longer be able to reverse the warming effect caused by carbon emissions. After four years of regression, it

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seems like there is at the very least some movement toward policies with teeth that might avert a worst-case climate scenario—but any American legislation on that front is bound up in partisan gridlock. Making progress with the climate will require convincing a more significant majority of Americans to prioritize environmentalism in their politics and their personal choices—something that pure rationalism has failed at so far. In this writer’s opinion, winning the hearts of a majority of Americans will mean adopting a more extensive toolkit than purely academic science. To accomplish that, a worldview like the Weavers’ may be essential. And that point isn’t lost on the band, either. “The world is in chaos at the moment, and it’s at a tipping point,” Nathan writes. “I believe that the human species will need to draw upon the wisdom of our ancestors to survive our current era. Metal is one way for people to interface with mythical realities, magic, ritual and our history as a species. I hope this album can in some small way help the listener down their path.” Following that path might seem unrealistic, but it also might be the source of great good in the world, at least according to Aaron. “As I get older, it becomes clearer and clearer that creativity is the source, the key,” he says. “The idea that has not yet been beheld is out there somewhere, an idea that will be birthed that has the opportunity to bring great peace— I almost want to say love—that will wash away a lot of the madness we all experience as moderns. You could say that’s just a fantasy— well, why not imagine that? Why not seek that philosopher’s stone through art and music?”

KILLING TECHNOLOGY

There is an ironic tension between the Wolves’ worldview and their art, though. The degradation of the earth’s biome has been empowered by technological advancement—and heavy metal is not possible without technology, from the circuitry and voltage needed for amplification and distortion to the burning fuel that enables touring. That tension isn’t lost on the Weavers, but neither does it inhibit them. “I suppose it is a bit ironic, and it’s also just reality,” Nathan muses. “We are modern humans, and we are all locked into this same system—a system which might collapse in our lifetime. Artists throughout time have had to live and operate within the system they are born into. Some of them used the system to help change it.” AU G 2 0 2 1 •

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You could call their view of technology optimistic, or at least incompatible with the Luddite image pinned on them. “An alternative for an artist in our time would be to burn all their technology and money and move into the wilderness to create their art in isolation without an internet connection,” Nathan continues, “but then who would hear their music or their message? This type of complete rejection of society and technology isn’t for me. In my opinion, technology isn’t the issue; it’s how it’s being used.” “It’s true—you need the thunder god there,” Aaron admits. “Going back to the old origins of magic and science, they were intertwined. Shamans were also metallurgists who worked with the forbidden in order to develop new technologies and expand into new possibilities for culture. I feel the power of that lineage of blacksmiths, shamans and wizards. Our alchemic forge is the studio, and the electric guitar and the drum kit.”

ETERNAL RAINS WILL COME

Wolves see themselves as bearing the torches of many lineages, but they’ve also helped light a few fires themselves. While most of Wolves’ cohort is in hibernation, atmospheric black metal is experiencing a surge in popularity on sites like Bandcamp, where artists like Mage Cognitum, Dawn Ray’d and Spectral Lore command adoring fanbases through cosmic imagery and potent worldviews. At the same time, like a clear-cut forest that’s begun to grow back, the Cascadian black metal lineage continues in the Pacific Northwest with bands like Izthmi, Addaura, Exulansis and Isenordal carrying on in a more distinctly Wolves-ian vein. Aaron Weaver hasn’t heard these bands as of our interview—though he’s taking notes—but he’s not surprised. “I have kind of assumed that there would be a resurgence of these bands sooner or later,” he says. “If Ulver’s Nattens Madrigal or Bergtatt is the template, then it’s time for a new iteration— maybe a laptop-based iteration—to emerge into the world. It seems like the time.” Not all of these bands will write an album with the electric power of Primordial Arcana or join Wolves in the pantheon, but it seems likely that at least one will; because, like the changing of the seasons, metal’s cycles never cease. The wolf cult will remain very much alive. “Metal, more than any other genre, seems eternal to me,” Aaron says. “It takes new forms. I think it comes down to atavism. Metal is trying to be eternal; it draws upon an ancient and deep well of magic and mythology. It has deep roots that tap into energies and feelings that other styles of music just can’t touch.” Or, more succinctly, “Because metal’s the best!”

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INSIDE ≥

66 BAT MAGIC To hell and bat 69 DESASTER Never trust the virgin preacher

ALL THE NOISE THAT FITS

69 GALLOWS Kathaarian life code 4life 74 POWERWOLF Wolves in the Comedy Store 76 XASTHUR Folk, implosion

Existence Is Fruitful

AUGUST

Melodic death metal heroes AT THE GATES are no longer just dreaming of indulging their experimental side

Records delayed by the pandemic crisis

Records delayed by the vinyl crisis

Records delayed by the USPS crisis

Records delayed by not coming up with a better band name than Fetus Eaters

e really feel that there are no boundaries for the band anymore,” said At the Gates frontman Tomas Lindberg in November 2020. “That the pressure is AT THE off.” For a band that began with a release like The Red in the Sky GATES Is Ours and found an unexpected death not long after Slaughter of The Nightmare the Soul, it would appear as if boundaries originated externally. of Being Indeed, pressure exerted itself post-mortem when At the Gates— CENTURY MEDIA almost exclusively with Slaughter of the Soul—were suddenly and inexplicably central to the rise of metalcore in the early aughts. When the Swedes officially self-administered epinephrine in 2010, the now-legendary weight of past lives and previous works were palpable at best and creatively unfair at worst. Really, nobody wanted Slaughter of the Soul II, but really everybody wanted Slaughter of the Soul II. Creatures of habit, we weren’t to be denied the heresy of South of Heaven again. ¶ Pedestals are meant to be destroyed. Sacred cows are ushered to their slaughter.

ILLUSTRATION BY MARK RUDOLPH [MARKRUDOLPH.COM]

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Mass appeal | R E L A P S E

The Greek philosopher Aristotle suggested that music offered three purposes: education, catharsis and rest from tension. On Amenra’s first album for Relapse and seventh overall, all three are sublimely realized. Moving away from their Mass I-VI format, Belgium’s soul-purging six-piece has not ceased to deliver their Church of Ra sermons, but instead, with De Doorn, they are holding private confession, creating a transcendent space for inner reflection, the pathway to that pristine moment of absolution revealed over five churning, immersive, hardcore-enthused doom mantras that are truly the culmination of 21 years of collective symbiosis, and yet uniquely of this very world-shifting moment in history.

It’s the band’s first album performed solely in their mother tongue, and in Flemish, Colin H. Van Eeckhout sounds even more part-shaman/ part-accidentally unleashed ancient spirit. In a moment when navel-gazing has been forced uneasily on us all—whether that be by the decimation of our business-as-usual or by sitting in the discomfort of world affairs—it makes sense that Amenra have also reflected inward, choosing to be smaller, to sing in the language of their community, to focus less on the global and more on the grief, solace and instability of the past year. And through that meditation they have emerged as world-beating and sonically vital as they have ever been, emerging from that chrysalis to face whatever the “new normal” is, enlightened and renewed. —LOUISE BROWN

BAT MAGIC And awards are destined not for marbled mantles, but bathroom stall doors (hey, Enslaved!). Almost three years have passed since To Drink From the Night Itself got its heady start in the green room of New York City’s now-defunct PlayStation Theater. What could At the Gates have in store for their largely purblind following? It took more than five years for Slaughter of the Soul to emerge kingly from the abyss. We’re only beginning to grasp the genius that is “The Book of Sand (The Abomination),” “The Night Eternal” and two-minute bullet “Death and the Labyrinth,” all from 2014’s comeback At War With Reality. And still, To Drink From the Night Itself—with jewels in “A Stare Bound in Stone,” “Daggers of Black Haze” and “In Nameless Sleep”—continues to fly overhead, humbly contemptuous of the import we’ve placed upon the 66 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

shoulders of several musically-inclined Gothenburgers who just happened to have changed our lives in one way or another. The Nightmare of Being is the album we’ve wanted since “Within,” “Stardrowned,” “The Fevered Circle” and “Under a Serpent Sun” burrowed into and occupied our feeble minds with extreme aggression. As much as the gun cock in “Suicide Nation” and Lindberg’s singlesyllable pontification on “Slaughter of the Soul” send us into an uncontrollable frenzy, there’s a silent majority out there secretly pining for the return of yesteryear’s “Alf-isms.” The careful consideration of The Nightmare of Being isn’t in its eccentric moments—perhaps starting with the saxophone in “Garden of Cyrus” and ending with the covert Sonic Youth-isms of “Cosmic Pessimism”—but with its more standard fare.

Feast of Blood SORE EAR

True bat metal

I am all for releases that take the piss out of black metal. The genre is stale and bloated. The only way you can do something meaningful with it is to either have fun or record something so left of center that listeners question whether a 666th new genre modifier is needed. Bat Magic’s Feast of Blood is seemingly a parody release. The band’s stage names include HE WHO DRINKS THE BLOOD OF SLEEPING BABIES. (I thought that was Cronos—see “Bloodlust.”) The mysterious sect says that “Bat Magic was quickly composed in 2017 and shelved for a few years before being brought back seemingly at random.”

PHOTO BY JEROEN MYLLE

AMENRA, De Doorn

Opening track “Spectre of Extinction,” “The Paradox,” “Touched by the White Hands of Death” (sans flute intro) and “The Abstract Enthroned” are At the Gates, the group’s trademark declarative aggression and metaphorical finger-wagging streamlined definitively. They’re wickedly clever in that way, actually. But they stand still compared to the abstractions, experimentalisms and novelty of “The Fall Into Time” (nice nod to Camel here), “Garden of Cyrus” (bass and solo interplay impress), the title track (with its beautifully slow burn), “Cosmic Pessimism” (light-footed, yet driving) and heavy mental album capper “Eternal Winter of Reason.” The result is an album that, at first blush, appears at odds with itself. On one hand, the primaries in At the Gates are desperate to be without the yoke they still wear, while on the other, the very DNA of what they started as teenagers needs to be protected from unfettered intrusion. The co-production of Jens Bogren (drums) and Andy LaRocque (guitars, bass) fits what The Nightmare of Being is attempting: an integration of influences, sounds and visions that span different worlds. The duo’s work results in a clear and deep, yet (obviously) heavy production that has teeth and the dreamy stuff where they’re required the most. Never are the Swedes overtly obtuse or too clever on The Nightmare of Being. They’re between states, experiencing a re-chrysalis of sorts. Anger, frustration and despair haven’t been extinguished in their intensity, but there are other emotions, life experiences and expressive urges surfacing that need time to coalesce harmoniously. For now, the Swedes have offered an interesting, if slightly uneven window into their true potential. Fear the shape of At the Gates to come… —CHRIS DICK

Feast of Blood suffers from the same problem as Spinal Tap did with hair metal: Where do listeners go when a parody band is better in both spirit and execution than a bunch of bands that take this shit seriously? This album smokes. The feel is vintage Marduk from the Opus Nocturne era, or Darkthrone Under a Funeral Moon. The only departure is that the production is almost crystal clear, but I think this was recorded in a studio near a Midwestern strip mall with a Ruby Tuesday rather than in the basement of Helvete. There are even some guitar heroics in the closing minutes that make you want to bust out a lighter. Feast of Blood speaks to the weird place metal is in circa 2021. I know they want me to write about how clever they are and the funny liner notes, but I almost don’t care because it sounds the way this music should. Baudrillard’s vision has been realized—the simulacrum is now more authentic than the original. I don’t know if this is terrifying or breathtaking or both. —JUSTIN M. NORTON

CRAVEN IDOL

Forked Tongues DARK DESCENT

The devil sends the beast with wrath, for he knows the songs are long

As the 43rd president of the United States famously said, the problem with the Greeks is that they don’t have a word for apocalypse. Well, won’t he be getting the shock of his life when the DHL package arrives from Dark Descent’s Colorado Springs headquarters containing his first-press vinyl of Craven Idol’s latest firebreather. The third studio album from the North London blackened-thrash classics enthusiasts is the alpha and omega of heavy metal meditations on Ancient Greece’s eschatological mythos. And, as it turns out, Armageddon is much-changed over the years. It was a lot more colorful in those days. There was no duck-and-cover for Democritus, no mushroom clouds over the Parthenon. Delivered over

CRYPTA, Echoes of the Soul

Nervosa, but not | N A PA L M

It’s a pleasant, though none too common occurrence for people to leave a good, successful band and start another one of equal or greater value. But Crypta are setting themselves up for that with debut full-length Echoes of the Soul. Featuring two former members of Nervosa— vocalist/bassist Fernanda Lira and drummer Luana Dametto—it would be surprising if fans of the former weren’t pretty heavily into this.

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While that band channels a lot of black metal and death influences into their thrash, this record is more like blackened and thrashed death metal, offering the usual fast drums, shredding guitars and Lira’s terrifying ghoul-witch vocals. But beyond that, the actual songwriting is incredibly strong, with distinct hooks and some truly memorable melodic solos that soar above the bloodbath. And when the band slows down, they’re even more effective at keeping your attention.

savage second-wave black metal riffs, Viking stein-swinging grooves and full-blast pummeling with whiplash tempo changes, Craven Idol portray these end times via a spectacular display of audio bloodletting, moral turpitude and beast worship. Listening to the epic “Deify the Stormgod,” its lightning-feel changes and dimension-ripping extremity is truly exhilarating, akin to those moments of awe when, as a child, you first saw Harryhausen’s stop-motion Talos awaken in Jason and the Argonauts. Sometimes we forget that extreme metal is in the entertainment business. It doesn’t matter that we might hear a Bathory riff abutting an upcycled NWOBHM melody because quality songwriting is the great emulsifier, and Craven Idol are on-point. Furthermore, it is the performances that count, as exemplified on the title track, a blackened thrash tour de force that plays gangbusters on record, but sounds engineered for the stage. Or, ya know, for the end of the world—whichever comes first. —JONATHAN HORSLEY

If there is any problem here, it’s a common one, which is that the record starts to run out of steam towards the end. While they close out well with “From the Ashes,” it takes “Blood Stained Heritage” and “Dark Night of the Soul” to get there, tracks that either could have been trimmed significantly or cut altogether instead of feeling like side-B filler. As far as what a debut is supposed to do, though, Echoes of the Soul is fairly successful. The shadow of Nervosa may hang over Crypta right now, but if they keep putting out music like this, it won’t be for long. —SHANE MEHLING

DESASTER

Churches Without Saints M E TA L B L A D E

Total Desaster

After 25 years, the cliché with Desaster albums is to wryly note that the veteran Teutonic hellraisers have elected not to incorporate violins, hip-hop beats or operatic sopranos, emphasizing the sturdy reliability of this patch-denim warhorse and their timehonored black/death/thrashing overkill. And yet, on their ninth LP, the Koblenz quartet actively flirts with shock-horror impulses, reaching a quizzical pinnacle with the New Wavey cadences of atmospheric closer “Aus Asche,” flaunting gothic whispered vocals and an almost Johnny Marr twang to the clean guitar line. There’s breathing space among the varied tempos, from rocksteady simplicity on “Exile Is Imminent” to the windswept title track, harkening back to the doomy Viking plod of Hammerheart-era Bathory. It’s noteworthy that, for the first time since 1996 debut A Touch of Medieval Darkness, there’s no Tormentor behind the kit, and his replacement might seem a surprising choice. After a brief career in the late-’90s death-thrash underground, Marco Hontheim spent 16 years with German indie pop-rockers Jupiter Jones— award-winning urban ballad in the German Top 10 and everything—and his affectionate diminutive pseudonym Hont sits rather uneasily next to bandmates named Sataniac, Infernal and Odin. Yet, the power of the drums is a key factor of this album’s sound, the toms rammed upfront and almost punching out the speakers, Hont unloosing a euphoric flurry of D-beats and blast beats like a hungry dog let off the leash in a field of fat rabbits. Founding guitarist Infernal notes in the PR that his conscious drive for the sound was something “warmer and smoother,” in contrast to the high-frequency harshness of 2018’s The Oath of an Iron Ritual. Accordingly, there’s way less BM influence, Desaster favoring the raucous bludgeon of death-thrash on choppy bangers like “Armed Architects of Annihilation” and “Hellputa.” —CHRIS CHANTLER

THE FLIGHT OF SLEIPNIR

Eventide

EISENWALD

A horse to bet on

This prolific Colorado band chose an apt name when you consider the dynamic sound that they’ve crafted across

seven full-lengths, including this latest opus for Eisenwald. Named after Odin’s eightlegged stallion, which could carry the Norse god by land, sea and air to Hell’s gates and beyond, the music made by this four-piece is as swift, pounding, graceful and multifaceted as the legendary movements of their mythological counterpart. On Eventide, the Flight of Sleipnir’s folkand BM-imbued post-metal/doom finally has a resounding production worthy of the rich Americana atmospherics, soaring melodic interplay and sheer sonic doom-heft that this band can wield at will. Acidic, wretched screams burn through thunderous instrumental passages that smoothly transition from earthy neofolk to pure Agallochian grandstanding, by way of the melancholic mastery of Katatonia. The latter’s influence can best be heard during the widescreen scope of “Harvest,” particularly during its delicate first act, a track that rivals the Wild West post-BM of fellow Coloradans Wayfarer as it progresses. But it’s the influence of Agalloch that once again casts the largest shadow across the Flight of Sleipnir’s sublimely textured and carefully arranged music. Sure, this might be an easy comparison to make, but it’s one that rings true. And since that legendary band no longer exists and their void remains noticeable, U.S. folk metal is all the better for a band like TFOS stepping up to the mantle (pun intended) with a record as evocative and expertly conceived as this. —DEAN BROWN

GALLOWS

66 Black Wings K ATA FA L Q U E

66(6) blackened riffs

Black metal was never meant to be glamorous. Darkthrone certainly made the strongest case for this on Under a Funeral Moon—a smattering of haphazardly slapped-together riffs, all nuance rendered secondary or accidental. Black metal’s parentage, at least in the post-second wave world, is this gross miasma of riffwork and tones thrown together into some semblance of song form. At least, that’s how it was. Newcomers Gallows, a mysterious duo from Colorado and Massachusetts, look back to this golden age of black metal and simply ignore everything from 1995 onward. On 66 Black Wings, which is purported to actually be composed of 66 riffs, Gallows give the black metal world a history lesson, a strong and unearthly foundation atop which all black metal’s current style and atmosphere experiments reside.

A shambling, desiccated corpse of microideas and sonic aggressions, 66 Black Wings’ greatest achievement is the sinister aura it emits. Through piecing riff after riff in a linear puzzle, Gallows’ sound expounds upon itself as it progresses, taking the listener on a journey through ghastly graveyards, abandoned castles and (very) inhabited caves. Without thought put towards the glitz and glamour of modernity, Gallows’ rejection allows its skeletal form to unveil its true nature: one of malice, disgust and evil. This review wouldn’t be complete without referencing vocalist Mouth of Greed’s terrifying performance. Operating halfway between a growl and glass-gargling rasp, he offers a memorable departure from the crabbier sounds that often occupy black metal’s vocal space. When paired with multi-instrumentalist Lord Elzevir’s ghastly sound attack, Gallows casts a long shadow in a thick night. —JON ROSENTHAL

HEATHEN DEITY

True English Black Metal

C U LT N E V E R D I E S

PG Tips and burning churches

British black metal act Heathen Deity originally formed in the genre’s late-’90s heyday—to wit, Black Shining Leather, Satanic Art, Nightwing—but are only just now arriving at their debut album, True English Black Metal. The members of the Derbyshire-based lot have, however, had their black candles burning in more nefarious acts such as Hecate Enthroned, A Forest of Stars and Thy Dying Light. Based on title and cover art alone—perhaps a nod to Jannicke WieseHansen’s Dark Medieval Times, uh, illustration— Heathen Deity’s black metal is firmly rooted in an era where Pytten-level production was considered hi-fi. That is to say, True English Black Metal reminisces deftly, its improperly exposed band photo mirroring its cold-sharp riffs, croak ‘n’ groan vocals, riffy dissonance play and abandoned abbey disposition. Opening track “Burn in Satan’s Name” has that Norge thing combined with an odd dose of NWOBHM before descending hell-first into prime-age Setherial goat horns. Follow-up tracks “Condemned to Conception,” “Gut the Church,” “The Lord of the Knell” and dive bar-dirty “The Black Goat Infernal” march wickedly to a similar winterblasted call. For variation (and continued Nordic genuflection), Heathen Deity pull out a folk-time Ulver-esque “ballad” in “Beneath the Fires of Albion,” while closer “The Shards DECIBEL : AUGUST 2021 : 69

THROUGH A A SPEAKER SPEAKER THROUGH

RUMBLY RU MBLY

In the Nightside Tape Hiss of Winter” has that if-Morningrise-had-been-aMorgan Håkansson-production forest/ petrichor expanse. Spread across Heathen Deity’s 75-minute retro-apt black, there’s fuel for all old-guy fires. Indeed, the Brits aren’t reinverting the cross on True English Black Metal, but who really cares about innovation or paradigm shifts when such reckless hate flies so convincingly on leathery wings? —CHRIS DICK

ICEBURN

Asclepius S O U T H E R N LO R D

Smart went crazy (again)

Even in the context of a highly evolutionary, boundary-smashing 1990s post-hardcore scene, Iceburn were uniquely progressive and visionary. Like, one foot in metal-influenced hardcore punk, the other in a weird surrealist alternate universe that apparently only they could access. And at first, it produced wondrous work. From the quickening of Firon (1992) and, especially, Hephaestus (1993) through the hypnotic, sprawling, wobbling-on-the-rails Meditavolutions (1996), the brilliance enhanced the more primal “rock” elements. Unfortunately, the vibe shifted around this time to what might be called an Icarian mindset. There is such a thing as being too clever for your own good, and it’s difficult to argue that a quantum physics-inspired album like Power of the Lion (1998)—comprised of tracks that, as AllMusic notes, were “conceived of as a modular music system which could be played in numerous combinations or in a collage”(!)— proved the maxim. Now comes Asclepius, Iceburn’s first recorded output in 20 years. All signs were positive: The band dumped the latter-day “Collective” from its name and kept the O.G. circa-1990 lineup that reunited in 2007. And while one might quibble with the length of a jammy groove here or a bit of ambience there, the most excellent news is that these two tracks—titled, with apropos grandeur, “Healing the Ouroboros” and “Dahlia Rides the Firebird”—really are a quote-unquote return to form (however determinedly nontraditional such a thing necessarily is in Iceburn’s nimble, accomplished. uh, collective hands). It’s not quite back to the punchy glory days, but it’s an engaging and ambitious throwback to those middle on-the-edge years. Smart got a bit of its form and fire back—and for those of us who have long admired the empyrean idiosyncratic beauty of Iceburn, that is an extremely welcome development. —SHAWN MACOMBER 70 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

BY DUTCH PEARCE

BLOOD TOWER

SPEAR OF TEUTA

MOONWORSHIPPER

FORBIDDEN SONORITY

Northern Smoke Northern Smoke gathers seven loamy, campfirescented dungeon synth tracks from longstanding Nebraskan dungeon lord Blood Tower. Recorded in February of this year, these new tracks represent some of Blood Tower’s most concise and focused material so far. In typically less than three minutes, the veteran dungeoneer conveys a range of emotions with an array of organic-feeling sounds to staggering effect. Several tracks tremble with boulderous timpanis, but all shine with that certain Blood Tower glimmer. Probably the hardest title we’ll get from dungeon synth this year, too.

Scorn

From somewhere in Croatia, the one-person project Spear of Teuta followed up quick with this twosong EP, almost as if to say their self-titled demo, released at the end of last year, was more than the result of some fleeting inspiration. Released a month after that three-song pressstopper, Scorn represents two more rich blasts of Adriatic fresh air. It’s honed to the point of coldness, yet these tracks seem as if borne on a warm breeze. This juxtaposition remains the project’s enigmatic selling point. Somewhere in the fertile, strange soil between Molchat Doma, Wagner Ödegård, Brånd and early Rotting Christ, something like Spear of Teuta may spring up, but it’s unlikely. Too solid to be a gimmick, too prolific to be a fluke.

GRAANCIRKEL

PHTHISIS

MURDER ON PONCE

GURGLING GORE

Demo MMXXI The Indonesian act Graancirkel (another name for “crop circles”) play lo-fi UFO black metal. Unlike the resurrected black ambient outsider Ahulabrum, Graancirkel deliver four tracks of fullblown surfy and punk-spined black metal of the necro and sonically distorted variety on their debut demo. Brought stateside by Murder on Ponce, Graancirkel could likely be the work of someone from the Order of the Abyssal Moon collective, but this is one of the most interesting projects I’ve heard from the current Indonesian hotbed of BM. Four-for-four on Demo MMXXI, layers of blown-out reverberations work to Graancirkel’s advantage, especially as something like a theremin ceaselessly sings in the depths of this smothering wall of abduction.

WÜLFSKOL

Satanik Death Militia G O AT T H R O N E

Texas-based label Goat Throne is on a roll lately, and this Wülfskol EP offers some refreshing variety to the repertoire without sacrificing their commitment to exclusively unleashing pure hell. With a name like Wülfskol, you may think you know what you’re getting, but vocalist David Herrera (of the mighty Imprecation) will chew your smart little head right off. Satanik Death Militia is like if Speedwolf really had been werewolves. Furiously evil and absolutely explosive with a nuclear energy, these six tracks of death/speed metal will leave you reeling and wanting for more. “Death is all around! Yargh!”.

Embodiment of Decay Originally released last year by the band themselves, Embodiment of Decay is the demo from Denverbased death metal monolith Phthisis. Four monstrous, end-level tracks stacked on top of each other leaves the listener feeling pretty banged up by the end of this 22-minute tape, but that’s what we’re after—and 100 tapes wasn’t nearly enough. Good thing Gurgling Gore stepped up with the repress a cool year after its initial release, because this is death metal, not trendy background music. This stuff doesn’t go stale. Tentacled and slimy, yet primordially heavy, Embodiment of Decay brings all the best out of death-doom without sounding like the spawn of subgenre inbreeding. Phthisis instead unleash riff after snarling, alien riff upon the listener, except when they don’t during the doomed-out first half of the title track—but that’s sick, too.

ZMIARCVIEŁY

Cornaje Połymia CALIGARI

Unpredictable and subtle, Cornaje Połymia is a glimpse into the potential of anonymous black metal artist(s) Zmiarcvieły. After a too-brief ambient track, the first song is unexpectedly instrumental, but deliciously sad-paced. “III” feels more like typical European black metal, but built with somber chords and ultimately hitting more like early Circle of Ouroborus than Darkthrone. Probably a little too weird for impatient listeners who need pummeling straight away, but those who make it to “IV,” the closer, will be glad they stuck around when the Isengard vibes set in. Not to mention those bass scales. Simultaneously straightforward and strange, Zmiarcvieły is a project to watch out for—good luck with the name.

LUNA’S CALL

Void

LISTENABLE

Impressive metal band does non-metal impressively

“Progressive metal” often creates a reverse implication to the assumption provided by the subgenre’s title. Bands get roped into sounding a certain way, yet when they do something truly progressive, armchair neckbeards get all, “Hold on a second, Skippy” before reining them in for coloring outside the lines—essentially, ostracizing progressive bands for actually being progressive. This quartet from the U.K. does the metal part of the billing well enough, as they offer broad swaths of technical fidgeting from all corners played through enough modern tone technology to have shareholders at reamping software companies considering second yachts. Opeth, Ihshan, Leprous, Ne Obliviscaris and especially Between the Buried and Me feature heavily all over Void. The fork in the road as it pertains to the band’s second album is that the highlights are those truly progressive, expansive and non-metal moments. Luna’s Call are undoubtedly adept at delivering the metal— “In Bile They Bathe” is particularly ferocious— but an inhibiting amount is interchangeable with the last handful of BTBAM records. It’s the Tales From Topographic Oceans vocal breaks on “Merced’s Footsteps,” the playful fantasy flick soundtrack-traipsing and bohemian market breakdown in “Signs,” the orchestral layers and vocal soaring in the final third of “Locus,” the White Albummeets-Relayer-meets-THRAK midsection in the 14-plus-minute “Solar Immolation” and the lurching piano/acoustic guitar/vocal interlude that is most of “Enceladus and the Life Inside” (and how all of the above is weaved into the heavy shit) that provides Void with its sense of individuality. And makes Luna’s Call a prime target for gatekeeper stink-eyes. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

MAYHEM

Atavistic Black Disorder/Kommando CENTURY MEDIA

From the dark present

Back in the stone age, Mayhem changed the metal world with an EP called Deathcrush. If you own an original copy of this EP, you could pay for two years of tuition at an expensive college. The 2021 Mayhem has released another EP. This one, however, will not change the world. 72 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

Atavistic Black Disorder/Kommando is a collection of bonus tracks from the 2019 Daemon sessions, one unreleased song and four covers. The Daemon session material is largely excellent; Daemon was an unexpected career-high for a veteran band, and deserved all the praise it received. I have no quibble with three of the seven songs. What does deserve scrutiny is the decision to release this EP at all. The pandemic offered bands three paths: Do nothing, use the time to create new material, or dust off something old and try to sell it. Mayhem chose option three. At this point, do we need to hear Mayhem covering Dead Kennedys classics or Discharge songs? Once the novelty wears off—and it does very fast—you realize that you are listening to Mayhem covering Dead Kennedys and Discharge songs. It sounds bad, even with a cameo from original vocalist Maniac. It’s like the Ghostbusters deciding to cross the fucking streams to beat Gozer the Gozerian. Don’t ever cross the streams. We all handled the pandemic our own way, and I don’t fault Mayhem for needing to get product on the shelves. It’s just that the band is at a creative high and could have done much more. This EP is a stopgap release only needed by Mayhem completists. The rest can wait for a proper follow-up to Daemon. —JUSTIN M. NORTON

MORBIFIC

Ominous Seep of Putridity HEADSPLIT/THE OTHER

Finnish skies are once again raining gods

From the gelatinous, squishing noises beneath the eerily oscillating synth of its beginning to the decaying note with which this young Finnish trio ends their debut album, Ominous Seep of Putridity is 10 tracks of crushing death metal perfection. Previously only an adjective meaning “causing disease,” the new Morbific strictly adhere to the true, human flesh-bound rulebook written by the founding authors of death-doom. Consequently, throughout the album, Morbific explore zero new territories. They bring absolutely nothing new to the genre. To extract their influences would be pointless—although those Hellhammer-style bends in “Sulfuric Funeral” make for a nice break from the relentless mastication by chasmic jaws that is the bulk of Ominous Seep. Abundant samples and all, Morbific play death metal like it’s been played for the past 30-odd years. But they don’t just play death metal. They kill it.

With nonstop riffs too heavy to be called catchy, serially murdered drums and sewer drain emanations reminiscent of Hooded Menace’s Lasse Pyykkö, Morbific crush seven new tracks of desensitized death-doom on their debut album, along with crucial re-recordings of three surviving slashers from their 2020 demo. Similar to modern heavyweights Undeath, Morbific deal exclusively in riffdriven, memorable death. Every single one of these riffs feels like another unspeakably cruel act by a sadistic torturer. And like fellow contenders Cerebral Rot, Morbific’s dedication to the old ways goes way deeper than their production choices. How these tracks eluded the first wave of death-doom domination that swept the global underground in the late ’80s and early ’90s is anyone’s guess, but these Finns found ’em, and we’re all the richer for it. Truly a track-for-track masterpiece. —DUTCH PEARCE

NECRONEMESIS

Some Things Should Stay Underground H O R R O R P A I N G O R E D E AT H

I’ll take cranial disfigurement (by fist) for 500, Alex…

Please disregard the score on top of this review for a second, because, in some respects, it is tempting to make the case for Necronemesis’ long-awaited debut being awesome. Yes, “in some respects” is doing more heavy lifting than the cast of Pumping Iron, but let’s go with it. First off, we’ve got to show some respect to a band that has just finished their first album having been together since 2000, playing a mix of thrash and crustcore before changing their name and workshopping a death metal sound for 18 years. That’s dedication, and super-fun death metal song titles and samples from movies such as Creepshow are mother’s milk to heshers weaned on underground ’80s pop-culture. Secondly, Rick Rozz is in the house, the former Death/Massacre guitarist and alumni of Leprosy, no less, helping the Puerto Rican old-schoolers get this debut over the line. The problem is that the bonds of subcultural kinship are soon broken by ineptitude allied to horrible production. Of course, it’s meant to sound horrible, but not like this, with cardboard typewriter drums an airless metronome below a succession of off-the-shelf Cannibal Clone riffs that sound like they’ve been written by muscle memory alone. Indeed, if this hadn’t come with the imprimatur of Horror Pain Gore Death, the suspicion might have lingered that an AI program designed by an MIT undergrad

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had authored the record. Hey, that might have explained the non sequiturs, like having a sample of the “Father’s Day” segment from Creepshow introduce “Death From Above.” Stop right there, Mr Al Go Rithm! That’s what Larry Cohen’s Q is for. —JONATHAN HORSLEY

POWERWOLF

Call of the Wild N A PA L M

A-woooooooooo

If there’s one thing Powerwolf are good at, it’s deftly balancing all things catchy with all things silly. There’s no room for innovation. They know what works for them, and for Powerwolf, it’s all about simple, swashbuckling arrangements, fancy-shmancy symphonic metal touches and the mighty baritone bellow of formidable frontman Attila Dorn. Since signing with Napalm back in 2012, the band’s stature among European power metal fans has grown, which has subsequently been reflected in steady sales over the years. They know what the fans like, they give the audience what they want, and that consistency makes good scratch for the label. That said, calling a band “consistent” can be damning by faint praise. Until the surprisingly popular 2018 single “Demons Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” Powerfolf had a habit of sounding complacent from time to time, but that track’s Eurovision-style goofiness won over a lot of European listeners. Latest album Call of the Wild hopes to continue that upward momentum, and as usual, it’s exactly what you’d expect. “Dancing With the Dead” is the one track that sounds like a worthy follow-up to “Demons”; “Glaubenskraft” brings some welcome gravitas; “Faster Than the Flame” is a very fun rager. By the time “Undress to Confess” comes along with its lazy riff and groan-inducing humor—if you’ve stuck around for that long—you just shrug and say, “Whatever, guys,” because there’s no way they’ll ever change, for good or ill. You just hope for enough good songs, and this record has just enough. —ADRIEN BEGRAND

SIDEREAN

Lost on Void’s Horizon EDGED CIRCLE

The sleepers have awakened

Siderean (previously Teleport) announced their new moniker with the release of the 2020 demo Sidereal Evolution, whose two songs reappear on this debut album. The name change makes sense on numerous 74 : A U G U S T 2 0 2 1 : D E C I B E L

levels; Siderean is a far cooler name than Teleport. Secondly, they’ve switched out a lot of members over the past 11 years, and the current five-pointed formation is easily their best lineup yet. But despite what its title may suggest, on Lost on Void’s Horizon, Siderean sound completely inspired and totally in control of their progressive-but-not-prog/technical-butnot-tech-death voyager. Rippling with krautrock-influenced synthwork and delicious riff noodles galore, Lost on Void’s Horizon is simultaneously a thrilling and frequently super-heavy experience. Siderean never forget, not even once, that they are a death metal band. Even the aforementioned synth-centric moments serve to cleanse the mental state for more heightened experiences to come. By no means some Blood Incantation clone and more disciplined than proggy death metal contemporaries like Cryptic Shift or Bedsore, Siderean succeed with flying, otherworldly colors because they write actual songs. And always keeping the barrel-rolling riffs grounded are those insanely in-the-pocket drums and an outstanding bass performance. “Coalescing Into the Expanse,” Lost’s penultimate song, would nearly venture into meandering, self-indulgent territory if not for bassist Lovro Babic, whose brilliance consistently seeps through these already-phenomenal guitar parts. But Lost ultimately wins because, much like a crew aboard a spaceship, each member worked together toward a common goal—which seems to have been creating a true death metal album that blows people’s minds as much as it crushes their skulls and snaps their necks. Mission accomplished. —DUTCH PEARCE

SOUL GRINDER

Lifeless Obsession MDD

Soul of askew machine

You’ve likely never heard the name before, but you understand—without question—that Soul Grinder play death metal. The only question is what flavor? I mean, are you thinking knuckledragging, Floridian death or borborygmic Finnish squalor? Or how about some marble-hearted, Swedish sadism? Always a safe bet; let’s put our chips on that one. In fact, I’d draw the most direct comparison to mid-career Centinex partly because of the eye-wateringly acerbic guitar tone, partly because of Soul Grinder’s affinity for composing hummable, regressive riffs, and partly because I swear that I’m hearing a drum machine here no matter what the press kit claims. That shit’s not programmed? Yeah, and

I guess the Denver International Airport isn’t a hub for the Illuminati either. Nice try, guys. The opening track detonates from the speakers with a saw-toothed swagger. There’s undeniable promise in those inaugural measures, but there’s also a vapidness that haunts it like Dave haunts Wendy’s. However, when Soul Grinder finally decelerate to a blackened Bolt Thrower trudge, one can appreciate the blunt force this group is capable of projecting. “Mercyful Fate”: downright anthemic, but the production is doing the band a disservice. You should feel like the record’s tracking dirt into your place and you’re too intimidated to make it take its boots off. Instead, it’s just politely antiseptic. “Terradeforma”: Without question my pick of the litter. It sounds the way that that really cool Hell Awaits backpatch felt. The riff builds to an expressive harmony and vocalist Mathias Junge is commanding. Just about perfect. Sadly, from here we enter a gauntlet of nonideas. “A Worm’s Repast” is filler this record can’t afford. The closing title track feels too familiar and unfinished. Ultimately, these guys will need to muscle their way out of their own chrysalis before they can be taken seriously. —FORREST PITTS

SUIDAKRA

Wolfbite MDD

Essence of lupine

Over a quarter-century has passed since Suidakra’s first demo announced the dawn of their black/death hybrid. During the past two and a half decades, founding vocalist Arkadius Antonik pushed the project deeper into Celtic musical territory. After those Celtic influences were illuminated most intensely on 2018’s Cimbric Yarns (with uneven results at best), the band opted to re-record some old favorites on the next year’s Echoes of Yore. Wolfbite is the true successor of Cimbric Yarns, and in some ways the album is still hunting the band’s past for inspiration. Suidakra’s 1997 album Lupine Essence is an intriguing comparison piece for Wolfbite’s stylistic evolution. There are two wolves inside Suidakra. One howls to the blood moon in the black forests of extreme metal. The other restlessly runs wild, exploring new territories. Even in early songs like “Warpipes Call Me,” Suidakra revealed a hunger for traditional instrumentation and Celtic melodies they needed to satiate. Wolfbite feeds those creative whims while also reconnecting to the lifeblood of Suidakra’s past. There’s an exuberance and wild pulse

TIMES OF GRACE

Songs of Loss and Separation ADA

Radio rock on the range

Times of Grace’s 2011 debut

was written by Killswitch Engage’s Adam Dutkiewicz while recovering from emergency back surgery. He called upon friend and then-former KSE frontman Jesse Leach to handle vocals, and the result was pretty much an extension of their previous work together: melodic metalcore with fist-raising choruses. There was the odd post-rock detour, sure, but anyone expecting a radical departure from KSE was sorely disappointed. In fact, the most noteworthy thing about the fairly average The Hymn of a Broken Man was that it paved the way for Leach’s return to KSE in 2012, which resulted in three well-received records. The duo of Dutkiewicz and Leach understood that they didn’t have the buzz of their reunion as a selling point for a new Times of Grace LP, so they distinguished their sound. Overall, this record is pretty dour and heavy-going in terms of mood and lyrics, clearly born from a difficult period in the lives of its creators. Musically, it appears as though Times of Grace were aiming for Alice in Chains-levels of emotional transference outside of the odd metalcore return or sludge deviation. Yet instead, they’ve landed

VOUNA, Atropos The severed thread | P R O F O U N D L O R E

In Greek mythology, there are three sister goddesses who determine the fates of all mortals. Clotho spins the thread that represents each person’s life. Lachesis measures the length of the thread. But it’s the eldest sister, Atropos, who severs the thread with shears, representing each person’s time of death. Named after the goddess with this grim duty, Vouna’s Profound Lore debut resonates with funereal grandeur. Vouna is the solo creation of composer Yianna Bekris, who handled all instrumental duties on the project’s eponymous debut. The synths on the debut overpowered the

metallic elements by design, and that’s still mostly the case. But there’s more bite and balance on this recording— especially with the drum arrangements and sound—courtesy of the mix by Esoteric’s Greg Chandler and the mastering by Cruciamentum’s Dan Lowndes. Although blast beats become a whispered percussive blur in “Grey Sky,” the snare is suitably drenched in reverb throughout. But it’s the interplay between blackened funeral doom and haunting beauty that keeps Atropos an engaging listen for nearly a full hour. As a whole, Vouna invokes

in a post-grunge puddle filled with the tears of Staind, Seether and Stone Sour. Some credit must be given to these metalcore mavens for diversifying stylistically, and while the songs do come from a genuine place, it’s mostly painfully dull and cloying AOR for the matured nü-metal generation—the kind of music that appeals to those who think Disturbed’s “The Sound of Silence” cover is profound (it’s not). —DEAN BROWN

TRAGEDY AND TRIUMPH

Where Mountains Rise and Hearts Fall MDD

Viking aspirations set sail

Tragedy and Triumph’s debut isn’t the first time Marius Berendsen has covered all the instrumental parts on a record—that distinction falls to Antares’ Portal. But apart from Berendsen’s instrumental ubiquity and the pervasive involvement of vocalist/lyricist Raphael Weller, what happens in one of the Mallevs Maleficarvm

Wolves in the Throne Room’s “Vastness and Sorrow” with considerably more synth— which is fitting since fellow Oregonian Nathan Weaver of WITTR is a guest vocalist. In “Vanish,” there’s a mid-song riff that shapes mourning into menace. Harp strums from Asia Kindred Moore lend grace and fragility to the tender passages between wave-crashes of distortion. Fifteen-minute closer “What Once Was” represents the most harrowing and uneven blend of genres. Neofolk melodies blossom, but they’re quickly snipped by sorrowful guitars. The blooming melodies then plummet into an open casket of atmospheric black metal. Despite some creative lulls, Bekris creates songs like ghosts that will haunt listeners long after Atropos concludes. —SEAN FRASIER

DECIBEL : AUGUST 2021 : 75

PHOTO BY DREAMING GOD

to the sprinting shred of “The Inner Wolf” and “Faoladh.” “Vortex of Carnage” appeals to Gothenburg’s golden age as the album’s heaviest track. The guitar performances sizzle when harmonized leads claim a song’s throne, like in the first half of “Crossing Over.” The guitar tones lean hard into the high treble that defines so many power metal classics, and the arrangements are better for it. But some unsubtle pop sensibilities rear their muzzle throughout Wolfbite. Theatrical cheese derails the Tina Stabel vehicle “Darcanian Slave,” as well as the over-crooned “Resurgence” and “A Shrine for the Ages.” Despite some risky glossy choruses that may polarize listeners, Suidakra’s newest record still reveals a band with invigorated bite. —SEAN FRASIER

founder and drummer’s side projects stays there. On Where Mountains Rise, Weller pretty much eschews the cosmic roar he favors with Antares, instead slouching in the direction of Johan Heggstyle theatrically heartfelt growls that dovetail with Berendsen’s melodic death Viking vision. Luckily, the latter avoids imposing any kind of stringent genre restraints—his command of melody makes its presence felt most on melancholic, lightly blackened doom/death mini-epic “Where Fires March Victorious,” as does his timing. Just as we’re starting to really appreciate what a tasteful, restrained guitarist he’s capable of being during the low-key mead hall singalong middle bit, Berendsen erupts into a flaming maelstrom rich with tremolo-picked fury. As the album unfolds, our perception of the duo’s mission sharpens as they flex broader and broader vistas. They’re not above injecting a little surreality into the proceedings, either—or of going full metal landlubber on us. To wit, the intro to “Of Mountains and War Drums” would sound like cinematic cowboy music even if we didn’t hear a horse whinny in the background. Here’s to hoping these guys find time to craft a follow-up in the foreseeable future. Tragedy and Triumph’s subtle humor and understated unpredictability is exactly what the present needs. —ROD SMITH

URNE

Serpent & Spirit C A N D L E L I G H T / S P I N E FA R M

Urne trouble

New bands that boast about having a really diverse sound run the risk of alienating potential listeners. Try too many disparate styles on one album and you'll come across as though your act hasn’t a clearly forged identity. And bands don’t have to be mixing trap and nü-metal or some other hideous amalgam in order to confuse listeners—it can even happen when hopscotching on already well-established and closely linked metallic strains. London trio Urne somewhat suffer from an identity crisis on their debut LP, Serpent & Spirit. Featuring former members of underrated hardcore-sludgers Hang the Bastard, these guys can effectively move from Mastodonian prog-metal to Metallica-influenced thrash (more Death Magnetic than Kill ’Em All). But they also misguidedly attempt to stop off at Every Time I Die’s southern rock saloon (“Envy the Dead”), reference whatever you call the horrible modern emocore that Architects play to mass consumption, and 76 : AUGUST 2021 : DECIBEL

include a very uninspired attempt at further post-rocking Deftones’ “Pink Maggit” on “Memorial: Sing Me to Rest.” The main issue with this record, then, is not the band’s ability to craft quality bludgeoning riffs and pair them with impassioned roars. Instead, it’s the constant stylistic hemming and hawing as to whether they should commit to becoming a formidable underground band or go all-in on commercializing the hell out of everything. Right now, Urne scatter their ashes across the divide, and this debut doesn’t hang together cohesively as a result. They need to make the call either way on their next release.

A couple spots are a little too reminiscent of Converge’s past deeds (“Hellhole” mimicking “You Fail Me”), and new vocalist Dan Lee’s chorus-drenched Sasquatch call is more suited to sewer-dwellers like Pissgrave and Grave Miasma, but as long as the gnashing and slashing has a blood-coursing groove as counterpart, I’m all in.

—DEAN BROWN

Some music we love manifests feelings of hate, depression and disillusionment through sound in an attempt to cope, and other music just makes us feel those emotions more acutely. Xasthur’s latest 70-minute tract of acoustic griping falls firmly in the latter category. This is not a compliment. All of the negativity that Victims of the Times whips up can be easily and rightfully aimed at the record itself. Ugh. What a slog. Main drag Scott Conner has clearly poured time and personal anguish into this record. His intentions are admirable. Having been unhoused during the music’s creation, Conner chose to mirror the difficulty of such an existence—his own and that of the people around him—in dejected lyrics and raw instrumental choices. The album’s cover forces viewers to face the hungry, dirty reality of landing on the street with less than a laundry basketful of possessions. These are stories worth telling. But the execution makes the music nearly impossible to take seriously. The kinds of smeared rhythms and cascades of clashing notes that worked so well in Xasthur’s black metal past are firmly in place here as well, but they are rendered naked without their native distortion, and this kind of pristine approximation of ugliness just isn’t supported by this style of music. Of course, even this off-putting approach might be listenable if it arrived on its own terms, unspoiled by Chris Hernandez’s somewhat prosaically dramatic vocals that convey Conner’s dismal lyrics. Let’s repeat: These stories are worth telling… but the manner in which Conner and Hernandez tell them is at best preachy (a rarely successful tactic) and at worst paranoid. The only passable tracks here are the instrumentals, which could fill a good-sized EP, but that leaves nearly an hour of painfully wounded yowling that would sound better if it was unintelligibly yowled. —DANIEL LAKE

WANDERER

Liberation From a Brutalist Existence E N T E LO D O N

Gettin’ them hooks in quick

A memory that has stuck with me since my ’70s childhood is witnessing some guy with a gnarly, porn-worthy center-part and cop ’stache name a tune on Name That Tune after hearing a single note. Sure, porn-cop dude likely wasn’t the only contestant to accomplish this Herculean feat, and as a kid I didn’t know that behind game show glitz and glitter was rigging and corruption, but the memory has endured for whatever bizarre reason. As a point of connection, from the first nanosecond of Liberation From a Brutalist Existence’s opener, “Marionette,” this Minnesota quartet establishes a solid and enduring groove, and I’m in as much awe of their ability to get my noggin noddin’ within the span of two power chords as I was as a runt watching motherfuckers in bell-bottom tuxedos dissect show tunes. With cues taken from the likes of Converge, Pig Destroyer, Cursed, Baptists, High on Fire and the Holy Mountain, Wanderer’s first fulllength (following three EPs and two splits) has primed itself for immediate attention by not only having a top-shelf list of influences, but making potent use of them. The aforementioned “Marionette” adds jabs of left-field Void and Voivod guitar slashing with a concluding half-time thunderfuck. “Mind Leash” is a 53-second carpet bomb of snare fills and fretboard-leaping that is the dictionary definition of appetite-whetting, while “Abrasion” and “Bloom” add tinges of the Midwest’s melodic punk history and AmRep noise to beefy Stockholm riffs for nothing but a good time.

—KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

XASTHUR

Victims of the Times LU P U S LO U N G E

Acid folk gone basic

"Should not be missing in any death metal collection!" -Deaf Forever

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Newhell Phosphorus The Live Undead hi-hat hiss has been shredding eardrums since 1984, and it would appear this Providence, RI-based black/death/punk cabal isn’t going to be content letting Slayer ride into retirement without paying homage to Diablous in Musica and God Hates Us All (and Mayhem) while continuing the aforementioned EP’s tradition of causing low-grade tinnitus.

Priests of Prometheus Lodestar Richomnd’s POP is a (mostly) one-man project helmed by one Justin Wolz, and Lodestar puts his (mostly) death metal interests in the spotlight. It also highlights the confusing horror of Phantom Limb Syndrome. Sufferers feel the pain of limbs that aren’t there. Similarly, Lodestar will have you wondering if those country intros, janky classic rock leads and highbrow goth vocals amid a barrage of ’90s Northeast and Gulf Coast death metal groove were real or a figment of your imagination.

I was ruminating on being middle-aged and fortunate enough to be healthy, with the majority of my body parts in mostly working order. Was it a coincidence that my last two significant physical setbacks coincided with the release of Morbid Angel’s Illud Divinum Insanus and Hammerfall’s Dominion? Probably not… —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

Choices Made Convince These Toronto dudes really like Sick of It All and, presumably, the various dances immortalized in the “Step Down” video. Here’s hoping that the Pizzamaker, the Lawnmower and Pickin’ Up Change are still in your muscle memory when it comes time to hit those post-pandemic pits, ’cuz Choices Made are gonna rabble-rouse them back into existence.

Cruel Bomb Trinity Terror Some days I wake up feeling rickety and creaky. Other days I bolt out of the sack with the same vigor as when I was 16 ready to dive into a day of doing... the same shit I’ve been doing since I was 16: listening to, reading about and writing on the topic of metal. These Wilkes-Barre, PA [fuck yeah!— ed] thrashers could be the soundtrack to my life. Are they old? Are they young? Have they denied the last 30 years of musical progress? Is Game Over their favorite Nuclear Assault album?

Fetus Eaters Fetus Eaters It always surprises me that segments of the heavy music community find bands like Painkiller, Mexican Power Authority, Napalm Death, Spazz, Naked City and Graves at Sea too heavy and crazy. Aren’t we here to imbue ourselves in heavy and crazy? No? Well, I guess the dudes in Fetus Eaters have more fortitude in their little fingers than some of you battle jacketwearing supposed tough guys.

Magefa Exenteration If Ross Dolan of Immolation and Trevor Peres of Obituary’s hair ever combined to form a band, it’d sound like this.

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Red\\Shift Grow. Decay. Transform. You could go with this band’s “Mastodon mugging King Crimson in a back alley” self-description, or you could go with the estimation that these Minnesotans sound like GWAR updating the musical score to The Blues Brothers’ climactic car chase scene. Either way, my gut hurts from the busting and cheeks ache from the dumb smile they’ve plastered all over my mug.

Takatak Acrophase Listening to this prog/groove/djent/metalcore outfit from Lahore, Pakistan is what I imagine a REM phase dream must sound like after downing too many mushrooms and the discographies of Periphery, Tesseract and Monuments. Granted, sleep cycles aren’t exactly a body part, but Takatak’s soaring quality, experimental flourishes, rhythmic complexity and new physics textbook smell makes me wonder why my brain don’t work this good.

Thracian Frames This Long Island pack does a body good when they’re barrelling along all melodic death/thrash-like with a guitar tone begging to be Fear Factory and/or Meshuggah. The instances of Tool and NWOAHM worship, however, are sometimes clumsy and occasionally painful. It’s like watching an outside lane sprinter pull up lame, wincing in pain and holding their hamstring. They had little chance of winning, but you hope they’ll be able to come back stronger post-rehab and physical therapy.

Tiersman Good Grief For those of you with fantasies of selling everything you own, becoming a trucker or buying an RV and living on the open road, these Australians have got your back. Their second release is the noise-rocking soundtrack to your stomach struggling to digest truck stop hot dogs, your heart palpitating through energy drinks and the number that syrupy coffee does on your bowels as your expanding ass tests the seam strength of your favorite pair of jeans. All of the above can be found seeking fame, fortune and free beer on Bandcamp and Facebook.

EUGENE S. ROBINSON

TYPE O NEGATIVE?

I’M POSITIVE T

his should have been writ-

ten last month. April 14 was the anniversary of Peter Steele’s death. But time gets away from you, and so it’s now and it’s better late than never, and while I can’t claim to miss him like people who actually knew him missed him, I do remember with crystal clarity the first time we met. Hardcore was an interesting magnet, and in 1981 I was zigzagging across the country to play shows in community center basements in Michigan or bars in Calgary. Or in Boston, where the entire crowd, all 120 people, snuck in through a window that the promoter neglected to close. But I’m a New Yorker, born and bred, and when the tours were over, I’d hang in New York until I had to head back to California. But hardcore changed, like everything changes. I toured America less and Europe more, and hung a lot less in New York. But hardcore matinees at CBGBs in the ’80s? I was there for some of those. My last one, I was standing there and shooting the shit with Agnostic Front’s Vinnie Stigma.

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“Who the fuck is that?” I spied him kitty-corner from CBs. Being a fighter for the better part of my life, I was ever on the lookout for threats—or allies. At what I estimated was 6’8”, the skinhead stood by a lamppost with some other people I knew. “That’s Petey.” “Jesus Christ. Gotta get him in a band with Steve.” Whipping Boy’s guitarist was 6’6” and 265. It’d have been nice to be in a band where I was the little man. Vinnie took me over to say hello. Like the one time I met Magic Johnson, my animal brain wasn’t digging being that close to a human that big. But “Petey” couldn’t have been nicer, and since any scene breaks down into phenotypes whether or not he was a fighter, I appreciated that he’d be taken as such. And given all of the street scuffles that were part and parcel of that period of time, I was glad he was more a friend than a foe. He cracked some jokes. I countered. And then went on my way. Flash forward. Years, now. Type O Negative is a bona fide thing. Videos on MTV. Peter Steele in Playgirl

magazine. They’ve arrived. And I’m a fan. So much so that when I find out that J. Bennett is interviewing them, I call him during the interview just to say, again, hello. Bennett doesn’t have the whole band. He’s just got Josh Silver. And yeah, I’m one of those idiots who, if someone says they have a friend from New York, I ask “who?” since in a city of 12 million people, of course I might know them. So, while I am sure there are lots of guys named Josh Silver around, maybe this could be the one I went to elementary school with. I don’t even guess. I just ASSUME. “Tell him Eugene says hi!” I hear Bennett say this. “Eugene Robinson?” Bennett confirms. “He took me to my first rock fight.” I laugh and get off the phone so they can finish their interview. Bennett later called, in need of an explanation. Josh and I had gone to this tony private school in Park Slope. We were pals. Birthday parties at his house. And then one time his parents and my parents figured since we were pals, he could come hang

out with me. But Canarsie, where he was from, was a lot different from Crown Heights, where I was living at the time. See, we’d have wars between the blocks in Crown Heights. Good-natured, sort of, but the rocks we were using to communicate were very real. Salvos of rocks and chunks of concrete thrown across garage rooftops, and running rock battles from one end of the block to the next. Aiming to maim. If you were 9 years old, it was a blast. Shit, if you were 30, it’d be a blast. If you were a parent, though, not so much. Josh never got to come over again, and he soon left the school after that. I don’t think the rocks had anything to do with it, but what do I know? I do know that it was probably no mistake that he ended up starting Type O Negative, and even less of a mistake that, after 30 years, we should meet again, and I was a fan. I remember him playing piano. But then when Pete died, so did the band, and god knows where Josh is. But we still got their records. And that rock fight. ILLUSTRATION BY ED LUCE

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