Decibel Magazine - May 2014 [#115]

Mastodon Failure extreme MLB Preview Studio Report

Hall of Fame

Diamond Kings

Exodus

Call & Response

e xt r e m e ly e xt r e m e  d e c i b e l m ag az i n e . c o m

the

Ultimate

Warrior

Gabriel Fischer’s

Greatest Work?

free 

noisem flexi disc inside!

Don’t see it? Then subscribe!

also:

Napalm Death Massacre Slough Feg Coffinworm Siege Raw Power Comeback Kid Cult Leader may 2014 // No. 115

Is this Tom

e xtr e m e ly e xt r e m e

May 2014 [T115] decibelmagazine.com

reviews 77 lead review Groove, blues and doom toke up together on the Oath’s auspicious debut

66

78 album reviews More of them nutty band names the kids just love, Paul, including Nux Vomica, Corpsessed and Barren Womb 92 sub:culture Esoterik reasoning

cover story

96 south pole dispatch Getting slaughtered out there

Triptykon

upfront 10 metal muthas:

mitch harris

The Warrior mentality

18 live reviews: a389

x anniversary fest

Intercontinental blues

More Baltimore strangulation

12 grinding it out Down under blunders

20 studio report:

13 brewtal truth (Real) beer here!

14 killing is my

business

Does corporate metal still suck?

16 cry now, cry later From heroes to zeroes

mastodon

Coming in the air tonight 22 dirge Gravity thrills 24 conan Lament not!

26 grim legion Evokin’ the ancients 28 comeback kid Neither tired nor retired 30 coffinworm The second burrow 32 cult leader We’ll drink this Kool-Aid 34 nocturnal breed The smell of napalm in the evening

features 36 call and response

with gary holt

Exhibit C: bands he’s never heard of 38 raw power Fighting the sleep 40 massacre Kill ’em all over again 42 siege Still not fast enough

48 special feature:

decibel’s mlb extreme preview Grind on, plug in, ground out

54 the decibel

hall of fame

Failure’s space-rock opus Fantastic Planet eclipses extreme music’s search for the tr00th

44 q&a: mike scalzi Regression analysis

cover and contents photos 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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www.decibelmagazine.com

extremely extreme

May 2014 [T115]

Publi s her

Alex Mulcahy

Co ntr ibuting Wr iters

alex@redflagmedia.com

Editor -In-Chief

Albert Mudrian

albert@decibelmagazine.com

managing Editor Andrew

Bonazelli

andrew@decibelmagazine.com

ar t di rector

Bruno Guerreiro

bruno@decibelmagazine.com

Co ntro lle r

Nicole Jarman

nicole@redflagmedia.com

Patty Moran

cu s tomer se rvice

patty@decibelmagazine.com

co ntr ibuting ar tis ts

Chuck BB, Mark Rudolph

adve r tising

Albert Mudrian

albert@decibelmagazine.com

540.878.5756

just words

unde r to nes secti on

It’s two days before we go to

print with the issue you’re from the editor now holding, and I have no idea where our flexi discs are.

It’s been like this every month since our printer moved their flexi printing press from the U.S. to the Czech Republic at the end of 2013. Since then, communication between the Czech pressing plant and the U.S. has been spotty, their equipment has occasionally failed, and what’s left of the hair on my head has turned a stunning shade of Martin van Drunen.

I realize not all of our subscribers give a shit about the Flexi Series, which is fine. You can skip ahead to our annual baseball preview and complain about that for the next six months. For the rest of you, chances are you’ll recall that we didn’t include a flexi in the March issue because the press failed to get their machinery running properly before our print date. The plan was to include two flexis in the April issue, but due to another equipment failure, we were only able to include one. We intended to include two flexis in the May issue, but since the press has now been backed up with months of orders, they were only able to complete one in time to be inserted into this issue. At least I hope they did, or I’m gonna have to edit the shit out of this two days from now.

Oh, have I mentioned that this is still the only place on earth that prints flexi discs at the volume necessary to serve all of our subscribers?

So, yeah, it’s not an ideal situation.

The big question then: When will I get my missing flexi? Honestly, I don’t know. It could be next month. It could be three months from now. What I do know is that Decibel and our printer are doing everything humanly possible to get caught up so we can include that extra disc in an issue soon. So, please bear with us, and know that your frustrations are both recognized and shared.

We have a tremendous year planed for the Flexi Series, including new discs from Eyehategod, Trap Them, Nails, Arch Enemy and even more insanely cool shit I can’t divulge at the moment. Thanks for being a part of it, and for your continued support and patience. albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief

Drew Juergens

drew@decibelmagazine.com

Online Deciblo g editor

online

adve r tising

Andrew Bonazelli

andrew@decibelmagazine.com

Ben Umanov

ben@blastbeatnetwork.com

Anthony Bartkewicz Adrien Begrand J. Bennett Shawn Bosler Brent Burton Richard Christy Liz Ciavarella-Brenner John Darnielle Jerry A. Deathburger Chris Dick Sean Frasier Jeanne Fury Nick Green Joe Gross Jason Heller Jonathan Horsley Scott Koerber Daniel Lake Frank Lemke Shawn Macomber Shane Mehling Kirk Miller Justin M. Norton Matt Olivo Dutch Pearce Etan Rosenbloom Kevin Sharp Rod Smith Zach Smith Kevin Stewart-Panko Adem Tepedelen Jeff Treppel Jeff Wagner Co ntr ibuting photo gr aphers

Main Office

1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107 Tel: 215.625.9850 / Fax: 215.625.9967 www.decibelmagazine.com

Scott Kinkade Ester Segarra Josh Sisk Gene Smirnov Frank White Jimmy Hubbard

Rec or d Stor es

To carry Decibel, call 1.215.625.9850 x105 Decibel Sub s cripti o ns

Decibel subscriber service/change of address: 215.625.9850 x105 or contact@decibelmagazine.com To order by mail: Consult the subscription page 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 B ack Iss ues /Me rchandi se

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.

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 rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited.

PR INTED IN U SA

issn 1557-2137

|

u s p s 023142

fanbase Reader of the

Month David Pajo

Collingswood, NJ Some of our readers are likely familiar with your work in Slint and Dead Child, but you have a pretty extensive discography. What bands are you currently an active member of?

I toured with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs for all of 2013, and then started up with Slint again.

This year I’m focusing entirely on Slint. The remaster of Spiderland and documentary are closing the book on that chapter of my life, so I want one last dance.

What were your gateway bands into the more extreme side of metal?

As a pockmarked teen in the early ’80s, I was really into Venom’s Black Metal, Mercyful Fate’s

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Nuns Have No Fun EP and various NWOBHM comps. I didn’t see a difference between them and Dio or Motörhead; it was all extreme to me in those days! Then I got more into hardcore and punk—it seemed faster, more politically aware and empowering. Pretty quickly my mind opened, and I explored a wider range of music. Around the early 2000s, I heard Meshuggah. Then I got into Von, and that busted open the floodgates to where I could barely tolerate any other music if it wasn’t metal. It was amazing to try to catch up on everything I missed, and still is. It’s only been fairly recently that I’ve been able to enjoy other types of music; i.e., music that isn’t funeral doom or black metal.

Tom G. Warrior is the cover of this issue, and Failure is in the Hall of Fame for Fantastic Planet. Which of those artists did you listen to more in the ’90s?

To be honest, outside of some Sepultura, some Burzum and some Slayer, I really didn’t listen to any metal in the ’90s. But I am a nerdy fan of everything Tom Warrior’s done. It’s a little embarrassing to admit that Only Death Is Real is on my coffee table right now.

Of all the musicians you’ve played with in all your indie projects, who’d be the most surprising closet metalhead? Save Nick Zinner, of course, who was actually featured in Decibel as just that.

Nick definitely has metal poisoning his bloodstream—his natural style is to alternate—pick a la Euronymous. John Herndon from Tortoise has sick double-kick skills and digs Darkthrone. Todd Brashear, Slint bassist on Spiderland, is a big fan of Deafheaven and Inquisition. But honestly, I don’t have any comrades where I live that are as into it as I am. I go to metal shows in Philly whenever I can, but always alone. Except for that time I brought Brian Chase of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to see the singer from T.O.M.B. cut himself up!

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

web gems presents:

f Suckness o s o ie n h Symp In which we recount the most the insane and inspired posts of g blo month from our comrades in

ROB ZOMBIE COLLABORATING WITH AMERICAN PSYCHO AUTHOR BRET EASTON ELLIS ON MANSON FAMILY MURDERS PROJECT

THE NU-METAL REVIVAL APOCALYPSE IS HERE!!!

Rise Records is the esteemed label that gave us crabcore visionaries Attack Attack! in 2009, and they’ve captured the zeitgeist again with Issues (who you just know are named after Korn’s fourth album). Issues’ s/t debut debuted at #9 on Billboard, moving over 22,000 units. As for their fresh new sound? Take it away, Vince: “Downtuned nü-metal riffs? Here! Muscular tough guys fighting in music video? Here!

Djenty bounce, good cop/bad cop vocals, godawful clean-sung, Auto-Tuned chorus? Here!

And the DJ, the friggin’ DJ… that’s the kicker. I didn’t think scratching would ever come back.”

And now for a news item that probably would’ve been much more interesting 15 years ago. Infamous bad boy author Ellis is teaming up with Zombie to develop a Fox miniseries on the August 1969 Manson family murders.

Why would this have worked better 15 years ago, you ask? As Axl accurately notes, “Most recently, [Ellis] wrote the movie The Canyons, starring Lindsay Lohan and porn star James Deen, which wasn’t well received by critics or audiences. And Zombie’s track record as a filmmaker… well… y’know—it ain’t great.

So, in theory, this could be interesting, but in practice, I suspect it ends up being a dud.”

Red Fang No Hope

TAGS: BRET EASTON ELLIS, ROB ZOMBIE

BABYMETAL

Gimme Chocolate!!

TAGS: ISSUES

ASKING ALEXANDRIA’S COVER OF “CLOSER” WILL MAKE YOU WANNA SHOVE NINE INCH NAILS IN YOUR EARS

UNSIGNED AND UNHOLY: MOPE, AN ENDLESS SPORADIC, ORBIT CULTURE

Kind of a lay-up, but we’ll give this post headline of the month honors. Yes, nobody expects anything of quality from whatever the fuck Asking Alexandria is—and a cover of NIN’s most iconic song probably isn’t gonna put them over the top—but they’re still worth making fun of. Axl points out that “unfortunately, at the 2:08 mark, it turns into Asking Alexandria’s usual eighth-rate metalcore crap, and at that point, you may feel compelled to go stick your head in the oven. But remember, you can always just turn it off instead.”

We at Decibel are big proponents of giving unsigned bands their due via Kevin StewartPanko’s recurring Throw Me a Frickin’ Bone column. Metalsucks feels the same, and here Vince gives big-ups to three of the best heavy bands to hit his desk recently. On “Old Grey Street,” Mope “combine sleepy, late-night sax lines with downtuned stoner sludge, and the results are mesmerizing.” Then, An Endless Sporadic (“super proggy and heady, with a great ear for melodies”) conjure Animals as Leaders, and Swedish heavy-hitters Orbit Culture round out the column with their Odyssey EP.

TAGS: ASKING ALEXANDRIA, NINE INCH NAILS

TAGS: AN ENDLESS SPORADIC, MOPE, ORBIT CULTURE

Visit www.metalsucks.net 8 : m ay 2 0 14 : d e c i b e l

THOUGHT CHAMBER Transcend

Celtic Frost

Circle of the Tyrants Visit the official Decibel channel at Metal Injection http://www.metalinjection.tv/decibel