Decibel #212 - June 2022 by Red Flag Media

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June 2022 [R 212] decibelmagazine.com

Doom to Repeat COVER STORY COVER AND CONTENTS PHOTOS BY ESTER SEGARRA

features

upfront 10 metal muthas Matron envy

16 satan Forgotten planet

30 temple of void Cave dwellers

12 low culture Justify your shitty takes

18 mares of thrace Back from exile

32 destruction Give peace a chance

13 no corporate beer Philly over everything

20 i am the night Hi, the Night. I’m dad

14 in the studio:

22 terror Made to make them succeed

34 meshuggah They still have something to say

drowningman A breath of fresh air

24 syk Get down with them 26 vanum Hammerhearts of steel

36 q&a: watain Vocalist Erik Danielsson seeks to find the beautiful in the howling dark

reviews 40 the decibel

hall of fame Armed with a new label and new manager, Forbidden go head to head with another California thrash outfit to champion their debut album Forbidden Evil

50 exclusive:

decibel magazine metal & beer fest: philly 2022 preview Red (ale) before black (lager)

69 lead review Temple of Void plumb the depths of death/doom to unearth a new terrestrial horror on Relapse debut Summoning the Slayer 70 album reviews Records from bands that haven’t forgotten that the Grammys suck, including Cave In, Devil Master and Misery Index 88 damage ink Cage match

28 nechochwen A history of violence

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. © 2022 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. 4 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

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REFUSE/RESIST

June 2022 [T212]

It’s easy to see why people think I’m

a genius. I mean, just consider this magazine you’re now holding. As the digital revolution arrived to choke the life out of physical media in the early 2000s, I launched a publication tied to both the music and print industries. See? A goddamn business mastermind! I could also reveal that I was an early adopter of Microsoft Zune and purchased a lifetime Quibi subscription, but such bragging about my industry acumen is deeply unbecoming. So, when I explain that doom legends Candlemass—the Friday night headliners for this year’s Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest: Philly—will perform all of their classic debut, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, for the first time in America on the 36th anniversary of the day of its release, surely, you’ll be impressed by the craft it took to execute such a feat. Only like most of Decibel’s greatest achievements, there was some cosmic fortune involved. I actually first attempted to get this special Candlemass set together prior to the pandemic for the West Coast edition of Metal & Beer Fest, but the band’s schedule never properly aligned with the event. When I approached them again about this year’s Philly festival, I did so without having any idea that the weekend we targeted for the event fell on Epicus’ birthday. And neither did anyone in Candlemass. In fact, I only noticed the day before we announced the full fest lineup back in February. Of course, you are encouraged to still believe that this Epicus performance on the record’s anniversary is the work of countless hours spent aligning multiple variables across space and time. So, pick out some birthday presents, prepare to raise a pint of Broken Goblet’s Candlemass Doom Lager collaboration and bake your Epicus Doomicus Cakicuses, because the most carefully considered, painstakingly researched and epically curated Metal & Beer Fest birthday party is nearly here. Just like we planned it. Kind of. albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief

PUBLISHER

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alex@redflagmedia.com EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND SALES ART DIRECTOR

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COPY EDITOR

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Online DECIBEL WEB EDITOR

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to Udo Dirkschneider on my lunch break, and that’s pretty damn cool. I still make space for my stories and jokes, but mostly I’m hyping up the music I love. Hardcore, metal, punk—popular or unknown, if I think it rocks, I want everyone to hear it. If you were to give someone starting a new music podcast some advice—other than simply “please don’t!”—what would it be?

Dan Craley Lancaster, PA

You are the host of the extremely entertaining Getting It Out podcast. Please tell us a little about that.

I had a great story about accidentally walking up on a fella taking a dump at a playground in the middle of the day. So, I started a podcast to tell it, but since it wasn’t a long story, I started interviewing bands I love, like Khemmis, Terror and Morbid Angel. I very specifically said when I started that I did not want to do an interview show, but now I’m talking

8 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

Do whatever you want because nobody cares! Recording a podcast and distributing it worldwide is easier than making a shitty black metal bedroom demo. Every nerd is doing it and hardly anyone is listening. Keep your expectations and ego in check. Make sure you’re having fun because unless you have some sort of built-in audience, you’re likely reaching very few people outside of your circle. If you get the chance, ask big names weird questions. Don’t forget to embrace your local scene and do what you can to give exposure to the little guys, too. You’ve been a Decibel subscriber for over a decade, so you’ve seen A LOT of this magazine. What would you like to see more of and less of going forward?

Decibel has done a great job highlighting hardcore classics with the Hall of Fame series, but the

genre doesn’t get a ton of coverage when it comes to the current cream of the crop. Give me one Upfront profile an issue on the genre all of our favorite metal bands reference as an influence. Start with Baltimore’s End It!

Recording a podcast and distributing it worldwide is easier than making a shitty black metal bedroom demo. You lean pretty hard into the hardcore and metallic hardcore side of extreme music. In the past couple years, we’ve gotten both Deadguy and the Red Chord to reunite for Metal & Beer Fest. Who do you wanna see in 2023?

I’d love to put down a hazy eight-percenter as Merauder rips through Master Killer front to back. If I can’t have that, let’s dust off Pulling Teeth one more time to tear through their Funerary masterpiece. Truthfully, you’ve done such a great job assembling these diverse lineups. I trust the next edition will be stacked, as always.

Chuck BB is the illustrator of the graphic novels Black Metal, Vol. 1, 2 and 3 . For more info and art, head over to chuckbb.com

NOW SLAYING Wonder what Decibel world HQ has been rocking for the past month? Well, here are the records that we spun most while wondering what to do with all of these metal beer puns that we didn’t have space for. (See page 69.)

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

This Month's Mutha: Amber Parker Mutha of Cody Davidson of Sanguisugabogg

Tell us a little about yourself.

I like to say that I am a free spirit. I love to read, listen to music, be out in nature (hiking or camping) and love animals. You could say that I am a hippie at heart. Cody drums in Sanguisugabogg, but has been a multi-instrumentalist in a variety of extreme bands. When did he first exhibit an interest in playing?

Cody’s dad was a musician, so Cody was always around music. However, Cody got his first guitar at the age of 2. A toy one, mind you, but still a guitar. He loved it so much that by the time he was in preschool, he had a Flying Mini-V and was playing “Crazy Train” for show-and-tell at school. We’re told that you’ve been very helpful to Sanguisugabogg on their meteoric rise through the underground. Can you elaborate?

You could say that my basement is where the magic happens. All of the guys will come home to write, practice and record, all downstairs. I make sure they all have a home-cooked meal, a place to sleep and a place to make their music. I’ve also been known to count and roll shirts for tour. I’m definitely the band mom; I support wherever and whenever I can. Do you personally have a taste for death metal, or heavy music in general?

You know, it’s not my first genre of choice. 10 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

However, after listening to all of the practice sessions and hearing the difference from their first session to the final product is pretty amazing. And I will admit, “Dead as Shit” is one of my guilty-pleasure favorites. How do you feel about the graphic content of Sanguisugabogg’s music?

This is an interesting question. I know some of the material is graphic in nature (the pics); however, it is just artistic expression. I personally do not have a problem with their content, and own quite a bit of their merch. Everyone has their own opinion about any type of music. And you know what they say about opinions: They are just like assholes— everyone has one. Tell us something about your son that most people wouldn’t know.

Hopefully, he laughs at what I’m going to tell you, but in case you didn’t catch it in question two, Cody’s first instrument of choice was guitar, not drums. He didn’t start playing drums until age 11. His first concert was at age 6 to see Dream Theater at Bogart’s in [Cincinnati] OH, where he got to meet all of the band members after the show. John Petrucci even got down on one knee to talk to him and told him to keep up playing his guitar. He loves to eat peanut butter on a spoon, and his favorite song as a kid was “Song 2” by Blur. —ANDREW BONAZELLI

Albert Mudrian : e d i t o r i n c h i e f  Temple of Void, Summoning the Slayer  I Am the Night, While the Gods Are Sleeping  Kreator, Hate Über Alles  Candlemass, Epicus, Doomicus, Metallicus  Moonspell, Wolfheart ---------------------------------Patty Moran : c u s t o m e r s e r v i c e  Government Issue, Legless Bull EP  Wasted Youth, Reagan’s In  Minor Threat, Out of Step  Fu Manchu, Godzilla’s/Eatin’ Dust  Kyuss, ...And the Circus Leaves Town ---------------------------------James Lewis : a d s a l e s  Desolate Shrine, Fires of the Dying World  Aeviterne, The Ailing Facade  Eucharist, I Am the Void  Abbath, Dread Reaver  Skinless, From Sacrifice to Survival ---------------------------------Mike Wohlberg : a r t d i r e c t o r  Terror, Pain Into Power  Sigh, Hangman’s Hymn  Hulder, “Evil’s Incubation” Decibel Flexi  Model Prisoner, Compulsion Analysis  Municipal Waste, Electrified Brain ---------------------------------Aaron Salsbury : m a r k e t i n g a n d s a l e s  Deadguy, “Body Parts” 7-inch  An Albatross, 1.) Sex 2.) Bird 3.) Cake  Paradise Lost, Draconian Times  I Have Dreams, Three Days 'til Christmas  Bodybox, Microwaved Weed

GUEST SLAYER

---------------------------------Alexander Jones : u n d e at h  Antediluvian, The Divine Punishment  Tricot, Jodeki  Stabbing, Ravenous Psychotic Onslaught  Concrete Winds, Nerve Butcherer  Sade, Promise

Y ISEMAN

TNE BY COUR

Lukewarm Late Takes ’ve never liked Blood Incantation. I

don’t think they’re bad or that they’re bad people or anything like that. They’re incredibly skilled musicians who have a strong aesthetic vision and an obvious driving work ethic. Their music just isn’t for me—not my cup of tea, etc. And I’m here to defend them and others like them for a few hundred words. I get that this is several weeks late and the controversy I’m going to detail is either lukewarm or forgotten by the time this sees publication, but stick with me because—like the moral of all after-school specials—the heart of this idea is what matters. If we can play catch-up for a moment, Blood Incantation released a new record called Timewave Zero, which is a strictly Tangerine Dream/ Neptune Towers affair—a space ambient record. This EP contains zero blasts, growls or guitar solos. Why? Because it’s a fucking space ambient record; please keep up. And they announced it as such before it was released, making it very clear that this was not a death metal record. Still, some people lost their minds and acted surprised/betrayed. This is a problem for two reasons. The first being that the public school system in this country is an abject failure since reading comprehension obviously is not these folks’ strong suit, and the second—and most important—it’s an example of fans believing they’re somehow shareholders in an artist’s output and thus have a say in what’s created. And when said artist ventures outside of what the audience is comfortable with, it creates a conflict where the battleground is the Internet and the combatants wield keyboards from comfortable basements. The casualties of this war? Our collective remaining brain cells and whatever is left of our souls. When some artists continually trot out the same fucking horse over and over again, they 12 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

cease being artists and turn into manufacturers, producing product with little variation and next to nothing that nourishes the listener. And some people are fucking A-OK with that scenario, which is why pizza thrash still has a following and AC/DC packs stadiums. Sure, there’s a place for it, and not everyone who’s holding an instrument craves expansion or is any good at going outside their comfort zone. But that’s for the artist to decide, not some committee that meets four times a day on some subReddit in between berating women and minorities on Xbox Live. This whole concept that musicians need to “write for the fans” is so careerist and, in my (correct) opinion, can really detract from sincere expression. I crave authenticity, even when it doesn’t work, more than I crave a product. The ocean is already full of enough plastic. I’m taking this from a high horse position, as I don’t use my own music to make a living (otherwise I’d be homeless) and I’ve written a dozen or so “Justify Your Shitty Taste” pieces on the Decibel site about records that went outside their band’s box. So, I might be biased. And not every experiment is a success. Christ, not even half of them are. But I don’t get angry at the musicians for trying something different; that’s such a waste of time since there are literally dozens of new recordings shat out every few minutes these days. Keep trying different ones ’til you find something that resonates with you. No matter how much of their merch you’ve bought, musicians don’t owe you shit. As for Timewave Zero? It marks the first time I’ve sat down and listened to a full Blood Incantation record, and I did so simply because I was curious what made the dry-dicked of the world so upset. The verdict? It’s the third Neptune Towers record I’ve waited 30 years for. So, this article’s M. Night twist you never saw coming? I really dig this new Blood Incantation.

Let’s Give Philadelphia’s Beer Scene More Credit

ecibel’s Metal & Beer Fest tears

into Philly June 10 and 11, and as always, the beer roster stands tall with the band lineup. Atlanta’s Sabbath Brewing, Brooklyn’s KCBC, Pennsylvania’s Broken Goblet, Virginia’s Adroit Theory, not to mention the almighty 3 Floyds out of Indiana, just to name a few— these breweries represent some of the best this country has to offer in beer. Outside the doors of the Fillmore, though, awaits a beer scene worthy of sinking your teeth into, too. Philadelphia just doesn’t get the darling status cities like Denver, Asheville, San Diego and both Portlands enjoy. That makes it cooler, frankly. Philly doesn’t care if it makes your listicles or your beercation guide. Philly’s going to make good beer whether you pay attention or not. And it’s your loss if you don’t. So, while we’re here for the Fest, let’s fix our eyeballs on the feast before us. The thing that sets Philly’s beer scene apart is its multifaceted nature. You’ve got your old-school classics, your cool craft purveyors, your outposts of buzzy breweries from other locales. Your revered bars, your sleek taprooms. Your time-honored Belgians, your inventive pastry stouts. It’s not a brewery, but Monk’s Café helped make Philadelphia an Important Beer Place

Philly fanatics  (from l to r) Brews from Human Robot, Victory and Love City do the Philadelphia craft beer scene proud

CARNAL GHOUL Back From The Vault

What kind of monument can you set up for your singer passing away? Finish the album you were about to record. So did Carnal Ghoul. This one is for Sven (Fleshcrawl). An amazing old school death metal masterpiece completed by vocalists from the scene like Dave Ingram (Benediction), Paul Speckmann (Master), Martin v.Drunen (Asphyx) and many more. The band itself is consisting of members from Demonbreed, Asphyx, Milking the Goatmachine etc. Part of the incoming will be donated to cancer help organizations. Available as CD, LP and heavy wooden box set!

for dedicated connoisseurs of beer’s old guard, and it remains hallowed ground. Countless industry members will tell you their journey started with rare Belgian imports at this beloved bar and restaurant. Speaking of icons, Dock Street Brewery helped shape American craft beer, opening its doors in 1985, and with a woman founder—Rosemarie Certo is president of the operation that now has two locations. More beer history awaits at staple Victory Brewing Company; the Philadelphia taproom is a convenient place to enjoy the Downington, PA-based brewery’s 25-year legacy. Popular brewpub Love City Brewing will be at the Fest, but their spacious taproom is worth a visit, too, to try more of the eclectic options on tap, from a refreshing Dortmunder to a smoky porter and spiced grisette. In Old City, head upstairs at 117 Chestnut Street to find 2nd Story Brewing and sip an American red ale or Belgian whit. In South Philly, find out why there’s hype around Second District Brewing. Yes, it’s the tropical-aroma IPA, the crisp Czech-style pilsner and the rye dark mild, but it’s also projects like the “Caved Aged” series, featuring a complex vanilla barley wine and the “Three,” a blend of barrelaged rye saison, barrel-aged sour ale and an aged mixed-fermentation ale. Another brewery that has beer geeks buzzing even far outside Philly is Human Robot, champions of craft

beer’s growing lager obsession. As essential as drinking a Czech-style dark lager, an Italianstyle pilsner and a Franconian-style zwickelbier here is buying some cool-kid merch like a “Lager”-embroidered baseball cap. Crime & Punishment Brewing Co. is walking distance from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Eastern State Penitentiary and a neighborhood called “Brewerytown,” named for the concentration of breweries operating there before the Prohibition. At Crime & Punishment, find fruited sours, hop-bomb IPAs, imperial porters and low-key English bitters. While beering in Philly, after checking out some OGs and wunderkinds, you might as well take advantage of sought-after breweries’ new Philadelphia locations. Daytrippers flock to Source Farmhouse Brewery in New Jersey; now urban-dwellers can drink funky farmhouse ales and milkshake IPAs at Source Urban Brewery in Fishtown. Other Half Brewing, who helped normalize “line life” with their anticipated IPA releases in Brooklyn before expanding to upstate New York and Washington, D.C., recently opened a sprawling space also in Fishtown. There’s more where that came from, too— remember that the best way to explore an underrated beer scene is to ask the regulars and bartenders at taprooms where else they recommend.

PHANTOM CORPORATION/HARROWED Banner of Hatred/Poison Death

A split 12“ vinyl. PHANTOM CORPORATION is thrashing Death Metal with Leif/Dew-Scented and other members from the Scene. HARROWED is pure gold when you are into Swedish old school rocking death metal, feat. members from Dead Lord and Morbus Chron. Strictly limited splatter edition available!

SVENSON Ruin(s) 7“ single

The last song to be released from Sven (Fleshcrawl) after his passing. Guitars by Maggesson (Revel in Flesh), drums by Husky (Asphyx, Rotten Casket, Carnal Ghoul). Handnumbered DIY style edition with in memoriam etching on B side. Shirt available with the amazing cover art. Everything will be donated to cancer help!

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DECIBEL : JUNE 2022 : 13

DROWNINGMAN

STUDIO REPORT

DROWNINGMAN

e’re going to imagine that at some point

in the past two years, you’ve uttered the phrase “Fuck COVID.” If there’s one bright ALBUM TITLE side to invisible virus insanity, it’s that it Hear Me Now, brought Drowningman—purveyors of melodic, techniUnderstand Me Later cal, “unhinged Vermont hardcore before clean singing RECORDING DATES existed”—back to active status. After a handful of 2013 December 21, 2021 reunion shows following a pair of mid-’00s break-ups, February 17, 2022 increased inter-band contact during lockdown helped STUDIO dust off the cobwebs in the creation of forthcoming EP, The Underground Studio Hear Me Now, Understand Me Later (plus, the band’s fourth PRODUCER full-length is in the works). “Drowningman always was treated like a fleeting Vincent Freeman idea,” admits vocalist Simon Brody. “We would text each LABEL other occasionally to share articles or mentions of the The Ghost Is Clear Records band. Meanwhile, the conversation shifted within the RELEASE DATE band. Calls got more frequent. [During] COVID, we were TBA in contact a bit more; mental health check-ins and such. That’s when we really started to think about how we had been trying to have these conversations publicly for a long time—in an admittedly awkward and confrontational way.”

At press time, the EP (“I feel like we always worked well on EPs,” Brody reasons) had been done and dusted by the lineup that brought you 2000’s Rock and Roll Killing Machine, with the frontman describing the new material as “unmistakably us. Our intention was to connect with the immediacy of the early Hydra Head era with the manic nature of the How They Light Cigarettes in Prison/RNRKM era. “We had a few setbacks, so we just wanted to get into the studio and start demoing these songs,” he continues. “We loved working with [producer] Vinnie Freeman, and we loved these songs. A lot more things are possible in the studio than in the early 2000s. One thing that hasn’t really changed is that doing drums and vocals take up the majority of the time. [Guitarists] Matt [Roy] and Javin [Leonard] are snipers. I watch Matt, and I swear he plays two different guitar parts at the same time. We are doing the LP with Steve Evetts, but we are still assembling. We are getting ready to start taking this to the stage. We just got done in the studio, so this is the training montage. Once it thaws and mud season is over, we plan to give the people what they need.” —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

STUDIO SHORT SHOTS

MOTHER OF GRAVES’ DOOM-DEATH DEBUT IS CLOSER THAN EVER Indianapolis-based sentinels Mother of Graves are at work finishing up their debut full-length, Where the Shadows Adorn (Wise Blood Records). The LP is being recorded at guitarist Ben Sandman’s home studio, GLB Studios, and is set to be mastered once again at Unisound by Dan Swanö. Mother of Graves now have in their ranks drummer Don Curtis, another veteran metal musician from the Indy area. Per vocalist Brandon Howe, “Don is a phenomenal drummer and one of the most precise players in Indy in any vein of the genre.”

14 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

According to second guitarist, Chris Morrison, Where the Shadows Adorn “has a very depressive vibe, but it also has faint glimmers of hope, and maybe bits of anger and frustration here and there.” Howe refers to the album as a “continued somber journey into the depths of the self and soul. We’re experimenting a lot with new things, and more usage of keys, too.” Mother of Graves say they are “hoping for a late summer/early fall release,” and have already hired “a very well-known and talented painter” for the cover art. According to Morrison, now comes the hard part. “I honestly wasn’t expecting to have so much new material written for the album,” he says. “It is going to be a nightmare deciding what songs to cut and save for another release.” —DUTCH PEARCE

SATAN

Reignited NWOBHM legends feel great about their career, less so about the state of the world

do feel that satan finally fulfilled the promise that we’d shown briefly in 1983, yes,” founding guitarist Russ Tippins tells us over email. “We were just kids who reacted to everything in a knee-jerk fashion. Court in the Act was a critical and commercial disaster. We were ridiculed by the press and other bands because of our name. We took it all to heart and had no one with a wise head to advise us (manager, etc). We weren’t able to step back and see the bigger picture, so we tore it all up and abandoned the thing we had started. With the reunion, we wanted above all else to put that right.” ¶ The lineup that put together Satan’s 1983 cult NWOBHM classic Court in the Act only lasted for around a year. In 2011, they got back together for a one-off show and discovered that the chemistry was still there. Now, 10 years later, that same lineup—vocalist Brian Ross, guitarists Tippins and Steve Ramsey, bassist Graeme English and drummer Sean Taylor—

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prepare to release their fourth album since reuniting. In fact, in some ways, Earth Infernal brings them all the way back full circle. “Apart from the fact we’ve had four years in which to make it,” Tippins explains, “a lot of that time was under lockdown conditions, and it kind of felt like it used to when I was a teenager, i.e., I could stay up all night writing and composing, then sleep through the whole of the next day and start again. I know Steve found himself in the same position. It’s pretty much how we wrote our debut album.” Songs like “Twelve Infernal Lords” and “Earth We Bequeath” would definitely fit on Court—with one important difference. Not only do they have the huge “airpunching riffs” the band excels at, they tackle a very topical subject: environmental devastation.

“It just felt like something that the world forgot,” grouses Tippins. “While we were all distracted by a virus, the big problem got worse. It went from scientific theory to events we can see for ourselves every day. Wildfires, melting poles, rising seas, a constant barrage of storms. It seems to never end, and is all attributable to one thing—the planet is too hot. We consciously avoided the pandemic as a topic, knowing that everyone else would have plenty to say about that already. It’s been a constant clamor, and now, of course, the war is top of everyone’s agenda. I guess we just wanted to raise a single hand amongst the clamor and point out that this thing isn’t going away. The elephant is still in the room, and we’re still ignoring it.” —JEFF TREPPEL

MARES OF THRACE

After a decade without exposure, Calgary crushers emerge without a shield

ike a cicada, I like to hide underground for decades at a time, then re-emerge and just scream constantly,” quips vocalist/guitarist Thérèse Lanz. “Also, in an effort to find a creative endeavor that didn’t pay negative money, I became a concept artist for the video game industry. It’s great, and it’s so full of punk and metal musicians I like to call it the metal retirement plan; but the brutal hours and having to move cities/countries repeatedly didn’t let me focus on much else for a while.” ¶ It’s been a long wait for new music by Calgary, Alberta band Mares of Thrace, as personal lives and careers took precedence in the wake of 2012’s The Pilgrimage. In stark contrast to the noise-ridden grind of past work, new album The Exile leans hard into doom territory: Lanz’s atonal riffs are still present, but there’s a lot more room for nuance and—gasp!—maturity and vulnerability on such standouts as “Onward Ever Onward,” “Dark Harbours” and “Offerings of Hand and Tongue.” 18 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

“I mean, who isn’t feeling more doomy than usual these days?” asks Lanz. “I don’t think I’ll ever be monogamous to a subgenre, but ‘slow and bleak’ has felt like the correct soundtrack for the times. I’m fond of the saying, ‘Vulnerability is the only punk rock we have left.’ And it’s true. I was also inspired by Alcest’s Kodama in 2016, which has a black metal pedigree, but was also a very vulnerable record about an anime movie about nature spirits. If Neige can have feelings, so can I, dammit.” The Exile marks the debut of new drummer/bassist Casey Rogers, replacing co-founding member Stef MacKichan. “Stef’s always going to be my best friend,” Lanz explains, “and besides, when she told me she wanted to focus on becoming a registered nurse rather than touring, what was I gonna do—get

mad at her for wanting to save lives rather than be hung over in Ohio after playing for 30 people? Shit, after the past two years, I think she and all her colleagues should get fucking medals. We did try to be a long-distance band, but we both just couldn’t do it. That said, Stef and I are almost certainly going to collab on music again at some point.” Asked about how she’s changed over the last decade, Lanz admits, “I’m a different person now; aren’t we all? I had the biggest chip on my shoulder back then. I don’t feel the urge to prove anything to anyone these days. Like I said about vulnerability—the urge to constantly prove what a tough guy you are is a curse; it literally kills people, in obvious ways, and in less-obvious ways. These songs are a pure distillation of that.” —ADRIEN BEGRAND

MARES OF THRACE

I AM THE NIGHT

Finnish metal veterans uncover new ground where dead angels lie

orn during a 2021 Finnish blizzard and now storming the light’s bane, I Am the Night channel the sacred black metal texts of the 1990s—recordings by Emperor, Dissection, Dawn, Sacramentum, Vinterland, Immortal and Ulver are forever a part of its older members’ psyches. ¶ While this may be a new band, we’re told that the idea behind it was in gestation for years, as longtime friends and former Omnium Gatherum bandmates Janne Markkanen (bass) and Markus Vanhala (guitars, synthesizers) had a shared “inner urge to do a much more raw, underground joint adventure,” as opposed to the more melodic direction Vanhala’s other band, Insomnium, have traversed in recent years. ¶ “This project somehow had black magic [to it],” Markkanen reveals. “I came up with the music and concept really quickly. Also, the ‘world stopping’ period helped us to dive 110 percent into the dark of I Am the Night… I’m really picky with my black metal, so I had a clear vision from the start. The whole band, and also the recording engineer Juho Räihä [of Swallow the Sun],

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really shared the same vision and stood behind this, so this was an easy team to work towards victories and glory with. Markkanen and Vanhala recruited young wonder-drummer Waltteri Väyrynen (Paradise Lost, Bodom After Midnight), who laid down his Faust-ian fury in a snow-covered wooden cabin in Finland over a day and a half. For vocals, Vanhala turned to family to help elevate these eight ice-blasted melodic and perfectly atmospheric black metal anthems at dusk. “I was in need of a black metal singer, and I had a talk about this with my brother-in-law Okko [Solanterä] in a sauna, with a beer—a really Finnish way! I just said this would need some Ihsahn and [Jon] Nödtveidt vibes, and he was immediately there.” The band logo (by Christophe Szpajdel) and an instant-classic cover from the mercurial hand of Necrolord brings to life the band/album

concept of what the band calls, “the Night, and the forces of night taking over the command, and crushing the houses of god and ripping the angels’ wings and dropping them down from the sky—that usual 40-year-olds-in-midlife-crisis talk! “I personally think that the Necrolord cover art is a huge part of the album,” he continues. “It is a big thing for me to have the cover art from the artist who has created so many classic covers of the albums I was influenced by in my teens. It looks fantastic.” Vanhala concurs: “We’re oldschool guys; we need the full experience! An album with real artwork makes the mood. I’m not into Spotify and tiny pixel artwork pictures… Necrolord was a huge factor in building the mood for classic albums in the ’90s. I grew up listening to those albums and staring at the artwork for hours and hours.” —DEAN BROWN

OUT APRIL 22 The anniversary album for the heavy metal icon Udo Dirkschneider‘s 70th birthday, with 17 excellent cover versions of Queen, AC/DC, Motörhead, Judas Priest and many more! „A timeless singer, singing timeless classics. A must have!“ LOUD (PT), Jorge Botas

CD Digipak I Earbook I Colored Vinyl I Digital

OUT APRIL 22

The Fist is the Law! The Canadian Heavy Metal high ﬂyers with their new stroke of genius! Digipak I Limited edition box I Vinyl I Digital

The new album from the German guitar legend Michael Schenker, featuring Ronnie Romero (Rainbow) as main vocalist, plus the guests singers Michael Kiske (Helloween), Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear) & Gary Barden. A Hard Rock masterpiece!

CD Digipak I Earbook I Colored Vinyl I Digital 11 new songs incl. 2 bonus tracks (CD and Earbook)

Roaring modern thrash metal & epic melodies from France!

The Swiss hard rock giants featuring Leo Leoni (Gotthard)

CD Digipak I Vinyl I Digital OUT JUNE 10!

2CD Digipak I Vinyl I Box I Digital OUT MAY 13! Exclusive editions and merchandise:

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OUT MAY 27

TERROR

Nails mainman might not be one of them, but still helps hardcore heroes revitalize their sound

os angeles crew terror are a staple of modern hardcore, spreading the gospel of scene unity and stage dives over the last two decades. For their eighth album, Pain Into Power, Terror revisited their roots, connecting with old collaborators in order to find a fresh, energized sound. ¶ On the eponymous opener, a sub-minute blast of raging hardcore punk, energetic frontman Scott Vogel affirms his dedication to the genre. Pain Into Power doesn’t let up from the moment it starts, clocking in at just under 20 minutes from start to finish, the shortest album of Terror’s career. That’s due in part to producer Todd Jones, who formed Terror in 2002 before going on to launch deathy hardcore titans Nails. ¶ “He was extremely hands-on, and he just has a style of writing,” Vogel says about his former bandmate, who also played on Terror’s compilation of early-career re-recordings, Trapped in a World. “It’s always extremely aggressive and explosive and brutal. If you listen to the first Terror record, Lowest of the Low, it’s really got those elements of Todd in it, and he definitely brought that back into the band’s fold.” 22 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

Jones, who contributed to the writing process as well, came in with the idea to make Terror’s most intense album to date. Unlike their other records, Pain Into Power doesn’t contain any mid-paced or slow songs; the longest track, “Prepare for the Worst,” is under three minutes. The majority are under two. “There are full songs written by Terror members that Todd didn’t write anything on,” Vogel explains. “There’s definitely tons of it that Todd has picked up a guitar and wrote stuff on, but all of it has Todd’s fingerprint on it, which is just pushing everything to a level of insanity.” Vogel also believes, given the level of access people have to recorded music in the present day, that it’s better for a band to make its point quickly and encourage the listener to return for repeated listens. Matt Hyde, who produced Terror’s 2010 standout, Keepers of the

Faith, also returned to engineer and mix the new album. Pain Into Power also represents a new era for Terror vocally and lyrically. In addition to the presence of guest vocalists Jones, George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher and Madison Watkins (Year of the Knife), Vogel takes a decidedly darker and more negative stance in his lyrics. Targets of his ire include addiction, prejudice and institutional corruption, subjects that were amplified by Terror’s first major break from touring since the early aughts. Despite that, Vogel makes it clear that Terror’s hearts are still in the game and their core message to listeners is still there. “At the end of the day, the title and the first line of the record is, ‘You turned your pain into power,’ he concludes. “The world is so crazy, but don’t let it beat you. Somehow find some power in all the bad that’s going on.” —VINCE BELLINO

PHOTO BY EASTERDAILY

TERROR

SYK

hen he assembled Syk nearly a decade ago songwriter/guitarist Stefano Ferrian was dealing with an aggressive immune system disorder. So, naming the band was all about what he knew. “Music has always been a way to find a new mental center,” he says. “Being sick and the knowledge that comes following the healing process is what the name of the band is all about.” ¶ Describing just what his avant-garde extreme band sounds like is a bit more challenging. “We’re not so good about finding a focused description about what we do,” Ferrian admits. “I think that metal would be appropriate since it’s the most open genre known in music. Some people pointed it out as avant extreme metal, but we do not like labels. Music is like food or wine: If you want to know how it is, you need to taste it.” ¶ And taste this Italian fare you should. Syk’s third album, Pyramiden, will be released by Housecore this spring. The album, largely completed before the global pandemic, offers a big showcase for vocalist Dalila Kayros.

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“Dalila’s voice is just an amazing instrument we can use to make our inner world explicit through music,” Ferrian explains. “Our focus is to be as precise as possible to express our vision of the world through our own experience. In that sense, Dalila works as a storyteller, and the story at the base of the Pyramiden is pretty tough, dense and painful. That’s why vocals are more fragile and less aggressive on the new album.” Pyramiden focuses on the experience of isolation. Since the album was largely wrapped before COVID-19, it’s more about self-imposed isolation rather than mandatory lockdowns. “I moved seven years ago from the city to the Italian Alps, and I’ve been surrounded by woods and animals since,” Ferrian says. “My life hasn’t changed that much in the last couple years, except for touring, and I had the

occasion to look at the situation from a distance without all the restrictions that people suffered in the Italian cities. So, the album talks about a long-lasting relationship with solitude and all the demons which lie within.” As for what’s changed since their sophomore album, Ferrian says it’s more about personal growth than any big metamorphosis in sound or delivery: “I believe that our sonic evolution is connected to our personal perspectives. It’s more about how we perceive things surrounding us and how good we are at translating them in music at the moment. We do not have a plan for our possible evolution. That said, I think that the writing process is more accurate and harmonic in Pyramiden. We literally gave all we had in that specific period of time on this album, and it’ll be intense to deliver it onstage.” —JUSTIN M. NORTON

PHOTO BY DIGITAL TUSK

SYK

Italian avant extreme metal collective embraces isolation before and during the pandemic

As I Cast Ruin Upon The Lens That Reveals My Every Flaw The complete aural presence that is Oshkosh, WI’s CAVERNLIGHT returns with “As I Cast Ruin Upon The Lens That Reveals My Every Flaw”. This all-encompassing journey could very well be one of the best post-metal/sludge releases of the last 5 years.

Vinyl/Digital

After numerous releases, COME TO GRIEF (featuring members of the legendary GRIEF) present their highly anticipated debut full length record “When The World Dies”! Recorded and mixed at Godcity Studios by Kurt Ballou (Converge, Nails) and featuring the amazing artwork of Paolo Girardi (Power Trip, Vastum, Chthe’ilist, Lycus). “When The World Dies” captures seven tracks of crushing sludge and doom from the godfathers of the genre! Features guest appearance by Jacob Bannon (Converge, Wear Your Wounds).

OUT MAY 20th V I N Y L / CD / DIGITA L

“You Are Nowhere” is the epic collaborative effort between hardcore stalwart frontman extraordinaire Rob Fusco (One King Down, Most Precious Blood, Recon) and Rafe Holmes (Insvrgence)! Take Life focuses decades of metal/hardcore songwriting experience with unbridled expression. Vibing the frenetic musical energy of bands like Kiss It Goodbye and Burnt By The Sun.

OUT JULY 8TH V I N Y L / D I G I TA L

ALSO AVAILABLE:

Cleveland, Ohio’s AXIOMA create their most stunning release to date entitled “Sepsis”! Seven tracks of unbridled devastation intertwined with blackened post metal precision.

OUT JUNE 24TH

AXIOMA CROWN

V IN Y L / DIGI TA L

V IN Y L/DIGITA L

CRONE

ALSO AVAILABLE:

Endless Midnight Featuring Jeff Caxide of ISIS & PALMS. “Endless Midnight” is available on 2xLP for the first time since its release over a decade ago!

OUT MAY 27

DOUBLE VINYL/CD/DIGITAL

ALL ELSE FAILED’s debut release finally available on vinyl for the first time ever!

out june 24th VINYL/DIGITAL

ALL ELSE FAILED THIS NEVER HAPPENED V IN Y L / DIGI TA L

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VANUM

The stuff of Legend might just be that for bicoastal black metal force

ike many records in 2022, Vanum’s Legend was fraught with setbacks, but that didn’t stop this cross-country band. Written entirely in isolation, the album’s individualistic approach was at odds with Vanum’s initial workflow. ¶ “We’ll get skeletons of a few songs, or enough that once we build it up further it will be an album, and then we get in a room,” says Kyle Morgan (the members don’t disclose their instruments). “We try to find a time for me to go out to NY or Mike [Rekevics] out to Santa Fe. We’ll spend a week rehearsing like maniacs, pulling eight-, 10-, 12- hour rehearsal days to flesh it out, then we go home and pick at it a little more, and then get back together in the studio to bang it out in a week or so. We were supposed to do the first part of that in March of 2020, so that didn’t happen.” ¶ “When you sit locked in a fucking room for a year, you want to be a little bit bolder—at least that’s what I’ve found,” Rekevics adds. “I guess that’s the musical direction of it, really: interests that we had simmering.

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Since the last record, we’ve been kind of gradually wanting to have things be a little more heavy metal, to indulge not just Bathory, but what was Bathory listening to? Fucking Manowar! These things were things we wanted to lean into, and they had time to germinate and sink in. “It’s not an indulgent detour, creatively,” he continues. “This is still what we’re doing; we’re just pushing it a little bit further. I’m honestly fucking blown away with how it turned out, because this is the first time I’ve done a record largely remotely.” Legend proves not only to be a physical and songwriting detour for Vanum, but also a lyrical departure. “Mythic heroism is what I’ve been dwelling upon,” explains Rekevics. “Legend is focused more on specific aspects of heroism. In the past, it was the idea of the heroic

arc and how that impacts not just mythically, but also individually on a psychological level, what that means in that regard. On this one, I spent time reading Byron. [The dramatic poem] Manfred. Thinking about this as a heroic archetype. Thinking about the Promethean frame of Lucifer. Thinking about these sorts of pre-existing mythic stories and about the significance of them not only historically, but also the significance of them in lived reality and how these myths are still a part of contemporary human life in an ideal way. “Playing more classic riffs and indulging the heavy metal attributes of the songs kind of felt right to be a little more connected to not just now and not just a pure emotional catharsis,” he concludes, “but to a historical lineage.” —JON ROSENTHAL

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“Catchy as hell with the right amount of heaviness…” -

A new era of EVERGREY: A Heartless Portrait (The Orphean Testament) is dark melodic metal mastery!

A HEARTLESS PORTRAIT - The Orphean Testament -

OUT 5/20 DIGISLEEVE | 2-LP GATEFOLD | DIGITAL

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CREMATORY mark 30 years of German Gothic Metal greatness with Inglorious Darkness!

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NECHOCHWEN

Folk-inspired black metallers channel new influences with tools of the past

even years after their last album, Heart of Akamon, folk/black metal duo Nechochwen emerge from the woods with their newest endeavor, Kanawha Black. The record marks a significant step forward for the project. Members Nechochwen (vocals, guitars, keyboards, etc.) and Pohonasin (bass, drums and vocals), channeled new influences, tried new arrangements and tones, and much more. As a result, the pair achieve a furiously vibrant offering that acts as an homage to their home state of West Virginia and a tribute to its land, lore and history. ¶ Kanawha Black thematically references a dark chert rock that was used to fashion weapons throughout history. In the context of the album, it also references the dark and violent history of the state, as well as physical and spiritual journeys. Sonically, the duo challenged themselves to perform and incorporate new elements into each of the seven songs on the record. But in covering new ground, the employment of vintage equipment proved to be most useful. 28 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

“It was a lot of fun using some vintage gear and interesting instruments in the studio for Kanawha Black,” they explain collectively, “such as a really old Alamo amp that is wired for either guitar or bass on the beginning of ‘Generations of War,’ a 1978 Les Paul on parts of ‘Visions, Dreams and Signs,’ and a guitar ‘duel’ on the solo section of ‘I Can Die But Once’ between a 1994 American Washburn, a 2005 Yairi acoustic and a 1998 Yairi classical guitar.” Album closer and standout track “Across the Divide” is a fantastic example of Nechochwen’s efforts. According to the band, the track “is about wandering and the spirit of the journey,” steadily building over its nearly eight-minute runtime—accentuated by soaring trad metal riffs and leads, as well as southern folk rhythms that accompany the adventurous sentiment behind the song.

“Whether a figurative quest in life or a long-term trek in the wilderness, the struggles encountered can seem insurmountable, but ultimately bring growth and confidence,” the band offers. “Reaching the divide between beginning a challenge and seeing its completion gives strength and clarity. We see this as applicable in our earthly experiences, and perhaps it applies also to the divide between life and what comes after.” Ultimately, Kanawha Black shows Nechochwen at their brightest and most experimental. Each moment is a unique take on folk and heavy metal fusion that poignantly showcases the serenity and scars of a homeland. Their new full-length is a brilliant reminder that testing and pushing personal boundaries—not to mention tapping into new wells—can spring refreshing returns. —CODY F. DAVIS

Temple of Void

face all their fears and emerge with their most atmospheric death/doom to date

story by

Brad Sanders

photos by

Brian Sheehan

etroit-based death/doom crew Temple of Void released their third album, The World That Was, in March 2020, just as its title was becoming grimly prophetic. Unwittingly, the record fit the mood of the times—crushingly heavy, bleakly melancholic and thick with oppressive atmosphere. As the world that was gave way to the world that is—and it became clear that no live shows were on the horizon—the band sprang back into action to write their Relapse debut, Summoning the Slayer. ¶ “I feel like it came together really quickly,” guitarist Alex Awn says of the band’s new LP. “The World That Was came out, the world went on pause, so we were pretty much like, ‘Fuck it.’ I think we had the whole album written in about eight months.” ¶ That tight timeline helped make Summoning the Slayer a kind of unofficial companion piece to The World That Was. Like its predecessor, Slayer channels the sculpted gloom of Paradise Lost and early Katatonia, as well as the more straightforward bludgeoning of ’90s American death metal, blending the two into the sound that’s become the Temple of Void signature. The first clue that Summoning the Slayer is in conversation with The World That Was comes before you hear a single note. 30 : J AU PN RE I L 22002221 : : DDEECCI IBBEELL

“With The World That Was, you look at the cover art and [Adam] Burke did a fantastic job,” singer and lyricist Mike Erdody says. “You’ve got Charon ferrying the boat into the mouth of this cave and it’s got the giant Temple of Void sigil, and it kind of begs the question of, Well, what’s in the cave?” Incomprehensible eldritch horror is what’s in the cave, as it turns out. Ola Larsson’s cover art for Summoning the Slayer features an enormous, tentacle-headed monster, dozens of winged demons and a Boschian swell of contorted human bodies. It’s a depiction of the hell that Charon steered his boat into, but it also represents the private hell that millions found themselves in when the pandemic forced them into isolation. Sartre wrote that hell is other people; lockdown suggested it’s still better than the alternative.

Atmosphere is in the ear of the listener. We consciously have tried to lead people to water to where they can get to that,

but there’s no easy button. A L E X AW N “COVID clearly had an influence on it,” Erdody says. “It had an influence on everybody’s life. Nobody could escape it. It was a worldwide thing. Everybody felt a bit of isolation, and in isolation you’re there with your own thoughts. It started brewing the lyrical concept to me of, depending on who you are, that’s actually a very horrific concept in and of itself. “At the end of your life, you’re faced with yourself,” he continues, extending the afterlife metaphor. “You’re faced with your decisions in life. That’s more horrific than anything, any horror movie you want to watch. Whether you’re a good person nor not, everyone has faults, everyone has vices, and a lot of them are built around the fragility of our egos, fear, shame, guilt. Dealing with stuff that we don’t feel is fair, but not really knowing how to cope or coping in immature ways. [The album] is taking a hard look at why we do the things that we do.” Erdody’s lyrical introspection comes through strongest on “Dissolution,” the album’s not-especially-metal closing track. Every Temple of Void album has had an acoustic piece, but this is the first time they’ve used one with vocals. “I had done a lot of acoustic writing in the pandemic because we were all separated for a while,” Erdody explains. “It was the only thing I could do where I didn’t have to rely on other people. So, I came up with a bunch of ideas. That one seemed the most logical for the album, but it really begged to have vocals on it. It’s a very somber piece about fear of consequence and fear of losing yourself in your own happiness because you can’t commit, or you can’t decide, or you

don’t trust your own judgment on things. I was trying to go for something like a Budgie ballad meets “Planet Caravan,” or even something on Master of Reality.” The rest of the album, of course, is significantly heavier, and the heavy tracks have a clarity of sound and purpose that feels directly related to super producer Arthur Rizk’s presence behind the boards. It was Temple of Void’s first time working with him, and the relationship was hand-in-glove from the beginning. “It was very comfortable,” drummer Jason Pearce says of the Philadelphia sessions. “He made you feel relaxed in that studio. Even that night when we got there, we set the drums up and everything, and he said, ‘Let’s just play something.’ We just rolled in and it felt good. It wasn’t, ‘Let’s wait until tomorrow when we’re settled in.’ It was a cool thing.” With Rizk’s help, along with critical contributions from sound artist Meredith Davidson and keyboardist Omar Jon Ajluni, Temple of Void struck a perfect balance between memorable songwriting and the creation of a rich, palpable atmosphere. It’s an intangible element, but it might be the most important one. “Atmosphere is in the ear of the listener,” Awn explains. “We consciously have tried to lead people to water to where they can get to that, but there’s no easy button. It has to be a culmination of a bunch of elements. The riff-writing, the synth that’s happening, the sound design, the visuals—everything about the band has to come together to hopefully transport you and give you this atmosphere.” DDEECCI IBBEELL : : AJPURNI E L 2021 2 : 31

While the world shifts from one crisis to another, German vets remain a pillar of thrash stability

iT’S

/// story by Sarah Kitteringham /// difficult to have a clear head at the moment with the situa-

tion here in Ukraine. Germany’s getting thousands of refugees a day, and everything is out of control. The prices for the oil are going up like crazy. It’s too weird, everything that you don’t need after the COVID-19 drama for two years. But somehow, it was expected. It’s just unreal, that the Western world was tricked by Putin for the last years.” ¶ Bassist and vocalist Marcel “Schmier” Schirmer of German thrash stalwarts Destruction does not mince words. Less than two weeks prior to our interview, on February 24, 2022, Russia invaded the Ukraine in an escalation of the RussoUkrainian War that began in 2014. The invasion triggered a massive refugee crisis across Europe and, predictably, a social media onslaught against any entity that dared to speak out about the millions of ordinary people unjustly caught in the crossfire. As the severity of COVID-19 currently wanes in heavily vaccinated parts of the world, another crisis has emerged to inflame an already deeply divided population. 32 : J AU PN RE I L 22002221 : : DDEECCI IBBEELL

“The scary thing is that, whenever you make a peace post, so many people are attacking you,” Schirmer bemoans. “It’s the whataboutism: ‘But what about the war in Syria? What about the war in Iraq?’ And people don’t understand that all of it’s shit, you know?” While preparing for the release of the band’s 15th studio album, Diabolical, out April 8 via Napalm Records, Schirmer is frequently returning to his band’s social media profiles to ban and delete bots and warmongers, which are virtually indistinguishable from each other. It’s hardly a problem unique to artists—the same is happening across European and North American social media courtesy of attacks presumed to be perpetuated by Russian bot farms. “I [just deleted] at least 150-200 bot profiles,” he says, exasperated. “Russian government, they

were just out there to do distraction, you know, and lockdowns. Regardless, the loans provided to share wrong information. Some German news by the German government to musicians are now portals had huge attacks of bots from Russia due, despite COVID-19 cases being at an all-time when they posted some war statements.” high in the nation as of press time. Indeed, the German secret service has publicly “When we were at the lowest point, I actually warned of cyberattacks against German tarsaid, ‘I have to get my shit together and start gets—in particular those of media and journalwriting songs,’” he says of late 2020, when the ists in so-called “hack and publish operations” to writing sessions for Diabolical began. “I actually sway public opinion via cyber espionage. found out as soon as I had the first song done that “Russia was really well-prepared in that case,” music was lifting me so high… It really helped Schirmer says. “They’re really ahead of the me to not go crazy [during] the pandemic.” whole Western Union. When it comes to cyber Diabolical is resolutely Destruction. Expect activity and cyber war, they have been preparing their characteristically thrashy onslaught with themselves because they don’t allow free speech an occasionally heightened speed metal influin their country, but they used our country’s free ence. The interplay between dueling guitars speech laws to spread their lies.” and Schirmer’s gruff screams reveals an album It’s a relatively new and difficult-to-quantify that is consistently throttling. The title track is tactic that could have fara thrash melee whose reaching consequences. video centers around The 2016 election in the a bloody, Hitchcockian United States is presumed murder spree of the to have been heavily Mad Butcher, the band’s affected by “troll farms” iconic mascot who first backed by the Russian appeared on the cover government, who massof 1987’s Mad Butcher EP. disseminated misinforMeanwhile, “Hope Dies mation via Twitter and Last” is a bleak reminder Facebook. At least 126 of our collective experimillion Americans were ence with this global thought to have been health crisis. The album exposed to this misinforis topped off with a cover mation during and after of “City Baby Attacked by the election. Similar disRats” by punk icons GBH. information campaigns “Art and pain is always were attempted during very close together,” says the 2017 French election. Schirmer, reflecting on All of it is soberingly how the pandemic shaped real and dark inspiration Diabolical. “It was a good for the 40-year-old politithing for the music and cally inclined thrash for the inspiration, of band, which is credited course, but on the other as part of the “Big Four” side, it was also a difficult of German thrash alongsituation to manage. side their colleagues Because, as you know, in Kreator, Sodom and some musicians in those Tankard. Formed in 1982, Marcel “Schmier” Schirmer crisis times committed Destruction have had an suicide because they felt indomitable impact on helpless and lost.” extreme metal courtesy of their early extreme He continues: “What I didn’t see coming is the image and sound, helping trigger traceable move- extreme separation of the people now with this ments in black metal, death metal and speed extreme left and extreme right. Extreme prometal. Their 1985 debut, Infernal Overkill, and 1986 COVID and against COVID.” follow-up, Eternal Devastation, laid the blueprint for Schirmer sees the online response to the a project that has been remarkably consistent. To Russian invasion of the Ukraine as an illogical this day, Destruction remain true to their roots, extension of this division: “It’s weird that COVID merging thrash and speed metal with a punk deniers, a lot of them now are pro-Putin. It’s just ethos, partnered with topical lyrics about current basically anti-government and because they’re events. Accordingly, Diabolical is the direct product frustrated about some things…” of the COVID-19 crisis, during which musicians’ He stops and reframes, frustrated by the livelihoods were ripped away virtually overnight. increasing lack of nuance in conversations about “I’m a full-time musician. For me, it was hard difficult topics. survival time,” reveals Schirmer, who was lucky “I’m frustrated, too. I’m anti-government, enough to set up new merch partners and release too. I hate my government, but it has noththe live DVD/CD combo Live Attack to help finaning to do with COVID. This is an international cially carry him through the series of restrictions medical crisis.”

Whenever you make a peace post, so many people are attacking you. It’s the whataboutism: ‘But what about the war in Syria? What about the war in Iraq?’ And people don’t understand that

you know?

DDEECCI IBBEELL : : AJPURNI E L 2021 2 : 33

Thirty-five years in, you can still count on

MESHUGGAH’s unpredictability story by

DANIEL LAKE JU 34 : A PN RE I L 22002221 : : DDEECCI IBBEELL

IT’S

a cold, unassuming mid-January afternoon

in Maryland, and anticipation hangs in the air like a wireless internet connection that could drop at the most inopportune moment. The sun is already sinking further into the west, and will nearly complete its reddening descent over the next 67 minutes. But in Sweden, the same forlorn star is already embedded deep in that dark horizon; ditto in Britain, Spain and Germany. In parts of Australia, the early morning light has just begun angling through bedroom windows, hinting at the day to come. No matter the local time, all 60-plus of us have gathered on a simultaneous Zoom meeting hosted by drummer Tomas Haake and Meshuggah’s new label team at Atomic Fire Records to taste (once, only once) the band’s 10th full-length album, Immutable. ¶ The very real excitement for the music should not overshadow the palpable human connection bestowed on this tiny global community by our variety of locales and shared love of the impeccably heavy, nor the truly impressive technological means by which this virtual party is even possible… nor, perhaps, the tragic two-year worldwide health crisis that normalized such a situation in the first place.

We don’t give a shit about people listening [piecemeal] on Spotify, track by track. When we write an album,

WE HAVE TO WRITE IT FOR THE OLD-SCHOOL WAY OF LISTENING, FROM THE START TO THE FINISH. Tomas Haake “This is a first for us,” Haake says, more than a month later, in a one-on-one transatlantic video conversation. “Because of the COVID situation, it feels like people are accustomed to this now. I hate cameras and I hate seeing myself, but for interviews like this, it’s a lot easier. I can see a face and relate to a question depending on your demeanor. I paused it during that time [people were listening to Immutable], but it was fun getting back after and hearing people’s take on it. It seems like people were really stoked about it. It was a very positive experience for me. I did get a little too drunk, though, drinking wine during that whole thing. But, hey, it showed the real me.” The real Tomas Haake is genial, relaxed and conversational, even when (as he was on this particular afternoon) slogging through the disappointing results of a recent photo shoot for something that print publications are most likely to find useful. Their original approach— obscured facial features given a fiery CGI treatment by Brendan Baldwin—hasn’t been met with wide journalistic approval, apparently, and the alternates are hardly any better. “We hate photo sessions,” Haake states plainly. “I’m sitting with Photoshop and trying to make more out of nothing.” The hazy darkness of those first-run images, though, captures the mood of Immutable better than any 10 Jens Kidman frowny memes ever could. The commingling of thick bass grooves, mysterious guitar leads and classic scrawled Fredrik Thordendal solos feels something like being beckoned ever deeper through unlit

tunnels by faithless promises of safety. Opener “Broken Cog” batters at the skull like a bloodied pair of plated gauntlets, an effect that is all the more memorable because Kidman swaps out his trademark bellow for malevolent whispers for most of the song. “How the album starts is crucial,” says Haake. “This is something we toss and turn about for months. With [2016’s] The Violent Sleep of Reason, you start with ‘Clockworks’ to put the listener in a certain mindset—‘What the fuck am I supposed to expect after this song?’ ‘Broken Cog’ has a similar effect on the listener, but not frantic. It’s way more [evenly] paced and not too crazy. Then you kick into something that’s very metal and a lot of double bass and stuff like that [‘The Abysmal Eye’]. It’s very old-school, the way we think about this. We don’t give a shit about people listening [piecemeal] on Spotify, track by track. When we write an album, we have to write it for the old-school way of listening, from the start to the finish.” Haake repeatedly points to Metallica’s Master of Puppets as the essential template by which Immutable was built: “You have two songs on this album that have a lot of double bass [‘The Abysmal Eye’ and ‘Armies of the Preposterous’]; you definitely want to separate them as much as you can. Then you have a long instrumental track towards the end, and in a sense you kind of wash out the ears for the listener and start fresh again. We used that in the initial part of ‘They Move Below,’ as well as the black metal guitars-only track ‘Black Cathedral,’ which also

threw a lot of people off. The style is that tremolo-picking black metal style, so I understand people thought we were going to go into some black metal blast beats and shit, but no, that’s not going to happen. But it has the same effect— again you get the listener [thinking], ‘I have no idea what’s going to happen now.’ The song that kicks in after that, ‘I Am the Thirst,’ starts with the same kind of tremolo fast-picking, and the notes are the same, even though they were never written to be. It’s not all brains. Sometimes it’s just stupid luck.” Haake reports that longtime guitarist Mårten Hagström wrote about half of the music on Immutable, and even Haake’s and bassist Dick Lövgren’s contributions fell in line with the prevailing aesthetic. “This is the first album we’ve ever written where you have a snare backbeat throughout the whole album,” he says. “Even though it has a lot of aggression, the backbeat makes it a little bit more approachable for people. It wasn’t really that intentional. It was just how it was supposed to go with these riffs.” When the somber “Past Tense” winds January’s virtual listening party to a close, the positive response is immediate and overwhelming, for which Haake sounds somewhat relieved. “We’re lucky,” he notes. “You can feel good about it, but until you actually play it to people and start hearing comments, you’re really in the dark as far as whether it’s going to work or if we’re going back to 400-cap clubs.” On the strength of Immutable, they’re most assuredly not. DDEECCI IBBEELL : : AJPURNI E L 2021 2 : 35

interview by

QA j. bennett

WI T H

ERIK

DANIELSSON WATAIN’s mastermind on burning churches, tour cancellations and the band’s new album

36 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

hen we catch up with Erik Danielsson, it’s been about a week to what we are doing. Although it might not

since Watain suddenly canceled their U.S. tour at the very last minute. Tourmates Mayhem and Midnight soldiered on without them, but the Swedish black metal stars are still stranded at home with no work visas and no explanation. “Yeah, it’s horrible,” Danielsson tells Decibel from his home outside of Uppsala. “I still haven’t really been able to wrap my head around it. But no one is dead at least. Everyone has got their arms and legs intact. And as far as tours go, we’ll be back. But it’s fucked us on so many levels, I don’t know which one is worse.” ¶ At least the band’s seventh and latest album, The Agony and Ecstasy of Watain, will not be detained. Packed with all the fire and blasphemy you’d expect—and just the right amount of melody not-quite-buried in the mix—it might be their finest work to date. “Watain isn’t just rot and blood and corpses and the devil,” our man says of the grandiose title. “There is also beauty and sophistication. There is real and actual passion in it. All of those things have to be taken into account. Plus, I’m a sucker for epic titles.” What exactly happened with the U.S. tour?

I’ll give you the short version. We’ve had working visas for every U.S. tour that we did. That’s part of the package—you have to go through that process. We hire a lawyer in the States to sort the paperwork out. Then we go to the U.S. embassy in Stockholm and they send us the visas two weeks later. The U.S. is the most complicated country to get a working visa for— more than Russia or Japan—but we always got them in the end. But this time we didn’t, which is kinda scary because we don’t know what’s going on. What’s your guess?

We think it has to do with the fact that [guitarist] Pelle [Forsberg] was refused to enter the States last time when we were going to tour with Morbid Angel in 2019. He got stopped at the border when we were coming in from Mexico. They didn’t give him any reason, but they put him in a cell and interrogated him for like 24 hours. They took his phone, and on the phone they found a bunch of photos that they thought were really weird. You can imagine the kind of photos that a Watain guitarist has on his phone. It’s not going to only be pictures of his mom, you know? So, that’s what they based his refusal on—they didn’t let him in, and we had to do the tour without him. And he got a five-year ban because they said they thought he was trying to come live in the States. Where does it stand now?

They’re not telling us anything. We applied six or seven weeks ago, and we haven’t heard anything. The embassy is a silent brick wall—you can’t get in touch with anyone. If you do, they PHOTO BY E VELINA SZCZESIK

say they can’t tell you anything. So, it’s a lot of work for nothing, and a lot of money invested for nothing. We also haven’t been on tour in two years, so it’s the income for everyone in the band and everyone on the crew. So, it’s kinda horrible, but we will survive. Let’s talk about something positive—your new album. Has it been in the works for a long time or is it a relatively new development?

The actual focused work started in late 2020. But material-wise, some of it goes back to Lawless [Darkness] times. I think every album has songs like that for us. It’s a bit of a mind-fuck to have things you were obsessing over 10 years ago and take them into your current reality to see what happens. It’s a strange sort of musical sorcery, I think, to extend something over a decade like that. But we have a very good living situation with Watain now. During COVID, we all moved to a small village outside Uppsala, our hometown, so we all live in a very close proximity and see each other almost every day. That fact has been very beneficial to the creative process. You recorded the album live in an old church. Why did you want to do it that way?

That might be a little misleading. The producer we always work with, Tore [Stjerna]— he’s recorded all our albums in his studio, Necromorbus. But that studio has changed locations over the years, and this church is the new location. Five years ago, he bought this church out in the middle of nowhere and built a giant studio inside of it. So, it feels like somewhere Pink Floyd would’ve recorded in the ’70s. But the fact that it was a building that was constructed for spiritual purposes is beautiful in relation

have been those kinds of spiritual practices they had in mind. [Laughs] Of course, we brought our whole arsenal of things we use onstage—the altars and totems and things—to decorate the church and make it into a Watain temple. Then we just plugged in our guitars and started. This is the first Watain album featuring the full five-member lineup. Why was that important?

I think the main reason was that I was really taken by what we had built up together, the five of us, as a performing band. Our common performance skills were at a very inspiring level to me as the main music writer. I just didn’t see any reason to do it another way. We rehearsed all the material with five people, which was the first time we did that. Usually it’s just me, Pelle and [drummer] Håkan [Jonsson] in the rehearsal room getting the songs together. And that’s been great, but we’ve also done that for six albums in a row. I wanted to take things up a notch and make things a little more intricate. But it also became clear while we were rehearsing that this is how it should sound. It should be these five people playing live. And recording live is a way different energy. I don’t know why the fuck we didn’t always do it like this. The first song and video that came out, “The Howling,” seems like a call to arms and a quest for knowledge at the same time. Am I on the right path?

I think both are very nice interpretations. To me, a lyric like that is a living beast in itself. Hopefully people can relate to it individually, and it depends a bit on what you have inside you. If my mother would read the lyrics, she might interpret them differently than you. If a priest would read them, he might say it deals with dark and disturbing things. For me, it’s word magic. I just like to see what words can do and what they can evoke in people. Hopefully they speak to people. That’s always my humble goal with the lyrics. I wanna be able to communicate. I don’t want it to be a monologue that no one really gets. I want people to get something out of them. I think I was a bit less interested in that before. I was maybe more taken up by my own vision in the past. But now I’m more curious about the actual communication that’s happening with music and lyrics. As a music lover myself, I’ve communicated a lot with lyrics and music I’ve heard and read over the years. It’s not just that I’m listening to someone else’s words and musical expression. I relate to it and feel it could be my own, in a way. I think that’s the best musical experience, and I encourage that. DECIBEL : JUNE 2022 : 37

 Through the fire and flames

Danielsson (c) and the rest of Watain have a burning desire to get back on the road

conceptual reason is that the song “We Remain” deals in part with the idea of a forgotten feminine archetype or god-form, if you wish. She is veiled and she is stranded beyond the capabilities of man to comprehend. She is the source of most of our grief and sadness as a species. Farida’s voice is one of the only voices of contemporary female musicians that I could ever think of using to embody something that is divine. And, well… she did it. You’ve got a new song called “Black Cunt,” which seems ripe for controversy. What’s the story behind it?

The video for “The Howling” features a few burning churches, which is a powerful image even outside of the black metal realm. What does that power mean to you?

That footage is from the church fires that happened in Santiago in 2019 or 2020. It happened in an uprising of the people against the state—an attempt for revolution. That is one of the very beautiful things about these pictures. This is revolution that we’re looking at. The burning of a church will always be a very beautiful thing. There’s no way around it. I know that I’m supposed to say that I think it’s also horrible and that it’s damaged property and all that, but I think the beauty of it transcends all that. But that’s just me. I haven’t seen that many burning churches in black metal videos, so I thought it was very fitting. They’re only showing up during the chorus of the song, and the chorus deals quite directly with fire. In the first chorus I sing about “the primal fires,” and in the second chorus I sing about the “saints of fire and their deeds.” This could also be interpreted as a reference to the church burnings that happened in what we now think of as the second wave of black metal. So, it’s a little bit of an homage to those people who went out from their houses, got into their cars, brought gasoline and matches, and did it. It’s an homage to acting instead of talking. 38 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

Farida Lemouchi, formerly of the Devil’s Blood, appears on “We Remain,” and it’s so great to hear her voice again. I know Watain go way back with the Devil’s Blood, but why did you want her on this particular song?

I actually started writing the lyric for “We Remain” on the 2012 Decibel Tour we did with the Devil’s Blood, In Solitude and Behemoth. I wrote quite a lot during that tour—some has come out since then, but some of it I kept because I was still working on it. I knew “We Remain” would become something important because it was written on a very special night on that tour. I finally finished the lyrics last year, and I reconnected a lot with the time when I started them. I think a lot about the almost magical community we had with In Solitude, the Devil’s Blood and Watain. It was like a triangle of inspiration and magical, mythical music surging through the air when we were doing things together. You felt like you were in a really special place in a special time. I sang the opening sequence of the song myself on the demo, but one night it just clicked that it was Farida’s part—she should do this. And that was also the part that I wrote on that tour, so it comes back to that relationship. Also, Gottfrid [Åhman] from In Solitude is playing the guitar solo later in the song, so all three bands are in there. So, that’s one reason, but the

I’m guessing the album title was inspired by Irving Stone’s biographical novel about Michelangelo, The Agony & the Ecstasy…

Actually, no. Of course I’m aware of it now, but I wasn’t at the time. At first, I was toying with the idea of calling the album The Ecstasy of Watain, but I wanted something a bit more all-encompassing. So, the idea with the title is to describe what you’re gonna hear on the album. If we look at agony and ecstasy as two opposite emotional extremes, you can see a kind of duality emerging out of that concept: darkness and light; heaven and hell; pleasure and pain, and so forth. This has always been the key to everything that is Watain, in a way. There’s always been a meeting between something that is raw and savage and straight out of the mud, while the other side has this kind of sacred, transcendental overtones. I believe the meeting between those two realities and the friction coming out of that meeting— that is our expression. That charge between emotional opposites, that’s where shit happens. That’s where black metal is born.

PHOTO BY EVELINA SZCZESIK

The burning of a church will always be a very beautiful thing. There’s no way around it.

The title was chosen a little bit with that in mind because it deals with the idea of the devil. And the devil is not an easy reality to handle. It’s a pretty complicated and disturbing force in nature and existence. You can try to sugarcoat it any way you want, but it isn’t a pretty thing we’re talking about. But what those two words put together refer to is something very beautiful. It deals with the gates of rebirth. It deals with the point in one’s existence when you are transformed from a blind sheep into a seeing wolf or from an innocent child into a grown-up person, maybe. You can put it any way you want, but that’s what the “Black Cunt” is. It’s the gate from which we emerge as new, strong, powerful beings with new perceptions and cunningness and wisdom. Those two words may be ugly to others, but to me they are beautiful. And, of course, there is a Profanatica reference, because they use that kind of language.

the

definitive stories

behind extreme music’s

definitive albums

DBHOF210

FORBIDDEN Forbidden Evil COMBAT S EPT EMBER 30, 1988

Learn and Burn

chris dick

Deny by the Sword

the making of Forbidden’s Forbidden Evil

hen Combat Records (Under One Flag in Europe) ushered Forbidden’s debut album, Forbidden Evil, out of the gate in the fall of 1988, they knew they were competing for the mindshare (and wallets) of heavy metallers in parking lots, at parties and often during the late nights at radio. Before Combat’s inevitable promotional blitz, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Queensrÿche, Testament, Slayer, and many others were already whirring on turntables and grinding cassette decks intensely. Of course, the oncoming onslaught of Metallica’s megaton ...And Justice for All was palpable, the single for “Harvester of Sorrow” burning absolutely white-hot mere weeks before Forbidden Evil was to hit shelves. Nevertheless, Forbidden, the band’s management and their label partners prepared for battle. Most fledgling bands of Forbidden’s stature put in the work and likely had the musical chops to back it up. Still, the Bay Area’s foremost apprentices had two things in their favor: 1) manager Debbie Abono, and 2) a potent yet diverse formula. Abono’s impact on Forbidden’s trajectory from single-minded high schoolers to thrash greats can’t be undervalued. She was, to be frank, the spark that lit and then fueled the fire for many years after ferrying Forbidden’s freshly pressed three-song demo to New York City, then the apex for the U.S. record industry. Originally crowned Forbidden Evil (after a song by Chicago metallers War Cry), the budding team of Craig Locicero and Glen Alvelais (guitars), Russ Anderson (vocals), Paul Bostaph (drums) and Matt Camacho (bass) had the drive, skill, and resolve to craft songs both unprecedented and captivating. Thrash’s lingua franca was aggression and brawn. Forbidden, in their own way, changed the vocabulary on Forbidden Evil. Not only were Locicero and Alvelais positively formidable on “Chalice of Blood,” “Through Eyes of Glass,” “March Into Fire” and album closer “Follow Me,” but the rhythm section of Bostaph and Camacho was also genre-defining. Musically, Forbidden were ascendant, their high-energy, melodically charged strikes proving as much across Forbidden Evil’s eight-song expanse. But it was vocalist Anderson who ultimately held the key. While Anderson’s peers squawked and huffed their Cold War-era diatribes, the affable frontman channeled Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson cleverly into the burl of Tom Araya and Chuck Billy. His built-in talent projected power, often stunning bandmates and audiences to hair-raising silence. The vocal salvo in “Chalice of Blood,” his menace on “Forbidden Evil” and the rapid-fire delivery on “Off the Edge” are but three examples of Anderson’s many singular moments. Draped with a distinctive Kent Mathieu (Possessed, Verbal Abuse) cover, Forbidden Evil had all the markings of a neck-snapping, musically astute classic. Our quest to induct Forbidden Evil has its origins in the previous decade. It’s never too late to honor a thrash pillar, however. With chalices of blood, crystals calling and souls set free, Decibel rolls out the red carpet for Bay Area masters Forbidden and their inimitable debut, Forbidden Evil. Follow us… D E C I B E L : 41 : J U N E 2 0 2 2

DBHOF210

FORBIDDEN forbidden evil

Describe the transition from Forbidden Evil to Forbidden. The three-year journey to your debut, Forbidden Evil, must’ve been memorable and challenging.

We didn’t think shit about [the name Forbidden Evil]. It was a name by our former drummer Jim Pittman. This is before Paul [Bostaph], obviously. Jim had found the name on the back of an album called Metal Massacre IV by a band called War Cry. Jim and Robb [Flynn] had a bunch of stupid names like Inquisitor—which was a Raven song—and War Witch before they settled on Forbidden Evil. Once I joined the band, we tossed around more names. We went with Forbidden Evil. Destiny brought us to a point where we could expand on the name. The label [Combat] eventually said to us, “Do you want to be an obscure metal band for the rest of your lives? Or do you want to be able to grow into something bigger?” When it was said like that, there was a little resistance, but we were also smart enough to realize the name Forbidden was a pretty fucking cool name, too. We called the album Forbidden Evil to connect the two. RUSS ANDERSON: We thought it was really cliché to have “Evil” as part of Forbidden Evil. There are a lot of bands already called evil this or evil that. We didn’t consider ourselves a Satanic band, and we never cared about that. That’s why we dropped the “Evil” part of Forbidden Evil. Forbidden by itself is stronger anyway. MATT CAMACHO: Forbidden Evil, for me, was a project when I joined. They were just getting their name out. They broke into Ruthie’s Inn and were getting shows. When I first heard the name Forbidden Evil, I was like, “Oh shit! I got to be a part of that!” I loved the name Forbidden Evil. We had a band meeting with our manager [Debbie Abono] and the label. She always tried to put a positive spin on everything. She would say, “I spoke to Kirk Hammett, and he said it should be The Forbidden.” [Laughs] PAUL BOSTAPH: The name Forbidden Evil had its critics. When we’d go to parties, we’d meet guys I went to high school with. They were like, “What’s the name of your band?” Forbidden Evil. They were immediately put off. I think the word “evil” was a weird thing. Most people associated “evil” with Slayer. We didn’t give a shit, though. We fought kicking and screaming to change the name. We’d have these band meetings at Debbie’s house and we’d get into it. She was a referee. She would straight-up tell us if we were full of crap. Fifty percent of the time, we were. GLEN ALVELAIS: When I joined, the guys already had a few demos under the Forbidden Evil name. Those were demos with Robb Flynn, obviously. I forget the names of the songs now, but that’s what bands did back then—they made demos. So, we did the March Into Fire demo in ’87. We rushed that

demo while recording it because we knew Debbie was about to leave to a big music seminar in New York City, where she was going to see who—record labels, I think—would like it. When she got back, she called us up and said, “Combat really loves it. They’re interested in signing you guys.” I remember thinking, “Wow! That was quick!” [Laughs]

ANDERSON: They treated us well. They did everything they could for us. The more we proved ourselves, the more they did for us. We worked very hard. I had no real complaints at all. The deal was five records, if I remember [correctly].

You signed a deal with Combat. Tell me about the process.

LOCICERO:

CRAIG LOCICERO:

Combat was one of many labels interested in us. There were five labels that we took seriously: Capitol, Mechanic, Combat, Metal Blade and Roadrunner. In our naivety, we went with the label offering the most money; plus, we wanted to be on a label that didn’t have Vio-lence [like Mechanic]. We wanted to be on our own. We didn’t want to compete. Of course, Debbie went on to manage Vio-lence, too. How she did that is a minor fucking miracle. I would also say that another big reason we signed to Combat was the

LOCICERO:

“Russ [Anderson] recorded his vocals for Forbidden Evil in one day. That’s how good he is. That’s how much of a natural he is. His vocals are better than my drumming on that record. Imagine if he had just one more day.”

PAUL B O STA PH original Ultimate Revenge. Later on, once signed, the label was like, “We’re gonna do another Ultimate Revenge.” We thought that was pretty awesome. CAMACHO: What we liked about Combat was that it was licensed all over the world. That gave us an early introduction to the European market. For me, it was bands like Megadeth and Exodus [on Combat] that helped me agree to the deal. ALVELAIS: We specifically went with Combat because we felt the other labels that were interested didn’t know much about thrash. We didn’t want to sign a deal, owe a bunch of money, and then the label doesn’t know how to properly promote us. That felt wrong to us. Debbie, at the time, made a good point. She said, “This is what Combat does. They know this music.” We agreed with that and then signed to Combat not much later. Some of the other labels offered us maybe a bit more money, but Combat knew thrash. We were pretty comfortable with signing to the label. Looking back, it all made sense. JUNE 2022 : 4 2 : DECIBEL

How much impact did Debbie Abono have on Forbidden’s career arc?

Debbie came on board because I was determined to have her as our manager. I was a 17-year-old kid and I didn’t know any better. When Robb quit to join Vio-lence, it kind of left us rudderless. The dude that was the dude was no longer the dude. I had to be the dude really quickly. I said, “I’m going to get the lady that manages Possessed to manage us!” Everyone was like, “How are you going to do that?” I called up Wes Robinson, who ran Ruthie’s Inn. He was a big ally. I said, “I need Debbie’s number. I want to see if she wants to manage us.” I cold-called Debbie. I don’t remember how the conversation went, but I was probably one of two bands who reached out to her once Possessed was over. We assumed she knew what she was doing. Debbie had all the experience. So, I asked her to check us out and told her that we were better than any band. We got an amazing singer like Rob Halford, but we’re heavier and faster. She was like, “Ah, I don’t know. I just got over [Possessed].” I invited her to the show we were doing at the Twilight Zone in Alameda, CA. I wanted her to come and at least check us out. Meanwhile, I had sent her the demo that we had just finished. I sent that demo out to everybody. “Follow Me” got played on KUSF with Ron Quintana. He knew us. People flipped the fuck out. Davy Vain [from hair metal band Vain] called her right after hearing it and said, “I discovered a band.” That was us. So, she knew about us from the phone call, and then here’s Davy talking about “discovering” this new band. Davy was an ally. He whispered in Debbie’s ear. She finally listened to the demo and, of course, liked it. We played that show in Alameda, and we rocked it. It was almost sold out. Like 400 people. When we were done, she said, “I’ll do it!” That was the beginning of it all. BOSTAPH: Massive. Debbie was a sixth member of the band. She told us how things were. Every band thinks people owe them something. Every band thinks they’re the best thing since sliced bread. I remember saying to Debbie, “Hey, we need more PAs. We need more lights.” She’d tell us, “Who do you think you are, Metallica?!” There were so many bands ahead of us. We were good, but we needed to be better. Debbie made us work harder because she told us the truth. There are two opinions I looked up to. And this is because of Debbie. They are [former Kerrang! contributor] Steffan Chirazi and James Hetfield. We had never met Hetfield, but Debbie’s son was his friend. So, we got an honest opinion of the band from Hetfield. He said to Debbie’s son, “I thought the band was pretty good, but the

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FORBIDDEN forbidden evil Berkeley Square was another huge one that had thrash. Debbie was part of that, too. She was also good friends with Gloria [Cavalera] when she was managing Sacred Reich. We also had Kat [Sudovsky], who was managing Death Angel, on our side, and she was good friends with Metallica. There were a lot of connections that we were able to take advantage of.

ALVELAIS:

drummer needed work.” I was like, “Huh?!” I always worked hard, but apparently I wasn’t working hard enough. I was holding the band back, according to Hetfield. That was the brutal truth. Then Steffan made some comments about us in print. We were so mad. We were like, “Man, screw that guy! What does he know?!” Debbie said to us, “Wait a second. You need to understand something: You think you’re the best, but if you don’t take criticism from people in the audience—they’re here to watch you—how are you ever going to get better?” You can’t listen to everyone. That’s the hardest thing anyone in a band will ever be part of. There are, however, opinions you should listen to. Your gut, I think, will tell you which ones. Ruthie’s Inn in Berkeley appeared to be the perfect gathering spot for Bay Area bands and friends from the outside looking in. How much of a role did Ruthie’s Inn (and other local venues) play in advancing Forbidden?

We only played Ruthie’s because I coldcalled Wes [Robinson]. I think I walked into his office when I was going to see another band. He was like, “Who are you?” He vibed on me, and we got on the Eastern Front show with Metal Church, which was a day before they played with Metallica, Megadeth and Exodus at the Civic Center on New Year’s Eve ’86. We played on January 30, 1985, at Ruthie’s. That was our first gig at Ruthie’s. We had to work our way up through the minor leagues of the Bay Area. Even with Debbie handling us, we never automatically got credibility and interest from crowds. Our breakthrough was playing the Omni [July 10, 1987] with Testament and Heathen. It was then that we decided to add [Judas Priest’s] “Victim of Changes” to our set. People were floored. That opened a lot of doors for us. Priest was a high benchmark for all of us. CAMACHO: The club scene back then was vibrant. But you had to hustle—go-get-it attitude. I remember we had to play a hand of cards to get a better show at the Stone. We met the Nady [Systems] wireless dude at the Omni. We had to finagle our way to get onto shows before Debbie took over. When she did take over, we started to get on bigger shows. BOSTAPH: The Stone happened a little later than Ruthie’s. I was a latecomer to the scene. There were a bunch of places where you could see a band play live; most of them are now long gone, like Mabuhay Gardens and Pony Express Pizza in Redwood City. But Ruthie’s and the Stone were crucial. Also, when the music got bigger, it could no longer fit into Ruthie’s. It naturally went to the Stone, and then the Omni in Oakland. It wasn’t just metal either. We had a large punk scene, too. They were also part of the Bay Area sound. Punk and metal are what made thrash metal. LOCICERO:

Musically, Forbidden were accomplished. That much is understood from the Forbidden Evil days. When Forbidden Evil arrived, it was clear that the band had upped the ante musically and aesthetically. What were some of the factors driving Forbidden’s musical aptitude? Clearly, the Bay Area was full of talent.

It was insane to see Exodus come up, watching [Paul] Baloff start the “Fucking posers!” thing. [Laughs] To me, I wanted to be like Exodus. They definitely influenced me. The Bay Area scene had an attitude, and I loved it! LOCICERO: It comes down to the confluence of influences. I give Robb Flynn a lot of credit. He and I started this thing. The first songs that he wrote were pretty advanced. He wrote songs like “Legions of Death” and an instrumental called “Egypt Has Fallen.” Those were a-ha moments for me. Regardless of what anyone thinks about Machine Head or Vio-lence, Robb was an innovator back in the day. He could listen to someone’s song, write out the arrangement and then write his own riffs to that arrangement. That taught him how to structure music in the simplest way possible. He still does that to this day. With Robb, I had the bones to understand song structure. We started writing together. That turned into songs like “Forbidden Evil,” “As Good as Dead” and “Chalice of Blood,” originally one-third of the speed. [Laughs] My picking hand became solid and even faster [than Robb’s] at some point. Robb was a big influence on me. He was so fucking solid. Also, Paul was uncorking how fast he could play. Then Matt got in the band, holding it all together with his glue. When we got Glen, he wasn’t a thrash guy, but a glam guy. He shredded like Dokken or Van Halen. Russ was able to sing like Halford over the top of our thrashy stuff, which was different from everyone else. We didn’t really have limitations musically. So, the way it all came together, it was awkward for people out here initially, but eventually they understood what we were doing. BOSTAPH: Bands were playing all the time in the Bay Area. It was very competitive. Death Angel, Vio-lence and Testament. Most of the bands were up and coming, and you could just reach out and touch it. Everything was right there. Everyone was cementing their sounds and Forbidden was no different. ALVELAIS: I was a tech player. Before I joined, Robb was doing the majority of the writing. Craig was there, writing and playing. So, when Robb left, it put Craig in charge. When I joined, that’s CAMACHO:

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when we were able to start writing harmonies. Same with the solos. We were always very aware of what each other was playing and where we played it. We were so focused on making sure everything fit the songs. I was learning thrash, and Craig was still learning how he wanted to play. I think that’s how we became Forbidden. Or the style of Forbidden. So, I think it was a natural progression. Looking back, we worked off each other well. Remember, the Bay Area had a small circle. You couldn’t go to a party or show and not see people in bands, or the bands, like Exodus, Vio-lence, Metallica, Possessed or Primus. The Oakland and Berkeley scenes were small, but we had a lot of energy. Tell me about the songwriting sessions.

There are three eras to our songwriting. The first era is Robb and me, where we wrote “Forbidden Evil,” “Chalice of Blood,” “As Good as Dead” and “March Into Fire.” “Chalice of Blood” was mostly Robb, “March Into Fire” mainly was me and “Forbidden Evil” was a conglomeration, a 50/50 split. When Robb left, I wasn’t prepared to take on the songwriter role. But I didn’t have a choice. So, the second era—when we got Glen in the band—was completely drug-driven. Chop and play. [Laughs] Glen was out of his realm, but he picked it up very quickly. The songs we wrote were “Feel No Pain,” “Through Eyes of Glass” and “Off the Edge.” Oh, and “Follow Me.” The intro to “Follow Me” was added later by Glen. He had an instrumental, this little slow chordal, Asian thing—a little Scooby-Doo and a little Halloween. So, the third era was “Follow Me,” which I had written in my high school music room. When I was in 12th grade, I was totally inspired and wrote a bunch of really fast riffs. We all just locked into that song. It became our most epic song. That was the last song we had written for the demo before we got signed. I think “Through Eyes of Glass” was the last song we completely pieced together. That thing in the front was inspired by Van Halen’s “D.O.A.” [Laughs] ANDERSON: There were a lot of people that wrote on that [album]. I think it was a bit rushed because there was no time to sit down and do anything else. I was really happy with everything we did on the album, but there were different styles on Forbidden Evil, which obviously started to change on the albums after it. BOSTAPH: I was also involved more in the arrangement and opinion sides, which always annoyed the crap out of the guitar players. Poor Craig. He’d work on a riff all night and show it to me the next day, and I’d say, “I don’t like it.” There was always a point of contention [between us], but we’d have honest conversations. I think it made us a better band. ALVELAIS: Our sound was a good combination of Craig and me. We were experimenting with sounds neither of us had done before. I brought LOCICERO:

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in “Through Eyes of Glass”—the origin of the problem that got me out of the band. But that was my writing style, and I wanted to be the Alex Skolnick of the band. At that point, Testament was probably my favorite band in the world. Alex stood out to me when he played. The way he soloed, the way he boosted his solos. That’s all I wanted to do was to be like Alex. I think you can hear that on “Off the Edge,” “Feel No Pain” and the intro to “Follow Me.”

Let me put it this way: Russ liked to wing it. He liked to write lyrics last-second. There wasn’t a lot of preparation or extra thought put into what he was saying. I tried to come in and write lyrics. The band came in to write lyrics. We had a hilarious writing session for “Follow Me.” We were all completely out of our minds with a bunch of chicks in the room. I think a lot of the lyrics were written when Russ was tweaking, though. I don’t want to ruin this album for anyone, but personally, I was fucking cringing over some of the lyrics on Forbidden Evil. I wasn’t around when Russ did most of them. He was supposed to pick me up from my house that day, but he never did. Then he was like, “Man, the lyrics are done! You’re gonna be blown away!” I thought, “Yeah, right.” [Laughs] It took me a year to get used to them. I do appreciate them now, though. “Chalice of Blood” was Russ’s best moment. He had an evangelical background. He put all the fear of God shit they shoved into his brain into that song. OK, so “Through Eyes of Glass” is pretty cool—a crystal ball vibe. “Feel No Pain” was sort of like [Mad magazine’s] Spy vs. Spy.

LOCICERO:

You recorded at Alpha & Omega Recording, Studio 245 (Hyde Street) and Prairie Sun Recording, all in California. Tell me about the sessions.

Alpha & Omega was where bands like Blue Öyster Cult were recorded. So, the studio was about $1,000 per day. This is recording on two-inch tape and all that. We were there for two weeks. We did weekdays during the day ’cause that was the cheapest. The bigger bands came in at night after we were done. We had a backup plan that if we ran out of time at Alpha & Omega, then we could use Prairie Sun. We did run out of time at Alpha & Omega, and we also ran out of time at Prairie Sun, where we did Russ’s vocals, but we got it done. LOCICERO: We had a lockout during the drum takes. Not sure who was there when we were tracking the guitars and bass. We did almost no vocals at Alpha & Omega. Those were completed CAMACHO:

“I was forced to run the sessions like a drill sergeant, often pissing off certain band members. I couldn’t allow myself to care about being liked or being a therapist. All I cared about was delivering the very best record I could and surviving to make another one.”

JO HN CUNIB E RT I, PRO D UCE R in one day by Russ at Prairie Sun. That was the infamous day Russ left me at the altar. [Laughs] I remember the studio pretty well, though. There were three or four different studios in the building that housed Alpha & Omega. It was in the Tenderloin. There were fucking heroin addicts, hookers and pimps everywhere. BOSTAPH: I was working when Russ did the vocals, so I wasn’t there. Russ recorded his vocals for Forbidden Evil in one day. That’s how good he is. That’s how much of a natural he is. His vocals are better than my drumming on that record. Imagine if he had just one more day. ALVELAIS: I will say I was a bit star-struck at Alpha & Omega, a top-notch studio. [Joe] Satriani had done Surfing With the Alien and Dreaming No. 11 there. To think that I was sitting in the same chair as Satriani blew my mind. What was it like working with producers Doug Caldwell and John Cuniberti?

Doug was a match made in heaven. He did our demos. We wanted Doug from the getgo. As soon as we signed with Debbie and got on Combat, they wanted us to use John, ’cause he had done Satriani, who was on Combat. So, we got both, and it definitely was a compromise. But they complemented each other, even if I think John resented it a little. The thing about John is he did the Dead Kennedys—gods!—but he did not like thrash. Every day was an eye roll. His famous quote was, “Well, I guess that’s good for Combat then!” He’d also say, “Is it really supposed to sound like that?!” He made us feel like inferior musicians. In the end, I think it sounds

LOCICERO:

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great, though. The drums are great. The guitars are fucking electric. And the vocals are amazing! BOSTAPH: When we were mixing the record, I found out that my bass drums had a noise gate on them. Before the signal went to tape. The signal won’t come through the gate if a player plays too lightly. This happens when players are playing faster sometimes, and John did that for some reason. This means that if the bass drums need to be louder during mixing, they can’t be. There are a couple of points on the record where the bass drums are non-existent. ALVELAIS: John was very friendly with the guitar parts. He was a guitar guy. He got the right tones and he understood, I think, what Craig and I were going for. I was a kid in a candy store. I loved recording Forbidden Evil. John was also into experimenting a little. Some of my dive bombs were backward. He took the tape, flipped it around and added reverb. He was literally getting into the tape, grabbing it and cutting it. That was awesome! JOHN CUNIBERTI: Because of the up-tempo arrangements, the two guitars and bass had to play in perfect syncopation with the drums. Otherwise, you end up with a wall of noise. That required recording drums, bass and guitars live to a click track. Then we would examine the drum performance and punch in or edit bits that were out of time with the click. Remember, this is an analog tape recording. Once I had the drums sorted out, we would listen to each guitar track against the drums and fix whatever was necessary to get it super tight. That would require the player to rerecord the entire song in some cases. It was

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a pain in the ass and took weeks to accomplish before starting the vocal recordings and mixing. These were 12-hour days for me, and the budgets were small. I was forced to run the sessions like a drill sergeant, often pissing off certain band members. I couldn’t allow myself to care about being liked or being a therapist. All I cared about was delivering the very best record I could and surviving to make another one. How did the Kent Mathieu cover art come into the picture?

The original sketch was done by a friend named Andy Rutherford. He drew two punk rock skulls bashing heads going over a cliff. One had a cross, and the other hand an upside-down cross. That was the original idea. Debbie introduced us to [Mathieu], and it was his Fang cover [A Mi Ga Sfafas?] that got me. He was hella cool, weird and eclectic when we met him. He was everything you expected a punk rock artist to be: like someone who had done a lot of acid. [Laughs] We told him our concepts. Then Russ had a second meeting with him while we were recording. We obviously didn’t know that. When Kent showed us his sketches, he pulled out this wizard holding a crystal ball with two skulls crashing in it. Guess whose idea that was? [Laughs] We said, “Hell no!” Then he quickly pulled out what he wanted to do, which was the album cover we got. Well, it was a tenth of what we wanted. We knew we had an album cover when he completed the final version. We finally had an album cover that matched the music.

LOCICERO:

Tell about the shows (Ultimate Revenge 2, Dynamo) and tours in support of Forbidden Evil.

Back then, we thought, “Why are we playing with Raven? They’re so old.” [Laughs] When we got to the Trocadero, nobody had a fucking clue who we were. Our album wasn’t out, and there was no promo. So, we went on stage cold. We played “Off the Edge” first. I broke a string, of course. I had to play that fucking Eddie Van Halen guitar, Glen’s backup guitar. Ultimate Revenge 2 was a fucking honor. CAMACHO: The Ultimate Revenge 2 show was our first out-of-town show. But my worst memory of touring in support of Forbidden Evil was at Blondies in Detroit. There was water coming out of the ceiling, and that was the hottest show ever in that room. They didn’t have A/C. We were just young enough not to die. BOSTAPH: I’m scared of heights. I had never been on a plane before the Ultimate Revenge 2 gig in Philly. As the plane took off, I was like, “Fuck this! Fuck this!” Instantly, I’m white-knuckled. Debbie’s sitting next to me, and she grabs my hand. Then a thought went through my head: “What the fuck are you thinking?! You want LOCICERO:

to do this for a living! You better get used to flying.” After that, I calmed down and relaxed. Debbie taught us a lot about touring after that, though. When we were on tour in the U.S., we got $10 per day for food. That’s not much. Maybe it’s a Happy Meal or two. Debbie told us stories about how Metallica—when they were first touring—would go to Carl’s Jr. and get the all-youcan-eat salad bar for $2.99. So, I would always seek out a Carl’s Jr. and eat until I was full. ALVELAIS: The original idea behind Ultimate Revenge 2, to me at least, was more of a video shoot. You know, film, cut and repeat. The closer we got to the show in Philly, the more I realized it was a full-on show. I figured if we were going to do this, I wanted to bring a guitar onstage to smash it. After we had finished our set, I grabbed the guitar [that I had built], and as I went to break it, the guitar bounced off the stage. Eventually, it broke. [Laughs] I didn’t expect Russ to pick it up. He picked up the neck, not realizing the strings were attached, to which Floyd Rose was also still attached. Russ threw it into the audience. So, there goes the neck—and here comes the Floyd Rose. It hit somebody in the head, cutting it open. That part sucked. I felt really bad. ANDERSON: Dynamo from Holland, there were 26,000 people there. We have a live EP from that. That had “Through Eyes of Glass,” “Chalice of Blood” and Priest’s “Victims of Change” on it. I thought it turned out pretty good. It was a live show—no doubt—and it was one of our first shows in Europe. That was very cool. The best crowd [in the U.S.] that we played for was in the Midwest and West. Places like Cleveland and Denver. What do you remember about the reception to Forbidden Evil? There was a lot of competition in 1988.

I was painfully insecure about how people would react to it, and I was still getting used to it myself. Much to our surprise—especially when the pre-releases got out there—the reviews came in. They said it was way better than we thought it was. In my mind, I was thinking, “What are they listening to?” [Laughs] I guess they responded to the freshness that we had and how unique we were. Here we were, standing there with the finished album, and people really liked it. That catapulted us to have the confidence to write something more grandiose on Twisted Into Form.

LOCICERO:

Glen left in 1989. What were the circumstances of his departure?

Well, we lost a whole day of vocals because Glen and John decided to record an instrumental. We were already behind schedule, and we were told to come into the studio a little later in the day. When we arrived, Glen was doing this instrumental thing. At the time, we were like, “Holy fuck! We can’t believe this is happening to us!” He wanted to be Joe Satriani. We were like, “No, we’re a band, not a solo proj-

LOCICERO:

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ect!” It rubbed us all the wrong way. Paul flipped out—he really flipped out. That wasn’t a great moment in the studio. I had to do my solos after all that. That was the moment when we realized it might not work with Glen. ANDERSON: It was mutual when Glen left us. He was more into guitar players like Satriani and [Yngwie] Malmsteen. He wanted to be the lead guitar player, and we wanted to be more like a team. When we started to write Twisted Into Form with Glen, it all maybe lasted a day. We got Tim Calvert pretty quickly. ALVELAIS: I wanted to be the lead guitar player. I was writing songs, and I wanted to kind of take on that role. They saw that clearly. We didn’t really even butt heads about it. I got notice after the Sacred Reich tour in Europe. They said, “Hey, we’re meeting down at the studio.” I remember thinking it was a bit weird. We had been rehearsing at a storage unit, so I thought we would move to the studio to rehearse. When I got there, they said, “OK, we got somebody else to work with the band, and we’re going with him [Tim Calvert].” I was like, “OK, you do you. I’ll do me.” [Laughs] Obviously, I didn’t work out. We did have our differences musically, and that’s to be understood. I wanted to be Testament. They didn’t. Turns out I eventually joined Testament. What do you make of Forbidden Evil coming up as a major influence now?

We had no grand design or scheme— no diabolical plan. We were just dudes hanging on by a thread, making thrash. Boom! It’s now a standing testimony to bands using us as templates or for inspiration. I love that kids take what we did 30 or more years ago and run with it. It’s humbling—a huge honor to me. BOSTAPH: It’s fucking fantastic! But that’s who we were. We didn’t have YouTube. We had tapetraders. We had to buy the album. I remember bringing Iron Maiden’s Killers to high school. My neighbor from across the street came over, knocked on the door, and when I looked through the peephole, there was Killers. I was like, “What the fuck?!” I hadn’t even heard the record yet— immediately, I was like, “I love this band!” My friends were into Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and stuff like that. I remember saying, “Have you guys heard Iron Maiden?” They were like, “No, that sounds stupid!” I’d like to talk to them now. ALVELAIS: It really hit home for me when we did the reunion in 2008. We outsold KISS and Iron Maiden in merch when we did three or four festivals in Europe. That was insane! This reunion thing was frickin’ amazing. Here in the States, it wasn’t nearly as crazy. I remember running into [Nevermore’s] Jeff Loomis and [Lamb of God’s] Willie Adler for the first time. Loomis gave me a hug. Willie did the same thing. He said, “Man, me and my brother would listen to Forbidden while my parents were fighting upstairs. We’d just rock out while they fought.” LOCICERO:

U n l e a s h

t h e

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Ritual annihilation  Cannibal Corpse (opposite page) and Wolves in the Throne Room are preparing their throats and livers for this year’s festivities

ecibel’s constant quest for world domination has led the maga-

zine on tour and to the opposite coast, but there’s simply no place like home. Metal & Beer Fest: Philadelphia last year was the biggest the festival has ever been: Over 2,000 attendees each day, first-time-ever performances from Hall of Fame-inducted bands and 16 breweries—most collaborating for special band-themed brews— converging at the nicest venue in the city for a weekend of drunken revelry. ¶ On June 10 and 11, Decibel returns to the Fillmore for another round. On tap is an unforgettable lineup that touches on every corner of the extreme music spectrum, from USBM stalwarts and thrash metal royalty to revolutionary hardcore punk and doom trailblazers. The 14 bands are once again complemented by 19 breweries, some returning and some making their debut, and a slew of vendors that make Metal & Beer Fest: Philadelphia unlike any other metal event. Just as that magic is in the air when we gather each year at the Fillmore, there was magic in the air 15 years ago when Wolves in the Throne Room recorded their second album, Two Hunters. Now widely regarded as an essential entry in USBM canon, Wolves in the Throne Room will perform the album in sequence for the first time on Friday, June 10. “In the past, we’ve tried to tell a story with our sets, and we take a lot of care putting together a set that’ll flow in a certain way,” says drummer Aaron Weaver. “It’s never occurred to us to play an album beginning to end, but when it was suggested, it immediately was an exciting idea— especially to play Two Hunters, which really does flow seamlessly from the first song to the last.” Looking back on the time Wolves spent recording Two Hunters, Weaver acknowledges that the band was too focused on the immediate present—intense touring, writing new music, the PHOTOS BY HILL ARIE JA SON

opening of new spiritual pathways—to consider what the record’s impact might be. However, the drummer—who was fasting during the recording process—remembers a feeling that the trio had tapped into something significant. “When we were recording Two Hunters, it did feel magical in a way,” he explains. “It felt like we were tapping into something—our own voice, really. Our first record, Diadem of 12 Stars, is very much a Wolves record, but also shows its influences really strongly. It was on Two Hunters that we really found our own sound—our own voice in a strong, clear way—and we felt that at the time.” In addition to this month’s cover stars, Candlemass, who will perform all of their genredefining opus Epicus Doomicus Metallicus with vocalist Johan Längquist for the first time in the United States, Friday night will feature one of Canadian progressive metal icons Voivod’s first

live performances since the release of new album Synchro Anarchy. The show is one of the band’s first since 2020 and drummer Away says that Voivod will perform a career-spanning set. “It’s really important to play some of the classics for sure, but it’s always refreshing for us to play the new stuff as well,” he says. “There will be a bit of everything, but we have so many albums. We’ll try to make a compact greatest hits if we can.” Away recounts that Voivod quickly learned to familiarize themselves with unfamiliar technology to continue working on Synchro Anarchy throughout 2020 and 2021. In addition to conquering obstacles like writing via file-sharing and remote drum programming, Voivod quickly versed themselves in livestreaming. That led to a series of livestreamed events, titled the Hypercube Sessions; the second and third iterations featured full performances of seminal Voivod releases Nothingface and Dimension Hatröss. These performances, the drummer says, made the band tighter and helped them zero in on their sound for the new album, which will be on display on June 10. The earlier half of the evening is rounded out by one of the most diverse lineups since the festival’s 2017 inception. Local Philadelphia punks Soul Glo will rip through their unique blend of hardcore, mathy screamo and alternative rap, augmented by vocalist Pierce Jordan’s sprawling lyrics, which are as incendiary as they are uncompromising. Recent performances with the likes of Zulu and Armand Hammer are proof that Soul Glo are a force of nature on any stage. Long-running Pittsburgh death/doom dealers Derkéta will perform, their first Decibel event since 2016’s Choosing Death Fest. British blackthrash battalion Craven Idol and post-black metal newcomers the Silver—both bands that cracked the upper ranks on Decibel’s 2021 year-end list—will open the night. June 10 is only the Silver’s third show, but they’re no strangers to the Fillmore stage. Composed of members of prog-death visionaries Horrendous and trad-doom quintet Crypt Sermon, the musicians have played Metal & Beer Fest on each coast.

VIOLENCE & SPEED

Break out the sweat shorts and high-top Reeboks

for Saturday’s action. Headlining the night are death metal OGs Cannibal Corpse, who will administer a career-spanning set of violent tales, in forms both imagined and to be conceived. The Buffalo-cum-Florida outfit is making a brief tour out of the appearance, taking out DECIBEL : JUNE 2022 : 51

A lot of other bands, they kind of break up, it’s definitive— this is the finish line and you can all walk away, move on with your lives. With Red Chord,

we never really had much of a finish line.

That certain special adorable  The Red Chord buddies up with fellow Massholes Bone Up Brewing to conceive their collaboration beer for our Philly festivities

Guy Kozowyk, the Red Chord

young Ohio quartet Sanguisugabogg, who seem determined to carry on Cannibal Corpse’s legacy of violent, torturous death metal. Cannibal Corpse are not celebrating any album anniversaries or special occurrences this time, but after 15 albums, drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz says that choosing a setlist is a hard task on its own. “It gets harder and harder the more you put out,” he admits. “On this tour we’re playing 18 songs, and I don’t think we’re playing a song off of Gore Obsessed; I don’t think we’re playing a song off Gallery of Suicide.” Like Mazurkiewicz says, you can’t please everybody… usually. When asked what band on the lineup each artist was most excited to see, Nuclear Assault was mentioned by almost everyone. The NYC legends are among four bands performing full-album sets over the weekend. Their speed-obsessed 1986 debut, Game Over, was welcomed into the Decibel Hall of Fame in 2017, and they’ll finally play it in full on June 11. Even the slow parts. There are a few songs on Game Over that the band haven’t played live in years, and it will be the debut for “Brain Death.” Founding bassist Dan Lilker breaks it down: “Never ‘Brain Death’ because it’s got that big, fucking ponderous middle part, and we’re like, ‘That’s a little lazy to have in the middle of a show.’ But it is the last song on the record, so it’s gonna be a cool way to go out.” Lilker was first seen at 2017’s inaugural Metal & Beer Fest, his gangly form clad as always in a 52 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

black cut-off shirt, pouring and greeting drinkers for Danish brewery Mikkeller. The thrash lifer returned with Adroit Theory in 2018, but 2022 is his first year as a performer. He’s a seasoned professional, though, so he has no worries about balancing both aspects of the festival. “I can’t drink too much before our show, but I’ll make up for that at strategic times,” Lilker says. “I’ll get there the day before we play, so I’ll have a good sampling of beverages on Friday, but I’ll know when to stop so I’m not hung over. And then as soon as we’re off the stage on Saturday, I can jump in the deep end of the pool because my responsibilities are over.”

WAITING IN DOG YEARS

They haven't been around in a while, but they never really went away. At least, that’s what vocalist and founding member Guy Kozowyk says about long-(thought)-gone deathcore crushers the Red Chord. “I think that’s been kind of interesting about the Red Chord,” he muses. “A lot of other bands, they kind of break up, it’s definitive—this is the finish line and you can all walk away, move on with your lives. With Red Chord, we never really had much of a finish line. We always had this idea in our head that we wanted to do some more stuff, and I know that’s a point of frustration for some of the guys, the limbo factor. It’d certainly be nice to do something else. The biggest issue has just been the physical distance with everybody.”

In May 2005, the band released their sophomore album, Clients. Its influence, which was examined in its Hall of Fame induction [issue No. 210], is far-reaching, and the album still sounds fresh in ways that few of the Red Chord’s contemporaries achieved. They’ll level the Fillmore with a performance of the album, but physical distance has hampered in-person preparations. Kozowyk, who admits that he’s late to the party regarding Zoom and other forms of digital collaboration, purchased a computer with recording program GarageBand and downloaded Clients on iTunes. He then put the songs through an app that removed the vocals, allowing him to practice. It’s not the most ideal situation for the first Red Chord show since 2015, but Kozowyk emphasizes that this is a significant performance to the members. He doesn’t want to do things for arbitrary reasons—which partially explains the band’s relative inactivity since 2009’s Fed Through the Teeth Machine—so it’s hard to say when the Red Chord might be together again. Deathgrind crushers Full of Hell were originally announced to play Metal & Beer Fest: Philadelphia in 2018, but canceled their appearance. The ensuing years were major for the hardtouring rockers, who released two albums plus numerous EPs and singles, and toured with the likes of Immolation and Converge. Full of Hell’s ascendance through the underground is readily apparent in their placement on the lineup. In 2018, the noisy quartet was shedding their punk and powerviolence origins to experiment with a more death metal-oriented

sound. In 2022, Full of Hell are a face of modern extreme metal with an influence that can be heard in plenty of bands today. Cult metallic hardcore institution All Else Failed represent the old guard of the genre, hot on the heels of a Translation Loss reissue of their debut LP, A Most Bitter Season. Live shows from the group are rare these days, but the members of All Else Failed have remained active in other musical endeavors, and their ability to command a room is as potent as it was when A Most Bitter Season was released in 1997.

I can’t drink too much before our show,

but I’ll make up for that at strategic times. Dan Lilker,

Nuclear Assault It’s never easy to get out of bed after a night of beer-drinking and headbanging, so Decibel devised a way to wake attendees up. Sanguisugabogg and reactivated oldschool death metal outfit Deathevokation represent the first round on Saturday. It will be Deathevokation’s first show since the early 2010s. Of course, it’s impossible to touch on all of the things that make a festival special and stay within word count. Beyond the full album sets and long-awaited returns to the stage, beyond the beer collaborations— this year, all 14 performing acts will have their own beer at the fest—is a feeling of community that each person shares. “The people who are going to be at that fest are among the most dedicated and hardcore fans of heavy music, people that are just in it for life,” Wolves’ Weaver says. “It’s with that kind of audience that we’d share this kind of experience with.” 54 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

For the first time ever, we’re excited to announce that all 14 bands at Metal & Beer Fest: Philly will have their own special collaboration beers with our pouring festival breweries! Highlighted here is just a small flight from our featured breweries. —AARON SALSBURY BROKEN GOBLET x CANDLEMASS: “Doom Lager” Black Lager

“We are completely humbled, and honestly blown the fuck away, to be collabing with the mighty Candlemass,” says co-owner Mike Locke. “Expect a no-nonsense black lager inspired by Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, which will feature a hearty roasted malt character and, of course, that black-as-a-moonless-night color.”

KINGS COUNTY BREWERS COLLECTIVE x NUCLEAR ASSAULT: “Brain Death” Double IPA

“We’re brewing a Double IPA called ‘Brain Death’ as a homage to their classic track off Game Over and a tie-in to our long-running Double IPA series, ‘Brain on Hops,’” says Tony Bellis, coowner of KCBC. “This is a high-ABV, juicy and hazy IPA that we are known for making.”

WIDOWMAKER BREWING x VOIVOD: “Memory Failure” American Lager

“We are psyched for Philly, and we are going to have a killer American lager with extra focus on technique,” says Ryan Lavery, founder of Widowmaker Brewing. “Using mostly German Pilsner malt, we will then add some noble German hops for bittering and some NZ Rakau hops to give it a nice touch of fruit on the nose, while still keeping it nice and crisp/bready.”

BRIMMING HORN MEADERY x WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM: “Astral Blood” Mixed Berry Melomel

“We talked about making a melomel to honor the band’s Pacific Northwest roots,” says Brimming Horn president and mead-maker Jon Talkington. “We used a dark caramelized honey and a mix of wild berries that grow in the area. The resulting concoction was a deep red blood color, which [Wolves guitarist] Kody [Keyworth] aptly suggested be named Astral Blood. [Expect] intense berry flavors, fruity tartness and a light honey sweetness.”

BONE UP BREWING x THE RED CHORD: “Fixation on Red” Red Ale

“We’re no strangers to band collabs, but it’s rare that we mesh with a band as well as we did with the Red Chord,” says husband and wife duo/

Bone Up co-founders Jared and Liz Kiraly. “They brought a ton of great energy and ideas our way, and we’ll be brewing a badass red ale for the festival that’s dry-hopped with the most brutal hop in our arsenal: BELMA.”

SABBATH BREWING x SANGUISUGABOGG: “Permanently Buzzed” Dark Smoked Gose

“I had thought of the name ‘Permanently Buzzed’ in parody of our song, ‘Permanently Fucked,’ that we’ve been performing on recent tours,” says Sanguisugabogg vocalist Devin Swank. “Our beers are fermented entirely in oak with a focus on yeast-forward flavors and mixed fermentation,” adds Jeffrey Oparnica, Sabbath Brewing owner. “Our first anniversary is coming up on July 3 and we’re stoked as fuck being part of Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest.”

WAKE BREWING x PRIMITIVE MAN: “Primitive Helles” Helles Lager

“We will be bringing Primitive Helles Lager, our collaboration with the almighty Primitive Man,” says Wake co-owner Jason Parris of his collab with Metal & Beer Pre-Fest headliners. “Light, crisp, pale lager—total crusher of a beer. When first released, this collaboration with Primitive Man came with a limited-edition flexi record featuring an exclusive song. The artwork on the can is from [Primitive Man frontman] Ethan McCarthy. We are excited to share this killer beer with everyone at Metal & Beer Fest.”

DOOM LEGENDS

LOOK FORWARD TO AN EPIC METAL & BEER FEST PERFORMANCE OF THEIR GAME- CHANGING DEBUT STORY BY

Chris Dick

PHOTOS BY

Ester Segarra

Gaze into the crystal, see what it tells It can bring you all fortune, do you so well his lyric from “Crystal Ball,” a verifiable classic from

Candlemass debut Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, is positively portentous! Then-twentysomethings Leif Edling, Mats Ekström and Mats “Mappe” Björkman would’ve never imagined that their brand of heavy metal—later lovingly stamped as “doom metal”— had the power to agelessly resonate, let alone be nominated a lifetime later for an American Grammy. The Swedes barely got off the ground in 1985. Here they are—with a reconfigured lineup, of course—walking the red carpet at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards with Tool, Angélique Kidjo, Gary Clark Jr. and Billie Eilish for their imperative anthem “Astorolus The Great Octopus,” featuring Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, from 2019’s The Door to Doom. ¶ “Still can’t bloody believe it,” Edling muses, looking back on the event. “Quite a journey we’ve had—so many ups and downs. A true roller coaster of doom! If I could have had a dollar for every time I’ve said to myself, ‘I’m leaving this fucking band,’ I would have been a millionaire by now! But we’re really stubborn. We always come back. They just can’t get rid of us. But we still have good things to offer.” 56 : NOVEMBER 2021 : DECIBEL

JUNE 2022

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“It’s the biggest thing in our history,” says Björkman with a slight sense of disbelief. “We got nominated. Of course, Tool won the Grammy—that was a given—but to think a band like Candlemass could even be nominated is unreal. I can’t begin to imagine an American Grammy nomination, but I can check that off my list, and it wasn’t even on my list.” Of course, Candlemass are used to awards. In Sweden, they’ve been nominated for four Grammis (the Swedish Grammy equivalent) and have topped the leaderboards twice, one for Candlemass (2005) and another for The Door to Doom, in the Årets Hårdrock/Metal (Hard Rock/ Metal [Album] of the Year) category. “To think we started in a tube station,” Björkman marvels. “Look at what’s happened since. We’re having a lot of fun now, especially now that Johan [Längquist]’s back in the band. So, that was a very high honor for us. We were hyped all over Sweden—TV shows, newspapers, everything!” “People were almost laughing [when Candlemass started],” continues vocalist Längquist. “Candlemass worked against the wind. They stood proud. They did it anyway, even if nobody liked what they were doing at the time. To win a Grammi [for The Door to Doom]

DECIBEL : NOVEMBER 2021 : 57

I think it was after Epicus that we started to hear about people calling us ‘doom metal.’ I remember thinking, ‘What’s ‘doom metal?’ We were a metal band.

WE JUST PLAYED SLOWLY. Mats “Mappe” Björkman and to be invited to the U.S. for a Grammy is simply special. I would’ve never thought that could happen. So, it’s quite cool people outside of the band—and more importantly, our fans— think Candlemass are worthy of honors.” “An old man marked by a life so long Is sleeping so sweet while his magic is growing so strong Waiting still for new times to come A thousand years to see if he has won” —“A Sorcerer’s Pledge”

SLOW ’EM HOW Candlemass’s origin story is no secret. The Swedes trace back to Upplands Väsby, an outpost between Stockholm and Uppsala. In 1980, the city’s population was just shy of 32,000, hardly proving ground material for Sweden’s most prominent metal exports. But it was. While outsiders looked to London and Los Angeles or New York and Ruhr Valley (Germany), tendrils of smoke were rising from the North. The fire raged inexplicably hot as the ’80s rolled into their midriff. Hard rock heroes Europe (then known as Force) once called Upplands Väsby home. As did neoclassical shred legend Yngwie Malmsteen. Both would quickly go on to worldwide success with their radio-friendly, big-production songs on Europe (1983) and No Parole From Rock ‘N’ Roll (1983)/Rising Force (1984), respectively. 58 : NOVEMBER 2021 : DECIBEL

Nestled furtively under chart positions, soldout arenas and fawning females was a young Leif Edling. Fueled by a steady diet of the heaviest of metal’s heavy paragons—Black Sabbath, Manilla Road, Uriah Heep, Trouble and Angel Witch—and possessed by horror movies and fantasy novels, the 19-year-old’s initial musical expressions were emergent in form and hurried in tempo. However, the would-be doom metal master’s inclinations were far darker and more fantastical than those of his peers in Upplands Väsby. Undeterred and self-assured, Edling—on bass and vocals—formed Nemesis with guitarist Christian Weberyd, guitarist Anders Wallin and drummer Anders Waltersson in 1982. Nemesis’ hard-edged, yet dramatic sound caught the attention of Stockholm-based indie WEB Records, owned by guitarist/songwriter Rodney Öhman. Known for signing fellow Swedes Axewitch and Gotham City, the label also mingled in the license of British nameplates like Bullet Records (Pretty Maids) and Neat Records (Raven, Jaguar). Under the vanity label Fingerprint Records, Nemesis got their chance with the five-song 12-inch The Day of Retribution in 1984. The deal—or whatever it was— saw Nemesis move off the label entirely the next year. Wallin and Waltersson also departed, paving the way for drummer Mats Ekström to join. Proliferous in every respect, Edling wrote 10 songs, upon which 14 pages of lyrics—called “The Tales of Creation”—were sheathed. Edling, JUNE 2022

D E C I B E L

Weberyd and Ekström plotted the return of Nemesis together, but in the waxing months of 1985, a name change was forced upon the trio. Apparently, the moniker was owned by a nonmusic entity in Sweden; facing legal peril, Edling rechristened the band Candlemass (or, early on, Candle Mass), lugging over the blackletter font for continuity. Newly dubbed and ready for action, Candlemass hastily recorded “Warchild,” “A Sorcerer’s Pledge,” “Crystal Ball” and “Into the Unfathomed Tower,” fanning out their heaviest alms to anyone who’d listen. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Storied U.K. heavy metal magazine Metal Forces heaped praise upon Candlemass, while French indie Black Dragon Records, then home to Manilla Road, Savage Grace and Steel Vengeance, saw promise in the fledgling outfit. A legend had been born, but nobody— including Edling—thought that was the case. “Nobody liked us,” Edling revealed to Decibel in our Top 100 Doom Metal Albums of All Time special issue back in 2014. “All of Upplands Väsby turned us down, slagged us off for being absolutely crap. Nobody believed in us.” “Leif is right,” concurs Björkman, who was summoned by Ekström to replace Weberyd 38 years ago. “Nobody wanted to hear us. We rehearsed in the same building with all the popular Swedish bands. These bands already had an audience or knew how to get an audience. Obviously, people wanted bands like Europe or Treat. They had big appeal at the time. Here we were playing 12-minute songs. Nobody was doing that. So, they called us the ‘funny guys.’ But we didn’t care. To us, Candlemass was fun.” There might be a handful of people wicked enough to describe Candlemass—particularly on Epicus Doomicus Metallicus—as a raucous time. Turns out that handful includes the very members of Candlemass. Encouraged by interest from Black Dragon principals Michel and Agnès Desgranches, the Swedes recorded “Demons Gate” and newly penned “Black Stone Wielder” at Studio OAL in Sollentuna. Fate would intervene when Manilla Road’s Mark Shelton, while visiting the label’s Paris office to promote his Open the Gates album, nearly lost his mind. After listening to Candlemass’s cathedral of sound, he ordered Team Desgranches to offer the Swedes a deal. “They played [Mark] our demo and he immediately loved it,” says Edling, who had admired Manilla Road from afar. “We got a deal not long after, actually. I never expected anyone to be interested in Candlemass. Apart from ourselves, really. We had a reputation for playing music that meant only something to ourselves.” Björkman was equally flabbergasted: “We got an offer from them that said, ‘We want to sign you for an album.’ We were shocked. We didn’t expect anybody to get back to us. We expected them not to. I would learn later on that it was Mark who pushed Black Dragon. We have been and are still very grateful for that.”

PROUDLY PRESENTS

VINTERLAND – Welcome My Last Chapter Official re-release of this classic melodic black metal masterpiece from the mid 90’s! Recorded at Unisound Studios in 1995, now re-mastered by Dan Swanö. CD | CASSETTE | BLACK VINYL | PURPLE VINYL | DIGITAL

URFERD – Resan URFERD signifies the beginning of a new and additional musical chapter for its founder and sole member, Daniel Beckman (TWILIGHT FORCE, AGES), and brings a refreshing new perspective to the genre, challenging the boundaries of dark atmospheric folk music. The first album “RESAN” is a musical odyssey in both a literal and figurative sense. The album takes the listener on a journey through dark and olden Nordic forests; where strife and hardships follows in our steps, yet where the beauty and vastness of the solemn Nordic landscape persists and permeates. From the album opening’s depiction of a serene morning’s dawn to the closing track’s respite of a hearth at nightfall, RESAN traverses a multitude of captivating musical landscapes and themes throughout its eight songs. For fans of: Wardruna, Heilung, Forndom, Myrkur, Garmarna, Loreena McKennitt. CD | VINYL | DIGITAL

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I told them,

‘IF YOU WANT ME, I’M ALL YOURS.’ The conditions I joined under were just like with Epicus Doomicus Metallicus! I still find that hard to believe. Johan Längquist THREESOME IN THE ABYSS Armed with a pinch of cash, Candlemass’s studio choices were limited. There were plenty in and around Stockholm. Atlantis Studios in Vasastan. EMI Studios Stockholm (now Baggpipe) in Johanneshov. And, of course, ABBA’s Polar Studios, also in Vasastan. But the bean counters at Black Dragon had other intentions. Rather than drop virgin Candlemass into a pricey studio (and collapse financially), they forced the Swedes to budget down, which is partly how Thunderload Studios came into the picture. Owned by Heavy Load’s Ragne and Styrbjörn Wahlquist, the studio was located at the Stockholm University subway stop. The brothers had a viable setup, but space was limited and the walls damp; the studio was more than 100 feet below Stockholm’s busy streets. “Actually, it’s under the Stockholm subway system,” Edling laughs. “At Tekniska Högskolan. It’s fucking deep down and cold as hell. We could see our breath—we had to wear long johns and gloves. It made sense because my old band Trilogy recorded a great demo at Thunderload. I also can’t forget that my friend Yngwie Malmsteen did an absolutely brilliant 70-minute demo there, too. Best thing he ever did! Pure fucking magic!” “I recall vividly how the drums were booming out of the speakers, and how Mappe’s [Björkman’s] heavy guitars made the hair on my back curl,” says Ragne Wahlquist, engineer and co-producer of Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. “Early 60 : NOVEMBER 2021 : DECIBEL

on, I felt it was going to be something out of the ordinary. As the work progressed, I came to understand that the mind behind the sound and the stories conveyed in the songs was Leif Edling. Leif is a good friend and a brilliant composer of dark and heavy music. I feel honored to have participated in the making of this masterpiece.” Björkman’s stories of Candlemass’s sessions at Thunderload Studios are, if anything, tied to the lore behind Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. The Swedes not only had to deal with subway whirrs and glaring workaday Stockholmites, but also the fact that their instruments would mysteriously go out of tune. The studio also didn’t have a bathroom, making personal logistics downright challenging. Indeed, while Europe, Finnish lords Oz and even fucking Bathory were living the good life in Electra Studio aboveground, Candlemass were eking it out like hobbits inside Mount Doom. But with Ragne and Edling helming the ship, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus prevailed after three hard-fought weeks. “My guitar was always out of tune,” Björkman laughs. “When people cover songs from Epicus, their tuning is always wrong. They ask me about the tuning from Epicus and I really can’t tell them exactly what it is. I think it was the air. There was really nothing we could do. So, we just played the guitars and recorded them. Funny, when we rehearsed Epicus after the studio, we couldn’t find the right tuning. It was madness. I remember that even to this day.” JUNE 2022

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There were two important factors leading up to and during the recording of Epicus Doomicus Metallicus that could’ve derailed Candlemass’s most iconic album entirely. First, they didn’t have a lead guitarist. Even while serving in ATC, Björkman was a rhythm guy. He had no designs on playing lead in ATC—a role competently handled by showman Tommy Denander—and certainly was against it in Candlemass. (“I’m definitely not a lead,” says Björkman. “No fucking way! I’ll never be one.”) Needing to fill the role, the group called in fellow Upplands Väsby native and Arrow guitarist Klas Bergwall. Much of Bergwall’s tasteful work was written against demos Edling had provisioned before the Thunderload sessions, giving the former a chance to understand the thought process behind (and placement of solos in) crucial songs like “Demons Gate,” “Under the Oak” and Candlemass lighthouse “Solitude.” “Upplands Väsby was full of great musicians,” says Edling. “But it wasn’t easy to find people that wanted to play our style of metal. Klas was in Arrow. He had no intention of joining Candlemass fully. He came in, played his leads, and was done in less than two days.” As for that second—and most important— roadblock? Candlemass were without a vocalist. Edling sang in Nemesis and on the embryos for Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, but, like Björkman as lead guitarist, Candlemass’s primary songwriter had zero intentions of repeating past vocal-centric endeavors. The clock had started to tick unfavorably. Pre-recordings had already begun. The scramble to find a suitable singer was palpable. Enter Johan Längquist, then-taxi driver and frontman for heavy metal (almost) heroes Jonah Quizz. “It was Mats [Ekström] who said, ‘Wait, I know a guy. He’s a friend of mine. He’s a good singer,’” Björkman says. “That was Johan. At the time, he was focused on Jonah Quizz. We knew that. And Johan made it clear he was only going to help us out. So, we didn’t really know what to expect from Johan, actually. Here we are in the studio and there’s a bit of pressure on us to finish the recordings. I’m not sure Black Dragon knew about our situation. Or maybe they expected Leif to sing again. Anyway, when Johan came into the studio and sang ‘Crystal Ball,’ we were all blown away. He was perfect! Exactly what we wanted.” “Remember, it was a great honor to do an album in 1986,” says Längquist. “When you’re a musician and someone—like another musician or a record label—asked you to do an album, you did it. No questions asked. That was a different time, though. I had to be honest with myself and with Candlemass. My heart was in Jonah Quizz at that point. I’m a songwriter myself. We were pretty successful then. I just couldn’t leave my own band. I couldn’t do that to myself and to my band members. I had the demo, though. I thought,

DECIBEL : JUNE 2022 : 61

listening to metal, having a beer or two, planning world dominance for Candlemass. I never thought—in a million years—it would mean anything other than what it meant to us.” “At the time, nobody called Black Sabbath ‘doom metal,’” adds Björkman. “They were hard rock or heavy metal. I think it was after Epicus that we started to hear about people calling us ‘doom metal.’ I remember thinking, ‘What’s ‘doom metal?’ We were a metal band. We just played slowly. It’s amazing to think the album title had any effect at all.”

MASTERS OF REALITY

The title Epicus Doomicus Metallicus was a bit cheesy. I never thought—in a million years—

IT WOULD MEAN ANYTHING OTHER THAN WHAT IT MEANT TO US. Leif Edling ‘My god! I’ve never heard anything like this before!’ A week later, I was singing in Thunderload.” With all components—studio, lead guitarist and vocalist—in place, Candlemass completed Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. Disaster averted. Mission accomplished. The cover art was next on the group’s agenda. Now considered archetypal, the “Candlemass skull” was presaged by Edling during the waning days of Nemesis. When Ekström proposed that his father Åke revamp the skull at his print shop, the artistic orchestration for the cover and other marketing paraphernalia had been solved. The crucified skull, replete with devil horns, was a simple and effective declaration. Though it was printed in error—the blacks and whites inverted—by Black Dragon, the cover art was instantly identifiable. That it became an icon is doomed-out destiny. Today, the Candlemass skull is adorned on everything from T-shirts (even Christmas models), alcohol (as a licorice liqueur) and 3D-printed models (by music marketing company Knucklebonz) to skateboards (by Volatile) and even officially licensed Chuck Taylor AllStars. Clearly, the satanic panic of the ’80s has been harmlessly productized in the decades since. “The skull—our logo—is a statement for us,” Björkman says, likening it to universallyacknowledged mascots like Eddie (Iron Maiden), Snaggletooth (Motörhead) or Vic Rattlehead (Megadeth). “When we do merchandise, the Candlemass skull stuff is what everyone wants. No exceptions. I don’t have any tattoos except for 62 : NOVEMBER 2021 : DECIBEL

our skull. I have it tattooed on my hand. It’s very personal to me.” “As a kid, I studied it,” says Jeremy Brenton of Nevada-based doom stockists Demon Lung. “Spikes through a skull—fucking rad! Or, the skull has horns—is this a Christian thing? Now, it is just synonymous with Candlemass. We used to cover ‘Solitude’ live, and I remember one time about five seconds into the song, a dude up front excitedly rolls up his sleeve and shows us the demon skull tattoo. Saw him after the show—he was German. I couldn’t understand a goddamn word he said, but we bonded over Candlemass!” The title Epicus Doomicus Metallicus was another Ekström innovation. While incorrect—the proper Latin may be Epicum Maestum Metallum— the now-legendary phrase nonetheless conveyed, portended and defined the towering music and sonneteer lyrics contained therein. With its stark cover and verbose, yet provoking title, it’s hard to imagine what eager record-buying heshers thought on first encounter. Candlemass were darker than Black Sabbath and slower than Judas Priest, and it’s likely Epicus Doomicus Metallicus communicated that. Interestingly, when Edling first heard Ekström’s title suggestion, he was less than excited. As the two argued over various alternatives, paradigms had started to silently shift. “The title Epicus Doomicus Metallicus was a bit cheesy,” remembers Edling. “I was persuaded by Mats [Ekström] after a long name-dropping session in his boyhood bedroom. We often sat there JUNE 2022

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When Black Dragon released Epicus Doomicus Metallicus on June 10, 1986, the full impact of its sonic profile wasn’t immediately felt—let alone understood—by the record-buying public. Ostensibly, Candlemass were cut from the same cloth as their influences, but too much doom and gloom was likely purveyed in the fabric of their oeuvre. Outside of music, the world wasn’t exactly sunny. The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded after launch on January 28. Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death a month later. And the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Ukraine hurled radioactive material—400 times stronger than the sadistically-named Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima—across Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and other parts of Europe on April 26. The last thing anyone needed or wanted was another joyless day. Certainly, the heft of “Solitude,” the uneasy atmosphere of “Black Stone Wielder” and Cille Svenson’s haunting coda to “A Sorcerer’s Pledge”—an unexpected addition by co-producer Wahlquist—defied popular convention. The weight of Edling’s compositions and the sorrowful might of Längquist’s vocals were well-upholstered physically and emotionally. A small but dedicated regiment of journalists, fans and musicians recognized Candlemass’s topline qualities. John Strednansky opined in a 1986 issue of Metal Rendezvous International that Epicus Doomicus Metallicus was: “… hard, heavy and truly of epic proportions, a phenomenal piece of rock music could make history.” The editor-in-chief/owner wasn’t new to Candlemass, having been a recipient of Edling’s then-prolific tape-trading volleys. Eventually, Strednansky was pen pals with the Swede. Before long, he got Epicus Doomicus Metallicus advanced to him by Black Dragon. “I was immediately impressed at the mighty and forceful delivery of riffs that were not just heavy musically, but almost overpowering, yet provoking on an emotional level,” he says today, likening Candlemass to the NWOBHM movement and the melodic sensibilities of Swedish notables November and Heavy Load. Strednansky continues: “Listening to the opening track, ‘Solitude,’ reminded me of sitting at a mountain lake on a rainy night cranking the first Black Sabbath or Angel Witch album, but

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also being bludgeoned with the intense, emotionally draining lyrics. I’ve heard critics say that this music is too depressing to listen to. To me, if music can generate that type of strong reaction, it is created by a musical genius!” Former Solitude Aeturnus guitarist (and writer for Gray Matter zine) John Perez was equally overcome upon experiencing Epicus Doomicus Metallicus. “It felt like I was finally hearing metal music the way I had always wanted to hear it,” he says. “Simple as that. This was a fresh take on the Sabbath style—slow and heavy. They stripped away the bluesier and rocking elements and made it something completely new and different. Much more stoic and grandiose in terms of delivery and songwriting. Nobody had done this up to this point.” In Sweden, Candlemass were still relatively unknown. They honestly believed that Epicus Doomicus Metallicus had no real chance. Facing oblivion, something unfortunate happened. On September 27, 1986, news broke that Metallica bassist Cliff Burton had been killed in a bus crash on the E4, a well-traveled highway that bridges Sweden from south to north. That night, Swedish Radio P3 aired the influential Rockbox Radio Show hosted by DJ Pär Fontander. It was a tribute to Burton and Metallica. But part of that show introduced Epicus Doomicus Metallicus to an entirely new audience of metal-hungry teenagers. “I [fanatically] followed Rockbox,” asserts Daniel Ekeroth, author of Swedish Death Metal and former bassist for death metallers Dellamorte, Insision and Usurpress. “There were other Swedish radio shows—Studio Skrän, Hårdrock, Rockdepartementet and Bommen—but Rockbox was the best.” Ekeroth was 14 years old at the time. He listened intently to Candlemass’s colossal forays, fervently hanging on to Fontander and interviewee Edling’s every word. “I was totally floored by how heavy and awesome they were—like a Swedish Black Sabbath. For weeks, all I thought of was that band. I started to make Candlemass-sounding songs straight after that Rockbox show. Basically, I just stole riffs and made lyrics about evil wizards and shit.” In Kolbotn, Norway, the members who would soon make up Darkthrone were just into exploring the art of the epic. Long songs in metal were reasonably rare in the ’80s. Even the most conceptual songwriters tried not to flirt too often with elongated material, fearing songs over five minutes would not be eligible for radio airplay, or that occupying the entirety of Side A or Side B with musical/artistic expanse could lead to contractual jeopardy with label partners. Of course, outliers are always outliers. Namely, Black Sabbath’s “Hand of Doom,” Judas Priest’s “Beyond the Realms of Death,” Venom’s “At War With Satan,” Bathory’s “Enter the Eternal Fire” or—most famously—Iron Maiden’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” When a young and intrinsically curious Gylve “Fenriz” Nagell chanced upon Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, he was hooked instantly. 64 : NOVEMBER 2021 : DECIBEL

“Candlemass’s Epicus Doomicus Metallicus had only long songs,” Fenriz says. “I think I bought that without even listening [to it]. It was one of my best buys ever—eternal inspiration for my entire career.” Darkthrone acolytes are probably wondering how the cold Nordic scratch of A Blaze in the Northern Sky, Under a Funeral Moon and Transilvanian Hunger could ever harbor Epicus Doomicus Metallicus in their DNA. “The Candlemass—and Nemesis— doom style has materialized more often on our five last albums,” Fenriz pontificates. “We all dug Epicus Doomicus Metallicus in the Darkthrone camp. There aren’t many of our albums that don’t have a doom riff. There is no running from either the initial or the constant influence that Leif Edling and company have on us.”

There is no running from either

THE INITIAL OR THE CONSTANT INFLUENCE that Leif Edling and company have on us. Fenriz, Darkthrone TAKE THIS STONE AND USE IT WELL There are more than a handful of heavy metal albums that are continuously (almost eternally) in print. Our collections resting on shelves, occupying floors or suffocating in boxes are proof of that. Now, count the variants, country-specific presses and the endless cavalcade of reissues, and there’s reason to believe nothing is ever truly out of print—or in industry parlance “deleted.” Epicus Doomicus Metallicus is no different. Perhaps Candlemass’s now-eternal bequest stems from pivotal gigs in Sweden (Brantisgarden, Uppsala and Fryshuset, Stockholm, both ’87) and the Netherlands (Eindhoven, Dynamo ’88), where their death and doom imprinted deeply on a quickly fragmenting microverse. Or more pragmatically, perhaps release rights were never bogged down in (major) label quagmires. Nevertheless, the continuity of availability that is Epicus Doomicus Metallicus still mystifies. JUNE 2022

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“I see big Swedish bands that have deleted albums,” beams Björkman. “As a musician, I think about that a lot. Epicus has never been deleted. Nothing we’ve decided, to be honest. It’s still selling. People who weren’t even born when we did Epicus are like, ‘This is the shit!’ There are new versions all the time.” “I must admit, I didn’t understand how popular the band really was,” Längquist says. “People really love Epicus. It took many years for me to realize that. It’s amazing that Epicus has inspired so many people and so many bands. It’s cool to meet people who come to our shows and tell us things like Epicus has changed them or inspired them. What we did many years ago still has life.” Doom metal is full of anchor records. Black Sabbath’s Black Sabbath first and foremost, of course. Trouble’s Trouble is evergreen. Cirith Ungol’s King of the Dead is often forgotten, but essential. And Pentagram’s Relentless is a Top 10 contender. Epicus Doomicus Metallicus is undoubtedly part of that lineage. Actually, we know it is. In our Top 100 Doom Metal Albums of All Time special issue, we hoisted the album to a welldeserved second place, just under the debut from progenitors Black Sabbath. If the Swedish Royal House of Bernadotte can hammer away for 204 years (and counting), our own kings (of the gray islands) can resiliently march forward, too. The sounds that boomed out of Upplands Väsby are still here, their velocity increasingly targeting next-gen neonates everywhere. Billboard charters Pallbearer are one of the newer acts to remodulate their benefactor’s brawny formulas. Says vocalist/guitarist Brett Campbell, “In a time when heavy metal was in a race to see who could play the fastest, Candlemass went against the grain, focusing instead on an ominous, relentless groove. No band has had a bigger influence in the development and codification of the epic side of doom metal as we know it more than Candlemass. Many bands have gazed into their crystal ball and learned from the strange visions beheld therein.” Canadian/Finland combo Smoulder, whose wizards/warriors-themed Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring wowed critics in 2019, learned that “less is more” from Edling’s cleverly economical lays. “Candlemass bring a stirring combination of power and pain to the genre of doom, and helped create an offshoot that we currently reside in,” says vocalist Sarah Kitteringham, who is also a regular Decibel contributor. “For me as a vocalist, above all, Johan’s vocals on Epicus really demonstrate that technicality is irrelevant: What a good vocalist must do is infuse the music with feeling. Of course, Johan is a wonderful singer, but what he brings is a raw, visceral energy that brings the lyrics to life. I aim to do the same.” Philadelphia-based Crypt Sermon, whose albums Out of the Garden and The Ruins of Fading Light honored our Top Albums lists in 2015

New Album Out May 13, 2022

NEW ALBUM OUT MAY 6, 2022

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and 2019 respectively, are great-grandchildren of Candlemass’s dignified thrum. “Epicus Doomicus Metallicus has both a direct and an indirect influence on my own music writing,” doom reverend Brooks Wilson preaches. “Quite obviously, without this album, Crypt Sermon wouldn’t exist as a band. Still, it is the inventiveness and willingness to buck convention that is most in line with both my own songwriting, and the way we in Crypt Sermon approach our music.”

HELL BENT FOREVER The Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest has aged well since its much-welcomed 2017 inauguration. We’ve had some very special performances along the way in both our Philadelphia and Los Angeles editions. Bay Area thrash gods Testament did a double with full sets of The New Order and The Gathering. Viking metal stalwarts Enslaved crushed audiences to ice with their Frost performance. And Decibel darlings Converge blew our tops off with thorough Jane Doe walkthroughs on both coasts. Reason stands that the tradition of full-album throwback showings will not only continue, but also elevate the celebration of the worthy. Our latest bash will include not one, but four all-encompassing programs from Wolves in the Throne Room, the Red Chord, Nuclear Assault and, yes, Candlemass, who will be ferrying Epicus Doomicus Metallicus in its entirety for the first time on American soil, with original non-member Johan Längquist fronting. That Candlemass will perform Epicus Doomicus Metallicus 36 years to the day it was released isn’t lost on anyone. “We’ve been to America several times,” scolds Edling, reminding us of Candlemass’s “unforgettable” cross-country runs in 1989, 1991 and 2008. “Now, after many years, we’re more in demand than ever! A bit weird, but that’s the truth. We actually headline a lot of festivals these days. Hopefully, there will be some people there ready for some classic doom metal at the Decibel Metal & Beer Fest!” “The amazing [thing] about Epicus is that we can travel all over the world with it,” Björkman tells us. “How many bands can go around the world to promote and play an album that’s 36 years old? Not many, I think. Here I am, able to play Epicus for old and new fans all these years later. And people still want to hear it. This just blows me away. So, of course, we’re excited to play it beginning-to-end in America.” All of this, including the success of The Door to Doom, wouldn’t have been possible had Längquist not agreed to permanently join Candlemass in 2018. After Mats Levén absconded (there’s a cut of The Door to Doom with the Swede), Edling was near the tipping point for another let’s-finally-endthis-thing summit. After all, Candlemass have been struck by the “frontman curse,” having calved off the considerable talents in Messiah Marcolin, Thomas Vikström, Björn Flodkvist, 66 : NOVEMBER 2021 : DECIBEL

Tony Martin, Robert Lowe and, lastly, Mr. Levén over the years. Luckily, Epicus Doomicus Metallicus session man Längquist, who first appeared back in the Candlemass orbit at the group’s 20 Year Anniversary Party on March 31, 2007, was available and unbelievably, still in fighting shape. “When Mappe first called me up, I had to ask myself, ‘Can I do this?’” says Längquist. “I told them that if I liked the music and I performed well enough, then I would be interested. Everything after that happened very fast. One or maybe two days before the studio, Mappe called me. That’s when I heard The Door to Doom songs for the first time. Then, when I got into the studio, I think the first song heard was ‘Astorolus - The Great Octopus.’ I immediately thought, ‘My god! This is so good.’ I wanted to start recording immediately, and that’s what I did. So, I told them, ‘If you want me, I’m all yours.’ The conditions I joined under were just like with Epicus Doomicus Metallicus! I still find that hard to believe.” “Johan is the reason why Candlemass still exists today,” Edling reveals. “He gave us new life! Getting Johan back in the band a couple of years ago was a stroke of genius. Guess there’s a time and place for everything. The past years have been incredible for us. We’ve done so many good shows, with a wonderful atmosphere in the band. Johan is a joy to work with—always positive and in a good mood. Plus, he’s a humble frontman with a super voice!” With the follow-up to The Door to Doom on the horizon—they’re in the studio right now— Candlemass aren’t shy about the potential of their silver years. Revitalized again, the Swedes have something devilishly creative and driven by longstanding fellowship in store for us. We don’t know much about Candlemass’s 13th album at this stage, but we’re more than confident that Edling, Björkman, drummer Jan Lindh, guitarist Lars Johansson and Längquist—with four decades of heavy metal wherewithal under their belts—will happily out-doom us all. “The songs are a bit different,” hints Björkman. “Leif is such a great songwriter. Sure,

Leif wrote for Messiah [Marcolin] and Mats [Levén]. No doubt about that, but on the new album, Leif is writing for Johan’s vocals. Leif and Johan collaborate very well. They’re a real team. I don’t think I’ve seen that in Candlemass before. Everyone has been good in their own way, but the way Leif and Johan work together is utterly fantastic. So, I’m very happy Johan is back.” “This time, we have a couple of songs that are a bit more ‘commercial,’” Edling reveals. “Not commercial in the true sense of the word. But maybe some choruses that are more direct. We also have a track that is very metal. Maybe it’ll be the first single. More metal to the world is always better!” As another sun rises on Candlemass’s solemn face, we’re reminded that nobody is getting any younger. Time is inexorable: kind at one end, cruel at the other. The Swedes understand that life’s promenade has an end. Hell, Edling tried his best to bury his ageless labor of love, but failed because there was too much at stake. So, they’re not saying goodbye—not now. There’s no plan to close up doom metal’s longest-standing shop. In fact, Candlemass are going all in, pedal—slowly, of course—to the metal. “I’m 60 years old now,” Björkman says defiantly. “We all are turning 60. We’re getting old. But we’re gonna go until we’re dead!” “I’m lucky to know the Candlemass guys a bit, and we meet quite frequently,” says Erik Danielsson, chieftain of Swedish black metal heroes Watain. “I always get the feeling they want more, and that they still have such a strong love for their common legacy. If you consider all the hardship they have been through and the fact that their long career was entirely selfmade, it’s safe to say they are some of the most passionate and stubborn old farts in their game! I foresee and hope for many more soul-wrenching Candlemass moments ahead.” Now, it appears, Edling is yet again retelling his fortune. “I’m so proud of everything we’ve achieved,” he says. “All the records, all the gigs, all the sweat and mileage. We’re like the fucking cockroaches of doom! We will never go away!”

I’m sitting here alone in darkness waiting to be free, Lonely and forlorn I’m crying I long for my time to come death means just life Please let me die in solitude —“Solitude” JUNE 2022

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INSIDE ≥

72 BLUT AUS NORD The Nord is the word 72 BOG BODY Floating it out there

ALL THE NOISE THAT FITS

78 DEVIL MASTER Vampunk as vamfuck 80 IBARAKI Are we still allowed to joke about the Trvium cover? 84 STATIC ABYSS Critical radness

You Have Been Summoned

JUNE

A new label brings olde death/doom magick from TEMPLE OF VOID

15%

Under the Oak Barrell

12%

Crawling Back to Quad

4% 1%

Sssöööuurrr

I Cum Bud

has been nine years since Motor City necromancers Temple of Void released their first demo. The band built TEMPLE their foundation on the haunted burial grounds of death/ OF VOID doom’s ancient past (see: 1991). Armed with Bruce Pennington’s Summoning ghoulish artwork on Of Terror and the Supernatural, Temple of Void the Slayer doubled down on horror imagery like their contemporaries in RELAPSE Hooded Menace. Now on the Relapse roster, the band’s new album Summoning the Slayer is a bold blend of shadowy styles foretold by the omens of previous records. ¶ Opening with a wrapped churn like a turntable has been possessed, “Behind the Eye” (d)evolves into an old-school death metal stomp. When guitarist Alex Awn discussed the band’s trajectory during a Decibel studio report, he noted they were straying from the doomed pacing and leaning hard into death metal. But the band retains the thickness of their sound, thanks to the embalmer’s artistry of engineer Arthur Rizk.

ILLUSTRATION BY MARK RUDOLPH [MARKRUDOLPH.COM]

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But on Summoning the Slayer the band welcomes even more pronounced influences from dark strains of rock. The downcast strings of “Deathtouch” introduces some gothic grandeur while still mournfully congregating in the death/ doom graveyard. “A Sequence of Rot” commences with industrial bass and drum minimalism. The song’s forlorn riffs would fit both U.K. doomsters or an ’80s post-punk outfit. But if you’re surprised by these flourishes, that means you weren’t paying attention. Go ahead and revisit the post-Draconian Paradise Lost vibes of “Leave the Light Behind” on The World That Was. Instead of ending with a hellish epic like past albums, the album closes with the acid folk of “Dissolution.” Their LPs have always included acoustic interludes—“To Carry This Corpse Evermore” and “An Ominous Journey” come to mind—but “Dissolution” is a different beast. With flute and string embellishments and hallucinogenic clean vocals, it’s a disarming siren song that tucks the listener in their casket just before the album’s end. Awn foreshadowed some curveballs on this record, and the band delivered as promised. Temple of Void have emerged as a consistently creative death metal entity since forming nearly a decade ago. Summoning the Slayer has loftier pursuits than genre conventions permit, which is why “The Transcending Horror” perfectly captures this album. It’s a record of depth and darkness that uses death metal as a bridge to a more impactful listening experience. —SEAN FRASIER

BLUT AUS NORD

Disharmonium Undreamable Abysses DEBEMUR MORTI PRODUCTIONS

A step back (in the right direction)

When we last heard from French black metal weirdos Blut aus Nord, mastermind Vindsval had announced a schism within the ranks. Creating Yerûšelem from the strange industrial and noise elements that defined his career from 2003’s The Work Which Transforms God onward, the suddenly lush remains gave the world 2019’s glorious Hallucinogen. And yet, something felt, I don’t know… missing. Don’t get me wrong, Hallucinogen is an incredible album of oddball atmospheric metal, but Blut aus Nord are meant to be weird. Even in the project’s earliest recordings (and the very melodic Memoria Vetusta series), there was an icy, inhuman character to everything that really came to a head in the 2000s and 2010s. 70 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

What’s great about Disharmonium - Undreamable Abysses is that old freaks can revel in Vindsval being weird again while also reconciling with how good Hallucinogen was. This album finds itself at a bit of a precipice between Vindsval’s two halves: the one who brought you “Procession of Dead Clowns,” but also the one responsible for a melodious, psychedelic album with a colorful morel mushroom on the cover. Using some very familiar effects and bendy notes, Disharmonium is very much a Blut aus Nord album in the classical sense: mechanical, warbly and really “out there.” This means a few things. For one, Vindsval has fully embraced warm production postHallucinogen, which is interesting compared to the clanging, metallic sounds that defined his career up to that point. It also means Vindsval still has some creativity left in him, at least enough to further his now classic “sound” without fully abandoning it like I had feared. Luckily, patience was on my side. —JON ROSENTHAL

BOG BODY

Cryonic Crevasse Cult P R O FO U N D LO R E

Alliterative aural obliteration

New York duo Bog Body may not be the first death metal band to go guitarless, but they’re definitely the soggiest. In 2018, beneath moss cowls and dripping slimy peat, Bog Body emerged from depths unknown with a four-track demo tape called Through the Burial Bog. As heavy, gnarly and unique as their demo was, nothing could have prepared us for this, their unexpected debut full-length, Cryonic Crevasse Cult. Drummer/vocalist JP and bassist/vocalist SVR have dredged up an impressively megalithic, impossibly bottom-end-heavy album that resembles few other works we’ve seen in extreme metal (at least as exhibited by Americans). More than ever, Bog Body’s booming tectonic thunder strikes straight to the core of the reptilian brain. All the aggression and excitement of extreme metal is boiled down into this grotesque, hardened corpse with all the terrors of death trapped within it. Mired in a sound somehow both maximalist and minimalist, Cryonic Crevasse Cult is a straightforward album that can likewise claim superior compositional skills. Not only are these songs apocalyptically heavy; they’re exquisitely composed and distinctive from one another, too. So, if you’re thinking this is some stooped-brow caveman punishment, you’re only half-right. A track like “The Temple of the Inevitable Flame,” for example, is as reminiscent of Rippikoulu as it is the double bass of Sam Jones. And other

tracks still feature enough industrial-adjacent maneuvers or doom metal atmospherics to keep things interesting. Bog Body are best, however, when they’re just rolling over all thoughts like some insatiable entity, the hi-hat awash in your ears. —DUTCH PEARCE

CARNAL GHOUL

Back From the Vault SUPREME CHAOS

Y’all gone make me act a ghoul

This album’s backstory is… cooky. From a macro perspective, we have a band that’s essentially the side project of a couple of scene vets whose sole output heretofore included a demo and an excellent EP released nearly a decade ago. Immediately afterwards, the two recruited Fleshcrawl’s Sven Groß as their new frontman. They take a short break (you know, five-plus years) before rolling up their sleeves to record their debut LP. During this time, Sven sadly passes away due to cancer before ever actually recording anything with the band in question. The remaining members of Carnal Ghoul decide to scroll through their contacts and ultimately populate their album with 11 guest vocalists—one per track—including Dave Ingram, Paul Speckmann, Marc Grewe and fucking Martin Van Drunen in homage to Sven. And I know I just said this, but Sven never actually recorded anything with Carnal Ghoul. So, the genetics that compose Back From the Vault are fear-and-loathing-level bonkers, and no, it’s not lost on me that I haven’t bothered to describe the music at all by this point. Carnal Ghoul were designed to emulate late-’80s/early-’90s Swedish and British DM. No frills. No frippery. If you’ve heard Left Hand Path or Pieces, you’ve been issued your field guide. Now, the obvious concern is that the band will translate as mere novelty—which to some they will. But these are worthy reinterpretations culled from holy source material, so it’s really all about your headspace. Do you want to hear Marc Grewe screaming over what could’ve been a B-side to Recollections? Without question, I do. Gonzo, but welcome. (FYI: All proceeds from this record directly benefit SAPV Ostalb, a German organization focusing solely on palliative care.) —FORREST PITTS

CAVE IN

Heavy Pendulum RELAPSE

We never step in the same river twice

At first blush, it’s easy to read a big swing back to metallic hardcore into

SKIN & SORROW

FRAYLE

THUNDERHEADS

LaMACCHIA

BURNING TONGUE PRISONER’S CINEMA

THE LINE, ITS WIDTH, & THE WARDRONE

Heavy, Witch, Doom. Haunting, hypnotic mix of crushing Sleep-style doom and cooing ethereal vocals à la Cocteau Twins' Elizabeth Fraser.

Egnimatic layered & moody Rock. RIYL: Liars, Doves, Autolux, Radiohead. Debut by guitarist & vocalist John LaMacchia from Candiria)

Blackened Metal, Hardcore, Punk. RIYL Craft to Dwid Hellion to G.I.S.M. Crushing nihilism that nod to the shadowy side of hardcore punk

Doom, Sludge, Metal, Prog. RIYL Part Chimp, Unsane, Melvins. Rebreather creates punishing, and teneacious music that seethes and breathes.

OUT NOW

JULY 2022

MAY 2022

REBREATHER

@AqualambRecords

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the title of Cave In’s latest—especially after the band’s ferocious performance, in full, of the 1998 game-changing classic Until Your Heart Stops at last December’s Metal & Beer Fest: Los Angeles. Yet, although heavy as hell, Heavy Pendulum is in many ways a considerably more interesting beast. There is a reverse momentum here, but the key is not the first backward swing, which essentially collects upon the proverbial oval weight stellar elements of every era of Cave In (including some long presumed permanently interred). Rather, it is the whoosh! back forward that is exhilarating, ultimately arriving at a place that is simultaneously everything Cave In and nothing they’ve been before. Which is to say, after perfecting throughthe-looking-glass versions of metallic hardcore, space rock, post-hardcore, psychedelia-steeped street prog and pre-Nirvana explosion alt-rock, Cave In have made the best stadium-ready modern metal record in… decades? Without ostentatiously disrespecting popular quoteunquote metal acts, it feels like the underground now has a worthy representative to go out and fuck with the heads of Coachella attendees, or kids who show up early enough for the openers of some big alt-rock or metal act. (You could see this material going down just as easily for Judas Priest or Metallica devotees as, say, Smashing Pumpkins fans.) After all the hiatuses and the 2018 death of bassist Caleb Scofield, Heavy Pendulum is a synergistic tour de force musical statement that also feels like an inspiring validation of perseverance, committed creative restlessness and life. Let’s hope it’s rewarded. —SHAWN MACOMBER

CAVERNLIGHT, As I Cast Ruin

Upon the Lens That Reveals My Every Flaw The fine art of squeezing beauty from agony | T R A N S L AT I O N L O S S

Metal comedian/ suspected Sasquatch Brian Posehn has a great bit in which he talks about being at a club on a night in which Dennis Rodman strode in and exclaimed, with all the confidence of a five-time NBA champion with a tattooed schlong, “Someone in here is getting fucked tonight!” With that same amount of confidence—albeit on the opposite end of the emotional spectrum— you can take one (long) look at the title of Cavernlight’s sophomore album and know that severe introspection and serious depression are definitely in play. As I Cast Ruin Upon the Lens That Reveals My Every Flaw follows 2017’s debut album, As We Cup Our Hands and Drink From the Stream of Our Ache, and taken together you don’t have to be a Mensa member to figure out that these guys revel in the nooks and crannies of the dark side of human experience. And unlike many fake doom metal mopers, they live up to the

CELESTIAL SEASON 8 Mysterium I

BURNING WORLD

Solar recovers

Dutch lords Celestial Season found their mausoleum muse on return-to-form stunner The Secret Teachings. To wit, we awarded said album a coveted No. 28 spot in our Top 40 Albums of 2020 celebration. But the question begged: Were we merely floored by palpable nostalgia (yes, we were), or did Jason Köhnen and his team have more to offer after many years gone and a short while back? Mysterium I answers that very question two minutes into opener (and Decibel Flexi Series re-recording) “Black Water Mirrors.” Celestial Season’s return is real. OK, it’s no secret that our doomed-out denizens have soft spots for heavy, elegiac outlays—the kind that peaked in the mid-’90s, but continue (via bands like Mourning Beloveth, Swallow the Sun, Shape of Despair, etc.) to captivate our cheerless souls. 72 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

Mysterium I gets even better the deeper we dig. Mid-album gem “Sundown Transcends Us” is a riveting display of harmony guitars, doleful violin pricks and Stefan Ruiters’ trademark courtly ululations. “This Glorious Summer,” “Endgame” and album headstone “Mysterium” are revamped nods to older times, but in their stately gait they convey all that’s missing from the younger set. The interplay between Olly Smit and Pim van Zanen’s guitar work—not to mention the combo of Jiska ter Bals and Elianne Anemaat’s violin and cello arias—may not excite the twitching masses currently ensconced in workaday distraction, but they’re absolutely spellbinding to behold in full. Truly, Celestial Season aren’t moving mountains with their newfangled wheelworks. There’s no shame in glacial iteration (or atavistic rediscovery), for breaking what’s not broken (again) would ruin it (again) for misty-eyed metallers the world over. —CHRIS DICK

nomenclature by matching titles and moniker with colossal post-metal, doom sludge rooted in moody My Dying Bride greyscale, Neurosis’ urban anger, Spectral Voice darkness, Godflesh’s mechanized bitch-slap and Corrupted tempos. Sometimes, all of the above make simultaneous appearances, like the title track and “A Shimmering View” which swing between humid, factory-floor oppression and soaring eagle spaciousness. In other cases (“Accepting the Fate I’ve Crafted” and “Material”), things get morose and new age-y, like Dead Can Dance and Steve Von Till meeting black metal with haunting bleakness coloring a colorless sky. Album closer “To Reconcile a Virulent Life” lines up to be the song to step off the edge of the world to. The extended ambient parts, which sometimes end up being more moments of silence, can detract from the album’s collective crushing, but if it’s an unnerving everything you’re looking for, this beast lives up to its wordy billing. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

COBRA THE IMPALER

Colossal Gods LISTENABLE

The workhorse movement

First, this cobra couldn’t impale a marshmallow—it has no fangs. Second, the influence of Mastodon post-Crack the Skye— minus the elite chops (though Dirk Verbeuren’s session drumming does elevate the playing somewhat), structural ingenuity and general thirst for adventure—looms so large that on the first couple of listens, the direct mimicry becomes quite grating. You might now be wondering what’s left of Mastodon if you remove all those aforementioned signature traits. Well, Killer Be Killed might be one useful reference point, as Cobra the Impaler write in a similar verse/chorus way and are also devoid of instrumental detours. And vocalist Manuel Remmerie has styled himself almost entirely on

P L AY I T. W E A R I T. L I V E I T.

F O L L O W O U R K V LT

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Troy Sanders in terms of primary tone and phrasing. The guy can also do a decent Brann Dailor on the more melodic ascending choruses, and there’s a few moments of Brent Hinds’ country twang in there (“Demigods”). And to be fair to him, if you can put aside all of the above and resist running off to spin records by more daring and less on-the-nose Masto-inspired bands (such as Anciients or Hyborian), Cobra the Impaler’s hook-writing will begin to connect. You’ll start to notice that there are many memorable vocal refrains, despite the criticisms around a lack of individuality here, all of which are underpinned by propulsive riff ‘n’ rhythm syncopations. Maintain the keen ability to craft catchy hooks—and widen the influence base a mile—and this band could emerge from its chrysalis of imitation. —DEAN BROWN

COSMIC PUTREFACTION

Crepuscular Dirge for the Blessed Ones P R O FO U N D LO R E / CA L I GA R I

Tired of Earth

Cosmic Putrefaction, one of several projects from the Italian extreme metal polymath G.G., first

debuted in 2019 with At the Threshold of the Greatest Chasm, an album of extraterrestrial atmospheric death metal with black metal tendencies that was as exciting as it was unhinged. The following year, the Milan-based artist released an LP that sounded like his mind had been captured by a parasitic alien lifeform that allowed him to excel at whatever he chose to do, so long as this activity brought about brain activity. He chose to write, record and unleash The Horizons Towards Which Splendour Withers. Now we stand before Crepuscular Dirge for the Blessed Ones, the most advanced and most fully realized Cosmic Putrefaction album to date. G.G. himself seems to have realized this third full-length’s potential potency early on, for at some point he made an album-changing decision: hiring a session drummer. The presence of Giulio Galati (Hideous Divinity, etc.) here elevates its status to the top of G.G.’s other releases, not to mention the two preceding Cosmic Putrefaction albums. That said, this album boasts a density that would be intimidating were it not so consistently rewarding. Every riff turns a new corner in this elaborate world of death metal dirges, black/ death storms and prog-death portals. And the dark matter holding it all together—binding

COME TO GRIEF, When the World Dies

On our way! | T R A N S L AT I O N L O S S

The problem with doom and sludge has always been a low bar to entry. Maybe a step higher than punk, but lesser bands in those frequently stream-crossing subgenres can make an above-average hardcore band look like King Crimson. Yet, while those droning chords and midtempos attract a lot of dabblers, what should be an albatross is paradoxically a boon. In a universe of a million feints, the few hooks that slip through land hard enough to put an entire room on its ass.

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And make no mistake: When the World Dies is an epic fucking haymaker. A reconfigured partial resurrection of the legendary Grief, formed in 1991 by Disrupt guitarist Terry Savastano, Come to Grief continue—in the aftermath of several singles and EP releases—to more than justify the callback to its storied progenitor with a shouldn’t-quitework-but-it-does mix of bone-powdering, organ-liquifying tectonic doom riffage and Vol. 4-updating swagger-groove. (Kudos to whoever

all eight songs, all 43 minutes into a cohesive, mind-refracting experience—is G.G.’s genius… or rather his parasite. —DUTCH PEARCE

CREMATION LILY

Dreams Drenched in Static THE FLENSER

Surrounded by light and sound

About 100 seconds into Cremation Lily’s fractured dreamscape—creator Zen Zsigo’s first for the Flenser, but far from his debut release— a strangled Xasthur-esque shriek bursts from the murk, which is just about the only reason this record makes it to the pages of a metalcentric magazine. Maybe that’s a little reductive. The Flenser has earned its metal cred, repping some of the most adventurous extremity around since launching Palace of Worms, Bosse-de-Nage and Pale Chalice into our faces over a decade ago. Also, Decibel has been known to lather praise on projects that share Cremation Lily’s predilection for pastel melodies cocooned in layers of noise manipulations, field recordings, cut-and-paste hallucinations and scattershot house beats.

wrote the press release, which includes the apropos line: “[When…] is no pentatonic picnic—this is sonic annihilation.”) Add to this a pitch-perfect production by Kurt Ballou—seriously, he gets the balance between nasti-fuzz and clarity exactly right, and more doom bands should be recording at GodCity—and a couple cool guest spots from Ballou’s Converge bandmate Jacob Bannon, and the vibe is very much one of an album and band that has come to lower the boom even as it raises the bar. For a scene currently accustomed to lowered hands, the punch of When the World Dies will carry a sweet sting. —SHAWN MACOMBER

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Dylan Neal’s excellent Thief comes to mind, as does a particularly smooth version of the Body, if Lee Buford and Chip King roofied English pop sensation Take That into a career-ending (but still sublime) collaboration in the metaverse. The narrative that appears to frame much of Zsigo’s work is his experience of nearly drowning in 2015. In fact, intentionally or not, Dreams Drenched in Static repeatedly mimics his description of that experience—the record is a fairly concise selection of 10 mostly sub-three-minute pieces that tug us toward their suffocating depths, only to dash us against a craggy climax and release us before we completely succumb to the encroaching density. The songs teeter between hermetic dread and expansive elation, neither quite gaining an advantage over the other. “Wavering Blood” is a hypnotic interplay of synthesized glamour and an echoing, aching tenor voice against steely sheets of guitar noise. Lashed in much the same framework, “Selfless” is like some triumphant prom theme for the deluded and terminally lonely. It’s all exquisite, really, and exciting, and compact enough to encourage repeated back-to-back listens. —DANIEL LAKE

DEVIL MASTER

Ecstasies of Never Ending Night RELAPSE

After hours

No matter what the clock face reads, it’s always sometime after midnight when a Devil Master record is playing. That’s the great gift of these Philadelphia ghouls, and it’s writ large in the sound and songwriting of their sophomore LP. Ecstasies of Never Ending Night was produced, mixed and mastered by Pete DeBoer (Blood Incantation/Spectral Voice), and what he and the band have gamed out has given this a nigh-on impressionistic sheen, the illusion that we’re watching Devil Master’s unholy ceremony behind a thin gauze, like we’re in a Jean Rollin movie. There is something in how this band plays with reverb that makes them sound off, like the guitars have that inside-out echo effect that East Bay Ray used. The songs are metal for sure, feverish and off-the-chain, but they resist easy categorization. When the lead guitar breaks out to carry a melody—a little unsteady on the feet, woozy from the modulation—it references classic ’80s steel, but does so in a fashion that suggests this might be what the Wipers would have sounded like if their record collection had been populated by Dissection and Mercyful Fate. The orgy-at-the-weekend, Satanic-textsthru-the-week vibe is the dominant force here, 76 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

informing a riot that careens between black metal and post-punk, death rock and thrash, and is delivered via 10 tracks clearly sequenced for a vinyl release. “Acid Black Mass” is not just the destination that side A builds toward; its frenzied contours and message functions also as a neat short-form statement for what Devil Master are trying to achieve here, what they’re all about. —JONATHAN HORSLEY

EGREGORE

The Word of His Law 20 BUCK SPIN

No school like the old (blackened death) school

You like old-school black metal? You also like old-school death metal? Those are pretty much the only prerequisites to enjoy The Word of His Law, Egregore’s debut LP. And enjoy it you will. This two-piece digs deep into their influences as much as they can in a fairly concise manner. There’s synth-laden theatricality, some odes to Morbid Angel, some thrash, a neofolk journey and solos that range from furious to crestfallen. And in keeping with the old-school ethos, this is far from a polished recording, with some flubs and other warts making it onto the album. This is not one of those bands hoping to simply ride the nostalgia train, though. Regardless of how the record sounds, these riffs are inventive and brutal, with band/guest vocals covering a wide range of styles, from yells and whispers to burly growls and cultic chanting, and at some point someone clearly screams, “Vagina!” (which I’m still trying to figure out the context for). The one shortcoming: While there is a lot of diversity, it also feels like not enough. Thirty minutes is a solid album length, but there are only four heavy songs, and by the end you may be hankering for at least one or two more to make it feel complete. Yet, what is here is very good. Egregore have a keen understanding of what kind of band they want to be, and The Word of His Law shows they know exactly how to make it happen. —SHANE MEHLING

FETAL BLOOD EAGLE

Indoctrinate LISTENABLE

After yawns we sleep

The biography provided by Listenable concerning Fetal Blood Eagle’s debut may be brief, but it contains a whopper of a telling moment. This comes when it spells out Fetal Blood Eagle as “… the culmination

of a putrid vision of reprobates… creating the most awesome brutally heavy death metal of un-killable destruction ever made… at least this week anyway.” This laissez-faire, shouldershrugging, factory preset attitude colors this entire release. Indoctrinate—the result of Aborted’s Sven de Caluwé joining forces with guitarists Jim Gregory (Solium Fatalis) and Ryan Beevers (Unflesh, Solium Fatalis), plus Necronomichrist rhythm section Lenny Patterson and Kendall Divoll from this side of the drink—hails from the Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus and Deeds of Flesh school of brutal death metal performed by dudes who love brutality and all the ingredients that go into it: minor key riffing wrapped around thrashing gallops, quarter-note pedaling and fast ‘n’ faster tempos. As well, they highlight appropriately sick-and-twisted DM humor with titles like “Hate Fucked Face,” “Only Meth Is Real,” “Abortion Dumpster Overload” and “Cinder Block Suicide.” However, where standard brutality ends, boredom begins. Because, while Indoctrinate is suitably heavy, brutal and whatever other synonyms there are for heavy and brutal, it’s also ordinary B-roll death metal clogging up the arteries of non-excitement, set to be replaced by the next “heaviest and most essential album of the year” that, deep down, lacks any distinguishing factors beyond hyperbole to make it a truly essential listen. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

HAUNTER

Discarnate Ails P R O FO U N D LO R E

Discarnate hails

Haunter might be a relatively newer band in death metal, having released their first full-length just six years ago, but their latest album reveals a wiseness that can only come from decades of dedication. As such, Discarnate Ails is a bit of an oxymoron—how can such a young, non-legacy band have such a strong grasp on a style as pronounced as progressive death metal? It’s difficult to say, but when Haunter’s trajectory is taken into consideration, their movement from a more avant-garde take on black metal on Thrinod a to a brutal, intricate blackened death metal sound today makes less sense on paper than it does when you actually hear it, with 2019’s Sacramental Death Qualia harnessing death metal with more grace and ferocity than its predecessor. When I last discussed Haunter in Decibel’s review section, I name-dropped a certain Swedish progressive death metal band a few times, and while that was apt for Sacramental Death

FAMYNE

IANAI

I AM THE NIGHT

II - The Ground Below

Sunir

While the Gods Are Sleeping

CD/LP/Digital, May 13

CD/2LP/Digital, June 10

CD/LP/Digital, May 6

Garden-fresh trail-blazers from Canterbury, UK, Famyne drag the epic tradition of British Doom Metal kicking and screaming into the 21st century on their epic new album “The Ground Below”.

Imbued with flavors from indigenous musical cultures around the globe and clothed in darkly hued indie moods. Acting as a messenger between two worlds and IANAI is music carried from within through the ages.

Black Metal rooted in the classic early 90’s tradition, where walls of guitars and synthesizers raise the forces of darkness in a battle against the heavens and burning angels light up the night sky.

Why not try the Svart webshop? w w w. s v a r t r e c o r d s . c o m

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Qualia’s adventurous spirit, there is something entirely different afoot here. Moving away from finding comfort in transmuted influences, Discarnate Ails shows Haunter instead opting to leave their own distinct thumbprint on metal. What does this mean? Haunter’s music can be described as temporal in that it moves in a few different directions at once, never quite staying in one location (or, in this case, many genres) for a lengthy period of time. Some could decry this as “riff salad,” and yet this is all beef. Haunter’s songwriting, even with so many moving parts, is at its A-game here. Much like the classics that came before it, nothing truly feels out of place on this album, though the price of admission is pretty steep: three long songs. Can you weather the storm? —JON ROSENTHAL

HELSÓTT

Will and the Witch M-THEORY

A fistful of dumbass

Despite all appearances to the contrary, pagan metal act Helsótt don’t hail from some frozen Norwegian fjord, although their mountainous desert home of Menifee in Riverside, CA has a similar feel of desolate beauty. After two records of celebrating Scandinavia, it’s understandable that they’d want to cover a subject closer to home. Instead of meth labs or the Motte Historical Car Museum, however, they chose the Wild Wild West. An American pagan metal band doing a concept record about Billy the Kid is like a Japanese mariachi band doing an album based on The Seven Samurai (although the latter sounds kind of awesome). Any two of those three things kinda make sense together. All three? Woof. Will and the Witch is a real hodgepodge— it’s mostly bouncy Finntroll/Ensiferum-style blackened folk metal, but they work in banjo, flute, violins, Native American hand drums and acoustic guitars to give it that Django feel. Boy, does that combination not work at all. Bands stretching out and trying unexpected things can be exciting, but sometimes it’s just not meant to be. This is more Illud Divinum Insanus than Bloodmoon: I. Helsótt hit hardest when they go for the throat—“Reap the Whirlwind” makes for a pretty fun little melodeath rager. Still, finding those bright spots feels like panning for gold in a creek downstream from a hog farm. The idea of using a distinctly European style to tackle a distinctly American subject is admirable, but the execution proves that sometimes will alone isn’t enough. Sometimes you just gotta put that lame horse down. —JEFF TREPPEL 78 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

IBARAKI

Rashomon NUCLEAR BLAST

From ember to inferno

Billed as Matt Heafy of Trivium’s “black metal project,” there have been rumblings about the creation of this record for years. Rashomon is now upon us, and it’s very clear from first listen that this debut is not a black metal album—so BM diehards (whoever they are), there’s no need to jump on social media crying “False!” while secretly slobbed out on the couch listening to Babymetal. Instead, Rashomon is an eclectic metal record that draws on Japanese folklore, elements of Norwegian and Swedish black metal, Heafy’s work with Trivium, grand symphonic metal embellishments (Blind Guardian, for one) and prog rock’s graceful gestures. This dynamic mix of styles is very similar in effect to Ihsahn’s solo work, which is not surprising given the former Emperor master has acted as a mentor and producer to Heafy and Ibaraki respectively. It’s a collaboration that works well. Heafy’s contemporary metal songwriting style and Ihsahn’s genre-fluid, classist approach combine in engaging, non-linear ways throughout. With Nergal vocalizing on “Akumu,” there’s also plenty of Behemoth to the heavier tracks—the torrent of black/death riffs and blasts across “Kagutsuchi” is another prime example. The only real criticism of a metal record that also has My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way guest-shrieking like Xasthur to eyebrow-raisin’ response (“Ronin”) is that some of the lengthier tracks could have been edited down slightly. But other than that, this is an impressive debut—one that could expose a younger Trivium-worshiping metal audience to the wonders of black metal, and one that will satiate seasoned extreme metal listeners with open minds. —DEAN BROWN

JUNGLE ROT

A Call to Arms UNIQUE LEADER

Those still loyal

It’s tough to say anything new about Jungle Rot. After all, the Kenosha, WI quartet hasn’t had anything new to say in a good long while. “War is hell. Groovy death metal is heaven.” We’ve heard it before, but in 2022 it just sounds better. Some of that’s because their latest, A Call to Arms, literally sounds better than most of their discography. Co-producer Chris Djuricic and mix-master magician Dan Swanö kept their sound clear, but removed some of the digital distractions from their 2018 self-titled. Still, for the most part, I think history has caught up to

Jungle Rot. Tank beat death metal in the vein of Bolt Thrower—that is to say, simplified and melodic riffs delivered over half-time drums with rock-steady double-time kick—is having a minor renaissance right now; see 1914, Frozen Soul, Celestial Sanctuary, etc. This style is my platonic ideal of what death metal should be. When I close my eyes and think “death metal,” this is what I hear, and few modern bands play it with the consistency and confidence that Jungle Rot do. Does A Call to Arms break any new ground? No. But it delivers 10 concise and catchy songs, each with a shout-along chorus (“Asymmetric Warfare” is especially good) and non-stop mosh riffs. It’s compulsively listenable and sounds crisp—I call that a victory. Jungle Rot aren’t changing the war game, but they’re playing it with the poise that comes from sticking to their guns, and I love them for that. Never change, Jungle Rot… though I doubt you ever will. —JOSEPH SCHAFER

MÅNEGARM

Ynglingaättens Öde N A PA L M

Not an ode to Yuengling, despite sounding like it

I’m reminded of a late-’80s interview with the self-described smartest man in the room, Dave Mustaine. The only guitarist to ever get kicked out of Metallica was talking up the thinking man’s thrash angle, telling people that lyrical selections like “anathematize” from “The Conjuring” off then new-album Peace Sells… but Who’s Buying were worth looking up to help expand brain power and knowledge. Which is all well and good when the lyrics are in English and somewhat coherent. Presently, my knowledge of Scandinavian Viking folklore remains stuck in the same spot it was before Ynglingaättens Öde, Månegarm’s tenth. This, given the band’s penchant for delivering tales via a combination of harsh black metal screech and crinkly forehead croon that would be difficult to decode even if the lyrics weren’t in their native Swedish. Luckily, after 25-plus years, the band’s strength of combining lilting folk melodies and melodic death metal transcends limitations to become something even non-LARPers can spin and enjoy. The triplet-abusing, waltzing hokeyness of Korpiklaani is alive—usually in momentumslaying intros and ill-placed interludes—but where Månegarm excel is in stretching out riffs to sound more like Borknagar and Moonsorrow taking stabs at epic Maiden than the metal set at a debutante ball in Stockholm. Opener “Freyrs Blod” retains cotillion elements, but rips like blackened thrash on a noise rock bender, while “Ulvhjärtat” is a stadium anthem in waiting.

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But the vocal arrangements are what really set this album apart and aflame. Erik Grawsiö scorches earth and spits velvet, the multifaceted slap ‘n’ tickle of “Vista Vettr” is a delightful clutter of layers, and if Vikings and longboats don’t show up on the listener’s doorstep during the massive choruses of “Adils Fall” and “The Wolfheart,” it’s because the gods are busy, not because these aren’t enormous paeans to ancient Scandinavia done via today’s catchy metal. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

MIRROR

The Day Bastard Leaders Die CRUZ DEL SUR

Through the looking glass

Have you ever been to a festival of rock cover bands? There’s no point being a snob about it; they’re great fun. Just imagine a whole day of top-notch musicians doing noteperfect renditions of Rainbow, AC/DC and Iron Maiden. You won’t get a better day out, and these festivals spring up all over European beach towns in the summer, including Cyprus. Why mention it? Well, the sheer joy of hearing your favorite heavy metal classics loud and live, inebriated on a locally brewed brain-cell-destroyer, is the perfect distillation of what Mirror sound like. Sheer joy! Mirror may have started as an international supergroup of true metal dorks (featuring members of Electric Wizard, Repulsion and Septic Tank, plus killer operatic vocalist Jimmy Mavrommatis), but they have become just a super group of old Cypriot men who like to get together and write shamelessly in the vein of Ritchie Blackmore, the Brothers Schenker, Iron Maiden and Riot, with a touch of the unsung, whether that be Tokyo Blade, Cloven Hoof or Ostrogoth. Hey, everyone knows their influences since they wear them sewn onto their sleeves. And everyone knows that classic heavy metal is an utter delight. But what you need to know is, if you can’t see Maiden or Rainbow, see a cover band. And if you can’t do that, listen to Mirror. —LOUISE BROWN

MISERY INDEX

Complete Control CENTURY MEDIA

Groundcore Day

Misery Index records have reliably sounded boss regardless of the quality of their actual content. The band was peeled from the womb as an especially capable entity—Tupperware-tight of course—but Misery Index are also one of those uncommon 80 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

outfits that has an inborn sensitivity to the sellby date on any given riff. No passage overstays its welcome, no track puts its feet up when it’s clearly time to mosey on. Hell, even though the production on their records has become way too hygienic for my primitive liking, it doesn’t do much to civilize their innate ferocity or to pacify their bloodthirst. It all “works.” The problem at this point is that the band continues to ply precisely the same formula in precisely the same way again and again, and the result feels increasingly like a commodity as opposed to an actual experience. Yes, I can kindasorta recommend Complete Control—it does the proverbial job, but no more than, say, a carton of boxed wine would for a clutch of dinner party guests. The soul has gone fishin’. All that said, there’s plenty here to satiate the diehards. Misery Index’s love for the occasional Phrygian-dominant clean guitar passage continues to gratify on opener “Administer the Dagger,” and it’s forcibly hair-raising when the band downshifts into the expected death/grind maelstrom. “The Eaters and the Eaten” fares even better with its intricately woven patterns and bouncing, sawtoothed accents; and the awesome “Reciprocal Repulsion” smokes the fucking house up, so you’ll want to keep a spray bottle of vinegar handy for your upholstery when you crank it. But the pervasive familiarity is numbing. Complete Control is competent enough to earn a participation award, but does that sound compelling to you in a time of $5 gas? —FORREST PITTS

NECHOCHWEN

Kanawha Black BINDRUNE

Lay of the land

Acclaimed releases from genre kingpins like Panopticon, Obsequiae and Falls of Rauros have certainly helped American folk metal distinguish itself from its stein-swinging European counterpart in recent years, but there’s still a bit of a stink on those two words in some circles. So stinky, in fact, that you might be inclined to gloss right over Nechochwen’s new album, having no practical use for braided beards, group sing-alongs or flagons of mead. What a rookie mistake that would be—Kanawha Black, the West Virginian folk/black metal duo’s fourth full-length, is an instant classic that should appeal to headbangers of every persuasion. Those who have been waiting seven long years for a follow-up to the incredible Heart of Akamon are immediately rewarded with the devastating salvo of Kanawha Black’s title track, which sees guitarist/vocalist/group namesake Nechochwen and drummer/bassist Pohonasin make expert use

of distinctly melodic riffs, vicious blast beats, and passionate vocals over six and a half thrilling minutes. Everything that follows is a feast for the ears and mind alike, as the band’s use of Native American artwork and lyrical themes (Nechochwen has Shawnee ancestry) infuses each musical moment with profound emotional gravity. Of Kanawha Black’s many highlights, perhaps the most striking is the rich acoustic instrumentation that permeates nearly every crevice of the record. Nechochwen himself is a professional classical guitarist, so the acoustic passages he adds to standout tracks like “The Murky Deep” and “I Can Die But Once” aren’t just prog fluff— they’re fully realized, intricate movements that give each song a wholly singular personality. —MATT SOLIS

PREDATORY LIGHT

Death and the Twilight Hours 20 BUCK SPIN

Stained glass reverberations

What’s in a 5? What qualifies for such a middling, one-cheek-sneak of a score? Is it ho-hum music played competently to its maximum potential, or flashy ideas played into the ground with fumbling malaise? Nope. Neither. With this record, it’s… I dunno. I just don’t fucking know, man. Obviously, I do know. I just don’t want to say it. In the shameless tradition of ’90s Street Fighter II knockoffs, Predatory Light appear to lift most of their special moves, combo sets and character color palettes right out of a Negative Plane joint. Also, like some of those knockoffs, there’s still enough action here that it might be worth playing, though the contrasts are damning: The rhythm section on these four long tracks rarely achieves Stained Glass Revelations density, and there’s no subterranean warlock reverb on the vocals to deepen the profound otherworldliness of NP’s bell-haunted records. But that goddamn clean guitar tone and performance style is all over Twilight Hours, and the similar cascade of whickering melodies over the blackened delivery turns much of this record into an also-ran. I’m worried there’s actually more to enjoy here, but I just can’t hear anything but a Negative Plane smash ‘n’ grab. The title track sprinkles in a few moments of effectively morose doom, and the final song, “To Plead Like Angels,” dirties up that lead guitar sound enough to let the overall compositional quality develop its own character. But by then, more than 80 percent of the record has already danced around in someone else’s panties for far too long.

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24/03/2022 18:36

And now that we could be listening to the first new bona fide Negative Plane record (The Pact) in 11 years, do we need an album that sounds kinda like the real thing? —DANIEL LAKE

STATIC ABYSS

Labyrinth of Veins PEACEVILLE

Post-postmortem

With Static Abyss a twohander between Autopsy co-founder Chris Reifert and recently inaugurated bass player Greg Wilkinson, the brain need not get out of first gear to imagine how this is going to turn out. Dubstep? No. Country? Guess again. But there’s also a case for not taking the brain out of first gear anyway. Because of course we are in for raggedy, loosemeat riffs, lunkhead grooves ‘n’ grunts, death metal primitivism redux. One of the joys of a Reifert jam is its ability to truncate the human condition, to momentarily reverse our evolutionary gains—a rewilding of the body and soul. Here, it’s very effective. Autopsy can be heard in Static Abyss, in the taste for gore and punk-metal death riffs, and yet there’s a freshness. Wilkinson’s production makes a feast of simple ingredients, endowing Labyrinth of Veins with a hi-fi quality that makes these tracks really pop out of the speaker. Death-doom is a gnarly art form, no doubt, yet it is often hoisted by its own petard, getting too damned relaxed for its own good—y’know, death by adagio. But Wilkinson and Reifert have taken preventative measures, dropping tracks such as “Nothing Left to Rot,” “You Are What You Kill” and the exquisitely titled “Morgue Rat Fever” into the mix, embracing all dynamics available to them and dosing the audience with a little pharmaceutical speed to sharpen minds, getting them game-ready for when that headbanging midsection kicks-off, occasions when it’s okay to be a numbskull, when it’s okay to regress and let the id take over. That’s why we all love heavy metal. —JONATHAN HORSLEY

TÓMARÚM

Ash in Realms of Stone Icons PROSTHETIC

The show that never ends

Have you ever seen a band with that perfect end to their set, someone puts down their guitar… and then they pick up another guitar and there’s actually like 82 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

three more songs? You may get that feeling with Tómarúm’s debut LP, Ash in Realms of Stone Icons. There’s a wellspring of talent in this progressive black metal band. Though they are a dualguitar duo, they’ve brought in an impeccable rhythm section, and the drummer’s precision is nearly machine-perfect. And these seven songs are all over the spectrum, with blasting death metal riffs, piano, strings and some moving vocal harmonies. And when those guitars get the spotlight, both acoustic and heavy, there’s plenty of technical bravado to wow those of us into that sort of thing. But, boy, are these songs long. While this isn’t an uncommon trait of the genre, between jammy solos and superfluous parts, it feels like the band has a particularly tough editing problem. The best example is closer “Awake Into Eternal Slumber”; the song builds and builds spectacularly into this beautiful, totally satisfying crescendo… and then it ends up not even being half over. When we reach the actual peak of the song, it’s even more epic, but the six extra minutes it takes to get there significantly blunts its impact. Tómarúm no doubt have everything it takes to be a pretty killer band. But however they follow up Ash in Realms of Stone Icons, they should learn when it’s time to take a bow. —SHANE MEHLING

TZOMPANTLI

Tlazcaltiliztli 20 BUCK SPIN

Nothing heavier than history

By the time you’re eight minutes deep into Tzompantli’s Tlazcaltiliztli, you’ve already been pulverized with some of the thickest death/doom riffs to boast a 20 Buck Spin logo. If you heard their Tlamanalli debut, you were already doomsday-prepped for the world-ending tone on the way. Founder Brian Ortiz—using the pseudonym Bigg O)))—also contributes guitar to metales de la muerte project Xibalba after all. So, yeah, it’s almost recklessly heavy. If it stuck to the lumbering knockout grooves of “Tlatzintilli,” the sameness would relegate this album to a genre-devotee curiosity. But halfway through “Tlazcaltiliztli,” they rip into a death crust passage that begins the heart of the album’s elusive, but still earth-shaking experimentation. “Eltequi” returns to the pounding drums and ritualistic native instrumentation of the opener. The band is named after a Mesoamerican wooden rack publicly displaying a human skull collection, and that cultural history is still a crucial component of their sonic identity.

While the album is death metal first and foremost, there’s no shortage of variation as they rumble from track to cranium-crushing track. The band flexes their melodic funeral doom muscles during the denouement of “Ohtlatocopailcahualuztli.” The seven-minute-plus closer carefully uses clean guitars to create a fragile melody before distortion smashes it into coffin dust. There’s a moment two minutes before the record’s end where we hear someone take a deep breath amongst stillness. Predictably, but perfectly, an eruption of riffs becomes their exhale. Despite focusing on history centuries past, this is death metal that casket-robs flourishes from beatdown hardcore and extreme doom to emerge lethal and new. —SEAN FRASIER

VULCANO

Stone Orange E M A N Z I P AT I O N

Eruption without end

São Paulo, Brazil’s extreme metal harbingers Vulcano first formed 41 years ago. Their seminal debut LP Bloody Vengeance scorched the way for Sepultura, Sarcófago and almost everything in Latin America, not to mention the world beyond. Then came a 14-year absence after 1990’s Ratrace, the band’s fourth album and last attempt at trend obeisance. Vulcano remained dormant until 2004 when Zhema Rodero, one of the original Vulcanites and only remaining member today, raised the banner once more and led countless Brazilian extreme metal musicians on a relentless riff-consuming hunt to regain Vulcano’s former glory, if not relevancy. Following 2020’s Eye in Hell, Vulcano erupt once again with Stone Orange, their 12th album to date. That means 17 more catchy tracks of old-school heavy metal, thrash and proto-black/ death over the course of 50 minutes, during which Rodero and crew deploy dozens upon dozens of timeless riffs. The album is unrelenting, but around track 10, “Rebels From ’80s,” you start to wish for a little bit of restraint as far as the runtime goes. True, there’s some experimentation within the established boundaries, but they’re but brief flirtations that ultimately lead right back to Vulcano’s inveterate backbone of riff-driven extremity. At 30 minutes, Stone Orange would’ve ripped faces off and marked a true return to form. Fifty minutes sure gives listeners a lot of bang for their bucks, but is it worth it to release an album that’s bloated and literally too big for a single 12-inch LP? —DUTCH PEARCE

DECIBEL : JUNE 2022 : 83

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

GOD’S AMERICA / FED ASH / BEGGIN’ FOR OXYS / REEKING CROSS

which has really made them mighty. They add noise occasionally, and I wish there were more of that, but it’s fantastic regardless.

Split 12-inch

[ N E R V E A LTA R ]

This is an intense split for a few reasons. One, it’s four bands contributing 20 songs in about 26 minutes. Two, there is a band called Beggin’ for Oxys with 10 untitled songs on one track that’s like if Man Is the Bastard were asked to play Burning Man. And three, the eight Reeking Cross songs have eight guest vocalists that include members of Horrid, Catasexual Urge Motivation, Nuclear Death and Martin Witchskinner from Blood. This whole thing is ridiculous and rad, a bunch of grind and powerviolence that makes great use of the four-way split, which is often more hassle than it’s worth. Buy this.

PRINCE MIDNIGHT

“Monstrous Abomination” 7-inch [SELF-RELEASED]

A great tip on how to get reviewed in this column is to say stuff like, “It is a mix of grindcore and death rock … I play a vibraphone over the entire record, which kind of sounds like bells chiming … I recently made a guitar out of [my uncle’s] skeleton, which was on the national news.” So, how is it? Well, the vibraphone is very loud. In fact, it is usually the loudest thing. Also, at less than 12 minutes it is possibly the shortest record to ever have a “Prologue,” “Interlude” and “Epilogue.” Does it sound like “Assück meets Christian Death,” as advertised? No. But I want you to listen to it. Please go listen to it.

IF IT KILLS YOU

Invisible Self 12-inch [SELF-RELEASED]

This was produced by Jim Ward of At the Drive-In and Sparta, and features guest appearances by a guy from Frodus and a guy from Sleepytime Trio. Do you know those bands? Well, buddy, I got a big surprise for you: This is some fairly chill post-hardcore, and since the vocalist is reminiscent of Walter Schreifels, it’s gonna be closer to that last Quicksand record than some of the aforementioned bands. Did you dig that record? I did, and I dig this.

MORAL PANIC

“White Knuckles” 7-inch

[ROBELLION]

This punk rock puppy is up and done in under seven minutes, featuring ex-members of Mutilation Rites and Heroine Sheiks. There are two classic punk originals here, but they also do a cover of Big Black’s “Colombian Necktie.” It’s a pretty straight cover, yet doesn’t make me feel like I’ve been rolling around in oily rags. So, I consider that a success.

INVULTATION

Unconquerable Death 12-inch [SENTIENT RUIN INDUSTRIES]

HYRROKKIN & MERZBOW

Faltered Pursuit 12-inch [ S L E E P I N G G I A N T G LO SS O L A L I A ]

Let’s be frank: This one is for the noise nerds. I don’t have room to explain the entirety of what went into this record, but it involves a lot of people, a lot of weird shit like random number generators and an incredible amount of noise. Sometimes it sounds like a jazz record caught in a rock tumbler, other times like a math rock band is playing inside a machine shop, and it even occasionally sounds like both at the very same time. I think it’s cool as hell.

BACKSLIDER

This one-man project is very blackened death metal that is very hard to not like. A lot of this would fall under the banner of “bestial” just because it often sounds insane and the vocals are that blown-out reverbed thing bestial bands do. But—and I know this is relative—the production is pretty good. This was clearly not recorded with an iPhone placed in a Styrofoam cooler, which means the riffs are dense and brutal and you actually know what’s going on. This is their second record, and was initially self-released, but I could see them getting some well-deserved attention after this.

EYEMASTER

Psychic Rot 12-inch

“Charcoaled Remains / Festering Slime” 7-inch

[TO LIVE A LIE]

[CALIGARI]

Backslider do that fastcore/powerviolence thing where they play a bunch of catchy, interesting, sometimes kind of rocking hardcore parts, but then also superfast grind where you barely have any goddamn idea what’s going on. The band used to be a two-piece, but have added a bass player,

84 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

Not a lot of room, but this is more old-school, standard death metal, with the Entombed reference giving you some idea of what these Germans are going for. It’s a solid couple of songs, and you probably have a fairly good idea of what they sound like. If you need more death metal, here is more death metal.

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EUGENE S. ROBINSON

KEEP YOUR ENEMIES CLOSE;

YOUR LOVERS CLOSER IF

you came of age in a certain era, you were privy to a certain kind of Americana that was as popular as it was false. The pop culture icons of Sonny and Cher, Steve and Eydie, Frankie and Annette, and—if you widen your tastes beyond metal and up to and including our generation— Kim and Thurston. They smiled, they sang, they embraced a public face of relationship perfection. If you ever had any kind of relationship, you might have suspected it was a lie. Because in the end, people are people. Then you went on to think about something else. Which is a nice literary way of saying, this is what we mean when we say foreshadowing. Also known as never seeing something coming. “I have a great idea.” In the life of great ideas, how often has one ever announced itself and you’ve found it to be so? Let’s just go with 50/50. It was the bass player for an Italian band called One-Dimensional Man. We were working on a side project together. It was called Buñuel. The record was called 88 : JUNE 2022 : DECIBEL

A Resting Place for Strangers. The song was called “Me+I.” “Why don’t you do a duet with Kasia?” Kasia sang for a Polish band Terrible Disease. Then later for one called Maneki Nekro. And somewhere in there, she married me. OK, I lied. There’s a possibility he didn’t suggest it at all. It just makes it look better if I say I climbed into the cage with the bear because someone asked me to, rather than saying, “Hey, I think I’ll climb in that cage with the bear.” I love my wife. That needs to be said. But when you start to imagine the person I might be married to, you can’t be imagining someone who wouldn’t shoot you if you looked at them cross-eyed. But neither one of us like to argue, and generally, getting along swimmingly is the order of the day. Just not the day we were heading into the studio. Don’t remember what the argument was about, but it was a fierce one. We’re not screamers. More like silent seethers with a hate intensity as deep as the aforementioned love intensity. We drove to the studio in icy silence. And everything we had to

say we said in the recording of that song, a song that we sang for the first time when we stepped in front of the mic. A song that we didn’t do as a duet. Nobody wanted to die. We both felt a little better after the recording and even drove home in a slightly thawed silence. I don’t remember what the argument was about and don’t dare to try to remember. But I do remember what happened next. The song had such a ragged and insane intensity that the rest of the band (and I agreed) thought we should climb in the bear cage. She sang with us on tour when she wasn’t selling merch and, beyond that, she had a steady retinue of female fans who adored her. She, I imagine, was answering all of the arguments they had ever had with guys like me. Forever. So, now (though the original bass player is gone), in recording the new record, Killers Like Us, the ask was in: Would she sing, again? On the song “Crack Shot.” And now she was pregnant. I hadn’t processed it, but I had

been carrying a bit of tension around it. Precisely in the same way that you’re only afraid of being attacked by a bear when you’re in a bear cage. But “we” were fine. Even if “she” was the one who was pregnant. It was an engagement, however, that was fraught with… well, terror is probably the right word. But we got to the studio without incident. Sang the song without incident. Had the baby without incident. And the record’s come out. Without incident. “I just got off the phone with my mother.” There was a laugh as we puttered around the kitchen. “She loves the record.” “Good.” Then the drop: “She just wanted to know why the review didn’t mention my name. She was outraged. Actually.” Dylan once sang that you have to pay to keep from going through all of these things twice. Well, he can afford to. Me? Like the bear said in the joke about the hunter he keeps having sex with, “You’re not coming here for the hunting.” Damned straight. ILLUSTRATION BY ED LUCE

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