DEFTONES WITH SEEMLESS
UNDER THE INFLUENCE
TOP 40
ALBUMS OF 2006
CONVERGE MASTODON CELTIC FROST WHO’S #1? FIND OUT INSIDE
---------------------------- - - - - - - - - - - - -
GLENN DANZIG
HOW EDDIE & THE BOYS
SAVED EXTREME METAL
I believe in instant justice
A 10-PAGE SPECIAL FEATURE
ALSO STARRING:
IN FLAMES UNEARTH DRAGONFORCE CANNIBAL CORPSE THE HAUNTED TRIVIUM
AND MORE!
JAN 2007 // No. 027 $4.95 US
also AMON AMARTH GOD FORBID ONLY LIVING WITNESS ANAAL NATHRAKH HE IS LEGEND FULL BLOWN CHAOS DYING FETUS UNLEASHED ARSIS
$5.95 CAN
JANUARY 2007
027 ISSUE
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iron maiden
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features .40 amon amarth vs. unleashed Viking scrimmage
.42 call & response
God Forbid’s Doc Coyle separates the sick from the straight busted
.44 glenn danzig Karma to burn
.48 under the influence
Seemless’ Jesse Leach has seven words o and then some for Deftones’ Chino Moren
.52 Decibel Hall of Fame
Only Living Witness turned hardcore convention on its ear with the no longer slept-on Prone Mortal Form
.61 The Top 40 Albums of 2006 Harvesting the Cunt Nectar: denied!
.76 cover story
reviews
76
.87 lead review
My Dying Bride maintain stability in the hierarchy with A Line of Deathless Kings
.88 album reviews
Record reviews even more th corrupt than the 109 United States Congress, including These Arms Are Snakes, Sunn0))) and Boris, HORSE the Band, 36 Crazyfists and Beherit
.104 music dvds
Every Time I Die extol “the whole load,” plus five more extreme discs
.106 culture
The year in dork media
Death clock
.10 news Expanded like Jabba’s belly! The latest on Shadows Fall, Stephen O’Malley, Dawn of Azazel and a buttload more
.16 studio report
Dying Fetus contemplate a breech birth
.20 cry now cry later Black: Number one!
.22 live reviews Carnivore are just kidding. DragonForce, not so much.
.24 full blown chaos
From hxc to maternity
.26 belphegor
Black holes and revelations
.28 allhelluja Flip thy bird and rejoice!
.30 landmine marathon Bloodbath and beyond
.32 he is legend
Pumped on puppets
Extreme music’s brave new world owes everything to Iron Maiden
.112 south pole dispatch
upfront
.34 burning skies COVER ILLUSTRATION: DEREK RIGGS CONTENTS PHOTOS: ROSS HALFIN
Give them liberty and death
.36 anaal nathrakh Ugly hate machine
Decibel (ISSN 1550-6614) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., 1032 Arch Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $24.95. 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© 2007 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All rights ISSN 1557-2137 | USPS 023142 reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of the publisher is strictly prohibited. Printed in USA on 100% recycled paper.
THE NEW NOISE
just words from the editor
Chances are good that if you’ve picked up this magazine you are: a) an
attractive, erudite bon vivant—obviously, a fucking genius—and b) a pretty big fan of heavy metal. Chances are even greater that if you’re a metal fan, you have your own Iron Maiden story; you know, that defining moment when you discovered Maiden weren’t like all the other stupid bands you now used to like. Maybe it was the first time you laid eyes on the band’s iconic mascot (and this month’s Decibel cover star) Eddie, knowing full well that his zombified figure was about to adorn every t-shirt, back patch, and poster you owned. Or perhaps it was the first time you heard the legendary Vincent Price’s spoken word introduction to “Number of the Beast” and then immediately memorized it line for line. Or it could just have been that time you locked yourself in your room for an entire weekend with nothing but a bag of double-stuffed Oreos and a copy of Live After Death (OK, that’s mine). Mastodon drummer and unrepentant Maiden obsessive Brann Dailor has his too, which he recounts elsewhere in our massive 10-page Iron Maiden special feature. Truth is, the dude’s got plenty of defining Maiden moments, so please allow him to relate another that certainly bears mentioning. I’ll let MastoBrann take it from here: “This incident occurred the first time we ever got to play with Iron Maiden years ago. We played a festival in Belgium—I guess it was Grasspop. We didn’t play on the same day, but we played on a different stage a day before them. Their name was on the top of the poster and our name was on the bottom of the poster, so I was like, ‘We played with Iron Maiden!’ We stayed the extra day to see them. At that point, I hadn’t seen them since I was a kid. I was anxiously awaiting them playing. They went on and I was right up front on the barricade. As they were just about to go into ‘The Trooper,’ I felt this warm liquid gracing the back of my calf, which I quickly determined to be someone’s pee. I could barely turn my head because I was completely squished up on the barricade. I could see someone’s withered little penis peeing on the back of my leg. I just had to be like, ‘Fuck this, I’ll deal with it later. Maiden’s on now.’ I raised my fist and we went on with ‘The Trooper.’ ”
Maiden weren’t like all the other stupid bands you now used to like.
JANUARY 2007 // ISSUE N0. 027 WWW.DECIBELMAGAZINE.COM
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It took long enough, but Explosions in the Sky have finally finished recording their new album. The effort, which was recorded at Pachyderm Studio in Minnesota (aka in the middle of nowhere), should hit stores in late February or early March. As for touring, the post-rock gods have assured their disciples that 2007 will be a very, very good year. Not only have Chimaira regrouped after their split with Roadrunner to sign with Ferret Music, but the band has spent some QT at Audiohammer Studios with Jason Suecof (Trivium, God Forbid) recording their fourth album. Andy Sneap (Nevermore, Arch Enemy)—who recorded the album’s drum tracks—will mix the effort. The appropriately titled Resurrection should hit stores in the Spring and will feature cover art from Paul Booth.
Raise the Siege Weymouth grinders Siege issue brief but influential catalog
“I
s your recorder going?” asks former Siege drummer Robert Williams. “I wrote up some notes for some things I wanted to say.” It is, and when I tell him so he proceeds to answer virtually every question I’d written about his band’s landmark recording Drop Dead and its part in the birthing of grindcore before I get to ask any. With Siege’s brief discography newly re-mastered and available from Deranged Records, here’s what Williams has to say about it 22 years later: “We were three guys from Weymouth, MA— the same town that gave the world George Jung, the infamous drug dealer and the only white guy in the Medellín cocaine cartel. We were all obsessed with Devo, and at that time you were taking your life into your hands to be a Devo fan; our bassist used to walk around these college tough-guys with mullets and arena-rock concert shirts wearing the full bright yellow radiation suit and energy dome. We were gay-bashed even though we weren’t gay. Then we discovered Minor Threat and Discharge. We deliberately set out to be the fastest, to create the fastest, most pummeling thing ever. We also loved the noise stuff like Flipper, and [Kurt] Habelt’s Marshall added kind of a metal attack. We took the speed very seriously. “If I had to describe it in one word, anger is what set Siege apart, and I think you can still
10 : JANUARY 07 : DECIBEL
hear it in the recording. My anger on the drums had a lot to do with my father’s murder. He was murdered by mobsters when I was six. I was very lucky to discover extreme music as an outlet. We were very isolated and alone in the scene, and profoundly disliked in Boston. I didn’t fit in with anyone—I was young, I smoked a lot of reefer, and the Boston Crew guys were scowling, jock bully assholes. “Originally, we thought the reels for the Siege sessions were lost; turns out that they were in a suitcase under Kurt’s mother’s staircase. Deep Six Records’ [who released the vinyl version of the discography] engineers made a digital copy of the original reels that yielded some outtakes, which we remixed to make bonus tracks. We’ve worked hard with this reissue to give it an authentic, horse’s-mouth sound quality—not the best, but the most authentic as compared to the original cassettes. “I’m really surprised and grateful for the longterm attention that’s been given to our recordings, and I can only attribute that to the sincere anger and emotion in the songwriting and our attack. It’s incredibly flattering, because there’s still a fan inside me, and I still throw on Napalm Death or [Godflesh’s] Streetcleaner to pack a bong to; so to have Justin Broadrick compliment Siege is just awe-inspiring. It was a life-altering experience to make this recording, and life is good
Americans aren’t the only ones spending time in the studio these days. On that “other” continent, Dimmu Borgir have frequented Studio Fredman in Gotenburg with producer Frederik Nordström as they work on their new album. The disc, which “will be a storybased album with lyrics written accordingly and music wise,” features Shagrath on vocals, Silenoz and Galder on guitar, Vortex on bass, Mustis on keyboards, and Hellhammer (Mayhem) on drums. Look for an early 2007 release. —ZACH SMITH
when there is extreme music.” (Williams is now playing in a new hardcore band called the Spoils with Siege vocalist Kevin Mahoney and members of Boston band the Epidemic.) —ANTHONY BARTKEWICZ
news
new releases December DETENTE Recognize No Authority Re-release (THE END)
INFERNAL MAJESTY Demo’n God EP (SELF-RELEASED) 12/1
METALLICA The Videos: 1989-2004 (WARNER) 12/5
SLIPKNOT Voliminal: Inside The Nine DVD (ROADRUNNER) 12/5
VARIOUS ARTISTS Harder They Fall: A Tribute
To Integrity
(ESCAPIST) 12/25
VARIOUS ARTISTS Tribute To Katatonia (NORTHERN SILENCE) 12/12
RigelCop
January 7000 DYING RATS Season In Hell (HEWHOCORRUPTS) 1/9
Dawn of Azazel frontman’s prime directives: serve the public trust, protect the innocent, uphold the death metal law Poison Idea (not Phil Anselmo, thank you very much astute readers of the February 2006 issue) once asked “What would make a person wanna be a cop?” As avid scholars of the last three decades of action movies, we would amend that to “What would make a person wanna be the kind of cop who gets the living shit kicked out of them in everything from First Blood to The Green Mile?” Luckily, Dawn of Azazel vokiller Rigel Walshe, who supervises the cellblock area of the Manukau District Court in his native New Zealand, is more to happy to tell us. Seeing as how the guy was being maligned as a militarist skinhead by NZ tabloids this time last year, his gregariousness is understandable. “The appeal [of police work] for me is that I’m not the sort of person who enjoys the sterile and unchallenging environment you find in an office,” he explains via email. “I would rather spend 8-12 hours a day doing something exciting and challenging than the sort of existence that most people are forced to lead.” “Exciting” and “challenging” are perhaps massive understatements. Walshe lists his responsibilities as “transporting prisoners to and from court appearances, maintaining order,
ARCHITECT All Is Not Lost
(METAL BLADE) 1/17
COLDWORKER The Contaminated Void (RELAPSE) 1/23
and making sure they don’t escape” (translation: fistfights ‘n’ nightsticks!). He’s previously worked with the “more racy and unpredictable” Criminal Investigative Branch (translation: balls-to-thewall car chases!) and in even more exciting news, Dawn’s just-released LP Sedition is likely to spur even more 300 person riots, à la their 2000 gig at Riverhead (translation: lawsuits!). Luckily, Walshe has thus far survived not only putting his body on the line, but his band’s reputation. Auckland’s Sunday Star News, amongst other media outlets, misconstrued his onstage affection for gas masks and lyrics about “eradication of the weak” as potentially racist red flags, which the frontman has vehemently denied. “I haven’t had anything but support from fans, as well as our ‘valued clients’ at work,” Walshe notes. “A lot of people tell me they appreciate someone being in the force who isn’t so straitlaced, who can appreciate where they are coming from to a degree. “I did receive some interesting mail and attention from some Christian groups here in regards to the Satanic and amoral angle of our lyrics, but to me that’s as good a sign as any that I am doing something right.” —ANDREW BONAZELLI
THE COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINERS Olidous
Operattas
(RELAPSE)
DISINCARNATE Dreams Of The Carrion Kind
Re-release
(SEASON OF MIST) 1/21
DISNIHIL TBA
(CHAINSAW SAFETY) 1/15
GRAVE Enraptured DVD MELECHESH Emissaries
(METAL MIND) 1/16 (OSMOSE/THE END) 1/23
THE NETWORK This Is Your Pig’s Portrait (METAL BLADE) 1/23
THE PROPHECY Revelations
(NOFACE)
SINCE THE FLOOD No Compromise (METAL BLADE) 1/23
THERION TBA
(NUCLEAR BLAST) 1/16
YEAR OF DESOLATION Year Of Desolation (PROSTHETIC) 1/23
February BENEATH THE MASSACRE TBA BYZANTINE Salvation DVD HOT CROSS Risk Revival
(PROSTHETIC) 2/6
(PROSTHETIC) 2/20
(EQUAL VISION) 2/20
MISERATION Your Demons-Their Angels MNEMIC Passenger
(RIVEL)
(NUCLEAR BLAST) 2/6
NINE It’s Your Funeral
(SPINEFARM) 2/20
PSYOPUS Our Puzzling Encounters Considered (BLACKMARKET ACTIVITIES/METAL BLADE) 2/20
E YOUTUCBLIP
D E C I B E L’ S
CLIPS OF THE MONTH
METALMONTH OF THE
at
DEATH WALKING TERROR
A DYING GOD COMING INTO HUMAN FLESH
[ VIDEO-ON-DEMAND: GET YOUR FIX ]
ED GEIN
IRON MAIDEN
CANNIBAL CORPSE
BASTARD
CELTIC FROST
WASTED YEARS
Visit the official Decibel channel at Metal Injection http://www.metalinjection.tv/decibel 12 : JANUARY 07 : DECIBEL
Let’s face it, intentionally or unintentionally, recently reunited Norwegian black metal kings Immortal made one of the greatest metal videos ever in “Blashyrkh (Mighty Raven Dark).” Leave it to Generation YouTube to attempt to improve upon the original by mashing it up with a tune from ‘50s Polish actress Kalina Jedrusik (“Bo We Mnie Jest Sex”). The thoroughly entertaining, yet deeply disturbing results can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LJP4uqa0p8
sCRaP meTAL
news
Kemado Records has reached an agreement with RED Distribution to distribute the former’s catalog and future releases in North America. Next year will see releases from two of the label’s major acts, The Sword ( ) and Dungen. Kemado’s Tom Clapp, Director of Business Affairs, commented, “our new agreement with RED, will allow us to take greater control of all aspects of our artists development, while continuing to have the close relationship that we have with our artists.” In other words, expect to see even more of The Sword real soon! OMG!
Rogue’s Gallery
Southern Lord Stephen O’Malley and fellow underground cover designers get art-house props with the Shrouded exhibit Amendment co-owner and Shrouded curator Wes Winship exclaims between bites of a sandwich. “O’Malley and Hunt’s prints are the biggest part of the show, but, at this point, they’re a work in progress. There’s a third part to each, a typographical thing Stephen designed. We’d have had ’em up long ago, but our exposure machine went down. We only just got it up and running.” Given their density, you’d never guess the prints weren’t finished. While each of the brick-red, black, and white silkscreens seems completely abstract at first, a closer look reveals humanoid figures bearing a remarkable resemblance to the dronesters Grimm. “I think some of these started as photos that are also in the gatefold vinyl version of Black One,” says Winship. As unruffled by today’s delay as he is by the one that finds him still waiting for O’Malley to finish the packaging for the suite—which the gallery is selling as a signed, limited-edition portfolio— Winship says: “I think we’ll just add a little every day, then have a big closing party. On the show’s last night, it’ll finally be complete.” —ROD SMITH
Jared Anderson Dead at 30
F
ormer Hate Eternal/Morbid Angel bassist/vocalist Jared Anderson died in his sleep on Saturday, October 14 at the age of 30. The cause of his death has not yet been released. Anderson was one of the earliest members of respected death metal crew Hate Eternal, performing on both the band’s Conquering the Throne debut and King of Kings albums. From 2001 to 2002 Anderson filled Morbid Angel’s bassist and vocalist positions after former frontman Steve Tucker originally quit the group. In 2001, he released The Book of Lambs, the one and only record from his technical death metal project Internecine. Anderson left Hate Eternal in 2003 to concentrate on overcoming his substance abuse problems. At the time of his death, Anderson was collaborating with Morbid Angel’s Tucker on new material in the death metal vein. Anderson was also recently working on a project called As One, which he described as “a revision of my Internecine writings, or shall I say ‘written in the vein of.’”
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----------------------------------------------Audio-visual products are also in the works, particularly from New Orleans favorites Crowbar ( ). The DVD will feature a show filmed last summer at the With Full Force Festival in Germany and should hit stores early next year via Candlelight Records. The label has also kept busy on the artist front, signing Texas’s Averse Sefira. The American black metallers—together since ’96—have previously issued material through Arrogare, Lost Disciple, and Evil Horde Records as well as supported Cradle of Filth and Candlemass.
----------------------------------------------The departure of vocalist Gabriel McCaughry has not prevented Ion Dissonance from picking up the pieces and finding a new singer in the form of Kevin McCaughey (Shaolin, The Last Felony, Despised Icon). Not only do their last names appear similar from afar, but as the band commented, “Kevin played a few shows with us already and his vocals fit perfectly with our music and what we were looking for.” In the meantime, ID has kept busy writing its third album. ----------------------------------------------The County Medical Examiners were honored guests at Tillinghast Workshop as they finished their debut for Relapse Records, Olidous Operattas. Set for a January release, the album features such tracks as “Expeditious Evisceratory Mishap” and “Maturating Decompositional Gas”. The titles should not come as much of a surprise given that the band is “a collection of real-life pathologists with an unhealthy adoration of and fixation on Carcass.” -----------------------------------------------
WES WINSHIP PHOTO: LISA JURGENS
L
ike a brand-new STD pandemic or sporebased alien invasion, Halloween comes slowly to Minneapolis. At 8 p.m. the streets are still relatively deserted. At least three hours remain before SpongeBob SquarePantses and naked chicks in body paint start streaming into downtown clubs. Still, First Amendment Gallery is already filling up for Shrouded. Luckily, the month-old art space is ready—almost. The kegs are iced and tapped. A huge bowl sits on the gallery’s counter, filled to the brim with candy. Local metalgaze quartet Thunderbolt Pagoda are nearly finished with soundcheck. More importantly than any of the above, the walls are full. One expanse is covered with biomimetic images by southern Minnesota Lowbrow luminary Aaron Horkey, whose work graces the cover of Sunn0)))/Boris collaboration Altar. Another harbors Stephen O’Malley’s first substantial gallery presence ever: a massive suite of 15 prints—each one a silkscreened abstraction with an overlaid transparency—designed in collaboration with Seldon Hunt. “This is so fucking Spinal Tap,” First
in the studio
* dying fetus
A R T IST :
DYING FETUS
P RO D U C E R:
DYING FETUS, JOHN JOHN GALLAGHER AND STEVE CARR
S T UD IO :
HIT & RUN STUDIOS, ROCKVILLE, MD
DAT ES:
SEPT-OCT 2006
IN S TO R ES:
J
MARCH 6, 2007
ohn Gallagher might spend his free time sitting on his ass, but it’s not like he’s unproductive. Instead, the Dying Fetus guitarist/vocalist/founding member has been diligently working to perfect his craft, spending at least an hour a night with his instrument in hand. Not even the television—mother of all distractions—interferes with his death metal mission, providing a visual backdrop as he came up with new riffs for his band’s first album in over three years.
While you can’t blame television for the delay in a new DF album, Gallagher did have some rather important business to take care of in the interim. After all, the man has to work for a living. “Death metal isn’t fucking where the money’s at,” explains the guitarist. “You can make some money out there, but when you come back from touring and you’re not playing shows, you’re pretty much going to have to work. So with that you have to juggle your life and try to get your personal life, work
life, creative life, jam life all together and you don’t have enough time to sleep, really, when it’s all said and done. It’s just what you have to do.” On top of work and trying to write a new album, Gallagher had the unenviable task of finding a new drummer who could pound out a billion beats per second. Yet even when the band—which also includes guitarist Mike Kimball, bassist/vocalist Sean Beasley and drummer Duane Timlin—was drummer-less, they kept busy writing new material. Instead of recruiting a temporary drummer, Gallagher utilized the services of a drum machine, letting Timlin add his own flourishes to the songs once he came into the studio to record. (The drummer joined the fold in late August). The resulting effort will feature eight songs, in addition to a cover of Dutch progdeath metal heroes Pestilence on the Japanese version. As Gallagher describes, the album is faster than any of its predecessors and the extra time spent working on the demos resulted in a greater focus on vocal (syncopation) and guitar (solos and harmonization). The band will treat stateside fans watching them open for Cannibal Corpse to at least two new songs during the tour. “I’ve been doing this for so many years now,” explains Gallagher, “but it’s still basically the same thing to me—it’s creating music that I enjoy and want to hear and I just hope that other people enjoy. That’s pretty much all it boils down to. I’m still into it. I haven’t changed over the last 13 years in terms of my musical tastes—death metal is still a big part of me and I want to keep on carrying on with it. A lot of people say, ‘You’re still doing this shit?’ But to me it’s just still new, still fun.” —ZACH SMITH
From the Hurry-the-Fuck-Up! Department: the Massachusettsbased metalcore crew recently bowed out of their Decibel-sponsored US tour with Killswitch Engage and Bury Your Dead in order to complete the recording of their first studio album since 2004’s Top 20-charting The War Within. The band hoped to finish the recording of their Atlantic Records debut by the tour’s launch on November 9th, but according to SF frontman Brain Fair, “New ideas
16 : JA NUA RY 07 : DECIBEL
have continued to surface and push the songs into new directions that we have to pursue. Making the best album possible is our number one priority and something we must focus on one hundred percent at this time. We sincerely apologize to all the people that planned on coming to see us at these shows, but our absence is no reason not to go and support this tour.” The band is aiming for a spring 2007 release for the still-to-be-titled and still-to-be-completed record.
SHADOWS FALL PHOTO: JOHN SHEARER/WIREIMAGE
Shadows Fall STILL In-Studio
ramblings now slaying Wonder what Decibel world HQ has been rocking for the past month? Well, here are the records we spun the most when we weren’t debating on going as either Abbath or Glen Benton this past Halloween
Smile, You’re Traveling Life is a highway. And each month, Genghis Tron frontman Mookie Singerman files this report from behind the wheel Nothing says “America!!!” like a big ol’ steaming puddle of blood. Whether on TV or foreign soil, we love seeing that stuff flow. I am no exception. You’d think that being on the road for a good chunk of the year I’d miss the violent comfort of CSI or the nightly news, but my patriotic bloodthirst is quenched by real people doing spectacularly violent things in front of our van. Some are awesome. Some are disturbing. And some are just plain fucking weird. Here’s a sampling: The Awesome – 7/11/06 @ Hattiesburg, MS: As I was sitting in the venue parking lot catching up on some e-mails, I heard tires screeching on the adjacent highway. Hamilton frantically motioned for me to come take a look: Two dudes were tearing each other apart in the middle of a sixlane highway. Their wife-beaters came off, their NASCAR hats hit the ground—they were full out tusslin’ in traffic. After a minute or two of face punches, headlocks and flying ’bows the speeding cars proved to be too scary for the two macho fucktards. They momentarily stopped exchanging blows and walked to the Super 8 motel across the street, where they resumed their brawl on the front lawn. 18 : JANUARY 07 : DECIBEL
The Bad – 8/16/06 @ Colorado Springs, CO: We were sitting quietly in rush hour traffic leaving Colorado Springs when Michael uttered an alarming “Holy shit!” from the backseat. He pointed to the adjacent car, wherein an otherwise unassuming woman had a large, bleeding wound on her forehead, two black eyes, a busted lip, and colorful bruises coating her face. “Ma’am,” Michael asked out the window, “Are you OK?” She somehow forced a smile through miles and miles of pain and hollered back, “I’ll be fine once I get home! Thanks!” For the next several minutes, we debated the possible causes of her disturbing physical state. It wasn’t a car accident (her car was in fine shape), it probably wasn’t a costume (Halloween was three months away), and she certainly didn’t look like an amateur UFC enthusiast. We left it as a mystery and hoped that she was just clumsy—perhaps having fallen down a staircase—and wasn’t abused. The Somewhere in Between – 9/3/06 @ Arcata, CA: As we were loading our gear out the back of a bar, a deranged looking crusty hippie with a slight trickle of blood coming down his forehead waddled up to me and asked if I had seen his hat. When I told him “no” he launched into an insane story about how some drunk asshole had attacked him on this very spot, torn out a chunk of his hair, and nearly bit his finger off. He unraveled a blood-soaked paper towel from his right index finger and revealed two swollen gashes that went down to the bone. “Holy shit!” I cried. “Have you washed it?” “Yeah…” he mumbled, “I’ve been soaking it in 151.” I shuddered (and shuddered. and shuddered again. and then shuddered for the rest of tour) and warily continued to load into the trailer—every so often peering over my shoulder in case any maniacal hippies charged out of the woods to eat me. A
Iron Maiden, A Matter of Life and Death Bruce Dickinson, The Chemical Wedding Iron Maiden, Beast Over Hammersmith Iron Maiden, Piece of Mind Bruce Dickinson, Scream for Me Brazil Iron Maiden, Somewhere in Time Iron Maiden, Live After Death Iron Maiden, Beast of the Beast Iron Maiden, Dance of Death Bruce Dickinson, Tattooed Millionaire Iron Maiden, Killers Iron Maiden, Seventh Son of a Seventh Sun Samson, Live at Reading ‘81 Iron Maiden, The Number of the Beast Iron Maiden, Powerslave Iron Maiden, BBC Archives Bruce Dickinson, The Best of Bruce Dickinson Iron Maiden, Best of the B Sides Iron Maiden, Rock in Rio Iron Maiden, Death on the Road Bruce Dickinson, Alive Iron Maiden, Brave New World Samson, Head On Iron Maiden, Iron Maiden Iron Maiden, The X Factor Iron Maiden, Virtual XI Bruce Dickinson, Tyranny of Souls Iron Maiden, No Prayer of the Dying Iron Maiden, Fear of the Dark Iron Maiden, The Essential Iron Maiden Bruce Dickinson, Balls to Picasso Iron Maiden, A Real Live One Iron Maiden, A Real Dead One Iron Maiden, Live at Donington Bruce Dickinson, Accident of Birth
ramblings
* cry now cry later | byilluj.strbeation by bruno guerreiro nnett
NIGHT MOVES Dem free-niggers f’um de N’of am sho’ crazy. —Mammy, The Birth of a Nation
It was around midnight when my business manager, Juan Perez, and I started pulling out onto Sunset Boulevard after the 1349 show at Safari Sam’s in Hollywood. We were being glared at suspiciously by a hundred or so black-clad nigels who were not impressed with the fact that we were blasting the opening track from Justin Timberlake’s new album through the open windows of my green shitbox. “Watch this,” my business manager said as he reached over and turned up the volume. The look in our audience’s eyes was an unblinking combination of fear and hate, and I knew it was only a matter of time before they tore us to pieces. So we peeled out of that bitch at top speed, tires screeching on the asphalt. I could see a few of them cursing us and shaking their fists in the rearview, but we were almost out of rockthrowing distance, so I felt safe enough to tell my business manager to stick his hand out the window and flip them off. The show had been beyond sold out, 4-or-500 strong, with no air conditioning and a hundred or so unlucky nonticket holders queuing up outside for a glimpse of their corpsepainted heroes. Like most metal shows in L.A., the 1349 extravaganza was attended by a rabid cross-section of Mexicans and gringos all sweating profusely and vying for the same four molecules of oxygen. As usual, the room was ripe with the stench of stale beer, fresh piss, and a seemingly endless supply of BO. Scott from Crom’s new Hitler-viaDave Grave haircut & mustache ensemble was the subject of much discussion (at least for my business manager and I), but any band that features an ex-member of 16 (especially when that member is “Full Metal” Phil Vera) and has an album called The Cocaine Wars: 1974-1989—featuring a inside-cover painting of a Viking doing huge daggers of booger sugar off of a huge dagger—is OK in my book. But I think it really occurred to me right around the time 1349 guitarist Archaon started headbanging so furiously that he tore out a few strands of hair after snagging them on the bassist’s headstock, where they remained for the duration of the evening: Just how “underground” is black metal these days when a bunch of dudes 20 : JANUARY 07 : DECIBEL
from Norway (and a drummer from Florida) wearing clown makeup can tour the States with Celtic Frost for a few weeks and then play their own headlining gigs, selling out 4-to-500 capacity venues in the heart of Hollywood? And 1349 could have played to a considerably bigger crowd, had Safari Sam’s been able to accommodate all those streetside nigels. Granted, even 700 people in a city like L.A. is a drop in the bucket, but shit, the Ku Klux Klan (who also enjoyed church-burning as both a political statement and a means to smite their enemies) can’t get 700 people to show up anywhere these days—and everybody knows who they are. So maybe the issue is purely a historical one: The longer black metal sticks around, the more well-known the genre becomes. This theory seems to hold up—for now—in the sense that bands like Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth can play Ozzfest. (Then again, how many Ozzfest acolytes know who—or even what—1349 is? In Los Angeles, at least, there seems to be considerable overlap between the Ozzfest and “underground” factions, judging by the t-shirts on the backs of the faithful at Safari Sam’s.) But just like the Klan, black metal’s ranks will eventually dwindle down to a relative handful of diehards who long for the “good ol’ days” when church-burning wasn’t almost universally frowned upon. They’ll be a far-flung collection of sad old men and cranky nostalgists, and my business manager and I may well be among them. And we’ll all still have our 1349 albums, but only Juan and I will have JT. A
live reviews
Carnivore
September 6, B.B. King Blues Club, New York, NY SUPPORT: Annunaki Are we still in the middle of the anti-PC back-
DragonForce
SUPPORT: HORSE the Band, All That Remains Confidential to Ozzfest 2007 organizers: Next
year, ride with the steel and the power of the sword and let DragonForce take the stage for 13 hours straight. Guitarist Herman Li and company certainly have enough weapons in their arsenal to captivate a crowd: innumerable dorkfriendly references to video game soundtracks, elaborate power metal fantasies ripped straight from the pages of the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and enough blast beats to rewrite the entire Morbid Angel catalogue. As to be expected, the two-hour set was all about technique: Li brought out his signature “finishing” move of playing with his left hand on top of the fretboard, while keyboardist Vadim Pruzhanov entertained the audience with snippets of the theme from Super Mario Bros. before the group’s first encore. A mid-set rendition of “Revolution Death Squad” offered a nod to the group’s black metal roots (Li and guitarist Sam Totman met in Demoniac; drummer Dave Mackintosh defected from Bal-Sagoth) and a minor revelation: blast beats and death vocals actually make power metal more palatable. The UK quintet even found room for a little wish fulfillment at this serendipitous show (9/30 at the 9:30 Club!) when a fan in a latex dragon mask was brought on stage during the 22 : JANUARY 07 : DECIBEL
second encore. Halfway through “Through the Fire and the Flames,” the kid ripped off the mask, upstaged the band with an impromptu backflip, and was immediately ushered off by security. Oh no he didn’t! As “Fury of the Storm” suggests, DragonForce command the power of the entire universe. Mere mortals can’t possibly hope to compete. —NICK GREEN
tour news
—ANTHONY BARTKEWICZ
If you actually remained conscious through Tool’s recent arena tour with Decibel faves Isis, don’t put your smelling salts away just yet! The band will return for another North American tour in March and April. According to drummer Danny Carey, the tour, “will definitely be different than the shows that went around this fall in America. Projection ideas will be added and changed,
and props and whatnot will all evolve, too. It’s just the way our band always works. We work on that kind of thing all the time.”
forces with Unleashed, Belphegor and Hatesphere for an as-of-yet unannounced North American tour. Br00tal.
The Candlelight II: Phoenix Rising tour will bring some Europeans to our shores, as Dark Funeral and Enslaved will team up starting in January, bringing along Americans Abigail Williams. Also, early next year Krisiun will combine
New Jersey metalcore titans God Forbid will embark on a North American headlining tour in January, with Bayou black metallers Goatwhore providing the main support to openers Mnemic and Scar Symmetry.
DRAGONFORCE: AARON PEPELIS
September 30, 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
lash, or are we in an anti-anti-PC-backlash backlash? I think I missed a newsletter. Either way, Carnivore—those lovable Brooklyn knuckleheads who gave us “Male Supremacy,” “Race War,” “Jesus Hitler” (way before Pope what’s-hisname), and Peter Steele of Type O Negative— totally played a show in 2006, and I was there. Around Retaliation, almost 20 years ago, this would have been a scary fucking show—a volatile mix of the toughest NYHC types and serious thrash warriors hyped up on Carnivore’s Road Warrior shtick and “just kidding!” race-baiting. At B.B. King’s, lots of older dudes in the crowd repped local tough guys Cro-Mags and Biohazard via t-shirts, but there was no apparent tension between them and the younger death metal kids who showed. The DM kids were pretty into openers Annunaki, who do death/thrash with a little black metal and a lot of enthusiasm. You know how Avail has Beau Beau, the dancer/cheerleader guy who doesn’t play an instrument? Annunaki had the first metal equivalent I’ve seen: a bespectacled metal dude whose job was to stand behind the drummer and throw horns, headbang, and generally rock out. Note to bands: This is way better than whining to the crowd to come up front or be more enthusiastic. DIY! Speaking of 20 years ago, that was also about the last time I’d actually listened to a Carnivore record. When they took the stage, all warpainted up, I was surprised to hear that “Carnivore” and “Race War” were pretty memorable tunes. They’re also really long, and the band didn’t sound like they’d done a whole lot of practicing. Carnivore always seemed to be more in on their jokes than their audience, but this show (their first since 1996) was more like some guys bashing out their old band’s songs in a garage than a real show. Not four songs in, a half-assed “Smoke on the Water” introduced a friggin’ drum solo. Of course they got around to “Inner Conflict,” “World Wars III and IV” and the rest of the “classics.” Too bad it was for a paying crowd and not some old high school buddies over a 12-pack.
profile
* full blown chaos
FULL BLOWN CHAOS
T
NYC hardcore crew practices family values
hey’re not kids anymore, but the members of New York metalic hardcore crew Full Blown Chaos still look to their parents for a loving kick in the pants. For sibling founders Mike and Jeff Facci (guitar and drums respectively), it’s their father Angelo who keeps the wheels turning. FBC’s original manager and music teacher, the elder Facci played with KISS before they were actually KISS. “He is Full Blown Chaos,” explains singer Ray Mazzola. “Without him, we’d still be in the dumps.” For Mazzola, it’s his mother who remains his biggest influence and source of strength. And from the sound of Within the Grasp of Titans, Ma Mazzola is one hell of a force. ¶ “The past two years have been so chockfull of events in my life, positive and negative, that the lyrics had to go in a certain direction. And we fed them all into this record,” says Mazzola. Fusing their love for metal bands such as Testament and Exodus with their admiration for 24 : JANUARY 07 : DECIBEL
hardcore acts like Biohazard and Sick of It All, FBC poured a rumbling, cement-solid mixture into the mold previously used for 2004’s Wake the Demons. “There’s a steady progression in what we do, how we organize the songs, how we wrote the songs, and lyrically,” says Mazzola, who implores listeners to tune into the words and make a connection. He sees his creative contribution as more than some guy in front of a mic getting ready to take down walls. “It’s not just, like, singing. It might as well be an instrument, it might as well be part of musical composition.” The finished product is dense and steadfast, but not unfeeling. At its core, Titans is utterly mortal, yanked from Mazzola’s everyday life. “ ‘Chopping Block’ is about failed relationships because of music, because of my exes not being supportive of my music,” he says.
“Then you have songs like ‘Trials of Triumph’ about overcoming anything that gets in your way— destroy it and just keep going.” But the album hinges on “Solemn Promise,” a song Mazzola wrote for his mother, who is currently hospitalized due to a decade-long battle with cancer. “I have a really good, close relationship with my mom. All the rehabilitation, the therapy, the surgeries—it’s definitely difficult. But seeing how she’s persevered through it all, she’s the strongest person in the world to me,” he says. “Whenever I’m having a bad day, I look at what she’s gone through, and she’s still fighting. She’s still got the gloves on. And you know what, if she’s not throwing in the towel, there’s no reason why I should ever. Any one of my bad days is nothing compared to what she’s been through.” —JEANNE FURY