IS WORTH LIVING IRON MAIDEN LIVE
IMMOLATION OUR BURNING STUDIO REPORT
OBSCURA
THEY SAY GOODBYE, WE SAY HELLO
REFUSE/RESIST
EXTREMITY REVIEWED
E XC LU SI V E P R E V I E W
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INCLUDED DECEMBER 2021 // No. 206
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RARE BIRD
Wherever Good Books Are Sold
JAN 2022
EARLY 2022
NOV 2021
ALSO NEW FROM RARE BIRD FATHER, BROTHERS, AND SONS by Frank Bello of Anthrax with Joel McIver HALLUCINATIONS FROM HELL by Gregg Turner of Angry Samoans NEW FROM DEAD BOOKS TOMORROW RUINED TODAY by Ryan Kent and Brett Lloyd SOME OF US LOVE YOU by Ryan Kent and Brett Lloyd
STILL AVAILABLE MUTATIONS by Sam McPheeters of Born Against SCALE and WATCH by Keith Buckley of Every Time I Die
E XT RE M ELY EXTREME
December 2021 [R 206] decibelmagazine.com
upfront 8 metal muthas Not a bug, but a feature
22 glassing Something from nothing
10 exclusive:
24 swallow the sun Bad moon rising
decibel magazine metal & beer fest: los angeles 2021 preview
From left... 14 exclusive:
decibel magazine metal & beer fest: philly 2021 review ...to right
18 low culture Don’t talk to him until he’s had... actually, just don’t talk to him 19 no corporate beer Hail the Great Pumpkin 20 in the studio:
immolation Straight fire
26 worm Die with a smile on your face 28 portrayal of guilt You kiss your savior with that mouth? 30 emma ruth rundle 666 horsepower 32 stormkeep Party like it’s 1997 34 apparition All that jazz 36 kowloon walled city Ringing in our ears 38 dold vorde ens navn Get behind them, Satan 40 grand cadaver Call it a spill-your-guts feeling
features
reviews
42 lucifer Wrong one to fuck with
75 lead review Converge, Chelsea Wolfe, Ben Chisolm and Stephen Brodsky join forces for one of 2021’s strongest records, Bloodmoon: I
44 obscura Their loss is our gain 46 q&a: iron maiden Guitarist Dave Murray is ready to turn off the T.V. and hit the road 50 the decibel
hall of fame Flotsam & Jetsam step out from under the shadow of metal’s biggest act to shed light on their debut LP Doomsday for the Deceiver
62
76 album reviews Releases from bands that think our fest shirts would sell better if they had the band logos on the back, including Exodus, Mastodon and Unleashed
The Heart of the Matter COVER STORY COVER AND CONTENTS PHOTOS BY JASON SINN
88 damage ink Inked in blood
Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., P.O. Box 36818, 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, P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia, PA 19107. © 2021 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. 2 : DECEMBER 2021 : DECIBEL
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REFUSE/RESIST
December 2021 [T206] PUBLISHER
Alex Mulcahy
alex@redflagmedia.com
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Albert Mudrian
albert@decibelmagazine.com
AD SALES
James Lewis
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
james@decibelmagazine.com DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND SALES
ART DIRECTOR
It’s been 29 issues since I’ve been able
to write a recap of our Philly edition of Metal & Beer Fest in this column. I could fill the next 29 installments of Just Words with just some of the things that went on behind the scenes during the past two and a half years. We navigated everything from shuttered international embassies and obtaining National Interest Exemptions (ask Barney Greenway about those) to projecting continually evolving state and local COVID mandates and protocols. We even watched one band just fucking break up between the original fest announcement in late 2019 and our revised lineup reveal in May 2021. And that’s just the stuff I can reveal in print. All of that and much more led to what was our most gratifying Metal & Beer Fest weekend since we started the event back in 2017. Extremely extreme thanks to everyone who came out to Metal & Beer Fest: Philly’s sold-out return. It was so wonderful to see your faces again—well, like a third of each of your faces, but I’ll take it. Further gratitude to the bands, the breweries, vendors, booking agents, friends and the always incredible Fillmore staff who all pulled in the same direction to make sure we could safely execute this event. Their work and your help and participation are why things ran so smoothly; it’s greatly appreciated, and we don’t take it for granted. Special shoutouts to the equally treasured Mike Wohlberg, James Lewis and Aaron Salsbury, who, along with yours truly, moved heaven, earth and fucking dozens of boxes of magazines, shirts, books, glassware and other assorted stuff that is probably now available in our web store to help bring Metal & Beer Fest back to the greatest live music venue in Philadelphia. Though deeply restorative, the experience was, admittedly, a little weird at times. Despite what some suggest, we are not “back to normal” yet. When I returned home from Philly, I basically lived in my basement for a week, wore a mask in my own house around my kids (who are still too young to be vaccine-eligible) and didn’t fully rejoin my family until I produced a pair of negative COVID tests. Today there are sacrifices that come with attending events—hopefully you’re looking out for those around you, too. So, thank you again for patiently waiting more than two years for our Philly Fest to return. Now you only have to wait under two months until we do it all over again in Los Angeles. See you there. albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief
aaron@decibelmagazine.com
Michael Wohlberg
michael@decibelmagazine.com CUSTOMER SERVICE
Patty Moran
COPY EDITOR
Andrew Bonazelli
BOOKCREEPER
Tim Mulcahy
tim@redflagmedia.com
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Chuck BB, Ed Luce Mark Rudolph
patty@decibelmagazine.com
Online DECIBEL WEB EDITOR
Albert Mudrian
DECIBEL WEB AD SALES
James Lewis
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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 $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, P.O. Box 36818, 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
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PHOTO BY HILLARIE JASON
Mask appeal radness Times are still tough, but that won’t stop these dudes from enjoying Napalm Death responsibly
Aaron Salsbury
Vince Bellino Adrien Begrand J. Bennett Dean Brown Louise Brown Chris Chantler Richard Christy Liz Ciavarella-Brenner John Darnielle Chris Dick Sean Frasier Nick Green Raoul Hernandez Jonathan Horsley Courtney Iseman Neill Jameson Sarah Kitteringham Daniel Lake Andrew Lee Shawn Macomber Shane Mehling Justin M. Norton Andy O'Connor Dutch Pearce Fred Pessaro Forrest Pitts Greg Pratt Jon Rosenthal Brad Sanders Joseph Schafer Rod Smith Matt Solis Kevin Stewart-Panko Eugene S. Robinson Adem Tepedelen Jeff Treppel J Andrew Zalucky Bradley Zorgdrager
READER OF THE
MONTH You've been a Decibel reader for over a decade. There are many more metal magazines available in Europe than in the U.S. What’s made you stick with us when you have other, less expensive options?
Choice isn’t as wide as it used to be here, and with the pitiful decline and eventual euthanasia of Terrorizer magazine, I find Decibel the only real choice for quality coverage of the more “extreme” side of metal. The design, Lloyd Hollingworth humor, imagination and Birmingham, England obvious love of metal make it an essential Please tell us what you do for a living. read. Your Hall of Fame articles are a particular We suspect it’s a… magazine-y job? favorite of mine, and if it didn’t cost me so much Yep, it’s indeed a very magazine-y occuin postage, I’d get every issue. pation. I work for a publishing company designing editorial content and advertising Every metalhead knows that Black Sabbath, for various U.K. Chambers of Commerce. I Judas Priest and Napalm Death formed in also dabble in book covers and posters when Birmingham. Can you let us non-locals the endless images of businesspeople know about any other metal bands from shaking hands/standing outside offices your hometown? gets too mind-numbing. They are hardly “unknowns” to you all, but as
6 : DECEMBER 2021 : DECIBEL
I live next door to singer Dave Hunt’s mom, it would be impolite—and might get me in trouble—to not mention Anaal Nathrakh. The pedant in me wants to say that Judas Priest are “Black Country” rather than “Brummie,” but that’s nitpicking. I hope those last two colloquialisms make sense to your readers.
The pedant in me wants to say that Judas Priest are “Black Country” rather than “Brummie,” but that’s nitpicking. I hope those last two colloquialisms make sense to your readers. Khemmis make their proper Decibel cover debut on this issue. What emerging young band would you give a first-time Decibel cover to if you had the opportunity?
Don’t know if they are exactly young, but as I am playing Those of the Catacombs on repeat, I’ll go with Scolopendra.
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 still waiting for some of you to fInIsH dOiNg ThE rEsEaRcH.
Because not all of us were spawned in the darkest recesses of hell
This Month's Mutha: Karen Pearson Mutha of Justin Pearson of the Locust /Retox/Dead Cross
Tell us a little about yourself.
I was born in a small town in Illinois and lived all over the state until Justin was born in Chicago. I didn’t want to raise him there, so we moved to Phoenix. After his father died, Justin and I moved to California. He didn’t like the move at first, but now thanks me for it. I am retired now, but was in the hospitality industry most of my life. We liked the perks of free hotel rooms for a weekend getaway or a week vacation in a lot of different places.
Justin’s bands and projects number well into the teens. Do you have a particular favorite?
It would have to be Struggle or Swing Kids because they were so young and enthusiastic. I was so proud that he was into something he loved and it kept him out of trouble. Are you happy that he has a source of “conventional” income via his publicity company, The Chain?
Were you influential in Justin picking up the bass? Did he play other musical instruments growing up?
Justin has done so many interesting things, like voice-overs, movies, writing books, speaking about music to college classes. So, I feel that this is just another way to obtain added income without a 9-to-5 cubicle job.
No, my cousin was staying with us and he gave Justin his first guitar. He always did love music, and after that he started bands.
What’s something that most people would be surprised to learn about your son?
The Locust were notorious for their onstage uniforms. We have to ask: Any recollection of what Justin would dress up as for Halloween?
Darth Vader was one of my favorites, but he would be a pirate, and even a funny old man with a big head, hands and feet. 8 : DECEMBER 2021 : DECIBEL
That he is very artistic. From a young age he was really good at drawing. He designed the picture for his grade school class T-shirts, won a prize painting a Halloween storefront window, and I even have a plate he painted a picture on when he was 8 years old hanging in my kitchen!
Albert Mudrian : e d i t o r i n c h i e f Khemmis, Deceiver Obituary, World Demise Deadguy, Work Ethic Metallica, …and Justice for All The Red Chord, Fused Together in Revolving Doors ---------------------------------Patty Moran : c u s t o m e r s e r v i c e Melvins, Houdini The Jesus Lizard, Liar Acrimony, Tumuli Shroomaroom Acid King, Busse Woods Farflung, Unwound Cellular Frown ---------------------------------James Lewis : a d s a l e s Khemmis, Deceiver Pig Destroyer, Prowler in the Yard Napalm Death, Utopia Banished Blazon Stone, Damnation Archspire, Bleed the Future ---------------------------------Mike Wohlberg : a r t d i r e c t o r Khemmis, Deceiver Unto Others, Strength Crypt Sermon, The Ruins of Fading Light Deadguy, Fixation on a Co-Worker Meathook Seed, Embedded ---------------------------------Aaron Salsbury : m a r k e t i n g a n d s a l e s Cave In, Until Your Heart Stops Soul Glo, Live @ WKDU Concrete Caveman, Demo L.O.T.I.O.N. Multinational Corporation, World Wide W.E.B. Portrayal of Guilt, We Are Always Alone
GUEST SLAYER
---------------------------------Mortiis Pentagram, Pentagram Pagan Altar, The Lords of Hypocrisy Bauhaus, Press Eject and Give Me the Tape The Hand of Doom, Poisonoise Manilla Road, Crystal Logic
—ANDREW BONAZELLI CENTER PHOTO BY BECKY DIGIGLIO
PHOTO BY EKATERINA GORBACHEVA