MY DYING BRIDE GATECREEPER REALITY BITES BACK
THE ANGEL AND THE DARK RIVER HALL OF FAME
REFUSE/RESIST
SPECIAL REPORT
and Why
HOPE Lies Ahead
FLEXI DISC
INCLUDED Don’t see it? Then subscribe!
APRIL 2021 // No. 198
ALSO
UNDER THE GUILLOTINE
THE NOISE RECORDS COLLECTION DELUXE BOX SET
CONTAINS ALL THE NOISE ERA ALBUMS ON SPLATTER VINYL WITH ORIGINAL ARTWORK AND INNER SLEEVES. PLUS A DVD MINI FILM AND UNRELEASED LIVE AUDIO, REPRODUCTION DEMO CASSETTE, 40 PAGE BOOK AND A DEMON USB FIGURINE OF THE ENTIRE NOISE MP3 DISCOGRAPHY.
ALSO AVAILABLE AS DOUBLE CD AND DOUBLE SPLATTER LP ANTHOLOGY
OUT MARCH 12 TH, 2021 WWW.KREATOR-TERRORZONE.DE
AVAILABLE NOW ARCHITECTSOFFICIAL.COM
E XT R E M ELY EXTREME
April 2021 [R 198] decibelmagazine.com
upfront 8 metal muthas Jotunlove
14 wolf king Wrath hand path
10 low culture Antisocial social club
16 pounder Album-oriented rock 'til you drop
11 no corporate beer Party animals 12 in the studio:
khemmis
Not even a pandemic can stop the magic
18 the crown Once again the rightful heirs 20 sarin Only moving forward 22 the ruins of beverast Least likely candidate for Oprah’s Book Club 24 evergrey Power dozen 26 thron Into the woods
features
reviews
28 melvins Fuck around and find out
61 lead review Genghis Tron return from the dead mountain mouth with a synth-heavy arsenal on Dream Weapon
30 gatecreeper Very fine music on both sides 32 q&a: eyehategod Third time’s the charm for Mike IX Williams 36 the decibel
hall of fame My Dying Bride’s goth metal masterpiece, The Angel and the Dark River, finds itself in the arms of metal’s fairest Maiden
62 album reviews Releases from bands that are looking up the price of stocks for Tower Records, including Coffins, Enforced and Sanguisugabogg 80 damage ink He came from the land of ice and snow
The Silence is Deafening COVER STORY COVER AND CONTENTS PHOTOS BY GENE SMIRNOV Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $29.95. Periodical postage, paid at Philadelphia, PA, and other mailing offices. Submission of manuscripts, illustrations and/or photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Postmaster send changes of address for Decibel to Red Flag Media, 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia PA 19107. © 2021 by Red Flag Media, Inc. ISSN 1557-2137 | USPS 023142 All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. 2 : APRIL 2021 : DECIBEL
The Live Album Deluxe Reissues
EVIL OR DIVINE: LIVE IN NEW YORK CITY Newly Remastered and Newly Created Cover Art
+ LIMITED EDITION LENTICULAR 3LP + STANDARD 3LP + 2CD DELUXE MEDIABOOK + DIGITAL
HOLY DIVER: LIVE Newly Remastered and Newly Created Cover Art
+ LIMITED EDITION LENTICULAR 3LP + STANDARD 3LP + 2CD DELUXE MEDIABOOK + DIGITAL
Out on February 12th AVAILABLE ON DIGITAL, VINYL & 2CD RONNIEJAMESDIO.COM
www.decibelmagazine.com
D E L U D RESCHE AIN …AG
April 2021 [T198] PUBLISHER
Alex Mulcahy
alex@redflagmedia.com
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Albert Mudrian
albert@decibelmagazine.com
AD SALES
James Lewis
james@decibelmagazine.com DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND SALES
ART DIRECTOR
Aaron Salsbury aaron@decibelmagazine.com
Michael Wohlberg
michael@redflagmedia.com
In late January, we announced the latest postponement of our Philly edition of Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest—this time rescheduling it for late September 2021. A few people wondered aloud if it wouldn’t have been a better idea to just completely give up on 2021 and move the event to the following year. From a financial perspective, rescheduling an event takes countless hours and coordination, so there’s a pretty good argument to be made for taking the 2022 approach. Though we’ve been negatively impacted by the lack of traditional live events, Decibel has other revenue streams to help us navigate pandemic times. Virtually every member of the fragile live music ecosystem—detailed eloquently by Sean Frasier in this month’s cover story—aren’t nearly as fortunate. So, while the possibility for live shows in the fall of 2021 still exists, we’ll focus on responsibly executing Metal & Beer Fest in the hopes of partially relieving the financial burden for our friends in the live music industry. And for the rest of us, we’ll plan with the aim of relieving some of the mental effects that a year without shows has brought upon us. While we wait and hope, Decibel will donate 100 percent of the profits for individual sales of this issue to PIVOT (Philadelphia Independent Venues Organizing Together)’s campaign targeted specifically towards independent music industry gig workers in our hometown. There are plenty of other worthwhile charities that are helping indie (and less-than-indie) venues and their staffs, as well as the crew and live music gig workers who remain out of work. So, if you can contribute, please consider these worthy options: MusiCares: Founded by the Recording Academy in 1989, MusiCares primarily helps out-of-work musicians and industry folks in crisis, but the Grammys’ charitable organization also gets money in the hands of unemployed production crew members. Crew Nation: Live Nation’s global relief fund raised millions of
dollars for displaced crew and gig workers at the pandemic’s onset last March, but it certainly could use more donations a full year after its launch. NIVA (National Independent Venue Association): Famously helped draft the Save Our Stages Act, which passed as part of the latest COVID-19 relief bill, NIVA continues to raise money to assist the venues at greatest risk of permanently going under as we wait for the grants to find their way to venues.
albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief
REFUSE/RESIST
Patty Moran
CUSTOMER SERVICE
patty@decibelmagazine.com
COPY EDITOR
Andrew Bonazelli
BOOKCREEPER
Tim Mulcahy
tim@redflagmedia.com
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Chuck BB, Ed Luce Mark Rudolph
Online DECIBEL WEB EDITOR
Albert Mudrian
DECIBEL WEB AD SALES
James Lewis
albert@decibelmagazine.com james@decibelmagazine.com
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Vince Bellino Adrien Begrand J. Bennett Dean Brown Louise Brown Chris Chantler Richard Christy Liz Ciavarella-Brenner Chris Dick Chris Dodge Sean Frasier Nick Green Raoul Hernandez Jonathan Horsley Courtney Iseman Neill Jameson Sarah Kitteringham Scott Koerber Daniel Lake Andrew Lee Shawn Macomber Shane Mehling Justin M. Norton Andy O'Connor Dutch Pearce Forrest Pitts Greg Pratt Jon Rosenthal Joseph Schafer Rod Smith Matt Solis Kevin Stewart-Panko Eugene S. Robinson Adem Tepedelen Jeff Treppel J Andrew Zalucky Bradley Zorgdrager CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
MAIN OFFICE
1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107 Tel: 215.625.9850 / Fax: 215.625.9967 www.decibelmagazine.com RECORD STORES
To carry Decibel, call 1.215.625.9850 x105
Jason Blake Dave Creaney Ester Segarra Hristo Shindov Josh Sisk Gene Smirnov Levan TK Hannah Verbeuren Frank White
DECIBEL SUBSCRIPTIONS
Decibel subscriber service/change of address: 215.625.9850 x105 or contact@decibelmagazine.com To order by mail: Consult the subscription card To order by phone: 215.625.9850 x105 To order by fax: 1.215.625.9967 To order online: www.decibelmagazine.com VISA/MASTERCARD/DISCOVER accepted Subscribers: please alert us of any change of address 6-8 weeks before the date of your move. Decibel is not responsible or obligated to re-ship issues missed because of a move we were not informed of 6-8 weeks before the move took place. DECIBEL BACK ISSUES/MERCHANDISE
To order by phone: 1.215.625.9850 (10 a.m. – 5 p.m. EST) To order by fax: 1.215.625.9967 To order online: www.decibelmagazine.com Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $29.95. Periodical postage, paid at Philadelphia, PA, and other mailing offices. Submission of manuscripts, illustrations and/or photographs must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Postmaster send changes of address for Decibel to Red Flag Media, 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia PA 19107. Copyright ©2021 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. PRINTED IN USA
ISSN 1557-2137
|
USPS 023142
READER OF THE
MONTH Obviously, you’ve seen some metal history. Any Hall of Fame-eligible albums we’re blowing it on by not including? (Don’t say Iron Maiden because we’ve been working on that for 17 years.)
I’ve always respected the rule you’ve had regarding records where you can’t interview the entire band that played on the record, so most of what I would want to see that hasn’t been covered can’t be covered, but I think the magazine has done a great job covering a lot of the classics. I was most bummed that Neurosis wasn’t into doing it, but then you fixed that with that special issue covering three of their classics! I would like to see Sacred Reich’s Ignorance; that was a favorite when I was in high school.
Marc Jaeger Newburgh, NY
You’ve been a Decibel reader since the start. How did you discover the magazine?
I actually saw it on the rack at my local record store here, Rock Fantasy (operating since the mid-’80s and still going strong!). It was a magazine title I hadn’t seen before, and it had the Dillinger Escape Plan on the cover, so I figured it was worth a shot. Turns out I was right! You saw Metallica, W.A.S.P. and Armored Saint on tour in 1985. Tell us what you can remember about that show.
That was a music-changing show for me. I had only heard a snippet of Metallica the
6 : APRIL 2021 : DECIBEL
previous summer and I wasn’t too into it, but my friends and I were die-hard W.A.S.P fans, so we shelled out the 10 bucks. Turns out it was a co-headlining gig and Metallica went on last, so (unlike a lot of others that night) we decided to stick around and check them out. When they hit the stage, it changed the way I thought about heavy music forever. Cliff’s bass solo, the stripped-down way they performed and the sheer ferocity of their set (they even played “The Call of Ktulu”!) opened me up to this whole new style that was coming up, and led to the discovery of so many other amazing bands. Hard to believe I was only 14 years old at the time!
The cover story of this issue is a piece on the ramifications of a year without live music and why there’s hope on the horizon. What’s the first thing you’re doing when you can responsibly attend a live show?
Seeing bands has been a large part of my life for the past 30 years, so I’m definitely looking forward to getting back to it; but most importantly, seeing the people whose lives depend on it—the bands, the venue owners and staffs, studios— getting back to work, so hopefully things start getting back to normal soon. The Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest has been rescheduled to the weekend before my birthday this year, so let’s hope that happens!
Chuck BB is the illustrator of the graphic novels Black Metal, Vol. 1, 2 and 3 For more info and art, head over to chuckbb.com
NOW SLAYING Wonder what Decibel world HQ has been rocking for the past month? Well, here are the records that we spun most while thinking about how insane it is that the joke we made last month about wanting to find 11,780 votes for that last Ulcerate album wasn’t even relevant three days later.
Because not all of us were spawned in the darkest recesses of hell
This Month's Mutha: Sunneva Østrem Peersen Mutha of Ivar Bjørnson of Enslaved
Tell us a little about yourself.
A few months ago, I retired from my job as a psychologist at the University Hospital in Bergen. I loved my job, but I also love to spend more time now with my grandchildren and family. A few days a week, I work as a volunteer for the Red Cross. I also like to be outdoors walking and bicycling and swimming during the summer. We learn in Enslaved’s new documentary series Heimvegen (The Way Home) that Ivar lived with you in Etne when he was growing up. Did he appreciate the incredible sprawling landscape?
From about 3 years of age, Ivar went with his family on trips in the hills and mountains surrounding Etne. He loved skiing and swimming in the fjord when he was a child. There was very little internet and no mobile telephones those days, so he and his friends spent time cycling and playing football. I am afraid our family, like many Norwegians, took the marvelous landscape more or less for granted! Ivar says he attempted to start bands with classmates on his earliest days of school, but they exhibited disdain for heavy metal. How did you feel about his interest in the genre at the time?
When I understood that Ivar really was dedicated to heavy metal, I became very worried. The newspapers and television were telling us about violence and church burnings linked to persons playing this music. For some time, I hoped that Ivar would choose another kind of music. But as I told him about my worries, we had many 8 : APRIL 2021 : DECIBEL
positive conversations about important values in society. Ivar explained to me that the Enslaved band members dissociated from violence, racism and church burning. After this turbulent period, I have always been very proud of Ivar and Enslaved and the hard work they are doing to create new music! What are your memories of him playing in his school band?
He was rehearsing every week with the band, and they used to play at quite a few events during the year. Most important to me was their playing on our [Constitution Day], the 17th of May. In Norway, this is perhaps the most important day of the year, when everybody is out marching and singing in the streets with flags and balloons, and are dressed in their finest clothes. The school bands have a crucial role this day, playing the national anthems. So, I used to be very proud of Ivar in the school band. What is something most people don’t know about Ivar?
Perhaps most people do not know that Ivar’s skilled and patient wife Tonje is a program director for Bergen International Festival, which is the biggest and most important festival in Scandinavia when it comes to classical music. Ivar’s two daughters, Inger Sunneva (9) and Sonja Elisabeth (6), are his most dedicated fans! As a contrast, the oldest loves dancing ballet, and the youngest loves playing football. —ANDREW BONAZELLI
Albert Mudrian : e d i t o r i n c h i e f Amorphis, Elegy Sentenced, Amok Xsyma, Yeah My Dying Bride, The Angel and the Dark River Black Sabbath, Mob Rules ---------------------------------Patty Moran : c u s t o m e r s e r v i c e 10,000 Russos, Kompromat Farflung, When Science Fails Mass, Mass Viagra Boys, Welfare Jazz Dead Vibrations, Dead Vibrations ---------------------------------James Lewis : a d s a l e s The Crown, Royal Destroyer Vader, Blood My Dying Bride, The Angel and the Dark River Blut Aus Nord, MoRT Sorrow, Hatred and Disgust ---------------------------------Mike Wohlberg : a r t d i r e c t o r Run the Jewels, RTJ3 Run the Jewels, RTJ4 Spectral Wound, A Diabolic Thirst Rippikoulu, Musta Seremonia Phlegethon, Neutral Forest ---------------------------------Aaron Salsbury : m a r k e t i n g a n d s a l e s Yautja/ Chepang, Split 7-inch Gatecreeper, An Unexpected Reality Horrendous, The Chills Ripped to Shreds, 亂 (Luan) Isis, Celestial
GUEST SLAYER
---------------------------------Jaime Gomez Arellano : s e p t i c ta n k
Morbid Angel, Domination Thundercat, Drunk Jaga Jazzist, One-Armed Bandit The Mars Volta, Amputechture Grave Pleasures, Motherblood