Decibel Magazine - November 2014 [#121]

EXCLUS

IVE

PETER STEELE CANNIBAL CORPSE BOOK EXCERPT

E XT R E M E LY E XT R E M E

INHUMAN TARGET

L7

HALL OF FAME

LEVIATHAN STUDIO REPORT

D E C I B E L M AG AZ I N E . C O M

great expectations

AT THE

GATES Can Swedish Death Metal Kings Top Slaughter of the Soul ?

FREE

TRAP THEM FLEXI DISC

ANNIVERSARY SHOWS PREVIEW! ALSO

OBITUARY SICK OF IT ALL IRON REAGAN MYRKUR YOB IDES OF GEMINI IMMOLATION WINTERFYLLETH

NOV 2014 // No. 121

DECIBEL

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E XT R E M E LY EXTREME

November 2014 [T121] decibelmagazine.com

66

COVER STORY

AT THE GATES

upfront 12 decade of confession:

genghis tron

Not traveling, still smiling 12 metal muthas:

immolation

Gorilla tactics 14 cry now, cry later Snow man’s land 15 killing is my business The work which publishes god 16 grinding it out A fungus among us 17 brewtal truth Sorry not sorry 18 live preview:

decibel takes manhattan (and brooklyn) New York has a new problem

Reality renewed

20 studio report:

leviathan

Scar symmetry 22 bastard sapling Feed the fucking tree 24 iron reagan Rise of the tyrants

features

reviews

38 1349 Unfriendly fire

79 lead review Which Godflesh rears its monstrous head on A World Lit Only by Fire?

40 yob Heavier than heaven 42 call and response with

sick of it all

Integrity lies within

26 johnny touch > Johnny Football

44 obituary Kickstart their art

28 internal bleeding Wham bam, thank you slam

46 peter steele book

30 myrkur Mystery girl meets world

50 q&a: george

32 ides of gemini Battle of the hexes 34 swallowed Always preferable to spitting 36 winterfylleth Antiquity road show

excerpt

The origin of the facetious

“corpsegrinder” fisher Digging up the past

54 the decibel hall of fame L7’s Bricks Are Heavy didn’t make our shitlist

80 album reviews Artists that were too frostbitten for the ice bucket challenge, including Mystifier, Anaal Nathrakh, Winterfylleth and Nightbringer

sub:culture 108 sub:culture Heavy Metal Movies’ grindhouse roll call 111 south pole dispatch Sack dance

COVER AND CONTENTS PHOTO

BY ESTER SEGARRA

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, 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© 2014 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All ISSN 1557-2137 | USPS 023142 rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.

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EXTREMELY EXTREME

November 2014 [T121]

PUBLISHER

Alex Mulcahy

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Albert Mudrian

CONTRIBUTING WR ITERS

alex@redflagmedia.com albert@decibelmagazine.com

MANAGING EDITOR

Andrew Bonazelli

andrew@decibelmagazine.com ART DIRECTOR

Bruno Guerreiro

bruno@decibelmagazine.com CONTROLLER

Nicole Jarman

just words

In the autumn of 1995, I was working at a record store chain (which still exists!) in from the editor my old hometown of WilkesBarre, PA (which, unfortunately, also still exists). As the only “metal guy” at the warehouse, I was aware that any promotional records featuring illegible band logos often went unclaimed by the rest of the staff. So, when I spotted an advance cassette of At the Gates’ Slaughter of the Soul, I knew the only fight I had in store that afternoon was suppressing my urge to subject innocent coworkers to technical/melancholic Swedish death metal greatness.

When I eventually arrived home and jammed that tape into the deck, that wasn’t exactly what I heard. The curiously straightforward bludgeon of Slaughter—as opposed to the expansiveness of ATG’s previous “LP,” Terminal Spirit Disease, or the progressive lunacy of debut The Red in the Sky Is Ours—simply left me cold. Why would such masterful musicians keep it simple? Where are the epic tunes demanding fists propelled skyward? I sure hope the cover art won’t feature a fugly brown and gold color scheme!

I recount this tale not to remind everyone that I’m so goddamn old that I remember when listening to music on a cassette wasn’t a just shitty trend—let alone a shitty way to provide advance music—but because I recently had a similar experience with At War With Reality.

Of course, that cassette deck has been replaced by a download link to a zip file, and the listening delay created by my work commute can be swapped out with the time it now takes to give my three-year-old a bath. That said, my initial impressions of disappointment over At War reminded me of how I first felt about Slaughter 19 years ago. Back then, I remained committed to revisiting Slaughter—turns out that cassette yielded a lot of extra plays on my school and work commutes—and eventually fell victim to its insanely catchy charms (like pretty much anyone else with ears and a fondness for Slayer and death metal).

It’s impossible to predict if At the Gates’ new album will hold a similar stature two decades from now, but what I do know is guitarist Anders Björler is correct when he tells us that At War With Reality isn’t an “obvious record” in this month’s excellent cover story. After about a half-dozen spins, the smart and subtle melodies revealed themselves, and At War With Reality became the album-of-the-year contender I always hoped it would be.

So, all I am saying is: give War a chance. Or six.

albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief

PHOTO BY JAMES WESSER

nicole@redflagmedia.com CUSTOMER SERVICE

Patty Moran patty@decibelmagazine.com

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Chuck BB, Mark Rudolph

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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., 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $29.95. Periodical postage, 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.

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fanbase

READER OF THE MONTH these awards. It’s a little surreal. It’s hard to imagine that this local band isn’t so local anymore.

OK, despite those awesome bands, we still get the feeling nobody wants to vacation there. Sell us on the town.

Matt Thurber Murray, UT

You live in Utah. Besides SubRosa and Cult Leader, is there anything musically interesting going on there? Are there other bands like SubRosa or Cult Leader?

One of the big problems is that, as far as exposure, people look at this state and are expecting the next Neon Trees or a band like Imagine Dragons, who left Provo, UT for Las Vegas, and that worked for them. It’s more complicated with metal. If there’s one band from Utah that “broke the scene,” it was Iceburn. To me, seeing Iceburn on Victory and Revelation gave me hope that more bands would follow. I think anything [Gentry Densley]’s involved with is worth checking out. Everyone should give Eagle Twin a listen as well, and decide if there’s still good music coming out of Utah.

And I’ve probably kept a closer eye on SubRosa more than Cult Leader recently because my cousin was married to Sarah [Pendleton, violinist] many years back, and she also worked at Pier 1 Imports with my sister. I always thought graphic design was her calling and the violin was just a hobby.

Now SubRosa are playing venues like the Bowery Ballroom, touring outside of the States, getting all

8 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 14 : D E C I B E L

There are tons of great places to see shows: the Urban Lounge, the Shred Shed, the Complex, In the Venue and the Great Saltair, which is actually about 20 minutes outside of downtown.

The conservative nature of this state will never change—there will always be complex liquor laws—but other than that, it’s a vibrant city. I think my friends that live back east or anywhere in California don’t realize how lucky they are to see great bands that normally hit the coasts first and pick and choose cities in between.

As far as exposure to quality music, I had to go—and still do go—to places like the Heavy Metal Shop, where I would buy stuff like the Crumbsuckers or anything that wasn’t carried at the music chains. I’d take the bus from my parents in the suburbs and go to every single instore appearance I could. You’d have hundreds of people out to see Slayer, and maybe a few dozen for Cannibal Corpse. You’d be surprised how many bands still stop by that place just because of the name.

You’re a Neurosis fan, who we’ve featured twice on the cover, but have yet to make the Hall of Fame for various complicated and annoying reasons. Which album would you induct?

Without question, Souls at Zero. And I did not know they weren’t Hall of Famers. Is that an oversight or an abomination? Maybe the reason they are not is because there isn’t a clear consensus on their greatest works or era. Pain of Mind is still hard

for me to digest. But give me some of those slow six- or eight-minute songs that usually build and then crush your senses, and that’s what I like. The one that I’m spinning now is A Sun That Never Sets, which I feel didn’t get enough attention. If you get all those guys together, it’s amazing. The problem is, they are spread out, have day jobs, and it’s not easy for them to tour the States. All the shows are one-offs overseas or those year-end shows in San Francisco and a few gigs in between. I think they aren’t so much concerned about recognition as they are about delivering something genuine.

Just talking about them makes me want to pull out the Melvins covers album and listen to Buzzo with Scott Kelly doing Venom’s “Warhead.”

There are a number of women interviewed in this issue—members of L7, Myrkur and Ides of Gemini—which isn’t normally the case. Do you think we should be working harder to include more women in Decibel each month?

That’s great, and aren’t you doing that already with bands like SubRosa? I think you focus on what sounds good, period. For all we know, three of the nameless ghouls of Ghost B.C. could be women, and as long it rocks, who cares? When I think of the women in music who inspire me, it’s Exene Cervenka of X, Kira [Roessler] from Black Flag, Jarboe, and the Melt-Banana vocalist. Primarily not metal artists, but women who rock. It takes an advocate, someone like Jim Martin of Faith No More wearing an L7 shirt, to make people say, “Wait a second, these women are awesome—maybe I should give them a shot.”

I’ll be waiting for the follow-up article about Lori Black, who played with the Melvins. She was Shirley Temple’s daughter, and she played with the Melvins? How did that happen?

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