Decibel #246 - April 2025 by Red Flag Media

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EXTREMELY EXTREME

April 2025 [R 246] decibelmagazine.com

upfront

features

reviews

10 metal muthas Good Doyle

18 gorging shade Considered death

32 mantar Punk’s not dead

12 exclusive:

20 16 Holy terror

34 havukruunu Far from Finnished

22 celestial scourge Seeing is believing

36 destruction Malice in wunderland

24 christian mistress Staying together for the children

38 q&a: cradle of filth Dani Filth may not be able to stand the heat, but he’s certainly not seeking out Dusk

fire in the mountains 2025 preview Burning bright

14 low culture Like, comment, subscribe 15 kill screen:

imperial triumphant Back to the future

16 in the studio:

castrator Fresh cuts

26 nyredolk Sins of the fathers

42 the decibel

hall of fame After two decades of miscategorization, complicated publicity and gatekeeping, Darkest Hour’s melodeath masterpiece Undoing Ruin gets its due

54 exclusive:

decibel magazine metal & beer fest: philly 2025 preview Tapping into the stream

71 lead review Imperial Triumphant have style and substance to burn on latest full-length offering Goldstar 72 album reviews Records from bands that don’t know what “family style on your tailpipe” means, including Drugs of Faith, SpiritWorld and Young Widows

28 sanhedrin In their nature 30 dawn of ouroboros A light in the dark

80 damage ink Closer to the edge

Hell is What We’ll Get COVER STORY COVER AND CONTENTS PHOTOS BY SHIMON KARMEL

Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $34.95. 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. © 2025 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.

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April 2025 [T246] PUBLISHER

Alex Mulcahy

alex@redflagmedia.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Albert Mudrian

albert@decibelmagazine.com SALES DIRECTOR

James Lewis

james@decibelmagazine.com ART DIRECTOR

Michael Wohlberg

michael@decibelmagazine.com

hardcore or metal show in NYC in the late ’90s or early ’00s, there’s a good chance Rich Hall was responsible for it. He was a generous, kind and deeply funny person who helped so many bands in this magazine and brought countless people together through promoting this music. Rich unexpectedly passed away in late January and was eulogized online better than I ever could by so many in the community. But I know he would want me to share this story about his least favorite band he ever booked. About 15 years ago, Rich was the promoter for a Decibel-related show in Brooklyn. This is long before the existence of the Decibel Tour, Metal & Beer Fest or even one-offs like our 100th Issue Show. That’s an implicit way of noting that I had little idea what the fuck I was doing. Rich kindly helped me through the process, even though his patience would be tested to an alarming degree that evening. Not by me, of course, but by our headliners. (Out of respect to the band—who I remain friends with—I won’t reveal their identity.) The band was driving from Chicago, which is a 13-hour journey to Brooklyn. They would need to travel through the night to make soundcheck on time, something that Rich implored to them; yet, for reasons still unclear, something they failed to execute. This was especially worrisome, as our show had a hard curfew of 10:30 p.m., because at 11 p.m. the venue was kicking out all of us grimy metalheads for a far more lucrative dance party. Oh, and the headliners were traveling with all the backline gear, so the openers—who had arrived on time after dutifully leaving Chicago in the middle of the previous evening—couldn’t even set up, let alone actually perform while everyone waited. As the hours ticked away, it was clear that at least one support act would be removed from the bill while the headliners and the main support band would play truncated sets. After fighting their way through Friday rush-hour traffic, the headliners eventually arrived around 8:45 p.m. Instead of scrambling to set up their gear and start the show, they demanded that Rich pay them before taking the stage. Considering what they had just put us through, this was beyond arrogant, but Rich paid them—mostly because he needed to get them out of sight or risk strangling them, but also to ensure something resembling a show happened. After a 25-minute support set, the headliners got about four songs into their performance before the house lights flickered on and their power was cut at 10:30 p.m., to no one’s surprise but their own. As we were exiting the venue, Rich found me and apologized. I reminded him that none of this was his fault, and that I’d been to worse shows. He laughed and asked, “Really?!” Rest in power to not just one of the good ones, but the best one. albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief

Patty Moran

COPY EDITOR

Andrew Bonazelli

BOOKCREEPER

Tim Mulcahy

patty@decibelmagazine.com

tim@redflagmedia.com CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Chuck BB, Ed Luce Mark Rudolph

Online DECIBEL WEB EDITOR

Albert Mudrian

DECIBEL WEB AD SALES

James Lewis

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Anthony Bartkewicz Emily Bellino Adrien Begrand J. Bennett Dean Brown Liz Ciavarella-Brenner Chris Dick Sean Frasier Nick Green Raoul Hernandez John Hill Jonathan Horsley Neill Jameson Kim Kelly Greg Kennelty Sarah Kitteringham Daniel Lake Cosmo Lee Jamie Ludwig Shane Mehling Tim Mudd Justin M. Norton Dutch Pearce Forrest Pitts Brad Sanders José Carlos Santos Joseph Schafer Kevin Stewart-Panko Eugene S. Robinson Adem Tepedelen Jeff Treppel Aris Hunter Wales J Andrew Zalucky CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

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To order by phone: 1.215.625.9850 (10 a.m. – 5 p.m. EST) To order by fax: 1.215.625.9967 To order online: www.decibelmagazine.com Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $34.95. Periodical postage, paid at Philadelphia, PA, and other mailing offices. Submission of manuscripts, illustrations and/or photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Postmaster send changes of address for Decibel to Red Flag Media, P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia PA 19107. Copyright ©2025 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. PRINTED IN USA

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If you attended a cool underground

CUSTOMER SERVICE

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

READER OF THE

MONTH

Jim Waddell

The only one I’ve played was Goatwhore doing a Motörhead cover, “Don't Need Religion.” At the time, this was the only way to hear [it].

Milliken, CO

You are a staunch supporter of physical media, and we don’t mean just Decibel—you still regularly purchase CDs and LPs. For people who are strictly streaming music, can you explain to them what they are missing?

Yes, I do buy lots of music, patches, pins and, of course, books. I have over 6,500 CDs, 200 vinyl records, and lots of posters and memorabilia. I like having the physical copy for reading the liner notes and having the printed artwork of the cover. I also like trying to get a band’s entire catalog. Related: You’ve managed to collect all 170 (and counting) entries in the Decibel

8 : APRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

Flexi Series. What’s your favorite (or most memorable) flexi? And do you actually play them floppy goods or do they immediately get filed away?

I do have every flexi in the Decibel Flexi Series! The only one I’ve played was Goatwhore doing a Motörhead cover, “Don't Need Religion.” At the time, this was the only way to hear [it]. So, it was a must to play it when I received it. Dismember are on the cover of this issue. So, settle this once and for all: Left Hand Path or Like an Ever Flowing Stream? And why?

I came to the party late on Dismember. Being a big thrash fan, I’m still finding death metal

bands. I heard Entombed and had CDs of theirs for a long time. Dismember, I just started listening to recently. So, I’m the wrong person to ask about these bands. However, I did see Dismember in Maryland last year, and they were awesome. You’re a Denver resident. Have you ever attended our annual Metal & Beer Fest there? If no, what the fuck, man?!

Of course, I went to the first two in 2022 and 2023. Missed last year’s because of scheduling conflicts—sometimes life gets in the way. Those shows are a lot of fun, because a lot of the bands on the bill are Denver bands. It’s always good to see them play and hang out afterwards.

ChuckBB.com / Instagram: @chuckbb_art

NOW SLAYING Wonder what Decibel world HQ has been rocking for the past month? Well, here are the records that we spun most while saving our best metal & beer puns for the back print of the fest shirt.

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

This Month’s Mutha: Ruth Andrews Mutha of Doyle Martin of Cloakroom

Tell us a little about yourself.

I was born into a large family in Chicago and we moved to Indiana in the 1960s. We all love music, and most of us sang in choirs throughout our lives. My parents introduced us to folk and classical music [and] told us to “look around your world.” Good memories of sitting quietly with my eyes closed to be fully immersed in beautiful music, imagining how to interpret the story told by the composer and orchestra. Outside of music, what were some of Doyle’s interests growing up?

Being a single parent for a while when Doyle was young, I wanted to be sure he could experience as much of a regular childhood life as possible. He spent a lot of time with my dad in particular, which is the reason that his interests were many as he was growing. Dad gifted Doyle with the curiosity, imagination, creativity and awareness to be the person he is today. Most of the music we heard could be considered influential to Doyle’s musical choices: Talking Heads, Elvis, Johnny Cash, John Prine, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Tom Petty, B.B. King and many more. Your son is obviously a bright, inquisitive guy. Did that translate to being a good student?

Doyle was a very good student with eagerness to learn. He was on the honor roll and won contests/awards throughout his school career. He was in the National Honor Society, wrote columns for the school newspaper and was also a paper photographer. He was also in bands that played at school dances and assemblies, concerts and festivals.

It’s impossible to pigeonhole Cloakroom into one genre. Do you gravitate to their softer or heavier songs?

I have listened to Cloakroom’s music and have seen them perform live from their humble beginnings. There has been advancement and growth in their writing. I have not always liked every tune, but I know that many folks are forever fans. Perhaps the volume is a bit too loud for my old ears. I do celebrate their earnest desire and tenacity for pursuing their message, sound and dreams. I am a proud Old Rock Mom, and wish them continued success. I do like “Bad Larry.” How do you feel about Cloakroom’s pretty much universal critical acclaim at this point?

I am blown away by the fact that they have traveled all over the world to share their unique music and talent. Their reviews are generally positive and their shows well-attended. They have played at venues that I attended when I was a much younger music fan, and that is amazing to me in itself. More Cloakroom, please. Reach for the moon, Cloakroom! Midwesterners are characterized as hardworking, polite and practical. How many of those qualities does Doyle embody?

Albert Mudrian : e d i t o r i n c h i e f  Messa, The Spin  Havukruunu, Tavastland  Descendents, Everything Sucks  Darkest Hour, Perpetual Terminal  Dismember, Like an Ever Flowing Stream ---------------------------------Patty Moran : c u s t o m e r s e r v i c e  Samhain, Samhain III: November-Coming-Fire  GBH, City Baby Attacked by Rats  Magazine, Rays & Hail 1978 - 1981  Easterhouse, Contenders  Wire, Pink Flag ---------------------------------James Lewis : a d s a l e s  Dismember, Like an Ever Flowing Stream  Unholy Altar, Veil of Death! Shroud of Nite  Imperial Triumphant, Goldstar  Havukruunu, Tavastland  Abbath, Dread Reaver ---------------------------------Mike Wohlberg : a r t d i r e c t o r  Darkest Hour, Undoing Ruin  Imperial Triumphant, Goldstar  Wiegedood, De Doden Hebben Goed  Curl Up and Die, Unfortunately We’re Not Robots  Laceration, I Erode

GUEST SLAYER

---------------------------------Fred Estby : DIS MEMB ER  Gatecreeper, Dark Superstition  Grand Magus, Sunraven  Youth Code/King Yosef, A Skeleton Key in the Doors of Depression  Horrendous, Ontological Mysterium  Autopsy, Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts

Doyle is a poet, philosopher, artist, storyteller, self-taught guitar player, great son and overall good person. He has the ability to smooth out the rough spots, get along with many different people and be a peacemaker. He is working hard to become more well-known for his talents, and I think his future is bright. Rock on! —ANDREW BONAZELLI PHOTO BY

10 : A P R I L 2 0 2 5 : D E C I B E L

SHIMON KARMEL

FIRE IN THE MOUNTAINS 2025

ire in the Mountains (FITM) is poised to redefine what it means to celebrate over 20 other bands, each reflecting FITM’s mis-

heavy music and community. Taking place July 25-27, 2025, at Red Eagle Campground on the Blackfeet Nation in Montana, the latest incarnation of the festival highlights the Blackfeet Nation’s cultural richness and FITM’s mission of connection and transformation. ¶ Established in Wyoming, FITM is much more than a fest. Relocating to Montana marks an evolution into a cultural exchange rooted in fortitude. “This festival honors the land’s history by bringing people together,” says co-founder Alex Feher. The partnership with the Blackfeet Nation developed after FITM’s previous site in Jackson, Wyoming, became unsustainable. “Charlie [Speicher] reached out and said, ‘We have a place for you.’ His enthusiasm and the chance to collaborate with the Blackfeet community made it an easy decision.”

Speicher, director of the Blackfeet community’s alternative high school and a board member of Firekeeper Alliance—an organization dedicated to ensuring the utmost protection from suicide—has deep ties to the land. His wife, Sienna Speicher, comes from a family rooted in the southern part of the reservation for generations, tracing back 18,000 years. The Speichers invited FITM organizers Jeremy Walker, Feher and Oliver Tripp to the reservation Charlie has called home for over 25 years. Its natural beauty and significance struck the group. “We felt the history and the community’s welcoming spirit,” Fehrer shares. “This was the perfect place for the festival’s next chapter. The Blackfeet Nation’s generosity and vision have been truly humbling. Their willingness to share their culture and collaborate has profoundly shaped this year’s festival.” 12 : APRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

Beyond logistics, FITM 2025 prioritizes youth engagement and suicide prevention—pressing community issues. The initiative aims to inspire and empower local students through workshops, mentorships and a new elective on heavy music. Speicher points out how the workshops are already helping youth. “We wanted to show music can be more than just an outlet—it can be a way forward,” he explains. Designed with students’ needs in mind, the programs ensure they feel seen, supported and connected to opportunity. Speicher adds, “This land carries generations of stories. FITM is our chance to honor that history while creating new ones.” FITM 2025 continues to showcase the transcendent and primal. Wardruna and Old Man’s Child sharing the stage with Chelsea Wolfe, Converge, Emma Ruth Rundle, Hexvessel, Blood Incantation, Indigenous black metal project Blackbraid and

sion to explore music as a sacred and transformative force. “Heavy music carries a primal energy that resonates deeply with many of our traditions,” Speicher notes. “It’s not just noise—it’s connection, it’s storytelling.” All of which exemplifies FITM’s ability to weave diverse voices into a singular, cohesive experience. For tribal members like Robert Hall, a language revitalist and cultural advocate, the festival represents an opportunity for mutual enrichment. “This isn’t just about bringing heavy music to the Reservation,” he stresses. “It’s about sharing our culture and learning from yours. Music, in all its forms, is sacred. It moves us, connects us and helps us face the darkness. FITM shares the Firekeeper Alliance’s belief that land is not just a place; it’s a partner. The festival honors this bond while fostering new connections.” Speicher echoes this sentiment: “FITM is a bridge—it connects two worlds through shared values and creativity, allowing us to celebrate our differences while finding common ground.” The festival’s emphasis on creating a pilgrimage remains at its heart. From its remote location to its focus on self-reliance, FITM invites attendees to step out of their comfort zones and embrace transformation. “Getting there is part of the experience,” says Walker. “You question yourself, you plan, and you grow. By the time you’ve arrived, you’ve already started to change.” —TIM MUDD

PHOTO BY JAY NEL-MCINTOSH

The U.S.’s most compelling destination festival is a pilgrimage of music and connection

Death Metal and Horror collide under the desert sun of the American West in the third installment of SpiritWorld’s death-western trifecta Featuring guest appearances by Zach Blair (Rise Against), Sgah’gahsowáh (Blackbraid), and Frédéric Leclercq (Kreator)

available as CD Digipak, LP (in Black, Sea Blue Smoke, Translucent Light Blue, and Translucent Lemonade), and as Digital Album.

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“Goldstar” takes perennial New Yorkers, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT's exploration of the extreme and arcane and delivers the band’s most focused, authentic and accessible work to date Featuring guest appearances by Thomas Haake (Meshuggah) and Dave Lombardo (Slayer, Misﬁts, Mr. Bungle)

available as CD Digipak, Gatefold LP (in White and Metallic Golden), and as Digital Album.

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Cyberpunk 2077 [ C D P R OJ E K T R E D / C D P R OJ E K T ]

KENNY GROHOWSKI OF

Elon Says I Can Wear Burzum Shirts Again hile I’m waiting for those

cheaper groceries that I was promised, I’ve taken on a bit more of a shopkeeper role, which I think a lot of musicians/creatives have been forced to evolve into. What do I mean by this? If you’ll shut the fuck up about me typing “Burzum” in the title long enough, I’ll tell you. This generation and needing everything instantly handed to them, Christ. Every aspect of creativity these days seems to be defined not by the quality of the work, but by the economic impact it can have on said creator. I know that I’m generalizing and that there’s still artisanal cum sculptors out there doing it for the love of the craft, but for the sake of argument, fuck them. I’m speaking about every action needing to be carefully financially considered, which sounds like some kind of austere responsibility, a maturity in scope, but it’s just gotten so fucking expensive to operate a creative enterprise that you need to open an Excel spreadsheet to track every movement. Touring is no longer a guaranteed revenue source, at least from the shows themselves, which is why bands need to have six different shirt designs and a Dollar General’s worth of kitschy shit in hopes that fans will impulse buy your keychain lighter or whatever like they’re a pack of gum at checkout. And this is designed to generate capital, with the goal being (mostly) breaking even on the whole venture in the first place, which (traditionally) is an arm of promoting a record and (hopefully) generating album sales. But tough titties—most of your audience listens to it on Spotify because they’re too broke to buy anything themselves. It’s the worst attraction in the shitty theme park: The House of Diminishing Returns. You hear about bands coming back from these jaunts across the country somehow grateful they only lost a few thousand dollars. Their 14 : A PRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

positive attitudes, while admirable, will disappear once they let loose inside another human being (or someone dumps in them; can’t leave anyone out), creating life and a whole shitload of new responsibilities and issues. Or—and I know this is a fairy tale—they get a mortgage and have to figure out how they’re going to pay for the fucking thing. That’s why so many bands take a 10- or 20-year hiatus in the first place. So, to stay solvent, we publish Bandcamp sites (who now take a large chunk of your physical sales AND report your income to Uncle Sam), we create YouTube channels and try to monetize them, we make shirts and koozies and condoms and candles and whatever else we can smear our logos on. And, if we’re lucky, people buy this shit. And if they don’t, you can use the boxes of unsold merch as the ladder you kick out from under yourself when you decide that noose is looking awfully good. Writers aren’t immune to this either. With AI on our tails, we create Substacks with pay models (I keep forgetting to add that feature to mine), or we promote a “Buy Me a Coffee” donation link, or create a Patreon with extra content not featured publicly. I’m still waiting for my OnlyFans to take off. Let’s see Skynet create that kind of authentic (and erotic) human experience. My point is, we’re all hustling a lot more to make this sustainable, which it’s not. We already have to compete with so much noise just for people to consume our product (gross, but for this example, apt) that it becomes even trickier when you ask them to pay for it. Now we must add “merchant” to our résumés. We create out of love and a deep necessity spiritually, but we have to be able to support it, which has become simultaneously easier due to a wealth of options and far more difficult because nobody has any fucking money. But those cheaper groceries gotta be around the corner, right?

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT SEEKS THE MAGIC OF THE FUTURE

hen considering the genre of role-playing games, one quickly brings to mind stories of days long gone filled with knights, castles, untamed wilderness, sharp-fanged monsters and meddling ancient gods. While some contrarians are currently feeling their fingers jerk in need of typing out a spreadsheet of every retrofuturist RPG we’re ignoring (thank Christ magazines don’t have comments sections), the point is that fantasy RPGs on average favor the old for the new. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by Imperial Triumphant drummer and RPG gamer Kenny Grohowski. He is certainly an avid fan of series devoted to fantastical days of yore, which the following passage lays out in more detail (as well as our extended online interview). At the time of our conversation, however, the percussionist was spellbound by 2020’s most controversial title Cyberpunk 2077. Anyone familiar with the avant-garde trio’s body of work—decorated with sharp Art Deco motifs and depictions of New York City’s titanic skyscrapers—understands that it is a metalhead’s soundtrack to the excesses of the Big Apple. It’s little wonder how a resident of America’s grandest city would be able to find a place within the neon-soaked alleys of Night City. But which one feels more like home? Our player character takes the initiative to explain.

CL ASSIC

ARCADE

GAMES

There’s just not as many options for these sort of more tech-based RPGs…

THEY FEEL LIKE THEY’RE OUTNUMBERED, YOU KNOW? You’ve brought up Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt. Imperial Triumphant are inextricably linked to the experience of living in New York City, a major megalopolis. When you are looking for an RPG, are you interested in something that mirrors that massive city-dwelling experience like a Cyberpunk, or are you looking more for an escape like a Witcher where you’re in nature away from the major city?

I mean, probably per capita of what falls in what category, for sure the more sort of fantastical, let’s say Tolkien-esque kind of fantasies. I didn’t mention it, but Dragon Age: Origins, I was a huge fan of that team in that era of BioWare. That’s a game that’s a personal favorite. The Witcher 3 I do love; I can’t say that it’s necessarily a favorite. But The Elder Scrolls series is very near and dear, from Daggerfall onward. My dad was a big [The Legend of] Zelda fan, so I would play those games as well. Those aren’t really RPGs, but it’s still this sort of like fantasy, nature, something that’s loosely based on a sort of [Dungeons & Dragons] world, right? Even the earlier Baldur’s Gates, I used to play those. Ultima, I didn’t play all of them. There was a bajillion of those games,

but I did play at least one of them in the ’90s. So, I guess mostly those kind of worlds. But the whole Mass Effect series is one that’s also very close to me. And I think with the exception of that series, Star Wars: [Knights of the Old Republic], stuff like that, there wasn’t really a ton of RPGs based necessarily [on] futurist or modern or spacefaring as there was this plethora of stuff that existed for more traditional fantasy. But you did have Final Fantasy VII, which, at that time, was almost in a weird way a sort of cutesy anime steampunk fantasy. I know I’m just pulling it out of my fucking ass, but it always struck me as something that they’ve made magic industrial. In Final Fantasy I through VI, this would just be “magic.” But here, it’s this mineral that you can mine from the planet and use it for weapons and use it for tech and use it for combat—it’s completely industrialized. It felt like they were dipping their toe into something more futurist, but still ultimately being fantastical roots. But, you know, there’s just not as many options for these sort of more tech-based RPGs. There are more, there’s a bunch that I’m not thinking of right now because I’m rattling my brain, but they feel like they’re outnumbered, you know?

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CASTRATOR

STUDIO REPORT

CASTRATOR rums and guitars are done, [vocalist] Clarissa [Badini] is recording now

ALBUM TITLE

Curtis “The Kid” Layne, who, and I’m doing bass next week. Still, it feels like we’re not in the studio, despite his Y-chromosome, even though we are in the studio,” laughs Castrator’s Robin Mazen. filled in at the last minute STUDIO(S) The anti-Y-chromosome, old-school death metal quartet is spreading the on a 2023 tour supporting Mercinary Studios, Redneck Studios, recording process throughout eastern U.S. locations in the creation of the follow-up Cattle Decapitation. Obsidian Audio, to 2022’s Defiled in Oblivion. And it’s precisely this sort of supported-by-technology, “There’s an upside to Smoke & Mirrors Productions long-distance relationship that allows for the existence of their upcoming second doing this in pieces, because album, Coronation of the Grotesque, not to mention the band itself. we don’t do things like ENGINEER Mazen calls Florida home and will have Obituary vocalist John Tardy engineernormal bands,” Mazen Noah Buchanan ing and guiding her through tracking. Drummer Carolina Perez rules the mean chuckles. “We had five songs LABEL streets of rural, suburban Cleveland, and had Nunslaughter’s Noah Buchanan capdone and were thinking of Dark Descent ture her takes. Badini and newest member, guitarist Sara Loerlein (who replaced releasing them to get music RELEASE DATE L.A.-based Kim Orellana last year), both live close to the shores of Pittsburgh’s three out there as quickly as posJuly 2025 converging rivers, and recorded with Jordan Milner of the Breathing Process (of sible, but we went back which Loerlein is also a member). to some older songs and “Carolina and I got together in 2023 and locked ourselves in Cannibal Corpse’s Tampa studio for revamped them a lot and wound up with nine two days to work on music,” explains Mazen. “After that, we would send riffs and videos back and songs and a cover of Exodus’ ‘Metal Command.’ forth, then get contributions from Clarissa and Sara for titles, lyrics and leads.” With this album, we’re way happier with the Because, as Mazen admits, “I can’t play guitar very well,” before Loerlein joined, the writing of way things have gone; it’s still heavy and fits the album’s nine songs were aided by Deicide’s Taylor Nordberg and Obituary’s Kenny Andrews, with the old-school death metal we like to play who would sit with Mazen and the rhythm parts, adding guitars at her instruction and to her and hear. I think it’s a stronger record and satisfaction. The pair of guitarists will feature on the final product, busting out guest solos alongdefines more of who we are than the first.” side Daniel Gonzalez (Gruesome, Possessed), Bob Vigna (Immolation), Gary Holt (Exodus) and —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO 16 : A P R I L 2 0 2 5 : D E C I B E L

Coronation of the Grotesque

GORGING SHADE

GORGING SHADE Blackened tech adepts invert expectations

unter ginn is planted smack-dab within the heart of a creatively industrious vortex. Between satisfying intercontinental dates as drummer of the freshly rearisen Agalloch, regular installments co-hosting the Radical Research podcast alongside enduring metal luminary Jeff Wagner, the release of the second Plague Psalms album (an aloofly sinister instrumental rite with ride-or-die accomplice Gaël Pirlot), and the publication of music and film journal Deserts of Hex (Vol. ll) in coordination with lettered pundit Thomas Nul, one could’ve safely presumed that the “Ginn-undation” of ’24 could be more absolute. ¶ Enter Gorging Shade and its eleventh-hour debut Inversions, a soot-black death metal project that’s been discreetly in the air since 2015, composed of Ginn and bassist/songwriter Pirlot alongside the remainder of cult tech-metal abstractionists Canvas Solaris. Wedding crepuscular, Gorguts-styled mathgasms to lanky Swedeath finesse and underwired by heretic, ambient textures, à la Deathspell Omega’s Fas – Ite, Maledicti, in Ignem Aeternum LP, Inversions arguably provided late 2024

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its most decisive sucker punch. “The Deathspell Omega influence’s definitely there, but [over time] it really became the Gorguts influence influencing those Deathspell impulses—the Obscura germ, I call it,” asserts Ginn. “Chris [Rushing, guitars] and Nathan [Sapp, guitars/ vocals] had begun using seven-string guitars over the years, and Nate’s a death metal guitarist. That changed Gorging Shade; it made it heavier.” It’s also apparent that Plague Psalms’ preternatural maneuvers have played a role in the formation of Inversion’s unnervingly sacramental underpinnings. According to Ginn, “Gaël and I have very similar sensibilities. We’re collaborators on both of these projects, and I’d say that there’s a sort of filmic and apocalyptic quality to them both. So, I think the soundscapes on the Gorging Shade record were influenced by what we were working on at the time—actually, the next thing we’re going to do will be a Gorging Shade/Plague Psalms split.”

But it’s not all pontifical smoke and ceremonial chicanery here. Inversions offers “who’d-have-thunkit” earworms and headbanging euphoria in addition to an array of gordian luxuries fashioning an improbable equilibrium between Eden and Avernus, and prompting us to wonder how this material would fare in a live environment (or if it’s even possible to properly execute). “With a few rehearsals… definitely,” Ginn muses. “You’re talking about four guys who’ve been playing together for 20 years. But personally, I’m more interested in making records than performing live with this stuff.” But the idea’s certainly beguiling. When pressed on what composition he’d be most interested in interpreting live, he enthusiastically replies, “Aw man, [album closer] ‘A Concession of Our City to Modernity!’ Just the dark jazz, Bohren and der Club of Gore/ambient quality, the dynamics, the way it moves… I’d be interested to see how we’d pull it off!” —FORREST PITTS

SoCal sludge lords channel Carcass, Drugstore Cowboy and the “Mormon Manson”

you’re gonna do creative work, you gotta do a lot of it. Some of it hits the floor, and that’s fine. But you’re never gonna get to the good shit unless you keep at it.” ¶ 16 guitarist/vocalist Bobby Ferry might be paraphrasing public radio power-dweeb Ira Glass right there, but he knows of what he speaks. Since starting the band in 1991, Ferry has piloted the SoCal sludge lords through 10 albums, countless singles, splits and EPs, and nearly a dozen ex-members. ¶ His perseverance has paid off. The band’s latest album, Guides for the Misguided, might be their best since 2003’s unforgettable Zoloft Smile. Stuffed with catchy riffs and lyrics about religious perfidy, Guides takes its title from an obscure book called A Guide for the Misguided. ¶ “I got it at City Lights in San Francisco on one of my pilgrimages,” Ferry explains. “I usually go up there once or twice a year to just read and walk. The book is a study from the 1930s by this district attorney in Chicago who noticed a correlation between violent crime and fundamentalist religions. 20 : APRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

The more religious the people were, the more apt they were to commit violent crimes. It’s not a particularly original concept for metal, but it just keeps proving to be true.” Case in point: Ervil LeBaron, the subject of “Blood Atonement Blues.” “They called him ‘the Mormon Manson,’” Ferry says. “He became a mass murderer in the ’70s for killing his enemies inside the Mormon Church. His idea was if he killed them before their blood hit the ground, they’d go to heaven— like he was doing them a favor.” Then there’s “Hat on a Bed,” a song about superstition with a title inspired by a memorable scene in Gus Van Sant’s 1989 masterpiece Drugstore Cowboy. The film’s junkie protagonist, played by Matt Dillon, believes that leaving a hat on a bed is very, very bad luck. When a young Heather Graham throws a

hat on a bed to disprove him, she ends up dead. “That movie is a classic that’s aged so well, but what’s up with Matt Dillon not aging at all?” Ferry laughs. Meanwhile, opening banger “After All” channels Swansongera Carcass (“Bill Steer can do no wrong”); a cover of Bad Brains’ “Give Thanks and Praises” offers some levity (“Most religious music sucks, but Bad Brains rule”); and a cover of Superchunk’s indelible anthem “Tower” is included as a vinyl-only bonus track. But it’s 16’s originals that make Guides so fucking good. “Every time we write a song, it’s the greatest thing we’ve ever done,” Ferry says. “We all know that’s not true, but that’s the motivation. You’re not gonna do a lot of work if you’ve accepted that the best is behind you.” —J. BENNETT

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CELESTIAL SCOURGE

CELESTIAL SCOURGE You won’t see these Norwegian tech-death dealers coming

all like death metal in its different ways, but we like to call ourselves brutal tech-death,” proclaims Celestial Scourge vocalist Eirik Waadeland. And who can argue with him? Celestial Scourge’s debut full-length, Observers of the Inevitable, doesn’t gaze lovingly at the cold nothingness of space so much as tremble in fear-stricken awe of its horrors. ¶ Observers of the Inevitable is sure to please anyone with a taste for the heavy cosmic horror infiltrating Earth over the past decade. Though it’s not all influenced by albums with Pär Olofsson artwork. “We all really enjoy the Zenith Passage, Nile, Revocation, Cannibal Corpse, Cattle Decapitation and the Faceless, to name a few,” says Waadeland. “Some of us read sci-fi books and mangas, play Magic: The Gathering and just in general do nerdy stuff. So, I believe that has a big say in the music; maybe more than we think ourselves.” ¶ Waadeland also touches on the artwork for Observers of the Inevitable and

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its grim vision of humanity’s future. Not that we needed confirmation of our downfall, but fear not: Celestial Scourge are providing a reassuring pat on the back that everything isn’t going to be fine. “The album cover is a POV of The Inevitable, and you are the observer,” he explains. “This beautiful, horrid image created by César Eidrian is a representation of what is to come for us humans. There are three connected songs on the album that have the same story about the fall of man, and that extraterrestrials show up through this portal and start to have their way. But the general vibe is, ‘humans abuse everything and face the consequences.’” Despite the band moniker, album title and artwork, Celestial Scourge are much more than just lightspeed riff-based voyages through the

cosmos. For every devouring alien lifeform hot on your heels, there’s a neck-breaking death metal riff coming to eject your broken body into the emptiness. “Nothing really beats a good simple riff,” Waadeland notes. “So, we do like our simpler sides and try to give the listener some breaks here and there from all the chaos. We listen to all kinds of stuff in our free time, but we share the same love for extreme music and especially brutal/technical death metal. And that really shows in the music as well. At least, we hope it does to the listener.” So, go ahead and stand in your backyard tonight. Look up to the stars, breathe in the night air and know deep down in your heart that the end is coming—and whatever’s out there is just waiting for it to begin. —GREG KENNELTY

CHRISTIAN MISTRESS

Reactivated rock sidepiece remerges older, wiser, more self-assured

decade ago, christian mistress appeared in the same section of this magazine, talking about their critically lauded third album, To Your Death. The band dropped off the map soon after. Contrary to rumor, they didn’t break up— life just got in the way. “We didn’t share anything, so it was reasonable for people to think that,” says vocalist Christine Davis. “During a tour, our guitarist [Oscar Sparbel] said he needed to help raise his kid. A few years passed and we all started playing in other bands.” ¶ In 2019, the band talked about getting back together. COVID delayed discussions for another three years. The band officially restarted—with former guitarist Sparbel’s blessing—when they received an offer to play at the Hell’s Heroes festival. “We figured it didn’t hurt to try because we all like to play music together,” Davis says. “We’ve always been focused on building relationships. It was a big part of why we’ve been able to play together again.” ¶ Christian Mistress’s new album, Children of Earth (now featuring guitarist and bassist Jonny Wulf, guitarist Tim Diedrich and drummer Reuben Storey), 24 : APRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

features the band’s archetypal, fulltilt ’80s-tinged metal sound while leaning on Davis’ formidable Heart/ Pat Benatar-style vocal chops. According to Davis, the band tried to pick up where they left off with a few adjustments. “I did the same thing: Go on long walks and try to find what music I wanted to sing,” she explains. “The lyrics and songs were informed by the world in the last 10 years. We used the same techniques, but wrote songs about recent times.” The members have all changed in the past decade. Several started families. Davis traveled from 2015 to 2018. After COVID waned, she lived for a while in Borneo, working in community forestry. “I’m certain a lot of that informed the lyrics,” she says. “The trip gave me a bigger picture of the world.” Children of the Earth is on one level about human potential—all humans contain universes. “The

concept we were going for is that we come from the stars and need to connect with that,” Davis says. “The record is a suggestion to remember and incorporate it into every part of your life. We should live informed by what’s in front of us and not get blinded by the grind. There is a whole universe out there. The record also says that there are a lot of people, landscapes and animals who don’t have their say. It may seem positive, but I’m also coming at it from a darker undercurrent.” Years ago, Christian Mistress were given the option to make a living with the band by touring essentially nonstop. The band took a different fork in the road. Christian Mistress will keep their feet in the workaday world, but try to be a working band as time allows. “We don’t have to live in a van and forgo having a normal life,” Davis says. “We’ve chosen to be friends and continue to make music.” —JUSTIN M. NORTON

PHOTO BY JOHNNY DELACY

CHRISTIAN MISTRESS

NYREDOLK

Disguised Danish duo’s trauma is your black metal comfort art

arely do you come across music that provides your soul with a visceral reaction, one that reaches deep inside, communicating a shared experience without uttering a word in your language. For the abandoned and emotionally questionable amongst us, Bardommens hjem, the first fulllength from Denmark’s NyreDolk, does just that. The album centers on generational trauma, social inheritance and the negative ramifications of past choices that echo out far into the future. ¶ “We wanted to try to write about something we both equally could relate to,” the anonymous duo explains. “As time passed, we finally figured out the framework in which we could include the different traumatizing things that had happened in our lives. The more we talked about our childhood, early adulthood and becoming parents, the more we realized that the essence of our problems came from social inheritance. A deep need and a wish to do better than our own parents led the way for making Barndommens hjem.” ¶ The full-length, issued via the tiny Baltic based Styglyd Records, appears nearly five years since their last release, the brilliant four-track Indebrændt EP.

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“We have families, kids and fulltime jobs,” they say. “NyreDolk is a necessity for us as human beings to cope with this life. It’s crazy out there, and it’s not slowing down. It has never been the plan for us to do NyreDolk full-time, or to tour two [or] three times a year and do the whole ‘band thing.’ Both LM [drums] and I have played in many different bands, so when we started NyreDolk, we were very intentional on just doing one thing at the time and on our terms. There is so much noise around us, and we don’t want to contribute to it unless we have something sincere to say. We have that now.” NyreDolk have a very specific visual aesthetic—an arresting amalgam of black metal, punk rock and ’80s film serial killer. With the duo now incorporating full music videos into their arsenal, visual presentation is just as vital as the music. “We are both drawn to the concept of masks and anonymity,” comes the reply. “Shortly after we released the demo, we started talking to Lasse Høgh, who is a good

friend of ours, about creating the artwork for what would turn out to be Indebrændt. We were completely blown away by his vision and how effortlessly he understood and expanded our universe. “There is a music video coming out for ‘Martyrliv.’ It was a bit of a coincidence, but a guy wrote to us and asked if he could take some pictures of us. We took a chance and asked if he would rather make a music video instead? Luckily for us, he was totally up for it. His name is Daniel Liversage and he does a lot of electronic stuff, so it was a bit of a gamble. We didn’t know him and only met him once before we started shooting, so it was a bit nerve-wracking. We let him decide which song to make a video for, and he wrote a script based on how he interpreted the lyrics.” And for NyreDolk, the viewer’s (or listener’s) interpretation is paramount. “We like for people to take from our music what they can,” they conclude. “If people interpret something different than me, it’s perfectly fine.” —NEILL JAMESON

SANHEDRIN

Trad metal trio is forged in thunder

rooklyn heavy metal trio Sanhedrin are no strangers to pushing boundaries. With Heat Lightning, their fourth album, the band—Erica Stoltz (vocals/bass), Jeremy Sosville (guitars/vocals) and Nathan Honor (drums)—delivers their most dynamic and focused work yet. ¶ “Sonically, there’s no comparison to what we’ve done before,” says Honor. “Heat Lightning is the fullest representation of what this band is capable of. When you take three seasoned musicians [and] their favorite hand-picked gear, and put them in a legendary studio with no outside distractions, this is the result.” ¶ “The studio in question is Bearsville in Woodstock, NY, a space steeped in history. For Stoltz, the setting added inspiration to the process. “You could feel the energy of all the records that had been made there. It pushed us to bring our best performances.” ¶ The band worked with Matt Brown (Life of Agony) and Jerry Farley (Sick of It All) to co-produce the album, marking a departure from their previous collaborations with Colin Marston. 28 : APRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

“We loved working with Colin, but we were ready to try something different,” Stoltz explains. The title track is one of the album’s most poignant moments. “The song uses heat lightning as a metaphor for how far removed we’ve become from our connection to nature,” Stoltz explains. “We treat the natural world as something to control, rather than something we’re a part of. It’s a reflection of where we are right now as a society.” Sanhedrin also leans into storytelling with tracks like “Blind Wolf” and “Franklin County Line.” The former opens the album with an urgent stomp, exploring the dangers of losing personal instincts to cult-like ideologies. “As soon as we finished it, we knew it had to be the opener,” says Sosville. “It sets the tone for the journey we want the listener to take.” “Franklin County Line,” on the other hand, came from an

unexpected source of inspiration: a winter retreat in Sosville’s upstate hometown. “It’s the fastest, most urgent song on the record,” he says. “We were rehearsing in this tiny shack during the coldest week of the year. Somehow that energy made its way into the song.” The album’s emotional and sonic range crescendos with tracks like “King of Tides,” a doom-laden epic about puritanical fears, and “Let’s Spill Some Blood,” a fiery anthem calling out the corruption of power. “This is a record about persistence, resilience and friendship,” Sosville reflects. “After a decade, we’re still pushing ourselves—and our sound—to new places.” With Heat Lightning, Sanhedrin invite listeners into their most personal and polished work yet. As Honor puts it, “This album is everything we’ve been building toward.” —TIM MUDD

PHOTO BY STEPHEN AFASANO

SANHEDRIN

DAWN OF OUROBOROS

DAWN OF OUROBOROS West Coast progressives test the hybrid theory on latest LP

WHO

knew black metal’s missing evolutionary link was just a little love and nature? Bay Area/Washington metal crew Dawn of Ouroboros, spearheaded by singer Chelsea Murphy and guitarist Tony Thomas (also of Botanist), manages to merge what seems like incompatible species—the surgical precision of technical death metal cross-pollinating with the ethereal drift of post-black metal—on their third LP, Bioluminescence. ¶ The two met when playing in a previous band. “We became so close because we were always the first ones at practice,” Murphy laughs, “So, we would hang out and wait for everybody else to get there, and we’d go on walks in the meantime, talking about music and life.” ¶ Their friendship blossomed into something bigger after that band ended, as the two continued writing music with each other, sending songs back and forth. In 2018, Dawn of Ouroboros officially formed, dropping their first two full-lengths in 2020 and 2023.

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Both Murphy and Thomas grew up in the Bay Area, experiencing the natural world through beaches, forests and mountains readily at their doorstep. Later in life, both of them went kayaking through the Puget Sound, seeing Bioluminescence’s titular phenomenon for themselves. “There’s this period where you’re not actually sure if you’re actually seeing it or not,” says Thomas, who works as a biologist when he’s not playing music. “You sort of doubt yourself: Is that just the moonlight reflecting on the water? But eventually you realize, and you see how ethereal it is.” It’s an experience that applies to the record itself, a journey adrift where new parts come in to take songs in extremely divergent directions that all manage to still feel cohesive. Standout track “Slipping Burgundy” opens with an otherworldly Julee Cruise-esque introduction where Murphy shows off her

singing range. Slowly, as the song progresses, guitars get heavier and her voice transforms into something truly venomous as the band fires on all cylinders. “It all winds up being a very feelings-based performance and approach,” says Murphy on deciding how and when to implement singing versus screaming. “If I’m so focused on delivering a pre-written performance where I think of the part beforehand, it might not have the same impact I want.” Improvisation comes mutually for both of them, as Thomas lets each song come into its own, taking a jazz-like approach to being able to bend genres. His writing takes as much influence from super tech-driven death metal like Death or Necrophagist as it does dreamy black metal in the vein of Lantlôs and Alcest. It’s a combination that on paper seems sort of impossible, but it just fucking works. —JOHN HILL

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POST APOCALYPTIC DEPRESSION REBOUNDS TEUTONIC HEAVIES

MANTAR

FOLLOWING A POTENTIALLY CAREER-ENDING APEX

STORY BY RAOUL HERNANDEZ • PHOTO BY SONJA SCHURINGA / CHANTIC PHOTOGRAPHY

ecause nothing manifested according to plan in 2020, business as usual went sideways for German duo Mantar. Backpack stuffed with riffs and a grunt of affirmation from drum half Erinc Sakarya sent Hanno Klänhardt, per custom, from his home in Gainesville, FL, to Mantar HQ in their country’s northwest stronghold of Bremen. Two years later, the pair’s 2022 full-length arrived titled for (self) destruction, a milestone to a decade of metal-grade post-punk. ¶ “It was a total shitshow,” reveals the singer over G-Meet, “Hanno the Man” his handle. “It felt like poison. The name, Pain Is Forever and This Is the End, was almost like a joke title. Like [Nirvana’s] In Utero was supposed to be called I Hate Myself and Want to Die.” ¶ At Sakarya’s wedding, that trip’s first deliverable, Klänhardt tore his meniscus and returned home to rehab it. Back in Germany, he slipped in a market on the first day of rehearsals and tore the ACL ligament in his same knee. Even a bed in the studio couldn’t staunch another return stateside. AU PN RE I L 22002245 : : DDEECCI IBBEELL 32 : J

“Don’t get me wrong,” he cautions. “Pain Is Forever and This Is the End was very successful, with big hit singles and a massive wall of [sound], but making it was a complete catastrophe that almost killed the band. When we made this new one, Post Apocalyptic Depression, it was a spiritual healing for us as a band and also as friends.” Death by Burning introduced the Teutonic two in 2014, two years after Hanno the Manno met his wife as an attendee of Gainesville punk gathering The Fest. Mantar’s initial raw projectile longplayer blazed like a burning bush in Southern California’s Mojave scene, be it “The Berserker’s Path” or “The Stoning.” Ode to the Flame (Nuclear Blast, 2016) got more caveman, alighting what some called sludge that then managed to devolve in a primal sense, while somehow evolving sonically and rhythmically on 2018 Metal Blade bow The Modern Art of Setting Ablaze.

THIS IS THE ALBUM I’M MOST IN SYNC WITH SINCE OUR DEBUT BECAUSE, AT THE CORE, IT’S NOTHING BUT A PUNK ALBUM.

THAT’S WHO I AM. I M A PUNK DUDE. HANNO KLÄNHARDT

Fourth full-length Post Apocalyptic Depression now carries forward the giant thrust and swagger of its predecessor, even as it strips back all the runtimes, tightens the compositional core and snaps together like a fist. “This is the album I’m most in sync with since our debut, Death by Burning, because, at the core, it’s nothing but a punk album,” says the Gators enthusiast. “That’s who I am. I’m a punk dude.” On pandemic covers romp Grungetown Hooligans II, Mantar raged classic L7, Babes in Toyland, Seven Year Bitch and other era crushers. Likewise, ’90s alternative powers Post Apocalyptic Depression, starting at opener “Absolute Ghost.” Bucking, kicking and bashing, the skate-punk ripper locks up guitar and drums like bull and rider. “Principle of Command” launches a palpable call-to-arms, the battle cry of a larynx-torn leper, big gun chords going off all around Klänhardt amidst a percussive fusillade from Sakarya. The former cites its Bolt Thrower-esque lyrics and a “Puss”-borrowed bridge off the Jesus Lizard. “Axe Death Scenario” even slices, dices and harmonizes a little “Oh Boy” from Buddy Holly. “Erinc came to Florida to shoot videos for the last album,” begins Klänhardt, a U.S. citizen as of 2024. “We had a lot to talk about, but in the end we were like, ‘Yeah, we want to play music.’ In order to celebrate that decision, we rented a super small studio here in Gainesville and wrote every song for the new album in sometimes as fast as 15 minutes. “In order to make it as dangerous as possible, we thought, ‘We’re only going to work with what we find in that studio and make as punk as possible. We’re going to record the whole thing live.’

Erinc had this Ringo Starr-small Ludwig kit and, instead of bringing my huge wall of amps, I had ’60s gear where the backline looked more like a Hives record.” “Cosmic Abortion” then delivers closing arguments for Post Apocalyptic Depression. “[It’s] probably the biggest metal Mantar moment,” laughs the frontman. “You have this [starts tribal beatboxing] super groovy rhythm that’s a little bit based on ‘The Killchain’ by Bolt Thrower. It’s like riding a fucking tank through town.” Ditto the whole LP, wherein the video for album midpoint “Halsgericht,” a clustering lope and thundering post-hardcore detonation, reveals a literal line of demarcation. When Decibel asks about his tattooed AC/DC belt, Klänhardt holds up both wrists, each branded with one half of the franchise. “When I was six, my dad was very big into side hustles,” he explains. “Think flea markets; wherever he could score some money, he did. One day, he came home with two big boxes of cassettes—tapes from Atlantic Records and whatnot. I listened to every single one of those cassettes and it was all fucking garbage except for three: Nazareth, a band I also adore, and If You Want Blood, You’ve Got It and Highway to Hell. Those tapes literally changed my life. “So, since 1988, I listened to AC/DC on a daily basis. What I ate and how I judged food: ‘On an AC/DC level, how good is this pizza?’ “That not only means the world to me; AC/ DC changed my whole definition of what is good and what is bad, and not only in musical terms,” Klänhardt concludes emphatically. “My love for this band is the blueprint for the passion of my life.” DDEECCI IBBEELL : : AJPURNI E L 2025 4 : 33

hat which is backwards and old-fashioned about the Finnish people is of

Tavastian descent. From where and whence they came, they still refuse to tell anyone. For as long as the heavens have stood over the North Lands, as long has the Tavastians been robustly silent, stalwartly sober-minded, broadshoulderly stubborn, hardy and slow… they gathered round their fires, and while inhaling the bonfire smoke, they said unto each other: ‘This is the scent of freedom.’” ¶ So states the sample that kicks off the fourth studio album by Finland’s Havukruunu. Culled from the archives of Finland’s national public broadcasting company YLE, it has been translated here from its original Finnish. ¶ Similarly, Havukruunu write and perform exclusively in their native language. While early albums like 2015’s Havulinnaan and 2017’s Kelle Surut Soi were more inwardly focused on the struggles induced by mental illness, Tavastland breathtakingly pivots to Finland’s pagan roots and the intergenerational trauma induced by 1,500 years of occupation and war.

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“Tavastland is the home of the Tavastian people,” begins band mastermind Stefa, who formed Havukruunu in 2005 and was the sole member until 2013. While his band is described by fans as black metal, they reject the genre internally, integrating folk and classic heavy metal in their onslaught. “We are like the Ents of Finland,” Stefa explains. “We talk slow, we think slow, but [what we say] is filled with meaning. Hundreds of different ways to interpret what I’m saying. “It’s called Taivast proper, or Kanta-Häme. It could be translated to root Finland,” he clarifies, referring to the Southwestern Province that has been occupied since the Stone Age. Taivast was the home of the 1236-1237 Tavastian Uprising that resulted in the brutal Second Swedish Crusade.

The sample in album closer “De Miseriis Fennorum” tells the tale: “Along the oxen road of Tavastia rode the soldiers from Åbo to subdue the uprising of the Tavastian men. The tale of Tavastian insurrections is long. When the tribal lands were occupied by White Christian men to set up congregations and collect St. Peter’s Penny, the Great Lion of Tavastia roared in opposition. Priests were driven around trees until dead, and the Houses of God went up in flames.” Stefa adds, “This is really broad strokes. It’s the original nest of all the witchcraft.” Taivast and broader Finland’s lineage of indigenous Pagan polytheism extends to prehistoric times, and was chronicled in medieval Scandinavian sources that described Finns as witches and shamans. In 1880, a collection of over 600 of these incantations that were “widely used in all areas of life” were published in the tome Magic Songs of the Finns. Sidelined by 12th century Christianization attempts, then outright banned by Swedish rule in the 1600s, witchcraft is all but extinct in Finland today. However, its roots most notably live on in the form of Finland’s national epic, the Kalevala. “It’s so hazy, misty, dark,” says Stefa. “The whole beginning. I don’t know the beginning of this weird little folk who are somehow separate from everyone else. I’m baffled by it. I think there’s something to it because Finns sing magic. That’s in the Kalevala also. All the spells are sung; it’s rhyme and it’s singing.”

“It’s way more fluid than English. It’s less bound by rules,” adds rhythm guitarist Henkka, who joined Havukruunu in 2019, prior to the recording of their breakout Uinuos Syömein Sota (2020). The Finnish language is unique in that it stems from the Uralic family, rather than IndoEuropean family. It is theorized to have formed in Russia’s Uralic mountain range between 8000 and 2000 BCE. It is unusual due to its agglutinative form, a rare commonality with ancient Near East languages spoken by the cradle of civilization. “But to go back, the question of what it means to be a Finn is hard because nobody in Finland identifies as a Finn. It’s more like Tavastian or Islander or Savonian or Ostrobothnian,” clarifies Henkka. Each is a specific region in Finland, complete with their own dialects and cultural practices. Continues Stefa, “It’s about Tavastia and it’s about the Finns. So yes, it’s a concept album and it’s generational trauma from 1,500 years of war. We have to carry that and try to make sense of it with our elders. And it’s constant fighting and this inner turmoil and pain.” Finland’s previous millennium reveals a hotly contested battleground between Sweden and Russia; between Christianity and Paganism; between modernism and traditionalism. This trauma is acutely experienced by those currently living in Finland, making the country a hotbed for intergenerational trauma, alcoholism, nationalism, fascism, racism and protest. Emerging generations are currently attempting to navigate and reconcile this ideological landmine, and the members of Havukruunu are not immune. It begged the question of why now the band chose to shift from more personal to overarching cultural themes. “That relates wholly to my being [during the writing and recording of] the first two albums,” states Stefa bluntly. “I was constantly on the verge of killing myself because there’s no point. There [was] no point to anything. I have since found out things… I have found greater meaning to our overall existence.” The thematic shift is one of many changes within Tavastland, where Havukruunu drift even further away from black metal. Indeed, the record is resplendent with diversions. Thanks to the Hällas-esque synths of “Kun veri sekoittuu lumeen,” the gorgeous cello and backing choirs within “Kuoleman oma” and more, it’s aggressive, progressive, beautiful and furious simultaneously. “I am happy to be moving away from [black metal], spiritually and emotionally,” says Stefa. “And yeah, it was conscious. I knew I needed to change the way I express [myself]. You don’t want to do the same album over and over. That’s what people want, but that’s not what you should do.”

Stefa expands: “It’s growing more authentic. It’s this huge relief to just drop the act, so to speak… Dropping the act to try to appear as something that people want.” “To be closer to your true self artistically,” interjects Henkka. “I’m trying to do meaningful art that should inspire you, the listener, to think,” adds Stefa. “To confront difficult things and confront difficult existential questions.” He stops, outlining a shape with his hands.

“Black metal has… a box. It’s a space that has a lot to it. It has a lot to uncover and a lot to find and a lot to do, but I’m very curious and very restless and curious. So, I’m really sorry, but it’s a box I need to get outside of. As much as I love Bathory or Emperor or Darkthrone, I’ve got shit to do.” Incidentally all of the bands mentioned eventually moved away from the genre of black metal to entirely different sonic realms. “That should be enough, I think,” affirms Stefa. “If you want to listen to the first album, you can listen to the first album and ignore the rest. I don’t need to do the same thing and pretend to be the same artist and human for someone who only likes the first part of the movie.” He concludes: “You’ve got to see there is more to it. More to metal. More to art. More to life. More to death. More to everything.”

DDEECCI IBBEELL : : AJPURNI E L 2025 4 : 35

AFTER THEIR 40TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION, GERMAN THRASH LEGENDS

CONTINUE FIRING ON ALL CYLINDERS STORY BY JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS • PHOTO BY JENNIFER GRUBER

rguably the band from the Big Four of Teutonic Thrash that has had the

rockiest trajectory—including essentially fumbling the ’90s with some later disowned releases—Destruction have been relentlessly pushing to make up for those missteps ever since. This century, which began with the gloriously brutal return to form All Hell Breaks Loose, has seen a regular stream of absolutely ruthless, no-compromise thrash explosions, and not even the recent wellcelebrated landmark of a 40th anniversary seems to indicate any will to slow down. ¶ Marcel “Schmier” Schirmer, iconic founding member, bassist/vocalist and overall historical leader of the thrash metal war machine that is Destruction, recently turned 58, while the band itself turned 40. Their debut, 1985’s Infernal Overkill, is a unanimous stone-cold metal classic—also a Decibel Hall of Fame inductee, obviously. They’ve cemented their status as a serious influence for new generations with the glut of studio records they’ve released since recovering from the problematic ’90s. We’d get it if they wanted to give it a rest. After a minute of chatting with the constantly enthusiastic Schmier, however, it’s clear this band isn’t going anywhere. PN RE I L 22002245 : : DDEECCI IBBEELL 36 : A JU

“Every new album is a new baby, and you love all your babies,” he says with a booming laugh. “It’s still very special, of course. It’s different, but for the better—after doing many albums, you get more focused, more precise. You know what you want and you’re more aware of certain things. We’ve been employing a different kind of recording process for the last three albums; we demo everything from the start, and then we work on those demos. That way we can change things until the final recording is done.” This change in methodology coincided with a complete lineup overhaul right before 2019’s Born to Perish, which also brought another crucial change. “Of course, after the lineup changes, we got a second guitar player, which opened all the doors,” Schmier raves. “For many years, I had to hold back in the studio when we were recording; we knew that as a trio we couldn’t do certain

things live. For me it makes no sense to use backing tracks or to record stuff you can’t do onstage, but since Born to Perish we have finally been able to go full force. The sky is the limit!” Fortunately, Birth of Malice reflects this youthful exuberance, as well as a refusal to rest on one’s laurels. From heavy stompers to fast thrashers, there’s plenty of catchiness; and hell, it even starts with a Manowar-like fully self-referential rager called— wait for it—“Destruction.” “Life is a big learning process,” Schimer says thoughtfully. “I still love to try new things. People ask me, ‘Are you limited with your thrash metal music?’ And I always say, ‘No way, man.’ I love doing this and I don’t feel that at all. We’ve tried a lot of new stuff on the new album. Of course it sounds like Destruction, and of course it has the thrash metal vibe and some moments where you might think that you’ve heard it before. But that’s what you call style, right? “As for ‘Destruction,’ I’ve always wanted to write this song! It took me 40 years! Finally the time felt right. Hopefully it’s going to be the opener for the next decade at least. It has all the classic elements—the catchiness, the cool riffs, the tempo changes. I think it’ll be perfect to open our shows.” Live performances are obviously a big part of the Destruction experience, and even as they grow older, the band continues to rip it up onstage. This new album is just another good excuse to keep doing it—and to make the nearly impossible task of building a Destruction setlist even harder. “It is very difficult to pick which songs to play every night,” the big man admits. “But for this new year we have two big things to focus on—this new album and the 40 years of Infernal Overkill. We’ll have some special shows where we’ll only play that album, but we’ll also have regular tours focused on Birth of Malice, where we’ll play a lot of these new songs that I’m really excited for.” The one thing that has stayed the same over four decades and continues to fuel the rage? People, man. All the issues Schmier was screaming about in the ’80s are still relevant today, except worse. “You watch the news nowadays and it’s so sad,” he says with a genuinely hurt voice. “From the wildfires to catastrophic flooding to the wars all over… It’s really awful to see that we don’t learn anything. The greed of humanity is endless. We take money over everything. We destroy the planet and we don’t give a fuck—it’s crazy. I travel a lot because of the music, and I see how we’re not really all that different from each other. If everyone could have this opportunity, I think the world could be a much more peaceful place. Maybe we’d stop with this pride about our countries that leads to bullshit wars and doesn’t make sense.” Since that doesn’t seem about to change anytime soon, that’s just one more reason to just keep thrashing it up until, let’s say, Destruction’s 50th anniversary at least. “You know, you’ll never be ‘rich’ playing this kind of music,” Schmier laughs. “But you get rich on emotions, on the influences that you have and that you transmit to other new bands. That’s always the main force to continue. We’ve had our difficult times, but we’re all still friends with all the old members. Sometimes we meet up; we talk about the old times, but also about the future, and the old guys always tell me that I have to continue Destruction. There are so many fans out there that grew up with the band, and it feels like we’re all one big family. That’s the biggest gift we can have—to be a family, with the band, all the fans and all the former members, too. I couldn’t be happier.” DDEECCI IBBEELL : : AJPURNI E L 2025 4 : 37

interview by

QA j. bennett

WI T H

CRADLE OF FILTH’s main man on the band’s new album, collaborating with Ed Sheeran and living deliciously

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ani Filth is sweating his pale English arse off in the Arizona desert, and out front because I didn’t want my house egged

he’s not even on tour. “I’m out here for our guitarist and our keyboardist’s wedding,” he says. “They’re getting married. To each other.” ¶ More specifically: Cradle of Filth’s new keyboardist/vocalist, Zoë Federoff, is marrying the band’s long-serving Czech guitarist Marek “Ashok” Šmerda. Federoff is from Arizona, which explains the Tucson nuptials. And she’s not the only new member of the symphonic black metal stars. American guitarist Donny Burbage joined at the same time as Federoff. That was 2022, in plenty of time to contribute to Cradle of Filth’s 14th and latest album, The Screaming of the Valkyries. ¶ “It might seem strange for a band so steeped in Englishness to have two Americans in the lineup, but at this point I’m the only English person in the band,” our man points out. “That might seem crass to some of our fans who are a bit… fussy, for want of a better word, but it works perfectly. They’re great people and great musicians.” ¶ As for The Screaming of the Valkyries? “With the way the world’s going, it just seemed like a very apt title,” he says. “We wrote most of it coming off the back of the pandemic, and obviously you’ve got the whole Russian/Ukrainian conflict, Palestine and Israel, Sudan, et cetera, et cetera. And now over the last couple of days, you’ve got the apocalyptic wildfires in L.A. In fact, a couple of people from the wedding had to disappear back home because they’re from L.A. and their houses were in the vicinity of the fires.” Is the state of the world the theme of the new album?

I think there’s quite a plethora of different material on the record. Everybody always asks me if we’re doing a concept record. People are always making suggestions for concept records too, saying we should do one about Jack the Ripper or something. A whole concept record about a person—we’ve done that already with very interesting anti-heroes: Gilles de Rais, Elizabeth Bathory, Lilith, Lucifer. Nowadays, Cradle have been more intent on writing very catchy tracks. It doesn’t necessarily mean less-extreme tracks, but we want them to be memorable rather than nine songs that just pass you by in a blur. That happens with some records—they’re great overall, but you can’t really pinpoint a specific track. You want to put a track on your Instagram, but you don’t know which one to choose because you can’t remember any of the titles. I guess what I’m saying is: When you’re writing a concept record, a lot of it is fitting the music around the concept. I feel that sometimes you’re always gonna have a song or two that’s just there to fill the story up, to tie the thing together. It doesn’t matter what genre you come from—that’s always gonna be the case. Unless it’s so loose a concept that you might as well just say it’s not a concept. First and foremost, with this record, we were just looking to write some really good songs.  PHOTO BY JAKUB ALE X ANDROWICZ

The song and video for “Malignant Perfection,” your homage to Halloween, has been out since October. Obviously, you’re a fan of the season, but was there anything specific that inspired it?

Well, we wanted to write something that celebrated the season. Hence, we fought tooth and nail over getting it released in time for that season. I hate saying this, but it’s a bit of a sing-along track. It’s very memorable and catchy, but also has the elements you would associate with us—black metal and so forth. It’s similar to the song we’ve done with Ed Sheeran. It’s catchy, but it has blast beats in it. In fact, Ed really steps up on the vocal front. I thought he was gonna tear his vocal cords at one point. But I think you can have catchy songs and still be extreme—and that’s what we wanna do. We wanted to write an album full of songs that the fans would love, no fillers. We decided we wouldn’t have intros and outros. We just wanted nine very strong songs. The video features trick-or-treaters. From what I understand, trick-or-treating isn’t as common in England as it is here in the States. Did you ever go when you were a kid?

No, we’re too reserved for that! [Laughs] But yeah, absolutely. Of course I went. It’s always been in my blood. But I grew up in a village in England, and you were likely to be turned away more than anything. We had a big gig in London on Halloween last year, so I left a big bowl of sweets

or anything like that. I rang my mother up to check on the house, and she said the bowl was still there. No one came to the house! If I was home, I would’ve been very disappointed. I think the origins of Halloween—Samhain and all that—are definitely celebrated amongst the witchcraft fraternity in the U.K. But the Americanization of it hasn’t really reached us. Kids throw parties and all that, but it’s not on the same scale as America. I spent my best Halloween about six years ago in Atlanta. It was a mutual friend of my old girlfriend that had a house party, and the house was decorated like a proper monster house—jaws where the door was and eyes where the windows were, skeletons hanging everywhere. It was a huge party with lots of beer-bobbing and it was such a good time. It was exactly what I wanted from Halloween. What was your most memorable costume as a kid?

[Laughs] I do remember dressing up as the Grim Reaper. But my pants were a bit colorful, let’s say that, and people were laughing at me because there was a slit at the back where you could see my luminescent green skate pants. So, that was a bit of a fail. And I think we tried to make an AT-AT costume out of cardboard boxes one year—that went really well, as you can imagine. Many fans are commenting that “Malignant Perfection” reminds them of the Midian era of the band. What do you think of that assessment?

I think it’s very apt because this album boasts two new members, Zoe Federoff and Donny Burbage—both of whom are massive fans of Midian. I think it’s their age group, really. I think it was their entry album for Cradle of Filth. When they started writing for the new record, that was their go-to album, so the flavors of that would come across. I guess the drop down with the keys and bass is kind of reminiscent of “Saffron’s Curse” from Midian. There’s a track on the new album, “Demagoguery,” that has very strong elements of “Death Magick for Adepts.” So, yeah—people aren’t wrong. Is it strange comparing your new record to an album that’s 25 years old?

You know, some people would sort of take offense at me naming albums like Dusk or something because they’re sort of sacrosanct to people. “Oh, you’ll never do that again.” Yeah, we won’t. Tom Araya from Slayer always said, “We’ll never do Reign in Blood 2.” That album was governed by DECIBEL : APRIL 2025 : 39

 Screaming for seconds Filth (r) and the rest of Cradle remain hungry for life after 34 years of blasphemy

It’s almost like a religious belief in living one’s life right now and here, free from constraint— but obviously with respect for everything. In a nutshell: We’re all gonna die anyway.

That said, it’s Midian’s 25th anniversary. Do you have anything special planned?

We’re adding in a few songs from Midian for our forthcoming co-headline with Dying Fetus. We’ve got a lot of tours planned—South America, European festivals over the summer— but the back end of the year isn’t booked up yet. So, that’s slightly up in the air, but on our minds is the fact that it’s Midian’s 25th anniversary. Whether we can incorporate that or do a whole show, that depends. Some of those tracks, like “Tearing the Veil From Grace,” have never been played live. We did the whole of Dusk, the whole of Cruelty for various livestreams during the pandemic—but obviously we had plenty of time to rehearse because people weren’t doing shit then. [Laughs] So, I don’t know. In my mind, I’ve got so many plans. But there’s only so much time. 40 : APRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

Tell me about the new album’s opener, “To Live Deliciously.” For many folks, it’ll conjure images of Black Phillip from The Witch.

Well, it was a saying before Robert Eggers got hold of it. I can’t remember where it comes from, but the song itself is a celebration of living, of indulging in everything, unfettered from the conformities of the age. In layman’s terms, people regard this age as a “woke culture,” and I guess “to live deliciously” is to just indulge. It’s almost like a religious belief in living one’s life right now and here, free from constraint— but obviously with respect for everything. In a nutshell: We’re all gonna die anyway. There’s no proof anywhere that there’s an afterlife, despite the lies that are well-governed by various religions. So, it’s basically saying: Whilst we’re here, we might as well enjoy it with all the free choices of experience that are available to us. It’s a hedonistic promise, or maybe even a satanic mandate or life code if that’s the way people want to see it. It’s a celebration of life, and some people enjoy it more than others. You mentioned your song with Ed Sheeran. What’s the plan with that?

The plan is a little strange because he’s probably the second biggest artist in the world, after Taylor Swift. I can’t speak for him or his management, but basically the song’s gotta come out in a way that doesn’t interfere with his new album and

doesn’t interfere with ours. Once we announced it and didn’t release it straight away, everyone started making a really big deal out of it. So, now it’s gonna be built up too much. It doesn’t matter how good it is. It could be the best song in the world, but people are gonna find fault with it because they always do when something’s delayed. If we’d just released it out of the blue, it would’ve been a huge triumph. We want some fanfare, of course, but we don’t want it to overshadow anything. So, it’ll come out when it comes out. It’s a timeless song, so it doesn’t really matter. Who hatched the plan to collaborate?

It was one of those things that just kinda happened. He mentioned in an interview that he grew up on Slipknot and Cradle of Filth. Then he mentioned he was going to come down to our studio to do work experience when he was younger, but we’d moved out of that studio, so it never happened. At which point, our manager contacted his or the other way around, and we decided to do a collaboration. It took a couple of years because obviously he’s super busy. But he came down to our studio—just him and a guitar in his wife’s car, with a Nymphetamine hoodie on, which was a nice touch. It was just him, me and our producer Scott Atkins. It was all very down to earth, very cool. We went out for a pub lunch afterwards—a very remote pub as well, and even then, we were swarmed by elderly women.

PHOTO BY JAKUB ALE X ANDROWICZ

particular forces—probably Rick Rubin—and a particular time. That album is a one-off. As is Dusk and Her Embrace and Cruelty and the Beast. But when I mention those albums or any older record of ours, I’m talking about the elements of them—the emotions, the atmosphere, the feel. I’m not misrepresenting anything. I don’t want anyone saying, “You lied to us!” We’re not going to make something that sounds like Dusk because that was 1996, for crying out loud. [Laughs] That’s almost 30 years ago.

the

definitive stories

behind extreme music’s

definitive albums

This Will Outlive Us the making of Darkest Hour’s Undoing Ruin APRIL 2025 : 4 2 : DECIBEL

michael wohlberg

ecorded outside of a Judas Priest and Dokken show at the Capital Centre in Landover, MD on May 31, 1986, an energetic young man wearing a sleeveless zebra-print body suit would loudly and proudly proclaim into a microphone, “Heavy metal rules, all that punk shit sucks. It doesn’t belong in this world. It belongs on fucking Mars, man!” That spur-of-the-moment declaration became burned into the consciousness of the metal community via the cult classic documentary Heavy Metal Parking Lot, and that person—colloquially referred to as “Zebraman,” real name David Wine—would become one of its unwitting stars. Zebraman’s documented rant, forever saved to film, would live on as a humorous symbol of what happens when youthful passion is mixed with an equal dose of willful ignorance. Perhaps no one quite like melodic death metal outfit Darkest Hour knows that those ironclad-yet-arbitrary walls are anything but dismantled. Formed in 1995 while the group’s sole remaining founding members, guitarist Mike Schleibaum and vocalist John Henry, were still teenagers, Darkest Hour started out as a metallic hardcore band in the vein of hybrid acts like Earth Crisis, Integrity and Deadguy. Following their debut full-length The Mark of the Judas in 2000, Victory Records—the hardcore label of their heroes— offered them a five-album deal that unknowingly shaped their career for years to come. By 2004, after extensive touring in support of 2003’s well-received Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation, Schleibaum and Henry, along with drummer Ryan Parrish, lead guitarist Kris Norris and bassist Paul Burnette, were due for their third LP under the Victory banner. Norris, now on his second record with the band, flexed his superhuman soloing abilities and helped progress the quintet’s songwriting as a whole to the next level. The “core” elements of their sound effectively evaporated, and their transformation into a full-blown melodeath killing machine was complete, armed with their strongest material to date. Backed by the guidance of new producer and previous Decibel Hall of Fame inductee Devin Townsend, a strong financial push from their label and an insatiable hunger for the road, Undoing Ruin was sure to be a success. Well, yes and no. The group’s fourth album would see their highest sales ever, earning them a spot on Billboard’s Top 200 list as well as headlining opportunities in (slightly) larger clubs. Preconceptions and gatekeeping, however, left Darkest Hour a house without a home. Awkwardly grouped with a growing number of standouts in the scene, the band was branded as part of the loosely defined subgenre of “metalcore.” Already too metal for hardcore, their distinctly mid-aughts appearance, ties to Victory Records (and its comically misguided promotional campaign) and the mindless assumption of being an At the Gates rip-off made them pariahs in the eyes of “true” metalheads, with many opting to ignore the record entirely. With such scrutiny, they may as well have been on Mars. We’re now two decades removed from the release of one of the greatest examples of American melodic death metal. Ahead of its full-album performance at April’s Metal & Beer Fest in Philadelphia, the story of Undoing Ruin is long overdue for Decibel’s hallowed halls. Leave your zebra-print bodysuits at the door.

DBHOF244

DARKEST HOUR Undoing Ruin VICTORY JUNE 28, 2005

Thousands of words to say but one

DECIBEL : 4 3 : APRIL 2025

DBHOF244

DARKEST HOUR undoing ruin

What was the mood like in the Darkest Hour camp coming off the Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation cycle?

What do you remember about the writing sessions for Undoing Ruin? KRIS NORRIS: For quite a while I was kind of

living with Cory Smoot from the band GWAR. I had this little old-school shit computer setup, and I would just throw some of the dumbest programmed drums on there and layer riff after riff after melody after melody way before Undoing Ruin writing sessions started. Cory was always giving me words of encouragement and he was checking out the stuff and it was great. After the Hidden Hands cycle, I dove back into a lot of those files. I didn’t know if the band was going to like a lot of the change in direction and all that. Ryan was always championing the song because

 Movie magic A behind-the-scenes shot of Henry during the, uh, “Sound of Surrender” video shoot

“I think it’s changed a lot over the years, but back then, there were people that wouldn’t listen to us because they were like, ‘John Henry looks like Harry Potter.’”

KRIS NO RRIS he loves that Swedish melodic style. The rest of the band seemed to slowly climb on board with it. So, it started out like a bedroom project that became a full band thing. BURNETTE: It was Kris’ second record with us. I think when he first joined, it all happened kind of fast. Him and Ryan had played together for years and years. There were times it just seemed like this runaway train mind meld, and me, John and Mike just couldn’t even mentally keep up. We were just standing there watching these guys blasting forward with whatever song it was. They worked so well together. I loved being in a band with Kris, too, because he was so prolific with what he could play, but also what he knew about theory. It was almost like any idea was on the table. Some of my ideas, they’re kind of off-the-wall in certain ways. But to him, he could make it all work. If something wasn’t normal, it was almost like a challenge to him. SCHLEIBAUM: We practiced in a U-Haul shed that we shared with other bands. We had nine weeks. We all were living in different cities—I was in D.C., some of the guys were in Richmond, one of the other guys was in Lynchburg—so it was a two-and-a-half-hour triangle to get there. We were meeting on the weekends at this practice space. Every weekend we’d have a demo, we’d clean it up, Kris would think about it all week, I’d think about it all week. We’d come and jam again, we’d have a way to revise it. We didn’t have a lot APRIL 2025 : 4 4 : DECIBEL

of time to pay attention to the vocals. John didn’t really know how to demo vocals himself back then, and was writing on a piece of paper and envisioning how it was going to go. By the time we get to the end, everyone is tripping because we don’t have anything with vocals, man! What am I going to tell Devin when we get there? HENRY: I was kind of a procrastinator back then, and maybe sometimes still. [Laughs] It happened so fast; a lot of the writing for me happened in the studio. The music all came together in that space and I only maybe had, like, one or two songs written when we went to Devin, so I did a lot of the lyric writing there in Vancouver. I took a lot of inspiration from the city. That was really kind of special, too, having my environment be something that influenced a lot for me. How did Devin Townsend end up as producer? How much of a role did he play while you were tracking? SCHLEIBAUM: Our good friend and longtime tour manager, Tito Picone, had befriended Devin Townsend while he was on tour with I believe Symphony X. Through a connection between him and a management company that we had, we were able to get into Devin’s orbit and get the amazing opportunity. But it had to fit into his schedule, which meant it was gonna go down in March. Once we found out we could get Devin, everybody was super excited about this, so we had to make it happen.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL BURNETTE

PAUL BURNETTE: It was great. We were constantly busy. That was back in the day where we didn’t say no to any tour. Even if the tour had already started, we would say, “Yeah, we’ll meet you there.” Wherever our tour ended, we would just get back in the van, say bye to one set of bands and drive wherever the next one was and say hello to a bunch more. [Laughs] That’s just how we were. Everybody was broke at home and broke on tour, but at least on tour you had something to do. MIKE SCHLEIBAUM: We had come off that 2004 Ozzfest. We had to do a bunch of dates—I believe they were with Between the Buried and Me—to basically try to make back some money. We had lost so much money being a part of the Ozzfest. And we were super hungry, having seen and been inspired by two and a half months straight with Black Sabbath, Slayer, Slipknot. This shit was crazy! Judas Priest! But we were also totally broke. We had done these club dates, which I think really burned everything out a little bit thin. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. [Laughs] RYAN PARRISH: We toured for about two years. We just got off of Ozzfest and then went straight into one more U.S. tour right after that, so we were tired. We [weren’t] tired of the record or the songs, but just tired in general, ready for something new and fresh to do. JOHN HENRY: This era was the most Darkest Hour ever toured—eight, nine months out of the year sometimes. We had started to have our first signs of success. We did the Ozzfest in ’04. It seemed like we were ready to pop or to blow up or whatever. Everyone was all-in on the band, everybody sacrificed so much of their lives to do this. Pretty much most of the 2000s, we were touring— maybe too much. [Laughs] We knew we wanted to be in a band, putting out records and playing as much as possible. And that’s what we did.

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DARKEST HOUR undoing ruin What do you remember about recording sessions in Vancouver? PARRISH: We lived in [ex-Strapping Young Lad

bassist] Byron [Stroud’s] basement. His wife was really cool to us, made us food all the time. They took care of us. There was a place that we used to walk to—Mugs ’N Jugs. We’d go down there, we’d spitball about ideas and have beers and stuff on our downtime. Devin would do long days with us. He would just go in there until we were falling over, which I thought was cool. [Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation producer] Fredrik Nordström was like, “5 o’clock, I’m out the door! Y’all can stay, but I’m out.” But [Townsend] was like, “I like where this is going, there’s a good energy going. Let’s keep going.” We tried every idea we could possibly think of. If we liked it or not, didn’t matter—we tried it, which I thought was amazing. Everybody got a say in that, too. SCHLEIBAUM: I remember being at Byron’s house. We slept in the basement, rented it out from him to save money. And in the other room, [ex-guitarist] Jed [Simon] from Strapping Young Lad lived behind a Slayer curtain and he would interject his thoughts every once in a while when he heard us arguing. NORRIS: Jed had set up this little back room where he hung a Slayer flag and he was basically sleeping on a cot. He gave us his space while we were there recording. Me and Mike are talking about guitar players and Van Halen. Mike touts himself as the number one Van Halen fan; he knows everything. We are talking about some facts and you just hear from behind the flag Jed interject and throw out the actual correct fact. Basically, he’s just telling us, “Now shut the fuck up so I can get some sleep!” SCHLEIBAUM: I also remember the song “Paradise,” which doesn’t get talked about a lot.

What was the critical and popular reception to the album? SCHLEIBAUM: I think that initial reaction, although it wasn’t out of the gate like, Oh my god, we’re Huey Lewis and the News now, was still an obvious uptick. We felt the momentum. People from the metal world were paying attention to us because Devin had produced it, even though we had the Swedes produce the other record [Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation]. The press wasn’t sure. They were not impressed. But public opinion has changed course and now everyone agrees, “Fine, it’s classic. You guys win on this one.” HENRY: I’m pretty sure it was our highest-selling first week ever. I never really wanted to read album reviews because, looking back, I was

PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL BURNETTE

Through my career as a musician, I have been in the orbit of almost every great guitar player that I can imagine I’d want to be around. I got to meet Eddie Van Halen, Zakk Wylde, dudes in my top 10. Devin Townsend is one of the best musicians I’ve ever seen or been around my life. And when he comes into the room and takes the time to listen to your song and tell you to play it over again—“Mike, you’re rushing”—a fucking bazillion times because he doesn’t want to fuck it up or play it for you himself? There’s almost no one else I’ve seen like him. PARRISH: He wasn’t telling us what to play, but he had a massive role in how we sounded. He had a huge interest in what we were doing other than this band. He wanted to hear other influences, he wanted to hear other things we’d been doing. That, I think, helped him understand where we were trying to go with this thing. He was amazing to work with. He made great jokes, there was no tension or stress. I mean, we had stressful moments, but it wasn’t because of him. We had time constraints, but he made it work. BURNETTE: He was such a fun guy to hang out and track with. And man, he brutalized the guitar players. You would just play shit over and over and over. It wasn’t as bad for me; I was just playing bass. [Laughs] But the guitar players, they would just play the same [thing], like, “Let’s go back and hit this one part again.” And they would play it over and over and over. He would just click the keyboard—“And again!” And you’d finish. Click! “And again!” Click! “And again!” NORRIS: There wasn’t this full-on back-and-forth between me and Devin when we were working on my side of the record. I grew up idolizing the guy. Ocean Machine was one of my first favorite records I fell in love with. I was a super fan at the time and I kind of held back a little bit on, “Maybe we can do this, maybe we can do that.” I don’t know how much he had to play with that, where I was just listening and doing every single thing he said without any kind of contradiction. What I remember he was integral in, it was our first record on a click track. We sat with Devin and really worked on mapping the tempos a lot. Devin really was a genius on that. When things are getting a little stressful—let’s say you have a hard riff that you just aren’t pulling off for some reason and you’re getting frustrated with yourself—he was great at relieving that anxiety.

That one was really troublesome because we kept trying to edit the structure. I had even made Devin set up a separate computer in a different part of the studio where I could edit and move parts of it around, but I couldn’t crack the code of what I felt was going to be the right structure. And then John came in and put the vocals down, and they’re this linear storytelling type song and it’s so awesome. It just all fell into place. It’s a song we really only play when we play the album in its entirety. HENRY: I remember doing vocals at Devin’s house. He had a little studio in his basement and I was singing up against a wall of Devin Townsend Band merch, piles of T-shirts and hoodies. I wasn’t in an [isolation] booth or anything. I would do a take and then I’d kind of look over and be like, “Eh? What do you think? Was that cool?” [Laughs] But I really appreciated that because back then I didn’t feel so comfortable in the studio. It was nice to actually be just in someone’s basement recording.

Young lads, indeed  Darkest Hour poses with Devin Townsend (c) while recording Undoing Ruin in Vancouver, circa March 2005

APRIL 2025 : 4 6 : DECIBEL

Cradle Of Filth The Screaming Of The Valkyries

Imperial Triumphant Goldstar

Bodybox 3

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DARKEST HOUR undoing ruin

probably a little too emotionally attached just because of the nature of the subject matter. It was all so personal for me. But it did sell well for us. “[With] a Thousand Words [to Say but One]” is still one of our most popular songs. I can’t remember a tour that we haven’t played that song. NORRIS: The reception for me was guitar guys coming up and talking to me at shows now and asking about guitar-related things. It was amazing on my side because people were like, “Oh, shit, solos!” There were more personalized questions. It’s not just giving formulaic answers [about] “What’s the history of the band?” We’re playing to kind of new fan bases as well because of the style change and all the new additional elements. Everything else we did in the band opened us up to tour with alternative bands that maybe we couldn’t tour with before. We were new and fresh to them at the time. Victory Records promoted Undoing Ruin as “The Album of the Decade.” What was your reaction to that declaration? NORRIS: “What the fuck are they thinking!?” BURNETTE: [Laughs] Everything other than support for that statement. When we saw that, we were like, “They can’t say that shit!” What artist is going to ever say anything like that? We thought it was nuts. We probably gave it more attention than anyone else did. Everybody else just took the record for what it was. [Laughs] But we thought that was insane. PARRISH: They hadn’t heard probably half the cool shit that had happened around that time. [Laughs] They didn’t know the shit we were listening to because they were a hardcore label. We weren’t happy about it because we were like, “Man, that is too pretentious and we’re not like that.” We’re the furthest thing from it. And it put us in a position to have to prove it. It’s just one of those things where our jaws were on the floor like, “Someone needs a finger-pointing and a mean scolding!” [Laughs] HENRY: This was back in Headbangers Ball times. The weekend before the release, they bought every single advertising slot and just spammed this ad. People were pissed off about it. [Laughs] It was always interesting dealing with Victory. But that was a first for us because we had never really had someone push the album so hard or advertise so much. We came from the world of Fugazi only having $5 shows. We would be like, “We can’t charge more than $10 per show, we can’t charge more than $10 for a T-shirt.” Looking back, it’s just like, “Man, why are we focusing on that stuff?” We should have just been focusing on the music. NORRIS: That was a very bold statement to make, and I know personally that I had nothing to do

with that statement. I remember that commercial and all of us pretty much were on the phone like, “What the hell is this?” [By] the same token, who knows? Because we did start having bigger sales, we had more people at the shows. Maybe people were like, “OK, well, we gotta check this out.” SCHLEIBAUM: This version was bad at owning the talent that was there. For as much as Victory was the enemy in part of this band’s history, I have to call it out when I can and say that without some of that passion, without the balls to say that, we wouldn’t be where we were at and people wouldn’t have taken us as seriously. But from an artistic perspective? Man, do you want to know how fucking embarrassing it got? I’ll fucking tell you. Do you know what the [promotional] sticker said? “Darkest Hour will eat Slayer for breakfast.” We were like, “What the fuck is wrong with you? We like Slayer! They’re not going to take us on tour if they see that!” Also, have you ever met a Slayer fan who likes to be told that anything’s better than Slayer? No! That’s not how you win Slayer fans, man! They didn’t care about the legacy of the band; they just cared about selling records. It’s hard to get us to all agree on anything, but we all agree we were embarrassed and blindsided by that ad campaign. Do you think being on Victory helped or hindered the band’s reach with metal fans? Do you feel this record could have been even bigger if it was released by a label like Century Media or Metal Blade? PARRISH: Hindered. Period. End of story. If we

had been on a metal label, everything would have been different, but we were pigeonholed. Everybody thought we wanted to be At the Gates, which is the fucking dumbest shit I’ve ever heard. If we weren’t on Victory, it would have been a totally different story because we would have toured with metal bands. We would have been on their radar and we just weren’t. Metal bands just didn’t take us seriously because they were being told we sound like At the Gates, and who knows how many people didn’t listen to us because of that. And I love At the Gates! The only thing I gotta say is that Tomas Lindberg told us that we didn’t sound like At the Gates and that’s all I needed to hear! When the guy tells you that, then it’s over—the conversation is dead. That argument is over. BURNETTE: It probably would have been bigger if we were on a metal label that had a lot of other metal bands on it. But there’s times where I feel like I was glad we weren’t. I kind of like the idea of being on the outside and by ourselves a lot, especially with tours. Being able to tour with different bands, I can’t tell you how awesome it was. We did a tour with Cursive one time, and that was amazing. Some of my favorite tours are the ones where it wouldn’t really make sense APRIL 2025 : 4 8 : DECIBEL

to anybody. And honestly, sometimes the metal attitude on tours is very rough. HENRY: When the band started, Mike and I were hardcore kids. Integrity, Snapcase, Earth Crisis, Deadguy, we loved all these bands on Victory. So, when we got the opportunity, we were like, “Oh shit, hell yeah!” We also didn’t really realize what we were doing. I remember when we signed the deal, it was three albums and two options. I didn’t know what the hell an option was. I think it would have been better if it had been on a Century Media or Nuclear Blast or Metal Blade or something like that. But, you know, it wasn’t. Being on Victory did get us exposed to that world. Looking back, I wouldn’t have signed the contract. Maybe one or two records, but five albums? I mean, shit. This band’s been around 30 years and we have 10 albums. Half of our career on one label, that’s a lot. SCHLEIBAUM: The album would have done better on Metal Blade, no question about it. Metal Blade seems to be more into investing in the longevity of the artist where Victory was more into investing in the arc of the album deal. But again, it’s really easy for people that weren’t there to make Victory the enemy. Sure, it could have done better on something else, but without Victory, it wouldn’t have done well at all—possibly have not been heard. Had we not been signed, we wouldn’t have been on Ozzfest. There’s no way we would have afforded that buy-on. Had we not been on Ozzfest, had we not been on this label that was promoting the band, had we not been on a label that had the money to hire Devin? So, do I think it would have done better on Metal Blade? Yes. But everybody’s got the same Spotify account now. I think the one thing I’m thankful for is that people remember it, regardless of where it was originally put out. I mean, it’s outlived Victory. Undoing Ruin came out during the era when metalcore was the hot button issue, and many lumped Darkest Hour in with the subgenre. To you, how fair was that association? SCHLEIBAUM: I think now, me personally and the band’s current vibe is: Fine, fuck it. We’re metalcore. Whatever. It’s helpful for people to figure out where we fit in some sort of timeline that matters to them. After a while, Nirvana becomes classic rock. Living in 2025 where you have Gojira playing the fucking Olympics, you’re in a place where Darkest Hour is universally heavy metal. While we wanted to just be metal, the thing is, we were different. We dressed different. We came from a different place. We were influenced by metal bands, but also other bands. We did a lot of weird touring. It was helpful to have some way for people to understand what that was then, but I also think the way people understand music is different now.

DBHOF244

DARKEST HOUR undoing ruin “Do you know what the [promotional] sticker said? ‘Darkest Hour will eat Slayer for breakfast.’ We were like, ‘What the fuck is wrong with you? We like Slayer! They’re not going to take us on tour if they see that!’ Also, have you ever met a Slayer fan who likes to be told that anything’s better than Slayer? No!”

PARRISH: Let me be positive. Victory Records, in

a way, got us into people’s ears that otherwise probably would have never given metal bands a chance. I can’t tell you how many metalcore bands that we toured with who all grew up listening to Darkest Hour. That was huge. And some of those people have gone on to do metal bands. Metal maybe got a little more tangible for people who otherwise would have never given it a shot. There’s maybe the pro of it. But the con is that the scene that I think would have embraced us wholly had we not been perceived as a metalcore and/or hardcore band hated it because they had to. Man, metal people are purists. And if they don’t get what they need, they’ll take a dump on it without even listening to it. And I’m not talking shit on metalcore. Please, please understand. I am not saying metalcore is this disingenuous art form. But when you don’t feel like your band sounds that way and that’s all people want to pigeonhole you as and then they don’t listen to you or they judge you because of it, shit gets silly! NORRIS: People listen to their own genres and their own styles. If there’s two trajectories, it helped on one side, but not on the other. That tag didn’t let us try and do both sides at once. I remember at [California] Metal Fest sitting at the hotel bar with Muhammed [Suiçmez] from Necrophagist. He knew who we were and he knew that we were getting bigger as a band, but he’d never heard us because of that tag. We were on his radar by band name only—not by sound—because of that tag. I think it’s changed a lot over the years, but back then, there were people that wouldn’t listen to us because they were like, “John Henry looks like Harry Potter.”

BURNETTE: I don’t know if I really cared. I think probably most people don’t want to belong to a label. It’s like, “I’m an artiste, man. You can’t label what I do.” But I guess people gotta call it something. We were like, “We’re Swedishstyle melodic metal.” But I’m sure that doesn’t mean anything to most people anyway. Ask any artist to pigeonhole themselves, they probably wouldn’t want to do it either. HENRY: Still to this day, people can consider us a metalcore band and it’s such a bad word for so many people. I feel like metalcore is like emo—what it is now is not what it was when it started. When it started, it was bands like Earth Crisis, Integrity, Converge, all these hardcore bands that had metal influences. And that’s what we were when we started. And then we discovered At the Gates and we’re like, “Well, we want to do this now.” It really was this kind of marriage of hardcore and metal, so it makes sense to call it metalcore. But of course, then it evolves—or devolves, or whatever you want to say—and it turns into a different sound. All of a sudden, all the bands had a fast Swedish part and then an emo-sounding chorus. It just became this thing that we didn’t really feel like that was us at all. For a long time, I was a little butthurt about it and I didn’t like being associated with metalcore. Nowadays, the genre lines are so blurred anyways. I don’t even really think about it at all. If someone asks, “What’s your band?” I just say, “It’s a metal band.”

“Convalescence” and “Sound the Surrender” got pro-shot music videos. What were those experiences like? SCHLEIBAUM: Oh god, crazy! For “Convalescence,” [director Dale Restighini’s] whole theme is APRIL 2025 : 50 : DECIBEL

playing under a bridge by a whole bunch of barrels on fire. As soon as he lights the barrels, all the cops come and they go, “You don’t got a permit.” So then everything else has to be, like, CGI fire. The whole thing went crazy. It was just like, How was this even going to make a good video? Honestly, in the end, the director did a really good job with that. But at the time, we really didn’t know anything about music videos and it felt like it was not going well. PARRISH: “Convalescence” was a fucking guerrilla project under a bridge that we burned fire barrels and the police came. It was fucking sick. [Laughs] We had to get it done fast. If you’ve ever seen the video, there’s a part where Kris is doing the solo leaning on the bridge scaffolding. That shit was a joke at first, but then the guy shot it and he’s like, “This shit looks awesome!” And then we fucking used it, of course. That’s the classic: You hang your dick out or you do something weird to your face and that’s the one that the magazine uses. It was a mess in a great way. HENRY: “Convalescence” was crazy. The budget was massive. That was shot on film—a big Panavision or whatever—because it was before the digital cameras and stuff. There was a crane there doing these swooping shots, which would now be just a drone shot or something. It was wild, man. We had a trailer to hang out in. Looking back, it’s like, Holy crap, why the hell did they spend so much money doing that? [Laughs] But that’s just what it was back then. SCHLEIBAUM: The second music video was made with a longtime friend of ours [Joseph Pattisall], and he pulled out all the stops. He knocked it out of the park with that one. A lot of our reaction to what was happening was due to our complete inexperience. Both of the directors did a

PHOTO BY GLENN COCOA

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DARKEST HOUR undoing ruin

really amazing job with the budgets they had. At the time, we were super uncomfortable doing it and we had no idea what the hell we were doing. But these early videos, regardless of all those flaws, still are really cool. What were the shows like during the Undoing Ruin cycle?

“The only thing I gotta say is that Tomas Lindberg told us that we didn’t sound like At the Gates and that’s all I needed to hear! When the guy tells you that, then it’s over— the conversation is dead. That argument is over.”

RYA N PA RRISH to just play through it. It was a crazy time. But I wouldn’t change any of that, for sure. It was a pretty special time for me. If given the chance, is there anything you would have changed about the album? BURNETTE: The short and the long answer is no. Man, I was really thankful. We got to see a lot of cool stuff, meet tons of people I still keep in contact [with] today. We did a whole lot after that record came out, and that’s exactly what we wanted to do—go everywhere, do it all, say yes to everything. NORRIS: No, I don’t think so. I was happy with almost every single thing on there. The only thing I’m unhappy with of the whole entire record and the whole process of it is that stupid ad campaign. PARRISH: I know at the end of “Tranquil,” there was supposed to be a massive tom section playing along at the end that I thought could have been louder. That’s so stupid, but that’s the only thing I would say. I mean, if we could have gotten off the Victory contract, we would have. But that’s just the kids in us. We didn’t know what we were doing. It was big for what it was considering who put it out, but I think it could have been even more if we had just had that perception, that aesthetic that just wasn’t there. Victory, they robbed us blind with that. That’s, like, our highest-selling record of all time and we’ve got nothing to show for it except for this interview and the fact that people care, which is important. HENRY: I don’t think I would change anything about how it came out. Personally, I would have APRIL 2025 : 5 2 : DECIBEL

made some changes. Maybe I would have gone to therapy or something, learned how to communicate with the other guys a little better. I was 25 years old, super passionate, going through a lot of shit. I would have tried to have more fun with it. Because of the subject matter, it was really hard for me to take criticism because the lyrics were so personal to me. If I could go back and change anything, yeah—I would go to therapy. [Laughs] SCHLEIBAUM: I don’t think there’s anything that I would have changed about the album. But looking back, the pressure of time, the pressure of being the person who sold the band to Ozzfest via Victory, sold the band on the idea of taking the advance and go to Devin and was the guy sort of at the epicenter, I’m sure that a younger version of myself handled that with some pinpoint direct… we could say honesty, but it’s probably more aggression. I possibly regret how intense I was in that period of my life. Now that I’m older, I have a little bit more perspective of life outside of making these records and being in a band. But at the time, it literally was the most important thing to me in the world. You can burn a lot down when you have that perspective. Devin says it all when he’s like, “Mike, you’re rushing.” That’s how the whole experience felt. If I could do anything again, it would be what Devin was telling me to also do, which is sit back on it a little bit, just let it happen. And either way, we have an amazing album to appreciate for it. As an artist, that’s really all you’re hoping for in the end. You want to enjoy it a little on the way, too.

PHOTO BY GLENN COCOA

NORRIS: Exciting, but also nerve-wracking as well because now there’s solos and it’s like, Man, I don’t want to mess this up. We’re also climbing as a band. On previous tours, you go to Chicago, you play the same venue every time. But now that we have a wider audience, it’s a new record cycle, we’re playing new, bigger venues. There’s that excitement of, Holy shit, we’ve never played this place before! This is cool! BURNETTE: 2006 is where we went everywhere. At one point, Ryan was like, “We should have a shirt like, ‘The Undoing Ruin World Tour,’ and we’ll put everywhere we’ve been on one shirt.” So, we started going through all the tour dates and the cities. On the back of this shirt, the print was so tiny, it looked crazy. [Laughs] It was just columns of stuff. It was pretty impressive. Sometimes you’re just going too fast; we just blew right by the roses. SCHLEIBAUM: In some ways, they aren’t that different than they are today. But the energy around the album and the sound of metalcore, if you will, was fresh. There was this kind of air of we knew better than everyone else in the world because we all felt like we were on the edge of where metal was going. Nowadays, we’re celebrating our 30th anniversary. We have 10 records. We have a sound that’s to be celebrated, but that’s different than being a band that’s at the edge of pushing where the sonics of metal are going. It was really cool to be a part of that energy and also be able to be a part of where music was at that time. In a lot of ways, Undoing Ruin was sort of that bridge between, “Are we going to be able to do this?” to, “Now we have to book a European tour. Now we have to go to Japan. Now we got to go to Australia.” HENRY: They were still pretty punk. We were playing smaller clubs, but they would be packed. We were savages, man. We were living out of the van, barely showering, playing and really putting all our passion into the live show. I look back on these shows and we’re just out of control. I had no technique back then. I was hardly singing to the mic. We were just five dudes out there in a stinky van, sleeping on people’s floors, not sleeping enough, partying every night. It was fun, but definitely not a lifestyle that’s very sustainable. No one really thought about things like burnout or mental/ physical health. If you got sick, you just gotta tough it out. [Laughs] We can’t cancel, you have

DECIBEL : APRIL 2025 : 53

 Beast mode Gary Holt and Exodus are ready to celebrate 40 years of their landmark debut album in full. Are you?

EXODUS, DISMEMBER, PIG DESTROYER, DEMOLITION HAMMER AND DARKEST HOUR PREPARE LESSONS IN LIVER VIOLENCE FOR METAL & BEER FEST: PHILLY 2025 BY KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

HI,

Philadelphia! How you doin’? It’s Decibel again, ready to descend upon

and decimate your town once more. On April 4 and 5, we’re bringing a killer lineup of classic and emerging extreme music—and some of craft beer’s tastiest concoctions—to the Fillmore for our eighth year of ear evisceration, liver liquidation and bank account butchering, a.k.a. Metal & Beer Fest: Philly. If we said, “stop us if you’ve heard this before,” the next three to four pages would be blank, except for spilled beer and coaster ring stains. But our annual gathering of crushing sounds and crushing cold ones on the lip of the Delaware River continues to improve year upon year, and we can’t stop talking about it! Leave it to Melissa Moore, bassist/vocalist in metallic goth rockers Sonja, to sum up and lay out the festival’s overarching theme: “Beer drinking has always been a part of metal. It’s an inextricably linked, assumed combination that works together. It just feels really good to listen to metal while drinking beer.” 54 : APRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING By now you’ve read our long-form touting of

past metal and beer gatherings in Philly (and Denver, and previously in L.A.). Attendees have had both their ears and palates lovingly attacked and caressed, while those unable to experience sipping and slamming in person have heard wildfire rumors about the random fun that happens when metal and beer’s moving parts are crammed into one spot. Those who scour album credits will recognize Arthur Rizk as the production whiz for Blood Incantation, Power Trip, Crypt Sermon, Cavalera Conspiracy, Kreator and countless others. He played the 2018 Metal & Beer Fest: Philly with Sumerlands and has since been a yearly fixture at PHOTO BY HILL ARIE JA SON

the Fillmore. This time he’s back in performance mode with sword-swinging epic fantasy metallers Eternal Champion, and is looking forward to ticking more shenanigans off his bingo card. “Without beer, shows would be too peaceful and pleasant,” he says with a wink, nudge and tongue planted firmly in cheek. “No one would bother us, bump into us or talk loudly in our faces. Beer makes it so that people can experience whatever emotions they can’t express when they’re not slamming beers. “But seriously,” he continues, “I’ve attended almost every year, and the lineups are always interesting, even with straight-edge hardcore bands and fans. The flea market aspect is fun; fans from all generations love the opportunity to check out bands from all generations while checking out new beers. On top of it, I’ll end up sharing a joint with Dave Mustaine, like I did one year, or get to hang out with Richard Christy, or witness Scott Burns and Glen Benton share a conversation. There’s always a surprise around the corner.” The appearance of death/thrash veterans Demolition Hammer in Saturday’s direct support slot will be the band’s first Metal & Beer showing. After finally locking his band down after a couple years of logistics-juggling and phone tag, bassist/vocalist Steve Reynolds can hardly contain his enthusiasm about being part of the bill. Amazingly, it will also be Demolition Hammer’s first-ever Philadelphia show! “We’ve been aware of the festival since getting back together and would always remind our booking agent about trying to get on it,” he confesses. “For one reason or another, it never happened. When we got the call and offer for this year, we were super psyched, man! I’ve never been, but my girlfriend went one year and a lot of bands and friends tell us about how it’s a great fest and a killer time. This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time.” If you’ve picked up a copy of Decibel Books’ Into Everlasting Fire: The Official Story of Immolation, it was revealed how much of the early Yonkers, NY death metal scene coalesced around hanging out in parking lots and parks with beers and boom boxes. “Sixth borough” native Reynolds was a part of that particular methodological discovery along with Immolation’s Ross Dolan and Bob Vigna (who are scheduled to be on hand to meet, greet and sign copies), and loves how the worlds of beer and metal have existed as a common thread throughout his time on Planet Metal. “Going back to my formative years, listening to music with friends and turning each other on to bands usually went hand-in-hand with drinking beers. It’s a natural junction. I’ve been drinking beer my whole life and started with the cheap stuff and whatever we could get our hands on. As I got older, I’d try all kinds of different beer, find the stuff I like and come back

to it—usually lagers that aren’t too heavy, so I can keep putting them down—but I’ll definitely be sampling a lot of what’s available.”

THE CITY OF BROTHERLY SUDS Like Rizk, Devil Master guitarist Infernal

Moonlight Apparition has been a repeat face in the crowd at Metal & Beer Fest: Philly. It’ll be the Brotherly Love vampire’s second fest appearance—they played the 2019 pre-party— and their first time on the massive mainstage where I.M.A. is looking forward to representing the “fighting spirit of the Rocky city” alongside fellow locals Sonja, Unholy Altar and (most of) Eternal Champion.

AN EXODUS SHOW WHERE PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE DRUNK ON EXTREMELY FINE BEERS AND WE’RE PLAYING WHAT IS, IN MY HUMBLE AND TOTALLY UNBIASED OPINION, THE GREATEST THRASH METAL ALBUM OF ALL TIME?

I’M EXTREMELY EXCITED. PEOPLE ARE GOING TO DIE! Gary Holt, Exodus

“The lineups are always really eclectic and very cool,” he praises. “It’s always like a ‘something for everybody’ scenario and a great example of what’s going on in music now while highlighting legendary moments from metal’s history. There are people seeing and hearing bands for the first time. It’s a cool discovery moment for a lot of people.” Sonja’s Moore is especially psyched about Metal & Beer: Philly being a hometown show (“I can literally walk to the Fillmore from my place!”), and is also stoked about the spotlight the fest shines on the city’s scene.

“The fact that you have a lot of extreme bands playing in Philadelphia on the scale it’s promoted at makes it distinct to me. The beer component is an extra element that is cool and interesting, and I’m glad it all works together for both the beer-obsessed people and those like me who feel it’s the music that brings it all together.” The Philly contingent will be joined by New York death/doomers Funeral Leech and Indianapolis’ Mother of Graves, North Dakotan death metal maulers, um, Maul and Bay Area crushers Vastum. Decibel mainstays Pig Destroyer (“I feel like there’s a mafia mentality between Decibel and Pig Destroyer,” reasons vocalist J.R. Hayes. “Albert is like family, so if he calls we’re going to make it happen”) will be returning for an unprecedented fifth Metal & Beer Fest appearance with new keyboard/sampler/noise guy Alex Cha replacing the late Blake Harrison and what Hayes hopes is a set that “includes some old songs. We haven’t played anything off the first album for a really, really long time and we’re trying to make that a priority. People should watch out for errant stage dives from Alex, though.” The fest will also be hosting Darkest Hour doing their inducted-into-the-Hall of Fame-inthis-very-issue album Undoing Ruin; Swe-death royalty in the form of Dismember, who will be unearthing their classic Like an Ever Flowing Stream; and Exodus, who will be celebrating the 40th anniversary of their Bonded by Blood debut. And appearing for the first time ever— bouncing the ol’ glass sandwich off the hull of April 4—are cross-state rivals/Pittsburghbased crusty thrashers Vicious Blade, who are elated to be showcasing their debut full-length, Relentless Force. Pipes in vocalist Clarissa Badini: “I’m a bartender, so beer and I, we’re pretty close, ya know? I usually end up covered in it. I usually end up covered in beers at shows, too. When it comes to indulging, I’m a fan of lighter lagers and pilsners for sure, and want to give props to New Trail Brewing; I’m stoked to try anything by them!” One thing Badini will be stoked to try is the beer New Trail is doing in collaboration with her band. The Williamsport, PA-based brewery might be a relative newcomer to Metal & Beer Fest festivities, having made their first on-site appearance last year, but regional sales representative Erin Dintinger knew exactly what she was walking into. “I personally have been a part of every Decibel Metal & Beer Fest since it first launched. I have worked it with multiple breweries I’ve worked at, as well as working with friends’ breweries. It’s my favorite fest of the year to be a part of. It’s truly unique, the way it connects beer and metalheads into this beautiful chaotic weekend DECIBEL : APRIL 2025 : 55

AT THIS FEST, I GET TO ACTUALLY WATCH/ LISTEN TO BANDS I WANT TO SEE. I GET TO MEET PEOPLE FROM ACROSS THE U.S. AND THE WORLD AND SHARE OUR BEER WITH THEM. Erin Dintinger, New Trail Brewing Company

[with] people who range in age, location, beer knowledge and band knowledge. General beer fests usually are only a few hours outside in whatever weather with a crowd-pleasing cover band or DJ. At this fest, I get to actually watch/ listen to bands I want to see. I get to meet people from across the U.S. and the world and share our beer with them. In my experience, the metal community always shows up; they always come correct and actually care to ask about what beers you have and what bands they’re excited to see. I find getting the chance to work within any aspect of the metal community very special.” New Trail is one of the breweries who will be on hand to pour their wares for those wanting to show their tongues a good time the old-fashioned way. Once again presented by one of metal’s most metal of breweries, 3 Floyds, Metal & Beer Fest: Philly will offer pours from WarPigs, Magnanimous, Adroit Theory, TRVE, XUL, Imprint, Attic, Nepenthe, Smoldered Society, Thin Man, and flagship meadery Brimming Horn. The latter will have a special surprise on hand: having their beer brewing arm, Bear Cult, in the house for the first time. “There’s definitely a lot of creativity on the brewing side, and it lends itself especially well to metal,” says Infernal Moonlight Apparition. 56 : APRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

“A lot of brewers are people who are metalheads who have been in bands, and I’ve met a lot of dudes who started off in music and went on to work in the beer industry. There’s a lot of interconnection between the worlds. There’s a lot of thinking outside the box and respect and response to the DIY aspect of both products.” To that point, the staff page of Brimming Horn’s website lists J.R. Walker as “business manager and black metal extraordinaire.” Accordingly, he has played in “numerous black metal projects for 20+ years” while juggling a career in alcohol creativity. “Mead is actually considered the oldest fermented beverage known to mankind, predating beer and wine by hundreds—if not thousands—of years,” Walker explains. “With craft alcohol, it has so many different ‘genres’ that it mixes with metal so well. There’s an art to mead and beer-making just like there is with music. Plus, metal fans just seem to have a more open mind when it comes to everything in general. Even though we all may look scary and evil, they’re [always] the most supportive and kindest people. People at sporting events or other music genres just want their Budweiser or their IPA, and anything else is stupid. Honestly, it’s weird how a lot of those people react to mead.

BONDED BY BEER Somewhat shockingly, when Exodus hit the stage

as night-two headliners, it’ll be only the second time in their history playing the legendary Bonded by Blood front to back. “Well…,” corrects guitarist Gary Holt, “the second announced and advertised time. We’ve done shows and tours in South America where it was ‘An Evening with Exodus’ where we inadvertently played the whole album because they’re maniacs down there.” It will also be the first time Exodus and Holt (who will also be signing copies of his A Fabulous Disaster memoir—penned with Decibel’s own Adem Tepedelen) will be playing a festival exclusively dedicated to metal and beer. And he’s bristling with anticipation, even if his relationship with neck-oil has shifted immensely over the years: from shotgunning beers in the parking lot across from Ruthie’s Inn (“I’ve been drinking beer longer than I’ve been playing guitar!” he chuckles) to his Slayer days, when his show-day ritual called for beer before, during and after the show, to present-day abstinence. “My wife said one day, ‘You don’t realize how much you’re drinking,’ and when I started counting, it was a little out of control.” Still, even if he only tucks into non-alcoholic brands these days—“it’s amazing how many good non-alcoholic beers there are. My favorite is Sam Adams’ Just the Haze IPA”—he has always had an eye on Metal & Beer Fest through his pint glass. “I’ve always looked at the fest because it sounded like it would be a good time. I’ll be living vicariously through our band beer guy, [guitarist] Lee Altus, as he samples everything and I’m expecting nothing low-key about this. An Exodus show where people are going to be drunk on extremely fine beers and we’re playing what is, in my humble and totally unbiased opinion, the greatest thrash metal album of all time? I’m extremely excited,” he says, before adding with a laugh, “People are going to die!”

PHOTO BY A . J. K INNE Y

GENERAL BEER FESTS USUALLY ARE ONLY A FEW HOURS OUTSIDE IN WHATEVER WEATHER WITH A CROWD-PLEASING COVER BAND OR DJ.

“[For the fest] we’ll be redoing our mead we did with Eternal Champion—our fastest-selling collaboration ever,” he continues. “We’re working with the Dismember guys on something special, and Bear Cult will be doing a beer for Demolition Hammer. “The Bear Cult beer is exclusively for the festival,” enthuses Reynolds. “That’s an honor, something I’m excited about and will definitely be doing some damage with! I’m also excited about seeing Exodus. I’m a huge fan and have always felt that if there was a ‘Big 5’ of thrash, they’d be up there.” “They were a huge influence on me as a thrash kid,” adds Infernal Moonlight Apparition. “I remember watching the Combat Tour [Live: The Ultimate Revenge] VHS over and over growing up.”

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58 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

IS JUST ANOTHER BEGINNING Behold the overwhelming power of resurrected Swedish death metal legends and Metal & Beer Fest Philly co-headliners

STORY BY

chris dick PHOTOS BY shimon karmel

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| A P R 2 0 2 5D E C I B E L : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 3 : 5 9

(svnrise over) historia mortis

a history of Like an Ever Flowing Stream is a pregame requirement before

Dismember override our collective craniums at Metal & Beer Fest: Philly 2025, then Deathibel has it covered in our Hall of Fame Anthology: Volume III book (starting on page 146). Cross-promotion is our strongest suit, apparently. In that 5,000-word piece, erstwhile contributor/Cretin bassist Matt Widener captured most of the highlights and even managed to seize magister Nicke Andersson, who had an outsized influence on Dismember, between death breaths for a rare but insightful quote. ¶ Decibel and others have levied heavily and collected many memories about Like an Ever Flowing Stream before, but this one is personal. Yours truly had the gumption to scrawl Dismember’s most elegiac and mysterious phrase, “From dream to dream we have always been like an ever flowing stream,” on a blackboard in my high school geometry class in 1991. Attribution was to a Sir M. Karki (a.k.a. Matti Kärki), if memory serves correctly. My teacher, erudite and humorless, says flatly, “That’s poetic, Chris. I’d like to read more of Mr. Karki’s work, but now, please sit down.” My death metal-addled brain immediately went to the closing line in “Skin Her Alive,” Dismember’s second-most famous song: “Blood colors my thoughts / Slipping out of time / Murder is my crime / Skin her fucking alive.” Smitten, but not by geometry. Teenagers. “That phrase, or part of it, came from me,” Kärki chuckles, bemused by my semi-courageous hijinks. “When I was a kid, I worked at a newspaper printing plant. I saw this phrase in English, which I think was, ‘Time, like an everflowing stream,’ and I thought it sounded so cool, so I memorized it. I don’t remember whose quote it was or its context, but it’s ours now.” “As I recall, the article was about time, and it had a grim reaper on it,” says Dismember drummer Fred Estby. “The ‘From dream to dream’ part hit me one day. The words sat there for a while until I realized the entire phrase had to be at the beginning of the last song, ‘In Death’s Sleep.’ We were almost ready to record [at Sunlight Studio], and I had written the last riff to ‘In Death’s Sleep’ around the same time. They were kind of meant to be together—death metal history!” The magical, borderless thinking of youth had combined with an inextinguishable drive to form Like an Ever Flowing Stream, an album that had sold over 20,000 copies in the few months of release in late 1991—much to the surprise of their German label, Nuclear Blast—and is now not only genre-defining, but also positively critical to hordes of longhairs and HM-2 hopefuls. There is no mention of Swedish death metal without Dismember and their 31-minute (sans CD bonus tracks) flamethrower. Some have argued that it placed too low, at #13, on our soldthe-fuck-out Top 100 Death Metal Albums of All Time special issue, but that’s a fistfight for another day. As is the incessant fight-fire-with-fire parley with Entombed’s classic Hall of Famer, Left Hand Path. Grown-ups. 60 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

“Like an Ever Flowing Stream is one of the most influential records for us,” says 19-year-old Ville Esbjörn, guitarist/vocalist of Swedish upstarts Impurity. “Entombed’s Left Hand Path is entitled to the same praise and fame, of course. I’d like to believe that the youth of death metal here is unanimous in that these two records are equally important.” “Like an Ever Flowing Stream has a lot of meaning to us,” 23-year-old bassist Birk Castenmalm of Swedish brutes Xorsist exclaims. “The thing is, I think all of us started our Swedish death metal journey with another classic, Entombed’s Left Hand Path. However, once we all got to hear LAEFS, that’s where the true love for the ‘Swedish sound’ began. Knowing that there was more of this amazing music and sound, we all wanted to be a part of it! We consider LAEFS to be our ‘Riff Bible.’ Even though our sound evolves, we always come back to it.” The kids are gonna be alright if they’re digging up the old bones of “Override of the Overture,” “Skin Her Alive” and “Dismembered”—Castenmalm calls it a “killing machine”—generations later. While much of the fervor, at least in Sweden, centers on Klubb Fredagsmangel, a small, bustling club northwest of Stockholm, back in the States, Dismember’s three-decade-old ichor has oozed into rising stars Gatecreeper, whose most recent barnburner, Dark Superstition, was chaperoned during pre-production by none other than Estby. “We have been talking with Fred about working with us in some capacity for many years,” says Gatecreeper frontman Chase H. Mason, APR 2025 |

| DECIBEL

who cites Massive Killing Capacity as his go-to. “It finally worked out that he could visit us in Arizona while we were working on the songs for Dark Superstition, and it just happened organically from there. There was no specific role for him other than giving us suggestions to improve our songs. He is a hero, and we value his input and ideas.”

psyched for an ever flowing stream

We might be America’s only monthly metal mag-

azine. We might be old enough to drink—our 20th Anniversary Show went swimmingly last August. And we might be the only magazine to have verticals in touring (the Decibel Magazine Tour), books (Decibel Books), records (Decibel Records) and festivals (Metal & Beer Fest: Philly and Denver). There’s certainly a coffin-load of toil in our endeavors. That said, we aren’t the originators of the “full-album set” movement, but such salutes have been legion under our proverbial red flag. Tradition moves forward with legends Dismember. The last time the Swedes were in striking distance of the City of Brotherly Love was on the Dismembering North America tour with Suffocation and Vader in 1993. “I asked the band, and they were down with it,” says Estby. “We don’t normally do things like this, but it’s Decibel asking. We had to do it. I’m looking forward to a really good time. We’re going to have a special T-shirt design with some Philly things thrown in; like instead of the dragons [on the cover], it will be the Phillie Phanatic and Gritty. [Laughs] Seriously, it’ll be a cool design.” “I’m excited,” bassist Richard Cabeza adds. “I think it’s gonna be fun. We’re all looking forward to it. I’ve heard a lot of good things about the fest, so it’s going to be interesting. I get to try some beers I’ve never had before, but first and foremost, we’re coming to Philly to raise hell, tear it up. We’re going to show Philly what death metal is really about, a deadly dose of fucking Swedish death metal. It’s not old-school—it’s death fucking metal!” The Fetid Five have performed Like an Ever Flowing Stream front-to-back before, notably at the Graveland Festival in the Netherlands in 2023. This show, along with a litany of festival appearances last year—including Maryland and California Deathfests, Hellfest and Sweden Rock—armed Dismember to the teeth for their Philly debut. Along with fan favorites “Override of the Overture,” “Soon to Be Dead,” “Dismembered” and “Skin Her Alive,” they’re obviously breaking out the rarer tracks, “And So Is Life” and “Sickening Art,” two songs that only recently reappeared in setlists. While they’re tight-lipped about the songs appearing post-“In Death’s Sleep,” it’s confirmed “Deathevocation” and “Defective Decay” won’t buzzsaw Philly.

HEAVY GROOVES

— NO GUITARS!

YEAR

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COBRA

HEAVY MUSIC

PSYCHEDELIC

SLUDGE

TO OF THE MERGE REDEFINE

OUT FEB 28, 2025!

AVAILABLE AS CD DIGIPAK AND LP (BLACK AND LTD. CRYSTAL CLEAR)!

AN IMPRESSIVE SOUND STUDY OF SADNESS AND STRENGTH

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“For me, the album ends with ‘In Death’s Sleep,’” says Cabeza. “So, I’m pretty sure we won’t play either song. We have a lot of songs to choose from. Our setlist is usually between 75 and 90 minutes, and we play very fast. Like an Ever Flowing Stream is 31 minutes, but we finish it in 26—no fucking prisoners! [When we play live] the fire inside of us always takes over. We always give our all when we go up onstage. We’re gonna open the door to 1991 again and kick Philly in the nuts!” “The setlist is always flexible with Dismember,” guitarist David Blomqvist says. “I’d love to play songs we’ve never played from Indecent and Obscene. I’d love to play the killer tracks off Where Ironcrosses Grow and Dismember, too, but I’m pretty sure we’ll be playing a lot of songs from the first four albums. If anything, there will be a few surprises—count on it!” Dismember are a “fan’s band.” They’ve told Decibel they have no qualms about signing sessions free of charge. Everyone’s a VIP to the Swedes. So, in addition to cool, show-specific merch and meeting folks, they’re also working closely with longtime Metal & Beer Fest bros Brimming Horn Meadery, who will offer a Dismember-themed mead called Dreaming in Red. Previous collaborations with Enslaved (Eternal Frost), Agalloch (Scorched Meadows), Incantation (Goat’s Blood) and Immolation (Angels Fall) have been showstoppers, so we expect the Brimming Horn “meadership” to bring it yet again. “Dismember have been my favorite death metal band since I’ve been a kid,” says Robert Walker (a.k.a. J.R.), Brimming Horn Meadery’s Vice President and Business Manager. “It’s a huge honor to work with them. We did make a Dismember/Brimming Horn logo shirt with Like An Ever Flowing Mead on the back. We like to do shirts honoring some of our favorite bands.” “Our creation will be a melomel-style mead,” adds Jon Talkington, meadmaker and founder of Brimming Horn. “This is characterized by the addition of fruit or berries. For this particular blend, we will incorporate lingonberries and bilberries, both native to Scandinavia. The tartness of these berries is expected to beautifully balance the sweetness of the honey, resulting in a rich, flavorful profile. Additionally, the use of these berries will impart a striking red hue to the mead, making it as visually appealing as it is delicious.” To quote the lyrics to “Trendkiller” off Death Metal, “Embittered follower / drink and keep on die for others.” We’re ready, Brimming Horn.

alive after death

Let’s go back in time. Not too far, though. In the

fall of 2011, Dismember called it quits after 23 sordid years together. The message from thenbassist Tobias Cristiansson (currently Necrophobic and In Aphelion) to Borivoj Krgin’s state-sponsored bullhorn Blabbermouth was succinct: “After 62 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

23 years, Dismember have now decided to quit. We wish to thank all our fans for your support.” There’s a lot to unpack in Cristiansson’s curt two-sentence statement. For one, the statement didn’t come from founding member Blomqvist or longtime throat destroyer Kärki. There are probably manifold reasons for this, but at the time it was peculiar. And two, a crucial pillar of the Swedish death metal scene—the so-called “Stockholm Four”—was gone. No celebratory gunfire. No video of them smashing an HM-2 pedal to bits. And definitely no sorrow-filled phone call to dB World HQ.

THE EPITOME OF THE HM-2 ‘SOUND’ WAS— NOT TO TOOT MY OWN HORN— LIKE AN EVER FLOWING STREAM. THAT BEAT EVERYTHING BEFORE.

AND SOMETIMES, I HAVE TO SAY, AFTER, TOO. fred estby

The years before, starting with Where Ironcrosses Grow (2004), The God That Never Was (2006) and unceremoniously ending with the group’s brutish Dismember (2008), had been as active as the halcyon days of the early ’90s. Sure, there was a three-year, no-show gap between 2008 and 2011, but the return of Dismember at the Death Feast Open Air festival in Hünxe, Germany—where they shared the stage with Grave, Exhumed, Morgoth and Vader—wasn’t expected to be one of their last. “At the time, we were trying to live off the band,” says Kärki. “We were touring a lot—not long tours, but a lot of them. That took more energy than anybody had at the time. One day, David contacted me and said he wanted the old members back and that we should stop playing live so often. I understood him immediately. Touring is a hard life. You’re always somewhere else. That gets to people, and I think it got to David. The problem was Tobias, Martin [Persson, guitars], and Thomas [Daun, drums] had put so much into the band. I didn’t feel comfortable replacing them. So, I told David no. Then, he asked me, ‘Are we splitting up then?’ I told him, ‘That’s up to you.’ So, we split up.” APR 2025 |

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“Dismember, at the time, wasn’t really working out financially,” Blomqvist admits. “I started to think, ‘I’m in my 30s,’ and I was wondering if I needed to apply for jobs. What the hell do I tell the companies I’ll eventually work for? I can’t tell them, ‘Oh, I’ve been playing shows in Germany,’ this and that. None of that wouldn’t make sense to a company. I have no what I’d call professional skills. So, I started thinking about my future, which was probably not Dismember.” Apart from the group’s struggles to pocket cash, friendship was also missing in the band dynamic. Despite Blomqvist’s heaps of respect for and love towards Persson, Cristiansson and Daun, all of whom made their mark on cuts like “Death Conquers All,” “Under a Blood Red Sky” and “Dark Depths,” he yearned for reunification with his lifelong friend Estby. True, Blomqvist and Estby’s collaboration crushed it on Dismember centerpiece “No Honor in Death,” but bone-breaking one-offs weren’t going to cut it. And while the Dagger, a heavy metal/hard rock hybrid with Blomqvist and Estby (with Cristiansson and vocalist Jani Kataja also at the fore) smothered their retro-jam needs, it wasn’t death metal, and it certainly wasn’t the savagery and rascality of Dismember. “David and I had started this band called the Dagger [in 2009],” says Estby. “That was more traditional heavy metal or hard rock. We talked a lot about music, life, Dismember and other shit during that time. Kind of like old times, I guess. I wouldn’t say it was like our time in Dismember, ’cause it wasn’t, but it was fun while it lasted until we broke up in 2014. We got one album out, though, which was cool. So, we had been hanging out a bit and playing together, just not in Dismember.” “I remember seeing Fred at the skatepark,” Blomqvist recalls. “He had long hair and a Possessed shirt. I thought, ‘Who the hell is that?’ Back then, it was pretty rare to meet somebody who was into the same shit as I was. Of course, we started talking about bands, and he told me he was a drummer, and I said, ‘Hey, I’m a guitar player.’ We formed Dismember in ’88, and the rest is history. So, long story short, I had missed playing [death metal] with Fred.” Blomqvist wanted to reform Dismember with the 1991 lineup—Blomqvist, Estby, Kärki, Cabeza and guitarist Robert Sennebäck—in 2012, but it wasn’t that the timing wasn’t right. Rather, the feeling was off. While the breakup had been relatively drama-free, the wound was still fresh. Also, re-skewering Persson, Cristiansson and Daun, who had diligently and dutifully served, wasn’t in the cards. For years after, the corpse of Dismember lay undisturbed. Even the fun-as-hell Under Blood Red Skies DVD, issued by Regain, the band’s Swedish label at the time, felt like a distant memory.

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“In 2017, I got a hold of everybody to see if there was time to do a reunion,” says Estby. “Here’s the thing: Dismember is family—a weird one, but we all have to agree on things or it’s not gonna work. At the time, we weren’t on the same page. I wanted it, but others didn’t or couldn’t. Totally cool. So, I decided to be patient, waiting for the right moment to re-ask the question, ‘Are we ready to be Dismember again?’ We’re no spring chickens anymore, so it all finally worked out after we started talking and laughing like teenagers again. In 2019, we brought Dismember back. It had to be professional, though. We dealt with a lot of bullshit in our 20s. Now that we’re in our 50s, we had to mean business.” To get Dismember back onstage and even think about a follow-up to Dismember, Estby and his boys had two ground rules. One, they were, above all, to have fun with it—an adult demand of adolescent origin. If one of the Fearsome Five had an inkling of bullshit or the possibility for strife, the group would discuss it, and they would gracefully bow out or reject, say, a festival proposal, no matter how lucrative. Flying in formation has its benefits, it appears. And two, there were to be, under any circumstances, no touring. That grind had played out ages ago, and the group felt there was no need to ruin a good thing—fun— with new bad experiences road-dogging like it was 1991 (or 1992, when they paid to get on—but received no money from—the now-exalted Campaign for Musical Destruction tour with Napalm Death and Obituary). “It’s not like we’re doing this for the money,” says Sennebäck. “We’re not obligated to anyone but ourselves now. The reunion had to feel like we felt when we started this band in ’88. Everyone was young, but it had a spark—it was fun! We had the drive to do something new. That had to be present as well. I wanted those feelings again if we were to do Dismember seriously. That was important for me, and talking to the other members right before we reformed was also important to them. So, fun was the main parameter for all of us. Once we had the main parameter, we could establish additional parameters. Being in Dismember now is exactly like being inside the band in ’88. It’s really awesome!” “It’s also a business decision,” reveals Estby, whose jack-of-all-trades status includes beancounter. “We’re old now. We play if we can have fun, it’s convenient and it’s not too taxing, where it gets annoying and problematic. The whole reason we reformed the way we did was to eliminate all the bullshit that surrounded us, and most of that was almost always outside of our control. Getting told to ‘live with it’ didn’t work anymore; not for me or anyone else in the band. If one band member isn’t okay with doing a gig, the whole band isn’t. No more gray areas, ’cause that caused problems in the past. So, I’d say reforming Dismember has been a lesson for 64 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

WE’RE GONNA OPEN THE DOOR TO 1991 AGAIN AND KICK PHILLY IN THE NUTS! richard cabeza me. I can be very driven, and when I want something, I tend to get it. Learning to sit back a bit has been good.” Dismember’s first reunion show was at the now-defunct Kraken Sthlm as part of the Scandinavia Deathfest, put on by the fine folks at Maryland Deathfest, in 2019. Outside of Dismember (and other bands), Blomqvist is a subway sanitation technician for the City of Stockholm; Estby is a sound engineer and band manager; Sennebäck is a network engineer; Cabeza is a retired professional chef; and Kärki is a certified trucker.

death by mettle: a track-by-track of

like an ever flowing stream with dismember

“Override of the Overture” is a classic. The eerie intro, main riff, the heaviness and David’s fantastic solo were transformative in 1991. And still are today.

And sometimes, I have to say, after, too. I remember when David was playing, and I was sitting in front of the speakers. He was only playing to the drums I had recorded. No bass yet—just guitar and drums. When he overdubbed the guitar, I said, “This is perfect!” Matti’s vocal performance was also a step up. It was so brutal and attacking. CABEZA: We were going to a show somewhere in Sweden. On the five/six-hour train ride, Fred was fucking around with his guitar and came up with that riff. This must’ve been late 1990/early 1991. It was a very complex song for us at the time. There’s a ton of different parts—slow, fast and melodic. It stands the test of time. I really like playing it live. It’s so intense and aggressive. I fucking bang my head to death. BLOMQVIST: The intro riff has become Dismember’s “Smoke on the Water.” [Laughs] Two of my riffs are in “Override,” which is cool ’cause I didn’t write much of Like an Ever Flowing Stream. Good song, but if we had recorded it today, it’d be two minutes shorter.

ESTBY: The most triumphant and fun part was

getting the guitar sound. I heard the second Nihilist demo [Only Shreds Remain] when they put the HM-2 to the test at Sunlight Studio. I thought, “Okay, this is the heaviest guitar sound ever.” I thought the sound we [collectively with Tomas Skogsberg] got on Carnage and Entombed’s albums was great, but the epitome of the HM-2 “sound” was—not to toot my own horn—Like an Ever Flowing Stream. That beat everything before. APR 2025 |

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“Soon to Be Dead” is relentless. The bleed-in, no-break from “Override of the Overture” and the spoken-word part are classic Slayer tribute. ESTBY: The best metal album—in how it’s laid

out—is Reign in Blood. No question. There’s almost no pause between songs. It’s fucking awesome! Just when you think you’re gonna recover from the last bashing, you’re getting another punch to the face. And that’s kind of what I wanted.

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I also like how it’s short. You don’t expect the follow-up to “Override of the Overture” to hit like that. That bleed-in was intentional. KÄRKI: This song is quite hard to sing. The end of the song has a lot of lyrics, and then I go up [in pitch]. I’m screaming my head off. It’s so hard to do live. There’s such a small space [in the song] to build up the power to make the “Hell awaits me” sound like total anguish and pain. “Bleed for Me” is the sleeper hit. There’s another nod to Slayer with the spoken-word part. ESTBY: Matti did the main riff and vocal idea

for this song. I put this song where it is on the album—the third song—to bring the tempo down a little bit, to get more groove. I like it when albums are set up properly. I like to think of it as our “Dead Skin Mask.” We laugh about the spokenword part, which is me. I sound nasally. Back then, when I did pilot vocals, my pitch sounded like Tom Araya. I could’ve easily done a Slayer cover band when I was younger. So, I think it felt natural to do the spoken-word part. I’ve always loved it when Slayer went off the beaten path. CABEZA: I like listening to it more than playing it. I think we’ve played this song at every show since we wrote it. Maybe not the most fun song to play live, but it’s got the classic Stockholm groove. I’d say there’s quite a bit of Master or Death Strike in this song. SENNEBÄCK: I guess this is our slow song. It’s almost D-beat. It’s a pause from the intensity of the other tracks. It’s fun to play live. Maybe Decibel will get to hear the “special version” of this song. Train your ears! “And So Is Life” begins with Nicke’s solo, but just punishes after. I’ve always felt like this song is setting up “Dismembered.” The keyboard part, followed by the tremolo/gallop combo and the mid-tempo groove in the middle, hit hard. ESTBY: When you’re very inspired and you’re in

the zone, so to speak, you get new ideas, like the keyboard part. Where do they come from? No idea. I remember David saying, “I fucking hate keyboards! We shouldn’t have keyboards in this band.” The song itself was inspired by Twisted Sister’s “Burn in Hell.” The galloping start of it [is] very [pre-Atheist band] R.A.V.A.G.E. SENNEBÄCK: There are different melodies in this song. It’s my first contribution to Dismember after I left Unleashed. The opening riff is mine. It’s tricky to play, though, even if the audience doesn’t hear it. That’s why we didn’t play this song live too much in the past. The intro to “Dismembered” and the utter chaos afterward is brilliant. Back then, the gossip was “Dismembered” was your answer to Entombed’s “Left Hand Path,” but instead of an outro, Dismember had an intro. ESTBY: It’s fun to think of it like that, but it’s 66 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

not a response. The intro was actually written by a friend of Matti’s who, like Matti, was a Finland-Swede. We didn’t hang out much with him. He was very Nordic in personality—very much a loner. He wrote that part on his keyboard at home. He said to Matti, “You guys do melodic stuff sometimes. Maybe this part will work.” We first heard the part in our rehearsal space during the Reborn in Blasphemy [demo] phase. It was so catchy we thought, “Maybe we should play this part on the guitar.” He never really got credit for it. We owe him credit, for sure. His name is Marko. CABEZA: It’s got a great intro, almost Iron Maiden-ish. I get to catch my breath during the intro until it’s time to fucking go nuts again. I’m fucking aggressive onstage. I’m fucking pissed off. The break makes me want to get into a fight. You wanna go, “Let’s go, man! I’ll go maniac on your ass. I’m here to kill!” [Laughs] “Skin Her Alive” is indecent and obscene, naturally. BLOMQVIST: A fan favorite. I wrote the first riff, which was based on the Psycho theme. The first riff on the guitar solo is the only thing Richard wrote for Like an Ever Flowing Stream. We call it the “5.50” riff ’cause he’d only get 5.50 [Swedish crowns] in royalties. [Laughs] When we play this song, sometimes we’ll say to each other onstage, “We’re playing the 5.50 riff,” and smile. CABEZA: What a classic! All of our songs from that era are just chaos, which, of course, I like. Also, it’s the first song I participated in writing, so it has a special place in my heart. Funny, when we play this song live, we get people in the audience screaming for it three to four songs later. I’m like, “Are you even listening to what we’re playing?” [Laughs] I guess that’s because it’s short, just two minutes or less when we really get going. If it’s 2:15 on the album, it’s 1:45 when we play it live.

“Sickening Art” doesn’t get a lot of attention, but it’s a heavy hitter. That opening riff with the bend and the main part is quite special. ESTBY: I agree. This was the first song Matti,

David and I wrote after Carnage broke up. It was fun because we all contributed. It was groovy. We felt it was the start of something new. “In Death’s Sleep” might be Dismember’s most accomplished track. ESTBY: This was at the end of the songwriting

sessions. We’re big Iron Maiden fans, but David is a true diehard. Had we written this part six months earlier, we would’ve scrapped it because it’s too heavy metal-sounding. That kind of thing was frowned upon in Swedish death metal then. There was pressure from our peers not to sound too commercial or nice. Everything had to be real death metal. There APR 2025 |

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was a balancing act, and we were possibly overthinking the intro. We weren’t quite sure what we were about to accomplish. SENNEBÄCK: I came up with the song title. Fred and I were at the movies watching Flatliners. The character, who Kiefer Sutherland plays, says, “Today is a good day to die.” I think Fred wrote the lyrics, which we lost somehow, so Matti had to rewrite the lyrics. The song itself has really strange riffs. The verse is weird in composition. It’s not typical Dismember. There’s some psychedelic notes in it, too.

treasured survival

Dismember’s entire discography had been in

limbo for years. After Dismember crushed skulls in 2008, aftermarket prices surged on the group’s key titles—namely, Like an Ever Flowing Stream, Indecent and Obscene and Massive Killing Capacity— while proof of life was fleeting at best on streaming services. Most of Sweden’s greats had an online presence, but Dismember were headscratchingly absent. Sure, old heads had the albums, but there was a physically gaping/digitally bloody hole for new generations. Imagine if one of the “Big Four” thrash titans—not Metallica—were absent from Amazon, record stores and all legit streamers, and the only way (exhume) to consume “Antichrist” or “Wake Up Dead” was through darkened, hobo-filled alleys of YouTube. It felt like that, only stranger. “To start, we had albums licensed through different labels,” says Estby. “Not naming names, but let’s just say there were misunderstandings about usage. After I had quit Dismember and the band called it quits, I took it upon myself to check in on the licenses. When they were expiring, basically. I found out that all of our albums were streaming illegally. This was around the time when streaming had started to get big. It took a long time, but I got the streams taken down because the licenses were misused, to put it lightly.” As leader, Estby had an uphill climb with the technocrats proving he was the steward of Dismember’s global music rights. His main challenge: In their view, he wasn’t a band member, and more importantly, the band had officially dissolved. Requests were continuously rebuffed without his own big-gun legal team. It took the juridical left-hand of higher-ups at Nuclear Blast to bend the streamers to capitulate, causing parts and then all of (for a brief moment) Dismember’s legacy-rich oeuvre to vanish from existence, save for random uploads and astronomically-priced physicals. “I was powerless as a representative of a band that no longer exists,” says Estby. “We, as a band, own our albums. Nobody was taking me seriously. It was illegal to keep it up. So, all of that took years, even with Nuclear Blast’s help. My intention was to license all of Dismember’s

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albums to Nuclear Blast. We had been signed to them in the past, left Nuclear Blast after Hate Campaign, but the times and people [at the label] had changed. They were on our side again. So, all of the Nuclear Blast stuff would go down [the reissues] if we could kind of start over. That was the verbal agreement.” Slate cleaned, Dismember and Nuclear Blast renewed ties in 2022. Last summer, they announced that the Swedes’ catalog was ready to be unfurled anew and, in some cases, painstakingly remastered by Patrick W. Engel of Temple of Disharmony and Lasse Lammert of LSD Studio, starting with Like an Ever Flowing Stream, which includes the much-vaunted, sought-after “June 1991 master,” which is prime in pre-internet death metal nerd-dom. Getting the source material wasn’t easy, not just for Dismember’s debut. From Like an Ever Flowing Stream to Dismember, the band and Nuclear Blast’s product team had to scour the best available audio sources for remaster consideration.

“There’s a reason the remasters took a long time,” Estby says. “We couldn’t find old master tapes. Tomas [Skogsberg] didn’t have the original tapes. Tomas’ studio had moved three times, Nuclear Blast’s warehouse had moved, and we had moved—it was super hard to get all the pieces together. I had also moved maybe six times since ’91, including to a new country, the United States. Pretty sure the tapes had changed hands a few times. So, everything had been moving since ’91. I knew we had to get Like an Ever Flowing Stream, our most important release, right, and that meant picking the right master. Looking back, we’re really happy with the reissues.” Now that Dismember’s eight studio albums, the Pieces EP, and the Complete Demos comp have been out in public—bonus for anyone who got the Historia Mortis box set—the focus has been on festival shows, with talk of a follow-up to Dismember in the wings. When we yakked with Estby about the 30th anniversary of Like an Ever Flowing Stream on the Decibel website in 2021, we briefly discussed the possibility of a new album off-record. There was material (mostly riffs) in

the proverbial casket garden, but a new album was, to put it fairly, quite far off then. Now, songwriting is underway, with Dismember’s creatives spelunking through hours of riffs. “It’s not a question of if, but when,” says Estby. “We’ve all said we want to do a new album. We probably could’ve put out an album a year ago, but we’ve been prioritizing shows and reissues first. Plus, there’s only so much time in the day, with three of us in Sweden, one member in Belgium and me in the States, which makes logistics harder. I have stuff written, and I know David has stuff written. Based on what I know and have heard, I can only say it’s going to sound like Dismember.” “I’m pushing,” Blomqvist declares. “I have plenty of material—I love making songs. I was at Robert’s place to record a few riffs together recently. They’re sounding a lot like Dismember, of course. So, I want to do a new album. I don’t want to be a ‘greatest hits’ band. That would be sad.” If Dismember’s new slogan, “As long as Dismember lives, death metal will reign!” indicates what’s to come, Decibel will be there in force. So, pardon our sketchy Swedish, but Svensk dödsmetall för alltid! Länge leve Dismember!

I WAS AT ROBERT [SENNEBÄCK]’S PLACE TO RECORD A FEW RIFFS TOGETHER RECENTLY. THEY’RE SOUNDING A LOT LIKE DISMEMBER, OF COURSE. SO, I WANT TO DO A NEW ALBUM.

I DON’T WANT TO BE A ‘GREATEST HITS’ BAND. THAT WOULD BE SAD. david blomqvist

68 : SEPTEMBER 2023 : DECIBEL

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INSIDE ≥

72 BONG-RA Celestial, seasoned 74 DRUGS OF FAITH Uneven flow 76 PISSGRAVE Golden scours 76 RETROMORPHOSIS Respawn of possession 79 YOUNG WIDOWS Your mom

Pleasure to Burn

APRIL

Snot reunion

Spineshank reunion

Linkin Park reunion

American Head Charge still disbanded

ALL THE NOISE THAT FITS

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT destroy, erase and improve their abstract death metal through self-imposed limitations

I 9

mperial triumphant’s alien-angled architecture intimidates. Prior masked missives tested initial patience, with individual thought patterns hovering around 10 minutes of deathly discordance. Successfully executed, mind you, but their multifacIMPERIAL eted obelisk’s esotericism made it difficult to approach. Plus, it limTRIUMPHANT ited how many songs they could play in support slots. A new blueGoldstar print beckoned. ¶ They recorded their sixth set of experimental CENTURY MEDIA extremity in five days, a timeframe more often associated with less ambitious efforts. Sometimes extraordinary limits lead to extraordinary results. Goldstar earns its title. Shorter, tighter and more immediate than its predecessors, it offers a distillation of power previously diffused across longer compositions. Its single LP length allows this mysterious masked trio to both try unexpected routes and hone in on their songwriting strengths. ¶ Mid-century cigarette advertisements inspired these nine cylinders of rolled gold. A jingle for their fictional cigarette brand appears as one of the midpoint tracks, disintegrating as it goes like the lungs of its victims. It’s the second shortest song.

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The most compact impact comes from grindcore burst (their first) “NEWYORKCITY,” where the inimitable Yoshiko Ohara (Bloody Panda) awakens the city that never sleeps with her staccato shrieks. She’s not the only guest—Meshuggah blast beast Tomas Haake provides spoken-word segments for a couple joints, while Dave Lombardo’s tribal drumming welcomes listeners to the “Pleasuredome” and offers welcome respite from the smoky claustrophobia. Zachary Ezrin, Kenny Grohowski and Steve Blanco remain the secret ingredients. Their interplay resembles a jazz trio—or maybe King Crimson configuration—from an infernal alternate universe. Songs like “Eye of Mars” and “Hotel Sphinx” perfectly showcase their vision for death metal: writhing tar-black masses of cancerous tissue, seemingly solid from a distance, but deceptively covered with tiny, pulsating spikes. That said, it’s a playful malignancy. “Gomorrah Nouveaux” toys with the connection between syncopation and black metal blast beats; “Lexington Delirium” swings between moments of quiet lucidity and eruptions of overwhelming madness; and “Rot Moderne” evokes Gojira in the midst of a bio-nuclear meltdown. By the time they cap it all off with “Industry of Misery,” they’ve earned that song’s longer runtime and chimerical progression. This newfound directness suits them. Imperial Triumphant’s inherent artistic curiosity makes it unlikely that they repeat this experiment, but they awe through the sheer variety achieved with their bladed whirlwinds, retaining their celebrated complexity while sacrificing none of the intensity. Each song stands on its own. Progressive-minded acts tend to lose themselves in their own spiral architecture as they construct more and more ornate monuments, but not so here. Goldstar serves as a potent reminder that sometimes less is more—both with the toxins in your lungs and the metal in your ears. —JEFF TREPPEL

BONG-RA

Black Noise DEBEMUR MORTI PRODUCTIONS

Dystopia banished

Longtime fans of Bong-Ra, a.k.a. Jason Köhnen, will know by now not to go into a record like Black Noise with any expectations of how it is going to sound, except that it is going to sound different to what the Dutch DJ/ producer has done before. Uncompromising and musically daring as that might be, much of his back catalog would not fall under Decibel’s editorial purview, but when you have death growls 72 : APRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

and downtuned buzzsaw guitar fighting through an industrial metal hellscape that’s intermittently peppered with the metallic clatter of drum and bass beats (see opening track “Dystopic”), well, that’s different. From personal experience, this is not a record to be listening to with a concussion. It would also be interesting to experience how this plays in rural environments, because the claustrophobia and 360º hyper-sensorial mix feels like the grubby vibe of inner-city living manifested in sound; the grime, the shit on the sidewalk, the carbon emissions, the caged inhumanity of it all—“They’re throwing themselves into the road gladly!” and so on. Black Noise is at its best when it inhales these morbid vapors and luxuriates in them, embracing our blank future on “Nothing Virus,” feeding us paranoia on “Useless Eaters,” and, if you think this review is going to finish without mentioning Godflesh, well, it’s kind of impossible when this ugly flower grows out of that same slag pile. “Dystopic” is really a red herring. Not that Black Noise mellows out, but Köhnen finds more shades of gray and black on a record that ultimately closes on the haunting note of “Blissful Ignorance,” a state of mind long denied to us in the information age. —JONATHAN HORSLEY

COSMOPHAGE

Sidereal Malignancy B LO O D H A R V E S T / M E S AC O U N OJ O

How Utterance stopped being polite and started getting sidereal

Much like cheeky preschoolers, capable death metal bands arrive at milestones during their adolescent development where it becomes particularly fun to admire their evolution and eccentricities, then speculate on where their creative fascinations might lead them going forward. Enter Brazil’s Cosmophage, a band who toddled onto the scene as Utterance (a savage name that I’m assuming was only discarded due to some other low-altitude outfit also claiming it—man, remember the days when you could actually get away with calling your band Obituary because nobody else had gotten around to it yet?). Regardless, as Utterance, the band released a grimy-but-majestic two-song teaser in 2019, showcasing an intimate working knowledge of ’90s-era DM, the chops to execute it at a surprisingly high level, and enough character to keep me glued to their compositions rather than spinning out into daydreams concerning the legacy acts that inspired them (no small task). Since then, they’ve undergone a yeah-fine-whatever name change and extended their ranks to

include vocalist/keyboardist Diogo Dantas— presumably leaving former vocalist/guitarist Matheus Alpino to focus solely on the band’s fascinating use of counterpoint. I want to make it clear: Sidereal Malignancy isn’t a “promising” release from a fledgling band. The “promise” has been properly consummated. Contemplate early Sinister, Pestilence and Atrocity muddled with the busy, harmonic invention of the Fucking Champs; these guys have arrived. Sure, small blemishes exist, but they’re solely consequent to a relatively green outfit nudging themselves just beyond the fringes of their capabilities (especially in the drum department, where its ambitious nature results in a few oopsy-daisies). These little gnarls will doubtlessly be massaged out as these fresh but enterprising killers plot their next maneuver. Even as they cut their teeth, Cosmophage remain a cut above. —FORREST PITTS

DESTRUCTION

Birth of Malice N A PA L M

Losing our appetite

“We’re Destruction.” Those are the opening lyrics on “Destruction,” the first proper song on Birth of Malice, by—you guessed it—Destruction. It’s not obvious why bassist/vocalist Schmier feels the need to make introductory statements 40 years into a storied career singing and playing bass for one of the three most well-known thrash bands from Germany (actually, let’s be honest, from all of Europe). In the age of streaming, there’s a single-digit chance that this is anyone’s first taste of what Schmier’s cooking. But since Destruction are treating Birth of Malice as if it could be your inaugural trip around this Teutonic circle pit, I’m going to try and ignore the rest of their discography. No references to the primordial ’80s highs of Infernal Overkill, the predictable ’90s slump of The Least Successful Human Cannonball, the straightforward-but-satisfying comeback of 2001’s The Antichrist¸ and the charming-if-rote two decades of material since then. Taken on its own merits, Birth of Malice delivers about an hour of chug-a-lug riffs, high-gain distortion and ultra-compressed drumming that leaves plenty of room for sneering vocals. The lyrics are antiauthoritarian in a fuzzy don’tthink-about-it-too-hard kind of way, but they’re delivered with enough character and conviction that shouting along to “No Kings – No Masters” in an open-air festival setting sounds legitimately fun. As the album progresses, Destruction delve deeper into atmosphere and melody on songs like “A.N.G.S.T.” and “Dealer of Death,”

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respectively, and occasional bursts of fretboard acrobatics keep things interesting until then. Devoid of context, Birth of Malice is aggressive and competent, maybe evenly aggressively competent, but unsurprising. In other words, it’s exactly what you expect from a great thrash band after four decades of loyal service. Not too bad for a second chance at a first impression. —JOSEPH SCHAFER

DRUGS OF FAITH

Asymmetrical SELFMADEGOD

Let’s grind ‘n’ roll again like we did last decade

Being in a band is a marathon, not a sprint. So, despite the unreliable release schedule from Drugs of Faith (almost six years since their last EP; 14 since the previous full-length), each time they return, they bring a refinement to their grind ‘n’ roll approach. And that continues to be true with their third LP, Asymmetrical. If you’re unfamiliar with grind ‘n’ roll, it pretty much means guys who can really fucking grind choose to not do it all the time and instead write some riffs that won’t immediately bang your head clean off your neck. And in the case of these Virginians, most of those riffs are of the noise rock persuasion, a way better option than some of the choices other bands have made. But since this three-piece has been pretty solid with their genre mash-up for a while, what have they upgraded? The vocals. Guitarist/frontman Richard “The Grindfather” Johnson has really stepped into his role as a frontman, even compared to his work with Agoraphobic Nosebleed, where he was solely a vocalist. Lyrics have always been a strong suit of Johnson’s, but he’s put far more energy into converting them into catchy, singalong patterns. With the grind already taken care of, the vocals have elevated the “‘n’ roll” up to that level. Drugs of Faith are clearly a band that’s getting better very, very slowly. And they might very well get even better. When will that happen? Don’t worry about it for now. Just enjoy Asymmetrical. —SHANE MEHLING

GRIMA

Nightside N A PA L M

A slower walk through the woods

The Siberian taiga is the world’s largest forest, including well over four million square miles of sprawling wilderness. In 10 years, most Siberian fir trees grow slowly, 74 : A P R I L 2 0 2 5 : D E C I B E L

to less than 20 feet in height. Since their 2015 debut, Devotion to Lord, Siberian black metal project Grima have sprouted as a towering force in atmospheric black metal. Originally formed by twin brothers Morbius and Vilhelm, Grima have since expanded from a studio project curiosity to an internationally touring entity. Nightside is the band’s sixth LP, continuing their masterful expression of Siberian sorrow through the dark lens of eternally doomed black metal. While their aforementioned debut was a promising Drudkh approximation, the brothers truly forged their unique style on 2017’s Tales of the Enchanted Woods. Wearing masks of gnarled wood, they strike a balance between frozen fury and solemn, elemental beauty. While 2021’s Rotten Garden felt like the band’s bleakest entry, Nightside represents further thawing after 2022’s Frostbitten. The album confidently clings to slower tempos for warmth while using sub-zero blast beats as punctuation marks. The bayan—basically a Russian accordion—has regularly appeared throughout Grima’s discography. Your accordion tolerance may vary, but recurring collaborator Sergey Pastukh lends a distinct authenticity to their sound. The instrument intertwines cohesively in “Flight of the Silver Storm,” less so on “Mist and Fog.” The title track doesn’t quite hit the epic heights of past highlights like “The Moon and its Shadows” or “Into the Twilight.” And that’s perfectly fine, since the melodic gloom of “Where We Are Lost” feels like the album’s defrosting heart. Nightside trudges through some familiar winterscapes, but takes hidden pathways of pine needles and fresh snow. The band knows these metaphorical woods intimately. Sometimes it takes an expert guide to reveal the natural elegance hidden in a treacherous environment. —SEAN FRASIER

HAVUKRUUNU

Tavastland S VA R T

Pagan no fears

Though they’ve been gallivanting around the frigid forests of Finland for 20 years, heathen black metallers Havukruunu may be unfamiliar to many Decibel readers. Their past three albums have earned them a dedicated cult following, but Tavastland comes across as the band’s grand declaration of war on the rest of the planet; it takes the most memorable and crowd-pleasing aspects of their sound and presents them in a relatively polished (though no less aggressive) form. Havukruunu dole out heathen black metal with folk elements and a sweeping sense of scale. Imagine Immortal’s wintry warfare

delivered with Finntroll’s ornamental flourishes for some semblance of what to expect on Tavastland. Riffs and roaring vocals are always their focus, but the quartet frequently employs acoustic bridges, grandiloquent synths and melodic choral vocals, even if they’re sandwiched in between petulant blast beats. I wouldn’t roll my eyes so much if every band on the Paganfest tour sounded like Havukruunu. Too often pagan black metal projects emphasize the pagan elements with so much gusto that the black metal becomes a thin gruel with drunk chanting and hurdy-gurdy bullshit floating around it. Havukruunu never forget that they’re a band first and a cultural export second. Even when their choruses and acoustic guitars take center stage, as they do at the midpoint of “Kuoleman oma,” there’s always a blazing guitar solo waiting in the wings, and the band’s deft ability to juxtapose those two elements is central to Tavastland’s success. Listeners already familiar with Havukruunu might notice that the band’s sound evolved more between their previous output than on Tavastland, and dedicated fans might want something more surprising. But for the uninitiated, Tavastland’s polish and sharp songwriting make it an ideal entry point into the quartet’s excellent oeuvre. —JOSEPH SCHAFER

THE INFINITY RING 7 Ataraxia

P R O FO U N D LO R E

Spin the black circle

Look, we’re all getting older. Maybe you’ll be heading home one night after having your skull rattled by multiple doom bands; perhaps some normal people are coming over with their damn wiener kids. Sometimes you’ve just got to put on something relatively chill. It’s okay, happens to all of us. And if the endurance-test runtimes of post-reunion Swans albums (or Wovenhand’s shift from True Stern Christian Dad Folk to ramshackle hard rock) have you looking for a new artist to scratch that itch, the Infinity Ring are here for you. On their second LP, Ataraxia, the Boston band sounds like they viewed the options for post-punk/metal/industrial “maturity”— neofolk, post-rock, drone, krautrock—not as a set of branching paths from which to choose, but as a buffet to sample liberally. The result could just as easily soundtrack the desolate Appalachian roads of a true crime documentary’s opening scenes or one of the late David Lynch’s Black Lodge nightmares. Michael Gira’s Angels of Light are a more exact reference than Swans—less feral, more dramatically regal—and Infinity Ring frontman Cameron

DECIBEL : APRIL 2025 : 75

RETROMORPHOSIS

Psalmus Mortis

Got that swing | S E A S O N O F M I S T

After taking a three-year break following Spawn of Possession’s dissolution in 2017, guitarist Jonas Bryssling wanted to “make an album that wasn’t tied to anything we’d done before.” So, he got together four-fifths of Spawn of Possession to write an album of technical death metal that sounds like Spawn of Possession. Genius! Feel free to dismiss that bit of sarcasm above: Psalmus Mortis actually, and impressively, sounds like its predecessor without sounding exactly like its predecessor. While still retaining finger-cramping guitars, Shiva-armed drumming, gruff grunts and fretless bass warble filling all available spaces, the record is more streamlined and pinpoint-direct. The songs, even when they are redlining along the sonic blacktop, have focus and intent with strong connective tissue holding the flash together, preventing it from ripping the seams to shreds for the sake of shred.

Take opener “Vanished,” as it weaves villainous melodic runs cut from the era of powdered wigs into a structure that smoothly massages tempo changes. Before you realize it, NWOBHM raucousness, tritone-weighted soundtracks and classical etudes have been twisted around Cannibal Corpse and Nile, with the result being a song that flows with purpose. Instead of throwing a thousand ideas into a 10-idea bag—which SOP did so much of (too much of?) on their Incurso swan song— tracks like the exotic “Never to Awake,” nineminute epic “Machine” and groovy cliff-scaler “Exalted Splendour” are entirely more compact and restrained, and rarely enlist highfalutin mathematical isolation. Don’t fret, nerds. There’s still plenty of YouTube playthrough complexity to gawk at and reproduce, but hopefully the tabled lesson gets learned—all the technique and technicality means zilch if it can’t be lassoed and parlayed into something with replay value. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

Moretti’s croaky baritone recalls Gira’s as well as Denver goth-country ghoul Jay Munly. Opener “Obsidian” builds slowly to a climax from layers of synth, obscured samples, clean guitar and Francesca Caruso’s mournful violin. “Nightingale” is driven by a repeated music boxlike piano motif, and choral vocals add to the grandiosity of “Elysium” and “Revenge.” The climaxes never get too intense, and the grandiosity never overwhelms, but we’ve already established that’s not what we’re looking for here. It’s a sustained mood of slow-burn unease into stately catharsis, all in a perfectly reasonable 43 minutes. —ANTHONY BARTKEWICZ

been turning over in my mind while listening to Cult of the Serpent Sun, the third album by Bay Area crushers Nite, and I’m pretty sure the answer isn’t “a good spice rub and the Maillard reaction.” Nite burst onto the scene in 2020 with Darkness Silence Mirror Flame, a debut that boasted enough evil je ne sais quoi to make its NWOBHMinspired anthems feel at least tangentially related to second-wave Norwegian black metal. (At the time, I compared it to I’s Between Two Worlds, Abbath Doom Occulta and Ice Dale’s collaborative attempt to turn At the Heart of Winter into an Iron Maiden album.) But as Nite have journeyed deeper into the land of pop structures, tongue-wagging guitar solos and fat Rickenbacker grooves, frontman Van Labrakis’ sepulchral rasp has become their last tether to black metal. Are they still a “blackened heavy metal” band? Cult of the Serpent Sun does its best to make the question moot. In the stretches where Labrakis isn’t singing, the palette is all gleaming steel

NITE

Cult of the Serpent Sun SEASON OF MIST

Between two worlds

What makes a heavy metal album “blackened”? That’s the question I’ve 76 : A PRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

and open highway—Dio’s rainbow without any contrapuntal dark. Labrakis and co-guitarist Scott Hoffman duel like prime Smith and Murray, and Avinash Mittur shows off his knack for writing unobtrusive basslines with surprising melodic heft. There’s also an inspirational edge to a lot of the lyrics, unsurprising on an album that Labrakis says is “about how we persevere in times of immense darkness.” That darkness is largely relegated to a supporting role on Cult of the Serpent Sun, but the evolution suits Nite well. On inevitable live-show fist-pumpers like “Skull” and “The Last Blade,” they make a case for themselves as simply a heavy metal band. Blackened or not, they’re on top of their game. —BRAD SANDERS

PISSGRAVE

Malignant Worthlessness P R O FO U N D LO R E

Now streaming

Thick human stew festering in a bathtub. The mangled visage of some unfortunate fellow who decided to deep-throat a shotgun. Thousands of maggots crawling across an eviscerated corpse. You can always count on Pissgrave to bring the rotten.com aesthetic! Six years on from Posthumous Humiliation and Pissgrave’s raw, nasty, none-more-vile death metal remains the aural equivalent of biting down on a live electrical cable, as the noise-wracked atonal riffs and über-harsh Arthur Rizk production set out to inflict sharp, facesmoldering neuropathy. Yet, just like its two predecessors in putridity, there’s a method to the madness of third LP Malignant Worthlessness: Pissgrave are not out to just offend your sensibilities and reduce your head to a gooey mess. These sadists have discernible chops, and can write memorable gnawing riffs and rhythms aimed to punish those who understand death metal at its most extreme. So, even if you’re seasoned on Concrete Winds or Teitanblood, you’ll feel every single second of this album. It’s a truly painful experience, but so is life. We’re in an age now where tastemakers are desperate to sanitize art, and that’s the wrong approach to take in a world of turmoil. With coruscating, churning ditties like “Three Degrees of Darkness,” “Dissident Amputator” and “Lamentation of Weeping Wounds,” Pissgrave turn a goresoaked mirror towards our own depravity, and it’s shocking. But it’s also a learnable moment to see before us: man’s inhumanity and physical infallibility. Pissgrave will fuck you up in all the right ways. —DEAN BROWN

havukruunu TAVASTLAND

LP/CD/DIGI/CASSETTE

out on February 28th, 2025 via Svart Records.

Havukruunu is the spirit of freedom, harbinger of oblivion, and it tells you: FLY, YOU FOOLS!

GET THE LP/CD/CASSETTE AND OFFICIAL HAVUKRUUNU MERCHANDISE AT WWW.SVARTRECORDS.COM

DECIBEL : APRIL 2025 : 77

SKAGOS

Chariot Sun Blazing SELF-RELEASED

Cascadian hunger

The unexpected return of Skagos feels like a gust of fresh, pine-scented air amidst the smoldering ruins we inhabit. It’s been over a decade since the Olympia, WA-based duo graced us with new music; 2013’s Anarchic LP and a well-received 2010 split with like-minded woodsmen Panopticon were the last we’d heard of them until December 21, 2024, when Chariot Sun Blazing appeared as if by magic (or, you know, an email from Bandcamp). Much has changed within the American black metal landscape during the band’s 10 years in the wilderness, but the time away has done them good. On Chariot Sun Blazing, Skagos resurrect the verdant, folk-inflected black metal that defined the mid-2000s Cascadian sound, with all its dreamy post-rock influences and atavistic undercurrents. Opening with the aptly titled “Risen,” the album thrums to life quietly and ominously, wordlessly building tension before the eruption of “In the Burned Out Shell,” on which vocalist/bassist Ray Hawes finally unleashes a throat-scraping roar. The band revels in weaving beautiful melodies and twilight interludes into their compositions, but keeps their powder dry. “Broken Branches November Moon” tempers its ice-cold fury with a languorous neoclassical core, while the black metal rager “Ecstasy Draws Its Wings” refuses to let up for a moment. The addition of strings, French horns, and a tuba (!) courtesy of guest musicians Quator Esca and Maude Lussier add an elegant new layer of bombast, creating a real sense of depth. By adding string and horn arrangements to his already packed to-do list, Isaac Symonds, the band’s co-founder and resident multi-instrumentalist, has elevated Skagos to unforeseen heights. Atmospheric black metal hasn’t been the most fertile of subgenres as of late, so thank whatever hoary elder gods who have guided them here that Skagos are back to show how it should be done. —KIM KELLY

SPIRITWORLD

Helldorado

CENTURY MEDIA

Sunglasses after dark

Stu Folsom might be the Joe Bob Briggs of the metal world. No one else out there is blending rockabilly, metal, horror films and quality prose in one place. Folsom’s albums aren’t standalone releases as much as part of a multiverse. It’s sort of like the MCU, except for weirdos who 78 : APRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

subscribe to Decibel, have multiple AI girlfriends and can quote Lovecraft. The first two SpiritWorld albums were soundtracks to Folsom’s book, Godlessness, a collection of Lovecraftian horror tales set in the Old West. Helldorado, the third album, is a cultural mash-up perfect for these apocalyptic times. There is a long, convoluted backstory to this record that involves a gateway to hell in Mexico. Eager listeners can dig deeper. Everyone else, just know it’s sort of like Lucio Fulci meets the Antonio Banderas flick Desperado. A lot is happening on Helldorado. “Bird Song of Death” has a sing-along chorus straight out of Youth of Today or Agnostic Front. Folsom has also clearly spent time listening to South of Heaven because vintage Slayer courses throughout his songs. Helldorado is at its best when it leans on rockabilly/hillbilly music; the first minutes of opener “Abilene Grime” come at listeners like the best of the Meteors or Reverend Horton Heat. Folsom and Co. nail the cadence of vintage rockabilly with a metallic touch, and it's a shame they don’t spend more time here. If there was anything I would change, it would be for Folsom to double up on the rockabilly. Parts of the album lapse a bit too much into Hellbilly Deluxe turf. The album soars when the band consciously leans into old, greasy music and turns it into metal. The best thing you can say about Helldorado is that it’s fun. Metal takes itself far too seriously and we need outliers like Folsom to remind us of a big reason we got into this music in the first place. —JUSTIN M. NORTON

STATICLONE

Better Living Through Static Vision RELAPSE

Try another frequency?

The widespread understanding that metal will never die cements that every genre under the metal banner never loses its relevance. Plus, new bands can always add to the canon at any time, provided they come with conviction—or if their members already have pedigree. Just because crusty, D-beat hardcore had its peak in the late ’90s to early aughts shouldn’t mean that Philadelphia’s Staticlone can’t add more fury to the fire with their debut record Better Living Through Static Vision. George Hirsch and Dave Walling from hardcore stalwarts Blacklisted provide reputation and experience to this emerging project. The instrumental opening title track sets an apocalyptic ambiance with sweeping, bleak melodies, and “Honeycomb” arrives with standard D-beat fare; guitars are thick and rubbed raw,

the bass rattles and rumbles, and gang vocals on the chorus gets the blood pumping. Callbacks to genre icons Tragedy and Wolfbrigade emerge immediately. However, the record quickly takes a turn with “This Light Burns Like Poison.” Its mid-tempo, bouncy feel drops energy from the ferocity of the prior track. Subsequent songs “Alone in Philadelphia” and “Thin Places” also lay out more accessibility that doesn’t lend itself to the album’s early furor. “Sullen Me,” “Patching Holes in a Dead Star” and closer “Red Eye” reintroduce rabid animalistic vibes, but they aren’t fierce or confrontational enough to propel the complete record. Staticlone’s submission to the D-Beat and hardcore catalogue is a solid effort, but lacks clenched-fist conviction. Ultimately, there just isn’t enough crust here to pin this one to the board. —ARIS HUNTER WALES

STORMO

Tagli/Talee PROSTHETIC

Pasta-hardcore

It seems like an easy layup to make a pasta joke here, but if you’re an Italian hardcore band and your album shares a similar name to a type of noodle, it’s inevitable. That’s just music reviewer law. Tagli/Talee actually shares a root word with tagliatelle—“tagli” means “cut,” although “tagliatelle” refers to flat noodles that are cut into long strips and “tagli/talee” means “cut/ graft,” so don’t confuse those if you need surgery in Stormo’s hometown of Feltre, Italy. That digression isn’t entirely off-topic, either. Stormo’s lead screamer, Luca Rocco, says that their fifth album is about making cuts in your life to allow for personal growth. Over the course of a tight 22 minutes (their most concise fulllength in their two-decade history), he and his discordant deconstructionist compatriots deliver a stripped-down, direct assault on your senses. It shows their own personal growth as a band from the blunter Endocannibalismo. As tracks like the desperate, angular “Kallitype” or power electronics-enhanced “Sabbia Pt. 2: Ghiaccio” prove, they know how to swarm you with feelings like the antagonists of a Hitchcock movie (or their own closest comparison, French bruisers Birds in Row). While most of the runtime consists of distortion and math abuse, it makes for a nice break from the grind when they introduce quieter parts on “Talee” and “Riva.” The flow feels right, enhancing the impact appropriately. You’ve had this meal before, but if you’re into emotional post-hardcore, Stormo serve this Tagli/ Talee perfectly al dente. —JEFF TREPPEL

UULLIATA DIGIR

Uulliata Digir

SELF-RELEASED

Can you digir it?

Ever wonder what exists in the inky-black gulf between Oranssi Pazuzu’s post-black metal and the black/ death jazz metal of Imperial Triumphant? Well, as of 2025, the bizarrely named Uulliata Digir has emerged from that void like some malformed monstrosity. This collective’s first full-length, independently released, is one of the most impressive debuts you’ll hear in 2025. In fact, it’s so good that any A&R person dealing in avantgarde extremity should be clamoring to sign them right now. Featuring six musicians, Uulliata Digir create a netherworld of their own, one where death/black/doom is mutated by various strands of experimental music, from the cyclic repetition of krautrock and noir jazz to prime Beyond Dawn brass-led gloom and whatever you call the multi-vocal summoning-of-the-ancients that Heilung has perfected. The vocals on this record really add strength to its enthralling grip; male and female shrieks, roars, whispers, snarls and gutturals entwine in hallucinatory ways, spitting out the band’s own dialect—a Sumerian-inspired language that adds to Uulliata Digir’s mystique. Interestingly, given the wildly oblique music here, there’s no pretentiousness to be found; it’s visceral, eerie, enveloping and so fully formed, distinctive and compositionally concise (five tracks across 38 minutes), you’d swear it was the work of an ensemble together longer than 2022. From the tension/release psyche-manipulation of opener “Myrthys” to the blood-curdling vocal exorcism of Julita Dabrowska over Neurosisworthy drum tribalism that brings “Eldrvari” to a close, this LP is how experimental music and extreme metal should be merged. —DEAN BROWN

WARBRINGER

Wrath and Ruin N A PA L M

Jump in the mire

In the early ’00s, before streaming and social media ruined and homogenized music, Warbringer were part of what was called the thrash revival. Fuck, all of us are getting old! Roughly two decades later, they are still here while the lion’s share of the other revival bands are working IT jobs. True, only vocalist John Kevill remains from the OG lineup, but Warbringer are still in the game and now feature Carlos Cruz (also of Nails), one of the best drummers in modern metal.

Wrath and Ruin is their first album since Weapons of Tomorrow, released at the height of the pandemic. While Warbringer haven’t evolved stylistically over time, they have developed as players and musicians. Everyone in the band is shit-tight. Warbringer put in the work in the rehearsal room and practice, and this album is a reflection—the leads are technical and engaging, and the groove shifts are handled effortlessly (“A Better World” is an example of this). Cruz hits like an unhinged Norse God, and Kevill has evolved into a thoughtful lyricist and strong vocalist. If anything is missing from Wrath and Ruin, it’s that sense of unpredictability that courses through the best thrash. Even with a virtuoso like Cliff Burton, there is a looseness to Ride the Lightning-era Metallica—a feeling that the music could go off the rails. That is even more the case for early Exodus and Overkill. Precision and execution are good things, but Wrath and Ruin sometimes sounds too clinical. Warbringer have been consistently excellent whenever I’ve seen them live, and have likely improved even more. The talent is evident. It’s just unclear how many will remember these songs years down the road. —JUSTIN M. NORTON

WHITECHAPEL

Hymns in Dissonance M E TA L B L A D E

Putting the ripper in a zipper

Until Albert bounced this off my noggin’ with “review this” instructions, it had been a long time since I’d spent any amount of time with any amount of Whitechapel’s music. One of the primary reasons for sweeping the Tennessee sextet from any playlist was their practice of employing three guitarists rarely moving beyond a “We have three guitarists!” gimmick. It always seemed a waste to have three guitars sound like two fewer than Botch’s Dave Knudson or Melt-Banana’s Ichiro Agata were pulling off with a bit of fleet-fingered (and -footed) know-how. Granted, all three are very different bands, but practically speaking, those are two entire bench seats in the van non-guitarists could be stretching out on. Thankfully, since the last time Whitechapel graced my speakers, Ben Savage, Zach Householder and Alex Wade have figured out the beauty of extrapolation, of diverging and converging counterpoint, of the value of layers and of the power of baroqueness. Most importantly, it’s all been done in the context of broadening deathcore’s horizons. Yes, there are moments where it sounds like a football team falling on your head in slow-motion while everyone around you breaks out into the worst/whitest kung fu

movie ever, and the box-y drum sound is borderline unbearable, but the thrust of Hymns in Dissonance is all shapes and forms of heaviness. From the sword-swinging harmony runs in “The Mammoth God” and the title track’s oblong Swe-death skittering to the (probably) Rutan-approved pummeling of “Hate Cult Ritual” and the stately and effusive grandiosity of closer “Nothing Is Coming for Any of Us,” this is modern metal with its wingspan stretched. Maybe they’ve been gussying up their roots under my nose for a few years, but at any rate, Hymns in Dissonance is dynamic, multidimensional and a much more satisfying version of any Whitechapel I’ve ever known. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

YOUNG WIDOWS

Power Sucker

TEMPORARY RESIDENCE LT D

We get older, they stay the same age

Nowadays there’s no telling what a reunion record will sound like. Not just the quality, but what kind of music the resurrected entity will actually want to play. The band may have lost their touch or their modern tastes are simply bad. But on their fifth full-length, Power Sucker, the band seems to have forgotten they haven’t put out a record in 11 years. There are two previous eras of these Louisvillians, with some fans preferring the strippeddown noise rock of their first couple albums, while others favor the more apocalyptic and windswept atmospherics of their last two. Instead of picking a side, or something completely new, the trio have done an impressive job melding their discography into a single cohesive sound. Now people get full-on, bass-heavy rockers with Evan Patterson’s haunting/broken guitar parts and an even more confident and hypnotic vocal approach, honed from his Jaye Jayle solo work. Considering the aforementioned preferences, some may wish the band hadn’t split this sonic baby and either revisited their earliest days or pushed their later sound even further. But there’s something deeply satisfying about this record that feels both fresh and like it could have been released a decade ago. About halfway through, “Turned Out Alright” ends with the a cappella chant, “Turned out alright for a punk rock kid.” And whatever the true context of that may be, Power Sucker shows that Young Widows have withstood the challenges of age and inactivity to create something their former selves would appreciate. —SHANE MEHLING DECIBEL : APRIL 2025 : 79

EUGENE S. ROBINSON

STRAIGHT EDGE DRUNKS +

A HARDCORE ASIDE w

hat percentage of drinkers are drunks? By which, we’re asking if there’s a corollary between those who drink and those who get drunk. I’ve consumed enough alcohol to guess at the difference, but, in fact, I’ve only been drunk three times. Chalk this up to obsessiveness, which has nothing to do with propensity for addiction. But beer was my first love. I wasn’t impressed with it, but the ease with which I could obtain it at the age of 14 was bested only by the ease at which I could get weed. But like the bunk weed I blew (it was very different in 1976), my taste in beer was… cinematic. By which I mean I saw The Deer Hunter, and while vibing with Michael Cimino’s story about war in Southeast Asia, as well as back home, I had noted that they all drank Rolling Rock. A sucker for a cinematic turn, I also started drinking Rolling Rock. While smoking weed three times a day, every day, and this was how I had chosen to spend six months of my life as a teenager before I figured out that, outside of mimicry, this diet was not going to help me achieve bodybuilding goals, which, if it can be believed, I had as a teenager. 80 : APRIL 2025 : DECIBEL

So, I stopped drinking. A situation that dovetailed well with the hardcore ethos out of Washington, D.C., where Ian MacKaye from Minor Threat decided, in response to an embarrassing amount of rock ‘n’ roll drunkenness on the part of drunken rock ‘n’ roll fans, to go another way. He called it straightedge, and while I didn’t need it, those who needed support for their decision not to drink might have found it helpful. The program, in its entirety, was about not smoking (which I never did), not drinking, not taking drugs and not screwing. Don’t ask me about that last one. Or the first one for the exact opposite reason. (The latter I did as often as propriety allowed; the former I never did, unless we’re talking cigars, and that was as a gag.) Was I taking psychedelics? As often as I could, but on account of the lack of smoking and drinking, I believed I was still more straight-edge than the soda-swilling skateboard contingent of D.C. straight-edge cats. I could take psychedelics and be back at the gym the next day. So, I was safe. So safe that, one night, on the way to see a hardcore show, when offered a small, tiny sip

of vodka, I consented. I consented because of the “health” benefits of clear alcohol and because I figured I wouldn’t be as much of an ass as I was when I was just a 16-year-old drinker. It had been four years since I had had a drink, and I could handle it. Like an adult. It was both cool and warm at the same time. And the first requested a second, and in the hardcore days when things to eat were scant on account of poverty, it felt… filling. “Next thing I know,” as the prelude rolls, I was in the grips of—and there is no other way to put this—insanity. But my insanity was very… ordered. “This room is a mess.” I didn’t scream it. I spoke it. Quietly. The neat freak in me, sensibilities disturbed, had realized that this was not the way things should be. Forget about the fact that I wasn’t in my room, or even the room of someone I knew. Because what I knew is that order must play out, and as an emissary of it, I had to help. I began flinging everything in the room out of the room. If I could lift it, out the window it went. And to my credit, the emptying of the room did seem to help the room, which

was the exact opposite of what it was doing to the room’s owner. Who was cowering, despite my claims to be “fixing” things. See, the problem was I could never see myself well from the outside. But the engineer boots, the large linked chain I wore as a belt, the mohawk with a cross shaved into the side of my head, the whole… schmear: It was too much. But not nearly enough for the only person in the room who could have stopped me. “You’re doing a great job,” said Steve Ballinger, guitarist and cofounder of Whipping Boy. At 6’6” and 270 pounds, he was the most perfect kind of enabler. Think of a hardcore Nick Nolte. And I was, right until I threw out the gallon jug of what used to be full of vodka. Which was right after I saw a guy walking below and through the wreckage I had thrown. The fact that it almost killed, I wish I could say is what stopped me from drinking again until I was 36, but it really wasn’t that. “Man… beer is making me… fat.” So, yeah. Have fun at Metal & Beer Fest. Have one for me, a vain man who, outside of donuts, has everything under control… now. ILLUSTRATION BY ED LUCE

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