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60 January 2022 [R 207] decibelmagazine.com
The New Blood COVER STORY COVER AND CONTENTS PHOTOS BY MELISSA MAHONEY AND KRISTIN COFER
upfront 10 obituary:
eric greif Saying goodbye to a champion of metal
12 metal muthas Progressive parenting 14 low culture More unpacking than he anticipated 15 no corporate beer (Half) decade of aggression
16 genocide pact They wanna rock 18 alda A (hawk)eye for atmospheric black metal 20 morgul blade Devil’s advocates 22 apostle of solitude Learning to hope
features
reviews
24 lock up No one wants to see this band more than themselves
73 lead review After a dozen years of inactivity, Unanimated mark their triumphant blackened death return with Victory in Blood
26 q&a: the darkness Vocalist Justin Hawkins is in search of a real sex machine 30 the decibel
hall of fame Arcturus may have danced with the devils, but they worshipped the old masters on their debut LP Aspera Hiems Symfonia
74 album reviews Releases from bands that are waiting for their chance with Pete Davidson, including Knocked Loose, the Lurking Fear and Outre-Tombe 88 damage ink Fault and fracture
41 special feature:
the top 40 albums of 2021 Contains more than the recommended daily value of salt
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. © 2022 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. 4 : JANUARY 2022 : DECIBEL
Forgive me for reminding you how goddamn old I am, but it feels like, not that long ago, I could count the books about extreme metal on one hand. Maybe I remember it clearer than most because I had a (bound printed) horse in that race, but when Decibel began in 2004, the extreme metal book choices were essentially Lords of Chaos and Choosing Death (and, on the periphery, Tom Gabriel Warrior’s Are You Morbid? autobiography and a few sections of Ian Christe’s Sound of the Beast). Back then, extreme metal only had about two decades of history to chronicle. The publishing landscape was vastly different, too, relying heavily on big-box chain stores for national distribution, which rendered books about most metal subgenres tough sells—and ones about micro-genres virtually impossible. In 2007, Swedish Death Metal quietly joined the party. I recall it well because I was one of five Americans who shelled out $70 to order a self-published copy direct from author Daniel Ekeroth. A year later, Ian Christe launched Bazillion Points and released a revised U.S. version of the book. Other indispensable historical documents like Metalion: The Slayer Mag Diaries and Only Death Is Real: An Illustrated History of Hellhammer and Early Celtic Frost 1981–1985 soon followed from BP, exponentially raising the extreme metal book bar. After authoring the authoritative genre history Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, Decibel contributor Dayal Patterson introduced his Cult Never Dies publishing house, releasing more black metal anthologies and band biographies, and stocking his webstore with ultra-niche titles like books about the German death metal and Icelandic black metal scenes. Of course, Decibel Books has added to that now-buckling bookshelf with, among other titles, our Decibel Hall of Fame Anthology series and last year’s monstrous USBM: A Revolution of Identity in American Black Metal. Recently, we sent our latest offering to a print—Turned Inside Out: The Official Story of Obituary, authored by David E. Gehlke (No Celebration: The Official Story of Paradise Lost; Damn the Machine: The Story of Noise Records). The first fully authorized biography of the Tampa, FL death metal institution is a 328-page hardcover that unearths 35 years of history on one of America’s most important metal bands. It’s the kind of historical document that I could have never imagined existing back in 2004, but am proud to have a hand in bringing to life for—in most cases— under $70.
albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief
www.decibelmagazine.com
REFUSE/RESIST
January 2022 [T207] PUBLISHER
Alex Mulcahy
alex@redflagmedia.com
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Albert Mudrian
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
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Tim Mulcahy
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CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
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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.
CORRECTION: In our Q&A feature with Ministry’s Al Jourgensen in the November 2021 issue (No. 205), we incorrectly attributed the photos to Ed Newton. The actual photographer for the piece was Derick Smith (@derickphotography on Instagram). We sincerely apologize for the mistake.
Postmaster send changes of address for Decibel to Red Flag Media, P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia PA 19107. Copyright ©2022 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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READER OF THE
MONTH
Roger Riddell Arlington, VA
You host Cult House Podcast. We think its focus is comic books, but we’ve not read one of those since the Robocop one we bought in 1987, so please fill us in!
I’m not really sure I’ve even figured out what Cult House is yet, aside from a platform for long-form conversations with people who are creating cool things or have perspectives I’m interested in. The conversations cover a wide range of topics. I have kind of a bucket list of guests I wanna build up to if the show catches on some more, including more musicians, writers and artists—and expanding to comedians, wrestlers and people involved in film. You’re pretty fanatical about working out. Could you take Greg Puciato one-on-one or what?
I’m gonna level with you: I definitely double-checked on Google to see if Greg has cauliflower ears. That’s a very good
8 : JANUARY 2022 : DECIBEL
sign upfront that you shouldn’t fuck with someone. Even so, I also don’t know what kind of training Greg might actually have, and I only have some novice-level boxing and wrestling skills that I haven’t practiced in several years. Why would I be fighting him in the first place, though? I’ve never met him, but I’ve heard he’s a pretty decent guy. Can’t we just, like, engage in rational discourse and go work out together? Have you started attending shows again yet? If so, was it weird or were you right back in a prepandemic state of mind?
I haven’t been back to any shows yet, but I also haven’t been super concerned about doing so since I’m vaccinated. The big adjustment is just being in a crowd that size again. There are a ton coming up I’m looking forward to hopefully getting out to: Mastodon and Opeth, Pig Destroyer, Immortal Bird, GWAR, Cannibal Corpse, Decibel Tour ’22. What I’m really looking forward to even more than just attending the shows is hopefully getting a chance to shoot some of them again. I’ve been really lucky over the last
several years to build a bit of a portfolio shooting bands like Behemoth, Lamb of God, GWAR, Napalm Death and more for my friend Denise Borders’ site PunkWorldViews. This issue includes our annual unintentionally controversial Top 40 Albums of the Year list. You’re welcome to list your favorites, but you also have to defend the list against a preemptive strike of “What about [insert album not on your list here]? Your list is invalid without that.”
I’m leaning hard into Mastodon’s Hushed & Grim right now. There’s a sonic diversity on display there that I could compare to Black Sabbath’s Sabotage (my favorite album of all time), but I know space is limited. Beyond that, I’ve been digging Cradle of Filth’s Existence Is Futile (possibly their most hard-hitting and consistent outing of the past decade), Eyehategod’s A History of Nomadic Behavior (those guys are crushing to begin with, but Sanford Parker’s production takes it to another level), Zealot R.I.P. (Blake [Harrison]’s a hell of a guy) and Cannibal Corpse’s Violence Unimagined (was hooked on that from the moment the groove locks in on “Murderous Rampage”). I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the new stuff from Red Fang, King Woman and Contrition—and I feel like I’m still forgetting a ton of stuff!
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
new album
echo out now