Decibel #232 - February 2024

FEBRUARY 2024 // No. 232

$10.00US $10.00CAN

E XT RE M ELY EXTREME

February 2024 [R 232] decibelmagazine.com

upfront 8

metal muthas Blood of her (hopefully) fake blood

14 carnation Far from clean

10 low culture Say no more

16 demoncy They came from beyond the black stars

11 no corporate beer Pick a card

18 lord dying Something to live for

12 in the studio Inter Arma go through hell to find New Heaven

20 obroa-skai Evolution through death

features

reviews

24 q&a: ulver Frontman Kristoffer “Garm” Rygg takes a not-unwelcome trip down memory lane

65 lead review Presumed to have ridden off into the sunset, Job for a Cowboy follow the moon to return with their first LP in a decade

28 exclusive:

decibel presents the top 21 most anticipated albums of 2023 The only list you won’t give us shit for releasing early

40 the decibel

hall of fame

22 vemod Don’t call it a comeblack

66 album reviews Records from bands that don’t worry about their riffs and/or heat, including Ceremonial Bloodbath, Goetia and Lucifer 72 damage ink Somewhere over the melting rainbow

Sharing Kerrang!

Kerrang!’s ’s dubious honor of “worst band in existence” with little known upstarts Hellhammer, Italy’s Bulldozer would similarly go on to influence Norway’s second wave of black metal with debut LP The Day of Wrath

The Devil Made Us Do It COVER STORY COVER PHOTOS BY VIOLETA ÁLVAREZ, BLOOD COUNTESS, GENE SMIRNOV AND LIANA RAKIJIAN CONTENTS PHOTO BY VIOLETA ÁLVAREZ ADDITIONAL PHOTO EDITING BY ESTER SEGARRA Decibel (ISSN 1557-2137) is published monthly by Red Flag Media, Inc., P.O. Box 36818, Philadelphia, PA 19107. Annual subscription price is $34.95. 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. © 2024 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 : FEBRUARY 2024 : DECIBEL

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REFUSE/RESIST

February 2024 [T232] PUBLISHER

Alex Mulcahy

alex@redflagmedia.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Albert Mudrian

albert@decibelmagazine.com AD SALES

James Lewis

james@decibelmagazine.com DIRECTOR OF MARKETING AND SALES ART DIRECTOR

Aaron Salsbury

aaron@decibelmagazine.com

Michael Wohlberg

michael@decibelmagazine.com CUSTOMER SERVICE

Patty Moran

COPY EDITOR

Andrew Bonazelli

BOOKCREEPER

Tim Mulcahy

tim@redflagmedia.com

 What’s old is n w

Our fearless leader (l) with the true star of dBMBF Denver 2023

The amount of people I hadn’t

previously met who took a moment to personally thank me for bringing Metal & Beer Fest back to Denver this past December proves that 1) you guys are definitely more polite than we East Coasters, and 2) I’m not sure you understood how happy all of us were to be there. Trust me, that genuine appreciation is reciprocated.

I know that the breweries, sponsors, magazine contributors and bands who flew or drove (KEN mode might still be driving) absurd distances to support this crazy endeavor felt that love just as much as we did.

There are too many of them to thank here, but I promise I’ll do that in person when I see many of you in Philly in April. I’ll get the rest of you next December. Until then, eternal hugs ‘n’ hails to Aaron, Mike, James, Em from Decibel, every single ridiculously awesome person at TRVE Brewing, and the tireless, exceptional and just genuinely lovely Summit staff. If you see any of them at next year’s fest, please be sure to thank them, not me!

Oh, and to the guy I met wearing the O.G. Decibel logo T-shirt—that reversed “E” cutting through the crowd like Jonathan Davis after spotting a buffet table across a crowded room—dude, please email me.

We’re gonna need a Reader of the Month for our 20th anniversary issue before you know it. albert mudrian, Editor-in-Chief

patty@decibelmagazine.com

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Chuck BB, Ed Luce Mark Rudolph

Online DECIBEL WEB EDITOR

Albert Mudrian

DECIBEL WEB AD SALES

James Lewis

albert@decibelmagazine.com james@decibelmagazine.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Emily Bellino Adrien Begrand J. Bennett Dean Brown Nathan Carson Liz Ciavarella-Brenner Dillon Collins Chris Dick Sean Frasier Nick Green Raoul Hernandez Addison Herron-Wheeler Jonathan Horsley Courtney Iseman Neill Jameson Kim Kelly Sarah Kitteringham Daniel Lake Cosmo Lee Jamie Ludwig Shane Mehling Justin M. Norton Dutch Pearce Forrest Pitts Greg Pratt Jon Rosenthal Brad Sanders José Carlos Santos Joseph Schafer Kevin Stewart-Panko Eugene S. Robinson Adem Tepedelen Jeff Treppel J Andrew Zalucky CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

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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 $34.95.

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 ©2024 by Red Flag Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

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

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ISSN 1557-2137

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READER OF THE

MONTH death/doom metal flag. A lot of the local scene is centered around Boggs Social & Supply, a really cool bar/show place. And you can’t forget Mass Destruction Metal Fest every November.

You’ve been a Decibel reader since issue No. 11, but didn’t subscribe until issue No. 189.

We appreciate that you did, but can you explain the 178-issue courtship?

Joel Gazaway Gay, GA

You’re a lifelong (we think) Georgia resident.

We know all about Mastodon, Kylesa and, um, Jackyl, but tell us about the current metal scene down there these days.

Yes, with the exception of a couple of years in Florida, I’ve been a lifelong Georgia resident. Those bands were all a big part of Georgia metal, but the scene today is very strong, with bands like Father Befouled, Malformity, Cemetery Filth, Sewage Bath and Withered, among others, carrying the

6 : FEBRUARY 2024 : DECIBEL

Honestly, I’ve always hated subscribing. I can’t really say why.

Plus, Decibel was always available at the local bookstore. Then, with COVID, print took a hit and distribution got slow, so I decided to finally subscribe. Glad I did!

And can’t wait every month for that little bit of vinyl heaven (hell).

You’re a big music biography fan. Have you checked out any Decibel Books titles yet?

We’ve got a number of those, including our latest, The Scott Burns Sessions: A Life in Death Metal 1987 – 1997.

Reading has always been a big part of my life, so hell yes, I have several Decibel Books! Of course, Choosing Death (both editions), USBM, Denim &

Leather, Precious Metal, Turned Inside Out: The Official Obituary Story and, of course, The Scott Burns Sessions. All great books!

With COVID, print took a hit and distribution got slow, so I decided to finally subscribe. Glad I did!

And can’t wait every month for that little bit of vinyl heaven (hell).

The issue includes our Top 21 Most Anticipated Albums of 2024 feature. What new albums are you looking forward to most in the new year?

Oh yeah, always looking for new releases. I think right now the ones I’m most looking forward to are the new Necrot, Funeral Vomit, Judas Priest, the Black Dahlia Murder, Broken Hope, Dripping Decay and Deicide. Plus, I can’t wait to see what Kerry King actually has up his sleeve!

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 finding out that we were just confirmed to play Hellfest.

Because not all of us were spawned in the darkest recesses of hell

This Month’s Mutha: Lisa Marie Fullerton Mutha of Jake Murphy of Final Gasp

Tell us a little about yourself.

Jake is my world and I’m very happy to be doing this! I sing and play a bit of guitar, have been in and out of bands since my early teens, and occasionally write my own material. I grew up in Stoughton, MA, bought a home in Raynham 16 years ago, and was an executive assistant in the corporate world for most of my working life. The money was fantastic, but it’s a soul-sucking environment and I don’t recommend it to anybody.

I relocated to Cape Cod 14 months ago, where I began and continue my journey of sobriety. I’m thankful everyday that alcohol didn’t grab me until after Jake was out on his own, so I was sober while raising him and he didn’t witness much of the ugliness that goes along with alcoholism.

I see that the lesson it taught me was to never do the same thing with my son. I always allowed him the freedom to express himself, whether through music, hairstyle choices or clothing preferences. Jake’s fifth grade school picture is him wearing a Misfits T-shirt. It’s fantastic!

His band has performed doused head-to-toe in blood. What are your impressions of their stage show?

Jake wasn’t a big reader growing up, but he did like horror movies at an early age. At times it amazed me that he didn’t have nightmares or trouble sleeping. He understood and accepted that it wasn’t real, whereas I, on the other hand, can’t watch anything like that.

My first impression was seeing pics on Instagram of the sickle (first thought: “Jesus, he’s gonna poke his eye out with that thing!”). The blood?

First thought was that I needed to call him. And it went like this: “Jake, PLEASE tell me that’s not real blood. PLEASE tell me that thing (sickle) is dull. Are you okay? Did I not hug you enough when you were little?” Kinda my same thoughts about him watching gory movies. It’s all good.

Same idea as KISS back in the early days, and Ozzy, and Alice Cooper. The list goes on. All I can say is, as always, not only do I accept what Jake is doing with his music, I understand that it makes him happy. It makes him happy because he’s expressing himself to other like-minded fans, and that makes me happy, too.

Did you have any influence on Jake’s interest in dark, gothic art?

What’s something that most Final Gasp fans would never suspect Jake enjoys?

Possibly. Jake’s dad and I met while in a band that was considered thrash metal in the late ’80s.

So, yes, I believe both myself and his dad influenced Jake’s interests in the music department on some level. I was raised in a God-fearing environment and had to hide what music I was listening to from my parents. Looking back on it now,

Well, I caught him listening to John Denver a few years ago and that surprised me. Jake has been skateboarding since he was 5 years old, and still does whenever time and the weather allow.

It’s probably one of the most important items he takes with him while touring. Well, that and the sickle! —ANDREW BONAZELLI

The Final Gasp track “Blood and Sulfur” was inspired by a uniquely morbid short story.

Was Jake a big reader growing up?

Albert Mudrian : e d i t o r i n c h i e f  Hulder, Verses in Oath  The Keening, Little Bird  Deceased, Supernatural Addiction  Krypts, Unending Degradation  Agalloch, The Mantle ---------------------------------Patty Moran : c u s t o m e r s e r v i c e  SS Decontrol, The Kids Will Have Their Say  Virulence, If This Isn’t a Dream  OFF!, Free LSD  Dream Unending/Worm, Starpath  Wire, Pink Flag ---------------------------------James Lewis : a d s a l e s  Hulder, Verses in Oath  Dream Unending/Worm, Starpath  Ulver, Vargnatt  Agalloch, The Serpent and the Sphere  Deicide, Once Upon the Cross ---------------------------------Mike Wohlberg : a r t d i r e c t o r  Umbra Vitae, Shadow of Life  Hulder, Verses in Oath  Svalbard, The Weight of the Mask  Houkago Grind Time, Bakyunsified (Moe to the Gore)  Nails, You Will Never Be One of Us ---------------------------------Aaron Salsbury : m a r k e t i n g a n d s a l e s  Sonja, Loud Arriver  Will Haven, El Diablo  The Hope Conspiracy, Confusion/Chaos/Misery  Enforced, Kill Grid  Botch, American Nervoso

GUEST SLAYER

---------------------------------Jason Walton : a g a l l o c h / s c u l p t u r e d /m o o n b l a d d e r

 Suffocation, Effigy of the Forgotten  Amorphis, Elegy  Spirit Possession, Of the Sign  Oxbow, Love’s Holiday  Tyler, The Creator, IGOR

PHOTO BY

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SHIMON KARMEL

AN

NEY ISEM

T

BY COUR

Your Spotify Wrapped Probably Sucks look, we’re at the end

of the year again.

By the time this magazine is near your toilet, you’ll have already experienced the joy of at least one holiday meal surrounded by family and loved ones all hitting each other with the friendly fire of turkey (or tofurkey field roast) shrapnel while they argue about next year’s election or what’s happening in Israel. If this doesn’t describe your time, then congratulations for not having a relationship with your family anymore; it’s probably for the best.

But if you miss the holiday feeling of being surrounded by flapping assholes filled with teeth and gums, all you need to do is log onto, well, anything on the internet. And I don’t just mean for politics and world events, as outlined per my previous message (I’m at work, excuse the bullshit), but rather their musical equivalents.

Election nonsense? We have year-end lists for you to squabble about how Bernie can still win or that some record you liked (which probably sucks) was left off a list from a publication you think sucks 11 months and change out of the year anyway. Don’t have anyone to debate on the Gaza situation? How about telling people that Spotify is an evil corporation that didn’t give Pharrell more than like $40 for the 50 million streams of “Happy”? Double points because you can then tell those same people their Spotify Wrapped sucks, and they forgot your friend’s band. We’re multitasking here, people; it’s the holidays and we need to be productive.

Sure, Spotify doesn’t pay anyone shit, but to get on your soapbox to complain that they aren’t monetizing anyone who doesn’t have 1,000 streams doesn’t mean shit when those 1,000 streams pay out less than the price of a dollarstore prophylactic. I understand you need to be the loudest person in the room on this point, especially since you have to talk over the new 10 : FEBRUARY 2024 : DECIBEL

Spotify AI DJ that introduces every third song like he’s a living, breathing buddy of yours.

(Sidenote: My psychiatrist closed her practice, but forgot to refill my Wellbutrin, which I didn’t know until I went to the pharmacy to pick it up, so I’m starting withdrawals and am especially fun to be around.)

I hardly believe anyone actually cares about this shit. Year-end lists aren’t the goddamn Bible, and should not dictate your own personal listening choices. Pontificating that Spotify is a great evil in screeds on anything owned by Mark Zuckerberg or Elon Musk has the moral weight of telling someone you don’t eat meat while you’re engaging in intercourse with some poor animal you dragged home from the farm.

Sure, it “feels good” to try to be on the right side of things; it’s some kind of Jungian reward to our consciousness. I hope—I really hope—I fucked up that reference. I’m sure you’ll let me know. But doing these things becomes so selfserving that they lack all substance. I guarantee when you post in some comments section that they forgot whatever band you say because you hope other people think you’re cool and have such neat taste in music that not one single person is going to think better of you. In fact—at least this goes for me—people will think less of you.

I say this without an ounce of irony and a whole lot of self-reflection: Stop making yourself and everyone around you so goddamn miserable.

The world—the greater world—is a fucking constant stream of nightmare after nightmare, especially with WWIII, Trump’s second term and probably another fucking re-recorded Taylor Swift record clogging up vinyl plants across the globe. So, whether you read this in December 2023 or January 2024, Uncle Neill is going to give you a New Year’s resolution: Resolve to shut the fuck up more often. Contribute less. Walk away more. You might even come back, if there’s a 2025, and thank me.

Ace of Cups: Tarot’s Taking Off in Craft Beer

IN

2021, your friendly neighborhood beer columnist here launched a craft beer culture newsletter featuring a “beer Tarot reading”: a Tarot card pulled for each week, its meaning explained and paired with a specific beer or beer experience. This was fueled by nothing more than personal interest. But over the past year or so, Tarot’s influence has crept into various aspects of craft beer. Beers named for Tarot cards, label art inspired by Tarot imagery, Tarot-tinged brewery merch, Tarot readings in taprooms—by the time I was approached to write a “beer Tarot” zine in the summer of 2023 (now available at beantobarstool.com), I realized there was more than enough to fill this niche-themed homage to the Xeroxed punk and metal pamphlets of yore.

New Belgium released its Summer Solstice lineup of fruit beers in June, can art inspired by the best known Tarot deck, the Rider-Waite. This prompted some fans of Asheville, NC brewery Thirsty Monk to point out that the smaller brewery had been setting its cans apart with Tarot aesthetics for years. In Brussels, Nacim Menu, a cofounder of Brasserie l’Ermitage, has named a brewery for the Tarot card The Hermit, and filled the taproom with vibrant Tarot murals. In Denver, heavy metal brewery TRVE tapped its artist Max Sherman to create an entire Tarot deck in the signature, mesmerizing, metal-meets-horror TRVE aesthetic. In

 Spirit crushers TRVE Brewing’s beer-inspired tarot deck and Thirsty Monk Brewery’s tarot-inspired brews keep craft brewing magical

Des Moines, IA, taproom manager of 515 Brewing Kelsey Seay ran a successful Kickstarter campaign to create the first “craft beer Tarot deck,” with beer-themed Tarot suits and real beer community members featured on different cards. Tarot’s been around since the 15th century, and craft beer’s been around for a few decades, so what’s inspiring the beer folks here to wade into Tarot territory now?

For co-owner and COO E.J. Nunns, Tarot was a natural fit for TRVE’s alternative, artistic, metal-fueled vibe. “TRVE has always been an atypical craft beer space,” she says, explaining there are no trivia nights or D&D campaigns happening in the taproom. “Delving into an art form like Tarot contributes to our ethos of being a third space for folks like us who are nerds and specialists.” Nunns sees parallels between TRVE’s metal identity and new Tarot venture, too, musing that both can be intimidating for the uninitiated, but that the hope is anyone experiencing TRVE or Tarot feel invited in, are intrigued, and learn more.

Craft beer and Tarot are no random match, either. “Both have open doors, if you ask me,” says Seay. “I think that there is definitely some mysticism around beer and fermentation when you're looking into the historical context that Tarot already inherently has.

I also think that the culture of the brewing industry from inception until even now lends itself to connecting with things that might be considered a bit taboo or edgy, like the practice of Tarot reading.” The magic connection of Tarot and fermentation, the ability to

draw more people into taprooms and gather together around a new conversation-starter— these factors make the beer-and-Tarot combo surprisingly logical.

Tarot could prove a handy tool for breweries looking to engage with more drinkers in an increasingly cutthroat industry. The imagery is at once familiar and curiosity-sparking, making Tarot-centric labels stand out on crowded shelves. And readings, which Seay says she’s noticed becoming more common, are a novel taproom attraction.

“I think it’s an exciting trend to bring some more conversation back into taprooms.

Some are set up for that, i.e., cozy couches and small tables, but some have gotten larger and might have a lot of TVs or something, and I think that activities like reading someone’s cards center the taproom experience back to connection in a way.”

Sara Carter, the taproom manager for Hi-Wire Brewing’s Wilmington, NC location, hosts reader Ashlyn Aquarius on the first Wednesday of every month. “We find some people come out to the taproom specifically for that, and some people are just here already and decide to give it a try… It’s a great taste of what Tarot card readings can be.”

Take a look and you might notice Tarot images popping up where you shop for beer, or Tarot readings scheduled in one of your local taprooms. It’s a myth that Tarot predicts the future, but considering its potential to effectively engage imbibers, it’s a safe bet we’ll see this trend keep growing.

DECIBEL : FEBRUA RY 2 0 24 : 11

STUDIO REPORT

R

ichmond, VA’s doom-with-a-little-stank-on-it all-stars Inter Arma have been working on the follow-up to 2019’s tectonic Sulphur English for years, and their fans— ALBUM TITLE including those who devoured 2020’s stopgap covers New Heaven LP, Garbers Days Revisited—are starving for fresh meat. It’s not as STUDIO if the band’s been slacking off; back in early April, they shared Montrose some of their own exasperation with the album’s glacial progRecording and ress, tweeting, “We’re on our third bass player since the start the Compound (RIP), Richmond, VA of the pandemic. We axed a half an album worth of material RECORDING DATE because it wasn’t good enough. We’ve had a number of setbacks.

September 11 – 23, We’re writing like crazy right now. It’ll be worth the wait.”

2023 Now, according to drummer T.J. Childers, there is light at ENGINEER the end of the tunnel—and they’re finally getting close to the Mikey Allred finish line. “We’re right smack in the middle of mixing right LABEL now,” he says, and they’re hoping to be able to share more Relapse from New Heaven come late spring or early summer of 2024. It’ll be their fifth full-length overall (counting Garbers), and their TENTATIVE RELEASE DATE fourth with longtime label Relapse. This time around, they late spring/ early summer 2024 decided to record it at home in Richmond (though Childers hammered out his drum parts at a mysterious “undisclosed location”), and reenlisted engineer Mikey Allred, who, as Childers says, will also “once again be mixing and mastering as long as he can find time between exotic fishing trips.”

INTER ARMA

12 : F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 4 : D E C I B E L

As far as what listeners can expect from the album itself, the boys promise to serve up a heavy dose of confusion alongside their trademark sprawling, otherworldly refrains. Inter Arma’s sound has been in a state of perpetual motion ever since the band was a mere twinkle in its members’ bloodshot eyes. Almost 20 years in, it’s unsurprising to hear that they’ve embraced this latest opportunity to get as weird as possible.

“I have full confidence that right out of the gate people will think, ‘What the fuck is wrong with these guys?!’” Childers says with palpable glee. “Along with that, there are some other new areas we’ve never really explored before that I think people will be a bit surprised by.”

Vocalist Mike Paparo also chimes in to promise that they’ll continue to bring the bad vibes, lyrically speaking. “Expect accounts of failure, mental illness, suicide, addiction and religion,” he says. “All in all, it’s a truly uplifting affair.”

—KIM KELLY

PHOTOS BY JONAH LIVINGSTON

INTER ARMA

When it says Master, you get Master. The new album “Saints Dispelled” is 100% Master! Now kneel before the Master!

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ANTHOLOGY OF HORROR A dark Heavy Metal adventure telling tales of Horror and the Macabre created by Vincent Crowley (ex-Acheron mastermind). A must have for both old school Death Metal fans as well fans of Mercyful Fate and Candlemass!

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Romuvos is the perfect blend of Folk and Metal, you need to hear it to believe it, the feeling is there, it is dark, it is real!

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CARNATION

CARNATION

Belgian old-school death metallers do the evolution

FOR

a band whose previous album titles and covers are, shall we say, fairly unsubtle homages to their death metal forebears—even the digital edition of their third and latest release, Cursed Mortality, features a nod to the Coroner “ribbon” design— Carnation’s newest work marks a bold step forward for them.

And a controversial one, if fan reaction to the singles they’ve dropped so far is any indication. ¶ “For the previous albums, that was less the case because the sound was maybe less divisive compared to what it is now,” suggests vocalist Simon Duson, whose foray into clean vocals created the uproar. “For the more old-school-minded people, those clean vocals were very hard to digest. So, there was quite a strong reaction on those tracks. But on the other hand, there’s a completely different fan base that has a very positive reaction to doing something like that.” ¶ It’s all part of the Belgian band’s evolutionary process.

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Sure, we’ve had reason to get concerned in the past when bands clean up their face paint, streamline their logo and add progressive flourishes to the music. But don’t worry—you won’t be hearing vicious death metal ragers like the true crime serial killer story “Dutroux” or the brutal blood chiller “Maruta” soundtracking Burger King ads anytime soon.

Duson says it’s just something he can use to spice up the songs: “It’s definitely more convenient to have different vocal styles to convey the different emotions. The clean vocals definitely helped on the title track to bring this theme [of aging] that I decided to use to life. I guess it’s still possible to do with death metal vocals only. But it’s like, you got more tools in your toolbox if you can do different things. And it’s way easier to get the meaning or goal or intention across.”

It’s been the same five guys for almost the entire history of the band, and for Duson, that makes it easier to get away with said evolution. “I think even though our sound might evolve a little bit, like adding clean vocals, and we’re adding a more progressive sound to our main sounds,” he muses, “I think that people still notice that we are the same five people for all three albums. And that creates a certain kind of familiarity and people will get like, ‘Okay, it’s the same guys.’

They still play the same, they can still play the old songs from the first album [and] the second album, but they want to try something different, or they want to, like, evolve and grow from the first two albums or add new stuff. And I think that, at least, the fan base that we’ve had for a long time now really gets that, and they appreciate that as well.”

—JEFF TREPPEL

DEMONCY

DEMONCY

USBM progenitors let the darkness take them through the cosmos

IN

the greater pantheon of American black metal, few projects have existed as long—or been as pivotal to the history of the scene—as Demoncy. Formed in 1989, Demoncy have spent over 30 years crafting some of the darkest black metal ever created in the United States (and beyond). Now, sole original practitioner of the black arts Ixithra reemerges from the shadows, joined by prolific longtime collaborator VJS, manifesting Black Star Gnosis, the project’s first new full-length in 11 years. One would question why such a long period of quiet, but, as Ixithra explains, “Nothing about Demoncy and its members—in this case VJS and myself—can be rushed. At the core, Demoncy is about an atmosphere of darkness. Nothing is forced into creation.” ¶ Upon listening to Black Star Gnosis, you can hear echoes of the past, especially 1999’s seminal Joined in Darkness. Was looking towards the past something that held any weight in the present?

16 : FEBRUA RY 2024 : DECIBEL

“We are of a specific origin,” Ixithra clarifies, “and we are of the now.

Demoncy is synchronic.”

The album was recorded some time back, yet only saw the light in December. “In our collective evolution, we chose to re-record parts to make them even better. [VJS] and I are always examining our execution and knowledge.”

From start to finish, Black Star Gnosis is wrapped within suffocating darkness; it is a pitch-black spell of destruction and possibly the project’s finest hour. Caustic droning guitars coil around subtle synth work akin to Ixithra’s non-metal projects Profane Grace and Raven’s Bane, conjuring a hole where light goes to die. Within the mysteries that the album unravels is the thesis behind the veil, the intention.

“The answer is the album’s title.

The highest and most powerful

form of spiritual ascension through cosmic occultism. We are black stars in the dark cosmic void.”

Always spoken of in the same breath as USBM progenitors such as Profanatica and Von, Demoncy were born during a time long before the tabloids picked up on church burnings, longer still before USBM became more about identity, politics and subjects far removed from the original tenets.

Ixithra has invested the majority of his life into this art. Has there ever been the idea of a stopping point, or is Demoncy a journey without a concrete destination?

He ends our conversation with this thought: “It isn’t possible to halt something that’s already bigger than myself. I don’t have any control when and where the darkness will take us. Demoncy is a lifelong ethos.” —NEILL JAMESON

LORD DYING

E

rik olson has visited 132 of the planet’s 195 countries.

Lord Dying’s guitarist, vocalist and resident Uber driver most recently traveled to Syria in June, witnessing the rebuilding efforts in a country he described as “heartbreaking and inspiring.” Following the trip, the band he has spearheaded since 2010 alongside guitarist Chris Evans embarked on a European tour in support of doom outfit Conan. In short, they had a great time. ¶ The trips marked a shift following many years of constant tragedy. After all, 2019’s Mysterium Tremendum (Lord Dying’s strongest record at the time) had been deeply affected by multiple sudden losses of loved ones. Then the pandemic hit, and mass-scale death became the norm. In an effort to mentally process it all, Lord Dying wrote Clandestine Transcendence. ¶ “There was so much negativity and so much death around us,” says Olson, “and it was a really weird situation to see the world shut down, [so] we wanted to make something positive out of this.” ¶ The shift in focus has had an audible impact on Lord Dying,

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whose early sound was rooted in grimy—albeit rather one-dimensional—sludge. In contrast, Mysterium Tremendum was a dramatic shift into the progressive and dynamic. Clandestine Transcendence follows suit, with a hearty dollop of dual vocals provided by Olson and (occasionally) bassist Alyssa Mocere, who joined the band in 2019 alongside drummer Kevin Swartz.

Musically, this is Lord Dying at their peak: oscillating adeptly between pounding metallic hardcore sludge and expansive, progressive and cinematic soundscapes.

Lyrically, expect a deep dive into the unknown.

“There are lyrics about the cosmos. It is way beyond what humans can even imagine,” elaborates Olson. If it all sounds rather heady, that’s because it is: Mysterium Tremendum was a phrase used by German philosopher Rudolf Otto to describe the gentle,

grisly, tranquil, barbaric, beautiful, pure, and glorious experience of religiosity and death.

“No matter what, the light will go on, [life] won’t end, at least in our minds, [in a way] that we can understand,” postulates Olson. “All my life I’ve struggled with any ideas of religion, but I grew up in a very religious place. And with my travels, I realized how much humanity needs to have something to believe in—which I don’t believe in myself, but I see the need for it.”

He continues: “Everyone wants to believe that there’s something beyond themselves, and when they die, they can go somewhere. I’ve always believed in science and energy and the universe, and I think that matter cannot be created or destroyed. When we die, we’ll still be here in a different sense… This is really supposed to be about something beyond death. I want to give people hope.” —SARAH KITTERINGHAM

PHOTO BY LORD DYING

LORD DYING

Portland pulverizers scrape the sludge from their sound and their lives

OBROA-SKAI

OBROA-SKAI

T

here is so much to be angry and upset about in the world,” says Obroa-Skai drummer Durell Smith. “On any given day, something horrible happens. To be able to lend a voice and energy to people feeling that anger, to be able to provide a sense of solidarity someone can attach themselves to is an opportunity that should not be so easily passed on.” ¶ The ancient expression “better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos” is all too apropos in 2024, but thankfully there are bands like Obroa-Skai to help folks make sense of it all. The Edmonton, Alberta foursome taps into today’s societal unrest on the extraordinary debut full-length Science Progresses One Funeral at a Time, a ferocious noise/drone manifesto that interweaves tightly controlled chaos with lyrical themes like climate change, colonialism, transphobia and the ever-looming specter of fascism. ¶ “The title is a paraphrased quote by physicist Max Planck, who theorized that we don’t see progress in science because experts eventually warm up to new theories or ideas,” explains vocalist/bassist Amy Lewis.

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“Instead, progress is achieved as the older generation of experts die and a new generation with different perspectives asserts change. I feel this holds true in many cases for sociopolitical change as well.

As the older generation holds on to their outdated, conservative ideas, it’s up to us, the younger generation, to dismantle their ideas and assert change.”

A prime example of Obroa-Skai’s raw-yet-cerebral aesthetic is the standout “myth of the disembodied voice.” Lewis elaborates: “Working in universities where many people think of themselves as left-leaning/ liberal, I find it disturbing that whenever new inquiries [are made] to our history of colonialism and genocide, the response is fleeting sadness, vague social media posts and statements committing to ‘diversity.’ Though when it comes to direct action regarding reconciliation, they reject it.

“I had so many conversations with colleagues in 2019-2020 regarding the rail blockades in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en [village] people, and I realized at the end of the day, these people don’t care about the truth—they want Indigenous people to assimilate and shut up so they can continue feeling good about their lives.”

The album is a harrowing listen, but the rage is underscored by a subtle sense of compassion. “I think the weight of misery and sadness is lifted when anyone has a healthy place to put that energy: brush and canvas, pen and paper, strings and sticks,” Smith says. “All of the songs describe a problem, but we made sure the end message was that we as a community must come together and fight against these harmful and powerful systems. We can change these systems. It has been done historically; there is still hope.”

—ADRIEN BEGRAND

PHOTO BY KYLE ROSS

Edmonton noise rockers rage with compassion

VEMOD

VEMOD

THE

second album from Norwegian atmospheric metallers Vemod (don’t call them black metal!) had been announced and re-announced so many times that it had reached Chinese Democracy levels of speculation in the black metal underground. Now more than a decade following their lauded debut album Venter på stormene, new LP The Deepening has quite the shoes to fill, and songwriter Jan Even Åsli is more than aware of the gravity this album holds.

Unfortunately, the process was fraught with errors, false starts and even complete restarts. ¶“Our first attempt was in 2017 or 2018,” Åsli recalls, “and we had to start over due to drum recording problems. Something similar happened with the guitars, and we had to redo those several times. Also, we were simply busy with lots of other stuff in this process. It could go several months between sessions! Not all the arrangements were done before we were recording, and I thought it would go smoother than it did. It took longer than I expected, and there were a couple periods of illness where I couldn’t do anything meaningful.

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That set us back a few months several times, and then COVID happened. It took a few years. There were many factors, and they are all quite boring.”

Boring or not, the wait for The Deepening was a long one, and this affected Åsli not only as a perfectionist, but also as someone very deeply connected with the project.

“Vemod has been my passion project since I was a kid, essentially,” he says. “It’s always been with me—ingrained in my being. The line where Vemod ends and where I begin is not entirely clear.

“I’ve done Vemod for so long that it is second nature,” he explains further. “Writing material is the easiest part of everything. The difficult thing is to record it and make it happen as a release.”

As the years pass beyond Venter på stormene, Åsli sees just how much Vemod has grown from its fledgling

days on his own Fossbrenna Creations cassette label, where the band released the famed Vinterilden demo alongside other Nidrosianand-related acts like Jammerskrik, Askeregn, Knokkelklang, One Tail, One Head and more.

“There’s definitely been some broadening of horizons and new perspectives and new influences—a broader scope of everything,” says Åsli. “There are fewer limits than there used to be. I think I’m letting myself—and we are letting ourselves—bring in influences that we perhaps didn’t before. I think the entire idea of Vemod and what we can do in the future has grown. There are more dreams for the future than there used to be, and it is more exciting now! As far as the old ways go, we still make demo cassettes and rehearsal tapes to keep that dimension of the band alive. That’s where we started.” —JON ROSENTHAL

PHOTO BY VILDE DYRNES ULRIKSEN

Definitely-not-black-metallers reemerge after a dozen years

interview by

j. bennett

QA KRISTOFFER WI T H

RYGG ULVER’s main man on Norwegian black metal’s early days and the reissue of the 1993 Vargnatt demo

JA UU AR Y Y2 02 2042 4: D EC EL 24 : F EN BR AR : D EICBI B EL

AH,

the old sins of youth.” That’s what Ulver frontman lore and nature and art history, basically. These

Kristoffer “Garm” Rygg says when Decibel informs him that we’d like to discuss his band’s very first recording, the Vargnatt demo. “It sounds pretty good sonically, but there are obviously some hilarious moments contained within, some artistic choices made at the time that are plain weird. But with age comes a certain softness or willingness to look past such concerns.” ¶ Originally recorded and released in 1993, Vargnatt is getting the vinyl reissue treatment from Peaceville, who have recently given new life to other early Norwegian black metal obscurities from Fimbulwinter and Isengard. “This was a very small world,” Rygg says of those heady days of musical revolution that ultimately erupted in arson, murder and suicide. “It wasn’t that many people into these kinds of tapes. Because that’s what it was—demo tapes and rehearsal tapes—and a few old LPs from the ’80s and a lot of talk. That’s what it was in ’91, ’92, ’93.” ¶ Of course, the members of Ulver weren’t involved in any criminal activities. And musically speaking, they’ve taken a very different path than their contemporaries. Most of Ulver’s catalog isn’t even metal, much less the black metal from whence they came. Throughout much of the 2000s and 2010s, it seemed that Rygg didn’t have much time for his musical origins. But now? ¶ “Nostalgia is a key word here,” he says. “Thirty years later, it takes on a more romantic aspect. I feel more love for those things now than I would have 10 or 15 years ago.”

Vargnatt is the very first Ulver recording. When you listen to it now, does it feel like you’ve stepped into a time machine?

Oh yeah. Big time. You’re painfully reminded that you’re not a young buck anymore. [Laughs] So, it’s celebratory, but there’s some melancholy to it, too. A lot of people kept asking for it, though, so after a while I figured why not make it part of the catalog in an official capacity?

Even if it is just a demo.

In the press release, you said that you’re less ashamed of Vargnatt now than you were in the ’90s. How so?

Obviously in the ’90s, it was much closer in time.

I’m happy and thankful that we did it, but it’s not a perfect recording by any means. [Laughs] With time, it’s easier to look past those concerns and just appreciate that we did anything constructive at all at that age.

What are the first memories that come to mind when you think of 1993?

There are many. We were in high school. I met Carl-Michael [Eide], and we formed the band on the cusp of ’92. We mucked about for a year before we recorded Vargnatt in the fall of ’93.

Obviously, the whole black metal thing was in the wind. We had started going down to Helvete PHOTO BY A STR A EIDA RYGH

and getting into what was at the time just this rough scene that very few people knew about. We were trying to find or forge our own path within those currents. Black metal was there in theory, but it wasn’t a well-established form of expression, like now. It was all very new and magical.

And youthful. [Laughs] The curiosity and the fire of mind that you have at that age—that’s what comes to mind.

From what I understand, you felt disconnected from some of black metal’s ideology even back then…

Well, we embraced certain aspects of it. But there were parts of it that I wasn’t too keen on.

In terms of the satanic aspect, I guess we were leaning more in favor of the so-called aesthetic Satanism of Anton LaVey, Peter H. Gilmore and those guys—Nietzsche, you know. It sounds so silly to say, but a more intellectual approach rather than the sort of hoodlum mentality that some people in Norway were banging on about, being “evil” hatemongers, all that stuff, turning all the classical values upside down, negating symbols and traditions, common codes of conduct. To us, those things seemed a bit childish, even then. [Laughs] Also, we weren’t strictly satanic, either. It was an interest we had, but we were also into the medieval outlook—Norwegian

are the things that informed our world.

What were your goals for Ulver at that time?

For me personally, it was goal enough just to be in a band. It was a somewhat unrealistic dream at the time. I was doing a fanzine in ’92. I didn’t have any musical background apart from some piano lessons with my grandmother. Some of the other guys had been in bands before and had a bit more training. It was happenstance, in a way, that I ended up a vocalist in a band. For me, that was just awesome. And then to get to make an album, that was insane. The ambitions didn’t go further than that. This genre was quite introspective, so we played for ourselves and our peers, first and foremost. I don’t think we thought in terms of getting licensed or released in other countries at all. Those possibilities weren’t yet on the table. It started out as a very internal thing.

Of everyone who played on that demo, you’re the only one still in the band.

That’s true. Well, and [co-lyricist] Jørn [H. Svaeren], who became an official member some years later. The band changed big time after the third album, Nattens Madrigal. I guess you could call it the end of era one. There has been a part two and possibly part three of this band, too, organizationally. I was the one who kept carrying this thing on my shoulders throughout the years, for better or worse. But I’m still very close with Håvard [Jørgensen] and Carl-Michael.

Actually, I have this dream that maybe someday we can get the old guard together and make a punk rock single or something.

You’ve said that listening to the demo fills you with joy, but also some sadness. Does part of that sadness have to do with guitarist Sigmund Løkken, who played on the very early Ulver releases and died under mysterious circumstances in 1996?

That is true. Sigmund died not so many years after Vargnatt. He was way too young to leave. So yeah, there’s some bad memories.

What was the chemistry like in the band at that time? Were you unified in purpose?

There were people who had stronger roles than others, like it always is. In the demo days, it was basically Carl-Michael and myself in the lead. Håvard wasn’t a fully engaged member on the demo. He played the acoustic guitar parts plus one electric guitar solo that is out of tune.

[Laughs] He came into the band around that time, but obviously went on to become a crucial member. We had a guitar player called Ali [Reza] and he was a good player, too, but he was DECIBEL : FEBRUARY 2024 : 25

 Back in black (and other vinyl colors)

Though long removed from their pitch-black roots, the reissue of Vargnatt is a healthy dose of nostalgia

At some point between the demo and the first album, Shagrath from Dimmu Borgir was playing in Ulver. What’s the story there?

I’m still very close with Håvard [Jørgensen] and Carl-Michael [Eide]. Actually, I have this dream that maybe someday we can get the old guard together and make a punk rock single or something. more the kind of guy who just liked to hang around and jam. Sigmund had a similar role. He liked to show up to rehearsal and play his parts to the best of his ability.

What happened to Ali? It seems like he stopped playing metal in ’94.

I actually bumped into him a couple of years ago. He works for a stage tech company. He had a small home studio, he told me, but I don’t think he ever put anything else out. He wasn’t strictly a black metal dude, so I think he would have shed that skin not long after Vargnatt anyway.

But he’s still playing the guitar, I think, and working behind the scenes in the backline world.

Carl-Michael has gone on to be very prolific with Aura Noir, Cadaver and Ved Buens Ende, among many others. What’s your take on his musical trajectory as compared to yours?

We’re more similar than people know, I think.

It’s just that our interests have led us to different conclusions. I’ll listen to something he’s done and think, “I wish I would’ve done that.”

And it’ll be the other way around also. But what can I say? The guy is just massively talented and a weirdo freak with his disharmonic riffs, which I just love. He’s a thrash freak as well, which he has the perfect outlet for with Aura Noir. But yeah, like I said, we have to make a punk rock single together soon, just for the hell of it.

The Peaceville reissue of Vargnatt comes with a live version of the title track from 26 : FEBRUARY 2024 : DECIBEL

Oslo’s Bootleg TV in 1993. Was that an actual televised performance?

Yes, but it was not televised in real time. Bootleg was a voluntary center for people who wanted to work with communications and media. They hosted a lot of early metal gigs and rock and hiphop gigs, and I think most of them were filmed.

Some selections then made it onto Oslo TV, which was a local thing that was aired after national television ended. So, they’d be on late-night TV in Oslo, and “Vargnatt” was one of those videos that circulated for a while. Unfortunately, I don’t have the whole performance. I just have the one clip, which I had to contact the National Library to get. I think Darkthrone did the same for some of their early Bootleg stuff.

Does the National Library of Norway have a black metal archive?

They basically store all these things for posterity. My guess is that they have almost everything from all the old studios from around the country.

They just hosted a black metal exhibition as well, so it occasionally comes to good use. It’s like a national vault for items of cultural interest, but Norway is a small country. It would probably be an impossible project in bigger places.

What do you remember about that performance?

[Laughs] Just that I was there. I can’t even remember rehearsing for it, but we must have done it because it sounds pretty cool. It’s vague, but I remember there were very few people there.

Twenty, maybe. It was certainly not a big show.

We were friends. I met him and the bass player, Skoll [Hugh Mingay], who was in Fimbulwinter with Shagrath. It must’ve been late ’92, and we became friends. Shagrath was actually at the gig at Bootleg, which I didn’t remember. I read his recollection of it recently. So, he was one of the 20. [Laughs] After the demo, we moved across the hall and into the rehearsal room that was then occupied by Arcturus and Mayhem, even though Mayhem was inactive at the time. This was shortly after Euronymous’ death. Shagrath rehearsed with us for like six months, but never recorded anything with Ulver. Dimmu Borgir happened, and he chose to go with those guys.

Which was a good career choice, in hindsight.

[Laughs] We are still good friends, too. I just sent him the Vargnatt LP, actually.

Euronymous’ death was a pivotal moment in black metal history. How did you experience that event?

There was a lot of chaos and paranoia. That’s how I remember it. And this might sound speculative or like a bad thing to say, but there was a level of excitement going on. Not about what happened to Øystein, of course, but what serious business black metal was. It’s difficult to answer because I don’t want it to come out wrong. I remember being in the courtroom when Vikernes was on trial. I was there a couple days, witnessing that drama unfold in real time. Police came to my school and picked me up for interrogation prior to this. It’s crazy to think about now. At the time, I think we were kind of desensitized or maybe blinded by… the gravitas.

So much of the music that you’ve made since then sounds nothing like Vargnatt. Even the second Ulver album, just three years later, was quite a bit different. Were you already starting to think beyond black metal in ’93?

Not really. I’d say that plan came while we were finalizing Nattens Madrigal, the third album. As [keyboardist] Tore [Ylwizaker] came into the band, that opened some possibilities that hadn’t been there before, not only with the lineup, but with technology and the access to the studio as a tool in itself. But since you mention the second one, part of the black metal ethos was always feeling before form. And I suppose we took that more to heart than some other players from the same scene. So, the mindset to do something that might be considered off or strange or experimental was in us from day one, I think. Which Vargnatt is a pretty good example of, in a way. It’s fun to hear it again 30 years later, and for younger people to hear it, but I’ve still got forms to explore.

W

BY ADEM TEPEDELEN

e’re gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that no band makes it a goal to go five or seven or 17 years between albums. People have short attention spans, and there are a million other bands out there churning out product—perhaps more frequently—so there’s no good to be had in long lapses between records. But, hey, shit happens. And pandemics happen. And personnel changes and label changes happen. And before you know it, holy shit, our last record came out in 2018?! ¶ While that sentiment wasn’t explicitly expressed in the making of our 21 Most Anticipated Albums of 2024 feature, the topic of “length of years since your last full-length” was addressed with some frequency. Which, given the caliber of talent we’re stoked about hearing from in the new year, makes some sense.

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If Deicide, for instance, are dropping their first new effort in six years, it’s gonna be on our list, for fuck’s sake.

And while there are some legacy artists included on our list doing some eye-opening things in 2024, our overriding mission in considering who makes the cut simply comes down to what we think are going to be important—occasionally mind-blowing—albums by metal artists across the spectrum. There are always the dark horses we love to shine a light on, or the nearly-forgottens who have re-emerged unexpectedly, or maybe just a wild card newcomer that might make you question our sobriety for including them.

We stand by them all as—at the very least— worth checking out, even if it turns out it ain’t your thing. And maybe if these albums do well, their creators won’t take so damn long to put out a follow-up and we’ll hear from them a little more frequently.

CRYPT SERMON TITLE: TBA LABEL: Dark Descent PRODUCER: Arthur Rizk and

Crypt Sermon RELEASE DATE: TBA On album number three, Philly doom crew Crypt Sermon are maybe ready to move past that whole “epic doom metal” tag they’ve been (fairly) saddled with.

Vocalist Brooks Wilson sees a lot of possibility in going beyond what they’ve done before. “Crypt Sermon exists to explore the boundaries of heavy metal; if that means that we don’t fit neatly into a prescribed genre, we are quite comfortable with that,” he tells us via email. His description of the new album confirms that exact sentiment: “It’s both a natural progression from our previous work, and yet unconstrained by genre conventions—both more aggressive and more fragile, more expansive and yet more focused, more challenging and progressive, and yet full of memorable hooks and melodies.” Look for new tracks “Glimmers in the Underworld” and “The Stygian Rose,” which “cover just about everything the band has done before and the great variety of things we are capable of doing now.”

P

roducer (and tourtake a step forward as ing guitarist) Andy well, and make it a little Sneap may just be bit fresh. It keeps you relJudas Priest’s seevant, keeps you in touch cret weapon at this with what’s happening at point. Look, these metal the time.” legends clearly still have Sneap, producing a Priest album on his own plenty of, ahem, firepowfor the first time, seems er left, but Sneap’s role in crafting such impresto have embraced the task TITLE: Invincible Shield of following up such a besive and current music— which still retains everyloved late-era record like LABEL: Epic thing that makes Priest Firepower seriously. “AnPRODUCER: Andy Sneap great—can’t be overstatdy’s mind’s always workRELEASE DATE: March 8 ed. Priest bring the killer ing when he’s in the stumaterial and superlative dio, so he’s always made suggestions on what to performances, and Sneap helps make it all gleam like a well-polished change or how to improve things,” Hill says. “He’s (killing) machine. worked harder at [Invincible Shield] than any of us, “That’s very true; he has become a sixth probably. We all go in and do our bits, but he’s member, really,” says bassist Ian Hill from there all the time. He’s done a tremendous job.” his home in England. “Taking on a heritage Hill, along with guitarists Glenn Tipton and band is probably daunting for any new pro- Faulkner, vocalist Rob Halford and drummer ducer that doesn’t know us personally, but Scott Travis, realizes there may not be many more Andy’s fit in. He’s one of the gang; he’s a Priest albums; the band wants to keep their stanmember of the family.” dards high while they’re still able to. “I can’t see The tracks already teased for Invincible Shield much point in doing an album if it’s not at least indicate that, as guitarist Richie Faulkner has as good as the last one, especially at this stage of noted elsewhere, there is a “progressive” element; the game,” Hill asserts. “We’re all realists here, but that seems to be as much about the produc- and we know we haven’t got a great deal of time tion as it is the songwriting. “It’s obviously Judas left. The last thing you want to do is end your Priest—we’re all still here, and the basic sound days on a downer; you want to try to keep rising. is still there,” says Hill, “but we always like to I think we’ve achieved that with this record.”

UNDEATH TITLE: TBA LABEL: Prosthetic PRODUCER: Mark Lewis RELEASE DATE: Fall

We tabbed Undeath’s 2022 release It’s Time... to Rise From the Grave as a Most Anticipated album, so naturally we’re equally stoked about the prospect of new material from these Rochester, NY death dealers. And, hey, considering how apparently prolific they are, this might become a regular occurrence. “We write on the road constantly because there’s so much downtime at soundchecks, backstage, etc.,” vocalist Alexander Jones explains via email, “and then when we’re home, the only things we really do besides play video games and drink 4,000 calories in beer a week are write and practice.” If you’ve caught the band on tour of late, you might have gotten a sneak peak already of “Brandish the Blade” (“a real pit-activator”) and “Sutured for War” (“a real titty twister”). As Jones says, “Every song on this record is like Undeath on bath salts. It’s a fuckin’ nutty album.”

DECIBEL : FEBRUARY 2024 : 29

ROTTING CHRIST

SPECTRAL VOICE

HIGH ON FIRE

TITLE: TBA

TITLE: Sparagmos

TITLE: Cometh the Storm

LABEL: Season of Mist

LABEL: Dark Descent

LABEL: MNRK Heavy

PRODUCER: Sakis Tolis

PRODUCER: Arthur Rizk

RELEASE DATE: Early 2024

RELEASE DATE: February 9

Prolific Greek melodic death metallers Rotting Christ have been churning out new albums on the regular for three decades, but like many on this list, they were fuxored by the pandemic and haven’t issued a new full-length since 2019. “Yes, it’s the first time as a band it’s taken five years to release an album,” vocalist/guitarist Sakis Tolis tells us via email. “The pandemic froze the band and the scene in general for two years, but this miserable period of time helped me compose our most atmospheric, melodic and epic album ever.” Sakis suggested to Decibel that 2022’s “Holy Mountain” single may be an indicator of the direction he and drummer brother Themis pursued with the new material, and he offers this teaser, as well: “We are currently working on our first video clip [for] ‘Like Father, Like Son,’ a song influenced by Bathory’s epic era that is quite representative of the whole album’s musical and lyrical concept.”

Look no further than the album’s title, Sparagmos, for an indication of intent on Denver deathdoom outfit Spectral Voice’s second full-length.

The word is ancient Greek for the act of “rending, tearing apart or mangling.” Drummer/vocalist Eli Wendler elaborates via email: “The listener will go deeper into the process of dissolution, with a heavier sense of dread and anxiety than previous [Spectral Voice] works. Sparagmos folds inward for a more claustrophobic and dense atmosphere— more aggressive and morbid, full of despair and anguish.” It’s an album with some material nearly 10 years in the making. “Part of the reason it took so long to complete [Sparagmos] is that every moment in each song had to give us that special feeling of cohesion and envelopment,” Wendler notes.

“Some passages on the record date back to 2013, but it took this long to compose those moments into a complete and monumental work. The result of this slow process allowed us to create a totality of vision, resulting in a final piece that we are all deeply proud of.”

PRODUCER: Kurt Ballou and High on Fire RELEASE DATE: April 19

GLACIAL TOMB TITLE: Lightless Expanse LABEL: TBA PRODUCER: Ben Hutcherson MIXED/MASTERED: Arthur Rizk RELEASE DATE: Late spring/summer

Glacial Tomb guitarist/vocalist Ben Hutcherson (also of Khemmis) describes the last few years as “fucking rough” for he and his bandmates, but nonetheless finds much to be enthused about how his doom-spattered progressive death metal trio have emerged. “In 2019 we welcomed bass wizard David Small (now also of Khemmis) to the lineup, and he brought a wealth of positivity, creativity and technical proficiency to [Glacial Tomb],” he tells us via email. “This resulted in a collective ‘leveling up’ in the band, which has been very exciting.” Small’s contributions aren’t solely related to his bass duties, either.

“He’s a legit riff machine with a guitar in his hands,” Hutcherson adds. “‘Worldsflesh’ was the first song we wrote for the new album, and Dave wrote the majority of those riffs. Somewhere between a third and a half of all the riffs on the album came from him!”

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MY DYING BRIDE TITLE: A Mortal Binding LABEL: Nuclear Blast PRODUCER: My Dying Bride and

Mark Mynett RELEASE DATE: Spring Is it possible for a doom album to be “too dire”?

My Dying Bride guitarist Andrew Craighan certainly thought that was the case for the U.K. death/doom outfit’s previous album, The Ghost of Orion, and aimed to correct that on A Mortal Binding, which he calls “a deliberate step away” from the 2020 effort. “I tried to make this album a nofrills affair, an almost back-to-basics approach with a modern powerful sound,” he says of MDB’s 15th full-length. Indeed, songs like “The 2nd of Three Bells,” lead track “Her Dominion” and the “massive doomathon” (his words) “The Apocalyptist,” are mostly unadorned and direct expressions of the band’s gloomy approach. “[In creating it], we were really focused on what the music was to be, which was direct powerful metal—possibly doomy, but metal nonetheless.”

High on Fire return with an album that features one constant (producer Kurt Ballou) and one new addition (ex-Big Business/Melvins drummer Coady Willis). The trio elected to go to Ballou’s GodCity in Massachusetts for the fourth consecutive time in order to document Cometh the Storm. “We have a really good workflow with Kurt,” bassist Jeff Matz tells us. “We’ve worked with each other enough where we feel really comfortable with how he works, and vice versa.” And since it’s been more than five years since Electric Messiah, there was no shortage of material for HoF’s ninth full-length. “We have a pretty massive vault of unused riffs that we’ve been cataloging, individually and collectively, over the years,” Matz says. “So, going into the [writing session], we had quite a number of ‘skeletons,’ as we like to call them—things that are pretty close to being full songs. There were a few wild cards, too, things that came together fairly spontaneously during the pre-production process.”

EXODUS TITLE: TBA LABEL: Napalm PRODUCER: Exodus RELEASE DATE: Fall

Exodus Riffmeister General Gary Holt swore that there wouldn’t be a long gap between albums once he finished his Slayer duties in late 2019, and other than the pandemic gap, he looks to be following through just a few years after Persona Non Grata dropped. Exodus are currently still in the writing phase, so specifics aren’t available, but Holt offers some insight into where things are heading.

“The new album’s gonna surprise some people,” he confesses. “I just follow the riff wherever it goes, and this album’s got some hits, crushing hits. It’s got some super fast shit, too. I was working on a new one last night that’s got a chorus breakdown that might be the heaviest thing I’ve ever written in my life.” Even his writing partner-in-crime, Exodus founding drummer Tom Hunting, is feeling it. “I sent some shit to Tom and he was like, Dude, that’s a fuckin’ hit. That shit’s good.”

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alling Deicide “legendary” at this point “Everyone wrote three songs for the new in their 30-plus-year career seems trite. album, including Taylor, who did an amazing Look, when you’re a lynchpin in launchjob.” Benton extolls. “His guitar playing and lead ing the entire death metal genre, you’ve playing is extraordinary, and it shows throughout the entire project.” probably earned, like, demigod status or something. It goes way beyond legendary. NeedIn addition to his songwriting and playTITLE: Banished by Sin ing contributions, Nordberg assisted Jeramie less to say, when it was announced that album number 13 would be released in 2024, it was imKling—who Benton calls “Deicide’s fifth memLABEL: Reigning Phoenix Music ber”—in recording Banished by Sin, which will be mediately vaulted onto our list of don’t-miss PRODUCER: Deicide released via new label Reigning Phoenix Music, records. Especially since the last we heard from founded by a cohort of industry vets. the Floridians was 2018’s Overtures of Blasphemy.

RELEASE DATE: Spring After three-plus decades and so many differThough founding members/demigods Glen Benton (bass/vocals) and Steve Asheim (drums) ent lineups, Benton is notably super-high on this are as they ever were, Deicide welcomed new guitarist Taylor Nordberg latest incarnation of Deicide and what they’ve achieved. “It truly is the best Deicide lineup to date,” he offers, “and I believe [Banished by to the fold alongside Kevin Quirion, who’s been shredding in Deicide for the last decade-plus. Somewhat surprisingly, all four members conSin] is an album that defines the talent in this band. Personally, I tributed to what Benton calls “an old-school masterpiece of mayhem.” can’t stop listening to it, and everyone who has had the opportunity to hear it all agree it’s a ripper from start to finish, as it should be!”

Even the new guy.

32 : FEBRUARY 2024 : DECIBEL

PHOTO BY DEIDR A KLING

DECIBEL : FEBRUARY 2024 : 33

IHSAHN

MIDNIGHT

TITLE: Ihsahn

TITLE: Hellish Expectations

LABEL: Candlelight

LABEL: Metal Blade

PRODUCER: Ihsahn

PRODUCER: None

RELEASE DATE: February 16

RELEASE DATE: March

It should come as no surprise that Ihsahn’s latest solo album is both ambitious and experimental, with nods to his earliest metal roots and the more recent expansion of his musical repertoire. As the leader of black metal titans Emperor, he helped push the genre in bold new directions while still maintaining its inherent ferocity. And as a solo artist, he has continued to surprise listeners with compositions far removed from his extreme roots.

For his upcoming self-titled album, he has given us two albums conceptually and musically tied together, telling Decibel via email, “I wanted to dig deep into the core essentials of my musical background—black/extreme metal and my love of orchestral music and soundtracks.” Indeed, Ihsahn offers 11 tracks in two different iterations. “I approached the writing with the intent to present the material in its full-blown metal expression,” he explains, “but also to arrange the orchestral parts in such a way that they would work independently as a separate record.”

By his own accounting, Midnight mastermind Athenar has enough material recorded, mixed and mastered to stretch into the end of this decade.

His latest effort in that endeavor, Hellish Expectations, was recorded in 2020 by Nunslaughter guitarist Noah Buchanan, but Athenar doesn’t see a problem with its “freshness.” “I make up music that already sounds decades dated!” he jokes via email. “Once you start to question if songs are good, bad, fresh, old, a rip-off, then you’re just thinking too much.” Buchanan, who also recorded Midnight’s previous two albums, had this perspective on Hellish in relation to its predecessor, Let There Be Witchery: “The songs are a lot [faster]. The whole process… was way more punk rock. We just decided, Fuck it, let’s make this as filthy as it can be. It’s a bit more of an aggressive album.”

34 : FEBRUARY 2024 : DECIBEL

PHOTO BY HANNAH VERBEUREN

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T

here are a lot of TITLE: TBA “firsts” surrounding LABEL: Nuclear Blast Arizona death metal PRODUCER: Kurt Ballou crew Gatecreeper’s hotly anticipated RELEASE DATE: Summer new opus. First for new label Nuclear Blast. First recorded at GodCity in Massachusetts with Kurt Ballou. First album created with its new lineup: vocalist Chase Mason, guitarist Eric Wagner, drummer Metal Matt [Arrebollo], and newcomers Alex Brown (bass) and Izzy Garza (guitars). And first time, according to Mason, “the entire band got involved with the songwriting process.” So, yeah, this one’s momentous on many fronts. “This is a record we wouldn’t have been able to make

36 : FEBRUARY 2024 : DECIBEL

in our earlier years,” he continues, “but after 10 years of being a band, we have progressed as musicians and songwriters.”

Gatecreeper actually signed their NB recording deal around the time the pandemic hit, but took their time making that first effort for the label. “We took almost a whole year off from touring to write, do preproduction and demo all the songs multiple times before we entered the studio,” says Mason. The results reflect the progression Mason suggested above. “The focus was improving our overall songwriting and writing more memorable songs. There are elements of all our previous records, plus some new flavors thrown in the mix. There are few tracks that will definitely take people by surprise. It’s a pretty diverse collection of songs.”

Gatecreeper are taking advantage of the platform of a bigger label with bigger resources and distribution to make a statement, instead of taking the safe route. “[The new album] is a huge step up from what everybody has come to expect from us,” Mason promises. “There are [some] songs that sound exactly what people might expect, but the thing that excites us the most is showcasing a new side of our band that nobody is expecting.”

PHOTO BY JOE Y MADDON

DECIBEL : FEBRUARY 2024 : 37

BLOOD INCANTATION

MOTHER OF GRAVES

DEATHEVOKATION

TITLE: TBA

TITLE: The Periapt of Absence

TITLE: Gotha

LABEL: Century Media

LABEL: Profound Lore

LABEL: TBA

PRODUCER: Arthur Rizk and Blood Incantation RELEASE DATE: Fall

PRODUCER: Ben Sandman

PRODUCER: John Haddad and

RELEASE DATE: Fall

Götz Vogelsang RELEASE DATE: TBA

We get that some bands don’t want to reveal too much too soon when preparing to release a new album, especially when said album is dropping later in the year. Squeezing specifics out of them to tantalize you, dear readers, ain’t always easy, so we’re always thrilled when someone like Blood Incantation guitarist/vocalist Paul Reidl is so fucking pumped about his new record that the superlatives cannot be contained. The Denver death metal explorers went to Berlin to record their third fulllength with Arthur Rizk, and Reidl summarizes the results via our email exchange as, “the ultimate Blood Incantation album, and nothing less!” Asked to be more specific, he happily obliged, noting that listeners can expect, “a megalithic whirlwind of powerful atmospheric death metal integrating all aspects of our sound into a compelling and potent mixture of epic, raging and brutal riffing with heavy cosmic prog, krautrock and psychedelic/ ambient experimental music. It is simultaneously our most aggressive and intense album ever, while also being our most atmospheric and progressive.”

We invited death-doom glumlords Mother of Graves to be part of our Decibel Flexi Series (November 2023), so of course the news that the Indianapolis quintet had a new effort in the pipes was all we needed to add it to our Most Anticipated list. Moving from Wise Blood Records to Profound Lore for album number two has inspired MOG to keep the low vibes churning. “No one wants to follow up with a sophomore slump,” guitarist Chris Morrison tells us via email. “I do think that we moved our sound forward a bit in some areas with these new songs.” Tireless writers, the band wasn’t lacking ideas when assembling The Periapt of Absence. “The real challenge [was] having too much material,” notes Morrison. “It’s a good problem to have, but picking which songs to cut so the runtime isn’t ridiculously long can be [tough] when you feel strongly about the work.” Vocalist Brandon Howe assures us, however, that the ones that made the cut are on point. “If you thought [debut Where the Shadows Adorn] was a bleak and dismal soul-crusher, then buckle up in preparation for what’s to come.”

UNTO OTHERS

BRAT

Anytime a band releases a killer debut and then, for all intents and purposes, disappears, their unexpected re-emergence 17 years later would naturally pique our attention. Deathevokation did a one-and-done with 2007’s cult classic The Chalice of Ages, but are returning with a nearly intact original lineup. Led by vocalist/guitarist Götz Vogelsang, the San Diego death crushers may have folded when he left town in 2007 and eventually relocated to North Carolina, but the personal connections endured. “The friendship amongst the members never stopped, never took a break,” Vogelsang tells us via email. So, with a rededication to creating music together (with new drummer Adam Walker), a sophomore follow-up is finally on the way. “We are in the process of writing material, all in the vein of the debut album and then some,” says Vogelsang.

“The synergy between [guitarist] Brian Shuff and [me] has not changed a bit, and I hope that the new material can please.”

UN TITLE: Identity

TITLE: TBA

TITLE: Social Grace

LABEL: Century Media

LABEL: Prosthetic

PRODUCER: TBA

PRODUCER: Self-produced

RELEASE DATE: Early to mid 2024

RELEASE DATE: March 15

RELEASE DATE: Fall or winter

An excess of new material is a good problem to have. Portland, OR goth metal mavens Unto Others started the process of creating their upcoming release—their third full-length—with a whopping 40 songs demoed. Needless to say, that number got whittled down before it came time to record. “I killed a good amount of those babies and chose 14 for the studio,” vocalist/guitarist Gabriel Franco tells Decibel via email. “I want a 40-minute record and don’t care how many songs. [I want it to be] short, sweet and to the point.” Franco communicated with us while tracking, and noted that the results so far were “sounding pretty,” and that, “the record is weird and different; it’s not Mana or Strength; it’s some other kind of thing.

This has the potential to be our best record yet, or... not. It’s my favorite record.”

There’s some kind of totally unlikely stew of sounds and influences at work here that could only originate in the Big Easy. NOLA grindcore/ powerviolence quartet BRAT don’t exactly look the part of extreme metal punishers; they seem to have something of a pink fetish and, well, their name is BRAT. But, believe us, they are dedicated to the grind, and their full-length debut, Social Grace, is a chest-caver that manages to slop a little New Orleans sludge into the already potent mix.

That’s by design, according to drummer Dustin Eagan: “We’ve really poured ourselves into cultivating a sound for this record that is both familiar to listeners, but also very much its own thing in the world. We can’t wait for [listeners] to hear what we’ve been cooking up in this freak gumbo of sonic assault. We’re very proud of that.”

The pandemic could well have spelled the doom of Seattle funeral doom crew Un. Guitarist/vocalist Monte McCleery found himself adrift and “didn’t play guitar or write any music for the first 18 months,” he explains via email. “There was a point where I thought I would never come back to it.” With a fresh batch of material set for release in 2024, McCleery obviously found his way back, but the return wasn’t easy. “It wasn’t like riding a bike,” he admits. “It was slow and awkward and painful. It really felt like a metamorphosis.” The struggle, though, has surely been channeled into the band’s latest dose of epic gloom. “We have evolved a lot emotionally,” he says, “and this [album] is a reflection of that. We didn’t want this to be just another doom metal album. Hopefully it’s more than that.”

38 : FEBRUARY 2024 : DECIBEL

LABEL: Translation Loss PRODUCER: TBD

IF

profound darkness TITLE: Verses in Oath and atmospheric LABEL: 20 Buck Spin gloom for months PRODUCER: Hulder on end are a source of inspiration for RELEASE DATE: February 9 you, may we recommend relocating from your current locale to the rural western slope of the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest? The short, dark days; the rain; the moss-filled forests; the absence of sunlight that isn’t filtered through gray cloud cover—the black metal writes itself!

It definitely continues to provide no small amount of inspiration to Hulder (a.k.a. Marliese Osborne), who has been creatively fueled by the local ambiance since relocating there from Portland, OR with her husband Necreon (Sam Osborne) during the plague years. “When the initial shutdowns of 2020 happened, it became very clear the city was the last place I would ever want to be stuck,” Hulder tells Decibel via email. “Being in a more rural setting helps my creativity and allows me to act on it whenever I feel the need. When I am not writing or rehearsing, I am out in nature gathering inspiration and clearing my mind.”

It inspired her heralded previous solo effort, Godslastering: Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry, and this setting likewise spawned the seeds of Verses in Oath. “Much of the writing as well as the tracking of Verses in Oath lined up with the coldest days of the year,” Hulder tells us, “making the process a physical and mental challenge.” The results of this struggle, though, are evident in the material on the new full-length. “‘Hearken the End’ and ‘Cast Into the Well of Remembrance’ feel like an extension of what I began with The Eternal Fanfare MLP, meanwhile other tracks feel more aggressive and darker than anything I’ve done to date.

What I can say is that each track on the album pushed me to further my own abilities in a different way.”

Hulder also was challenged by one other very important decision she made in creating Verses: “[This is] the first recording that I have sent off to be mixed by someone remotely, which was a lesson in relinquishing some control. I knew that I wanted to go in a different direction with [Verses in Oath], and seeing as how Ahti Kortelainen has worked has worked with, in my opinion, some of the best bands in the genre—Impaled Nazarene and Autumn Verses—having his mark on [the record] felt right.”

PHOTO BY LIANA R AKIJIAN

T

hat we’d hear new TITLE: TBA material from Slayer LABEL: TBA co-founder Kerry King PRODUCER: TBA in any form was never a given since the band RELEASE DATE: TBA called it quits in November 2019. Especially since it seemed as if the guitarist dropped off the grid in the ensuing years. All we could sort through were rumors, none of which amounted to much. But in November 2023, we were tantalized with reports from the man that there will indeed be something new in 2024. And putting at least some rumors to rest, we can confirm that Slayer’s last drummer, Paul Bostaph, is part of King’s new outfit and ex-Slayer/current Exodus guitarist Gary Holt isn’t.

In our email exchange with King, he refers to “our guitarist” and “the other guys,” but declines to name names. No song titles were provided, either.

But King was willing to give us some insight into his approach to his next musical endeavor. “I began writing the new album as far back as Slayer’s recording sessions for the 2015 Repentless album,” he says. “I knew early on that I wasn’t done [making music] and that I had no intention of not continuing to play.”

So, in spite of the radio silence from the King camp, things were clearly happening. But would it stylistically be similar to Slayer?

“It made sense to me to continue forward in the same direction, now without the Slayer blinders on,” he explains. “I think there’s room for melody to show up in some of the leads, and I like that.”

Thus it seems King is generally going to stay in his comfort zone, without trying to simply make another Slayer album with Bostaph and whomever his cohorts are. “Honestly, I didn’t want to change my M.O.,” he tells us. “I’m still a metal kid. I love metal music, and I don’t know how to do anything else.” And as for his band, he may be keeping the players’ names close to the vest, but he clearly is enjoying their company. “We all had a great time in the recording studio,” he says, “and when I’d pass one of the other guys in the hallway or something, I realized this was fucking fun!”

PHOTO BY ANDRE W STUART

DECIBEL : FEBRUARY 2024 : 39

the

definitive stories

behind extreme music’s

definitive albums

Gods of Wrath the making of Bulldozer’s The Day of Wrath FEBRUARY 2024 : 40 : DECIBEL

by

adem tepedelen

M

DBHOF230

BULLDOZER

The Day of Wrath ROADRUNNER MARCH 13, 1985

Primal Italian first-wave black metal

otörhead. Venom. Hellhammer. Bulldozer.

All bands that were despised, sometimes ridiculed, from the onset of their careers. Though it’s an ignominious distinction to be reviled so publicly, for bands that survive the initial battering, there can sometimes be redemption. Italian trio Bulldozer—who certainly owe a musical debt to at least two of the aforementioned bands and share a special connection with the third—arrived on the scene in 1984, via their self-released debut 7-inch “Fallen Angel” b/w “Another Beer (It’s What I Need).” In tribute to one of their primary influences, they were going by Bulldözer (with an umlaut) at the time, and they sported a four-person lineup—bassist Dario Carria, drummer Erminio Galli, guitarist Andy Panigada and vocalist Alberto “AC Wild” Contini—that would only perform on this initial single.

Carria and Galli originally formed Bulldozer in 1980 with Panigada, but this incarnation eventually split due to military obligations. When they reunited in 1983, they began anew with the addition of AC Wild in the fold. Not long after the reformation, they recorded that notorious debut single which would mark the end of Carria and Galli’s time in the band and also garnered Bulldozer the infamy only a pillorying in U.K. metal mag Kerrang! can offer. Carria and Galli were teenagers at the time the record was issued and their parents apparently took issue with (choose your reason) the fact that the pair had tattoos, the fact that they played in a band with AC Wild, and/or the fact that the cover of said single had a demon on it and a song called “Fallen Angel” (keeping in mind Italy’s pervasive Catholicism). Regardless, Bulldozer lost its rhythm section in one fell swoop.

Vocalist Contini took on bass duties, drummer (and former felon) Don Andras was drafted into the band and the lineup that would eventually record The Day of Wrath was finalized. Before they’d get the opportunity to record their debut, though, they’d have to weather that shellacking at the hands of Kerrang! in June 1984, where, coincidentally, Hellhammer’s Apocalyptic Raids EP was given a similar “worst record/band in existence” kind of review. Not bad company to be in, as it turns out. And, shockingly, Bulldozer parlayed their notoriety—and, to be honest, a debut single no shittier than, say, Venom’s first effort—into a record deal with Roadrunner, which resulted in The Day of Wrath, a prime slice of Motörhead- and Venom-inspired first-wave black metal.

Though Bulldozer plowed forward after Wrath, subsequent releases quickly moved away from the primal, punky evil of the debut. Nothing in the band’s catalog shares the feral immediacy of Wrath, and by the early ’90s Contini left Bulldozer behind and immersed himself in producing Euro dance tracks with great success. In 2008, Contini and Panigada relaunched a five-piece version of the band and continue to tour (though new material has been infrequent), as evidenced by a U.S. stint with Deceased in 2023.

We’re here today, however, to celebrate the Italians’ snarling, brash debut, a record that sprung from an unlikely scene and found fans worldwide, making it a worthy new addition to the Decibel Hall of Fame.

(Worth noting: Only Contini speaks English, so his interview was conducted via Zoom. Andras and Panigada answered questions in Italian, and Contini translated them.)

D E C I B E L : 41 : F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 4

DBHOF230

BULLDOZER the day of wrath

In the early ’80s, we saw the first extreme metal bands coming out of the U.K. (Venom, Tank, Warfare), the U.S. (Slayer, Metallica, Exodus) and parts of Europe (Mercyful Fate, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Destruction). What was it like in Milan and Italy? Were there bands adopting this same style?

ALBERTO “AC WILD” CONTINI: You have to consider in Milan maybe there were a maximum of 50 metal fans, and [they were] mostly addicted to KISS or Iron Maiden. Maybe three people liked Tank and Motörhead—the three original members of Bulldozer. Motörhead was considered badquality metal. Regarding Satanic music, there was a band in Milan called Death SS. They made a kind of darker style of Black Sabbath, but it was a little bit faster. I think Death SS is very important for the extreme and, let’s say, dark, infernal metal. They formed before Slayer, Venom, Mercyful Fate. But nobody knew about them.

Death SS were [only] presented to the global market years and years later. [At the time] Italy was a third world country for metal, so we never had support from our country for what we did.

ANDY PANIGADA: After a Venom and Metallica concert in Milan [February 5, 1984] and Metallica with Tank [November 27, 1984], the Milan scene started generating several new extreme metal fans. But in 1980 there were only two young teenagers loving (and knowing) extreme metal: Dario Carria and Erminio Galli. They invited me to their house and showed me a Motörhead poster (with a shark mouth on the bass drums). We formed the first version of Bulldozer, with Dario playing bass and Erminio drumming.

Talk a bit about the first incarnation of Bulldozer when it was a trio.

CONTINI: This version of Bulldozer, which I

wasn’t yet in, formed in 1980 and split after one year, because [Panigada] had to go to serve in the army. Nobody in Milan knew about Bulldozer. I just heard someone joking in a music instrument store about a loser band called Bulldozer.

PANIGADA: When I had to serve in the Army, we stopped. After I returned from the Army, I played with a couple of bands—not Bulldozer.

We played a few concerts, including some Motörhead covers in our sets, but the reaction was bad.

CONTINI: I heard Motörhead for the first time in 1982 and totally fell in love with the band.

PANIGADA: I met AC for the first time in 1983 and together we played a concert in Milan doing Venom and Motörhead covers, but he was the only one in the group excited about the music.

This was before Bulldozer reformed. Eventually, we met up with Dario and Erminio in November 1983 and I proposed we start Bulldozer again with AC as the singer.

 Italian sunset “AC Wild” Contini (r) with Steve Sylvester of Death SS

“A lot of artists from Scandinavia and other places now are declaring The Day of Wrath is a very influential album. But when it was first released, nobody was speaking about it. The funny thing is, when I was 25, I was dreaming of touring the U.S., but the first real invitation arrived when I was 61.”

A LB E RTO “AC WILD ” CO NT INI What were Bulldozer’s early influences?

PANIGADA: As I said, Dario and Erminio made

me listen to Motörhead for the first time in 1980. I previously was a Deep Purple, KISS, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest fan, like most of the metal fans in Milan.

CONTINI: From 1977 to 1981, I was studying in a convent, trying to become a Franciscan monk.

I was extremely religious and I didn’t know anything about metal. My first introduction to metal was when I listened to Highway to Hell by AC/DC, with Bon Scott. In Milan there was a metal club—which wasn’t really a metal club, more like a disco—where once a week they played metal videos. One time I saw a video of Motörhead playing “Overkill,” “Ace of Spades” and “Bomber,” and I immediately fell in love with that music. The day after, I bought a bass. I think it was in 1982. My main, original influences are AC/DC with Bon Scott and early Motörhead. Then, when I listened to Black Metal

by Venom, I was [gasps], and that was another big influence.

Alberto, as a former religious student, what did you think of Venom’s lyrics?

CONTINI: I was impressed by some of their lyrics,

but not all of them. What impressed me, especially on Black Metal, was the expression of the vocals. I was really impressed how Cronos made FEBRUARY 2024 : 4 2 : DECIBEL

the atmosphere really suffering and traumatic.

From a feeling point of view, it gave me a strong impression. I had never had the same impression from other [metal] bands. For example, I love Slayer, but they didn’t give me the same impression. And the same I can say for Mercyful Fate, or Hellhammer or Bathory. The way Cronos sang was like a person living in hell, suffering. It was not like a horror movie... I had a special feeling for that kind of expression in singing. Therefore, when I started writing lyrics and composing melodies for singing, I took inspiration from my personal experience studying religion.

My break from religious studies was caused by something really shocking. I had a kind of experience of falling in a pit, in the darkness and losing faith and not finding God anymore.

That was really a bad experience, and I tried to express this feeling in Bulldozer’s music. For example, “The Exorcism,” the first track [on The Day of Wrath], actually is a recreation of a real experience. I happened to participate in a real exorcism when I was studying, and I had to deal with a real possessed man. I remember I had a rosary in my hand with a cross, and the possessed man was turned so he couldn’t see me.

When I started putting the cross closer to his body, he started screaming really violently. That was a very important and impressive experience, and I tried to remake it in “The Exorcism.”

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I also remember how angry and violent the priest was; he was very severe, very aggressive.

It was a real fight between the priest and the evil spirit possessing the man. I wanted to recreate that. I was actually not impressed by the movie The Exorcist because it’s fiction. Now you can find documentaries of real exorcisms on YouTube, and you can see the reality is different from the movie.

Before we get to the album, let’s talk about the first 7-inch, “Fallen Angel,” that came out in 1984, when Dario and Erminio were still in the band.

CONTINI: We recorded the single sometime

After releasing your first 7-inch with this four-person lineup, the band split apart when Erminio and Dario were forced to leave. How did Don Andras join the band?

CONTINI: Dario and Erminio had to leave the band

because they were minors. Their parents saw the cover of the single and were shocked. They forced them to leave the band.

PANIGADA: Dario called AC one day, a few weeks after the release of the 7-inch. His parents realized that he had lots of tattoos and probably weren’t impressed by the image of AC. So, he and Erminio had to leave. I personally knew Don Andras, since I saw him playing Deep Purple covers live. He was the only drummer in Milan who already had some skills and could hit the drums with the proper violence.

DON ANDRAS: I learned about the existence of extreme metal when I was contacted by Andy, who invited me to play drums in the band after Dario and Erminio left, because their parents forbid them to play in Bulldozer anymore.

MAINMAN KING FOWLEY SINGS THE PRAISES OF “ITALY’S ANSWER TO VENOM” How and when did you first hear about Bulldozer or hear their music?

The first time I ever heard of Bulldozer was in an ad in Metal Forces magazine in early ’85.

The ad said they were Italy’s answer to Venom.

Was it surprising to hear an extreme band like this from Italy? Did that maybe add to their intrigue?

I wasn’t really surprised. Italy had been known for horror movies, so it made sense that they had horror heavy metal bands, too.

In what way do you think they were important to the first wave of black metal?

It was all fresh then. Bands were taking from Venom and stuff like that—the heaviest of the heavy. Everyone was trying to outdo each other with speed and darkness. Bulldozer just fit in because they definitely had an edge to them and were definitely over the top.

That’s what the metal underground needed right then.

What are specific things (and/or songs) about this album that you love?

After purchasing the album, I loved the spooky front cover and the back cover band pic, which was tongue-in-cheek, à la Venom, with one guy holding up a porno mag. They were also a three-piece like Venom. Putting the needle down, I immediately loved “The Exorcism.”

When the music started, it definitely had a Venom attack. The recording was echoey and sounded cheap and muddy, but it worked for them 100 percent. Since touring with Bulldozer, I have talked with AC Wild, and he told me Venom is really what got him into playing Bulldozer music. There are lots of similarities between the bands. The whole album is fantastic, but some favorites of mine would be “Mad Man,” “Whisky Time,” of course, and the very spooky-sounding “Endless Funeral.” Definitely a classic record from a classic band.

FEBRUARY 2024 : 4 4 : DECIBEL

PHOTO BY ED NEWTON

between the end of ’83 and the beginning of ’84. When I met Venom in Zurich on February 3, 1984, the single had already been recorded and was waiting to be released. This lineup of Bulldozer included the three original founding members of the band and myself. Before I joined, they were originally thinking to sing in a Milan dialect, but Andy said no. Andy liked Venom, too, and he was already collaborating with me, so he proposed me as the singer, and I performed on the single. The single was released I think in April or something, and it was reviewed in Kerrang! alongside the debut Hellhammer EP, Apocalyptic Raids. I can say Bulldozer and Hellhammer, from the point of view of [our] first releases, they were kind of twins, because they were reviewed in the same issue. And both received a statement like, “That’s the worst record I’ve ever heard in my life.” I don’t remember who wrote the review, but it was very bad for both bands. I think it was in a June ’84 issue.

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(Before this I was into a different kind of “extreme life,” hiding from police.) At the time Andy contacted me, I was playing in a cover band performing all different kinds of music, from traditional Italian music to hard rock.

Andy noticed me and asked if I wanted to play extreme metal with Bulldozer. He played me some Motörhead, Venom and Bulldozer, and after some hours I understood the “spirit” of this music, and I joined the band. I don’t remember exactly when, but I think it was March 1984.

This lineup recorded a seven-song 1984 demo, your first as a three-piece, with AC playing bass and singing. Tell me about making that.

CONTINI: After the review [in Kerrang!], I decided

to send a copy of the single to some record companies, like Roadrunner, Music for Nations and maybe a couple others. Roadrunner called me and said, “Do you have a demo?” We didn’t, but we had already composed new songs, so we went straight to the studio—me, Don Andras and Andy. We recorded it in a very short time.

PANIGADA: After the release of the 7-inch, AC gave some copies of it to his friend Tommy [Massara, founder of Italian band Extrema], who sent them to Kerrang! and Shades, a record store that carried metal in England. We also sent copies to some labels, and Roadrunner asked for a demo with new songs. We already had written some new tracks that we’d been playing live. So, it was easy to record the demo because we were already performing the new material. The demo was produced just to send to Roadrunner.

ANDRAS: The three of us started playing live in early May 1984, with our first gig in a club near Bergamo. We were already playing “Cut-Throat” and “The Great Deceiver,” so when we received the request of a demo from Roadrunner, we went to Bips Studio to record them. We worked hard to get ready for recording.

And that led to your deal with Roadrunner?

CONTINI: When Roadrunner received the demo,

they said they were interested in offering us a contract.

PANIGADA: AC shipped the demo to Roadrunner and they called him after some days confirming their interest in signing Bulldozer.

ANDRAS: AC called me and said, “We will be signed by Roadrunner.” It was a great surprise.

We had a meeting in AC’s house on November 4, 1984, with Mr. [Cees] Wessels [Roadrunner founder], and we signed the contract.

And how did you get Tank bassist/vocalist Algy Ward (R.I.P.) signed on to produce it?

CONTINI: I received the contract from Roadrunner

and we were discussing potential producers. Andy wanted to ask King Diamond, because he was

a good friend of Mercyful Fate. King Diamond received the demo and he called me and said, “Sorry, guys, but your music is too punk for me.”

He didn’t want to produce it. Roadrunner offered the job to Algy from Tank and he accepted.

PANIGADA: Roadrunner proposed him to us after King Diamond refused the job.

What was it like working with an English producer?

CONTINI: It was not complicated. Just to give you

an idea why, Algy was loving Italian red wine.

When he arrived in Milan, we went to a very small pub in front of his hotel and close to the studio (which was very close to my house), and he drank something like five bottles of Italian red wine. He was so happy.

PANIGADA: I didn’t speak English—and basically still don’t except for a few words—at that time.

Fortunately, the owner of the studio, Psycho Studio, Victor Claudio Dentes, was English, too, so he could help me and Don communicate with Algy during the production.

ANDRAS: I started listening to Tank when Roadrunner proposed Algy as a producer. I didn’t—and still don’t—speak English, so Mr. Dentes, the owner of Psycho Studio, and AC translated his instructions to me. Algy was a very nice guy. I have very good memories.

What sort of role did he play in producing the album? What kinds of things did he do?

CONTINI: First, he listened to the demo. Then,

when we were in the studio, he checked our instruments, like the tuning of the drums. And he checked that the studio was professional.

He was helped a lot by the owner of the studio, because they were both good producers. Algy chose the sound of the guitar and the sound of the drums and the effects on the vocals. I explained the kind of vocals I wanted. He, of course, did something different from Tank. I think he did a very good job.

PANIGADA: He decided the sounds. Initially, I was not very happy with the sound of [the] guitar, but I appreciated it better when the album was mixed. After every take he called all of us to listen to it. We’d have a short discussion and then we might re-record, if necessary.

ANDRAS: He checked the tuning of my drums and gave some suggestions. The songs were already prepared, so he did not add or change them. He was listening carefully to every part of recording and made us listen all the time.

CONTINI: Algy also made a correction in my lyrics. In the song “Insurrection of the Living Damned,” I had kind of a vision of a very violent anti-Christian movement, and I wrote in the lyrics, “I will destroy the church.” He said, just change it to, “I will destroy their world,” because you never know… And he had good intuition, because some years later in Scandinavia, they actually destroyed some churches. And [since we changed our lyrics] we could not be considered FEBRUARY 2024 : 4 6 : DECIBEL

the inspiration for that movement. So, maybe he saved us from some legal issue, I don’t know. It’s interesting, that fact.

How did the recording session at Psycho Studios in Milan go? Was it a good studio?

CONTINI: The studio was very professional. It has

been used by Mahavishnu Orchestra, the very amazing jazz-fusion band. The owner of the studio, Claudio Dentes, was English. He spoke Italian, and he lived in Italy, but he was English.

So, it was easy to record there. He and Algy could speak English to each other with no problems.

Claudio was a good technician and producer himself, so it was very easy.

PANIGADA: The studio was close to our houses, and it was one of the best in Italy. Mahavishnu Orchestra recorded there, too. I remember that during the mixing of “Insurrection of the Living Damned,” a structure of the studio with some keyboards suddenly collapsed. I heard that Dentes called a priest with holy water to bless the studio after we finished.

ANDRAS: The drum recording worked great!

Unfortunately, I could not be there full-time, because of my job. Yes, it was a good studio, but I preferred the demo, even though the quality of demo’s sound was poor.

CONTINI: We took only one week in total to do the entire album, because we knew exactly what to do. The songs were already composed; everything was already written. Algy just checked a couple of words in the lyrics. He gave me good suggestions. We recorded the drums in one day or a day and a half. Then we recorded the guitars and bass and effects. The vocals were recorded last. Algy did some backing vocals on “The Great Deceiver.”

Why did you decide to re-record “Fallen Angel” from the first single?

CONTINI: Since I was now playing bass [instead of

just singing], I wanted to make a faster version.

The album version is faster than the single version, which was not really [fast]. We wanted to turn it into a speed song to give it more aggressiveness. But I wanted Dario to also play bass, so on that song, there are two basses recorded.

Dario was a huge fan of Algy and Tank. He thought of Algy as kind of a god, you know? Tank was his number one band. He was in ecstasy when he met Algy in the pub the first day and in the studio afterwards.

PANIGADA: To make it faster! Don Andras could go faster!

ANDRAS: We used to play it live at every concert, but we always played it faster. The live version was more aggressive and faster, so we decided to record the faster version.

Do you have any funny or interesting stories about the recording sessions for The Day of Wrath?

CONTINI: One day, during the session, Algy had

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D E C I B E L : F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 4 : 47

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the wine he’d been drinking wasn’t the best quality, but he was going to the toilet every five minutes. [Laughs] It was very funny.

PANIGADA: He could only get out of it for just a few seconds to listen to the recordings, and then had to rush back!

CONTINI: After that day, I personally prepared a softer dinner for Algy—boiled rice with parmesan cheese and olive oil and no wine! So he recovered very quickly.

ANDRAS: When Algy was sick, I wasn’t in the studio. I do remember that Dentes was afraid of the evil spirits, and he was right!

Do you remember when you became aware that Bulldozer—and this album specifically— were being heralded as classics and an early representation of extreme metal?

changed its identity. It’s totally different than what we did in the age of that album. I like to revisit that spirit, that atmosphere, which is very particular.

What are some of your favorite tracks from this album?

CONTINI: I love all the songs. Other than the last

track, “Endless Funeral,” we’ve performed the whole album. I love “Mad Man” in particular, because it’s a very crazy composition. I love “Insurrection of the Living Damned” and “Fallen Angel.” I love “Whisky Time,” because it’s about a real experience. People think it’s a song dedicated to whisky drinkers, but actually it’s a song about me and a friend of mine, who were very frustrated in a very small village in the Swiss Alps. We were looking for girls and we didn’t find anything. We decided to go to a very poor and pathetic strip show, which was terrible.

And before that there was a terrible cover band.

When they announced it was “whisky time,” that meant that strip show was going to start.

It’s a funny song about frustration and excitement to see a strip show. The strip quality was very bad, but we were drunk and we enjoyed it anyway. It’s a real experience; it’s a funny story.

PANIGADA: I like “The Great Deceiver,” “Whisky Time,” “Fallen Angel” and “Cut-Throat.”

ANDRAS: For me it’s “Mad Man,” Whisky Time,” with my solo, and “Endless Funeral.”

Bulldozer have recorded many records. Is this one special for the band?

CONTINI: I feel like a father, and that’s my first

son. Of course I love it. I realized it was very special in the last 10 years. When we [went on hiatus] in the ’90s, maybe I forgot this, because I did a lot of other different activities in those years. I moved to Japan and did a lot

CONTINI: Back in 1985, our song “Insurrection of

the Living Damned” was included on a compilation called Speed Kills on Music for Nations. That compilation was celebrating the birth of speed metal, and featured Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, Megadeth, Venom, Celtic Frost and Destruction.

I had the impression [at the time] that the press [thought of Bulldozer as] something inferior, something bad quality compared to the other bands on there. And actually, we never received a good response [when The Day of Wrath was first released].

However, we realized that after decades, The Day of Wrath had been reissued 20 times, mostly [unauthorized]. Also, the YouTube [upload] of the album had a big response in the ’00s, maybe after 2005 or later. A lot of artists from Scandinavia and other places now are declaring The Day of Wrath is a very influential album. But when it was first released, nobody was speaking about it. The funny thing is, when I was 25, I was dreaming of touring the U.S., but the first real invitation arrived when I was 61. I invited Monte Conner, the famous A&R [from Roadrunner] to our show in Brooklyn in November 2022. He is a big fan of the record, and I asked him, “Did you feel the spirit of the ’80s?” He said, “Yeah, I really felt that spirit… except the drummer, who is much better now!” [Laughs] PANIGADA: Only very recently. Before that, I discovered that [our later albums] IX, Final Separation and Neurodeliri, were “influential” for many successful artists in Poland and Scandinavia.

I did not expect such a great reaction to The Day of Wrath.

ANDRAS: AC informed me about it. That period, when I was in Bulldozer, is a good memory in my heart.

CONTINI: I really like to play [songs from] that album live now, because I try to recreate the original spirit of that age, which I think is something unique. Metal, after thrash and death,

 The gods rock ‘n’ roll Members of Bulldozer with Venom’s Abbadon (top l) and Mantas (center r), as well as Slayer’s Jeff Hanneman and Tom Araya (bottom)

FEBRUARY 2024 : 4 8 : DECIBEL

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of projects there with a company called Avex.

I did product supervision for Japanese animation projects. I am also one of the co-producers of songs like “Gas Gas Gas” by Manuel, which is kind of an evergreen meme [song]. I think I counted over 400 million views on YouTube, counting all the videos it’s in. It’s amazing, you know? It’s nothing to do with Bulldozer, but it’s something I did in the ’90s. Also, in ’92 [Bulldozer] produced a very sick EP called Dance Got Sick.

But I love all of my songs. Of course, every album has its limits; nothing is perfect. But The Day of Wrath is something unique for me.

Maybe I’m the member who loves it more than the other members. For me, it’s really, really important.

PANIGADA: Honestly, I love them all! We played recently in Poland in front of a very wild crowd.

I think The Day of Wrath is not their first choice.

ANDRAS: Yes, but also [Bulldozer’s second album] The Final Separation is important for me since I started using double bass drums on that.

After I left Bulldozer, I concentrated on my job and family.

How do you feel seeing it reissued so many years later, and the continued interest in the band?

CONTINI: There are so many releases, and I don’t

know which are legal and which are pirates. If many people want to spread that art, regardless of the royalties or whatever, it’s something good.

It’s not a big business; it’s a very limited business. We are not talking Metallica or Megadeth or AC/DC. We’re talking about a cult band. I’m glad many people like it. In this case, I don’t hate the pirates who spread the albums in the world. I don’t think they got rich with that. We didn’t get rich either from that album. Many people can listen to that album, and many people can appreciate it—that’s the most important thing. Unfortunately, when Roadrunner had control of that album, their business was very limited then. The Day of Wrath sold not too badly [at the time], but [our next album] The Final Separation didn’t sell well enough and they didn’t take the option for the third album.

PANIGADA: Yes, it’s curious. We have the best reaction ever in this last period of our career for an album recorded 38 years ago. When we are 60!

It’s like a joke! But I like it!

ANDRAS: I’m surprised and pleased. My first priority in this period of my life is my activity in charity, but I’m glad that I recorded the drums on this album. It’s something I can tell to my grandchild.

CONTINI: I’m really thankful to Roadrunner, because they gave Bulldozer the possibility to be known. If we’re being discovered and appreciated decades later, no problem; at least we could

“My first priority in this period of my life is my activity in charity, but I’m glad that I recorded the drums on this album.

It’s something I can tell to my grandchild.”

D O N A ND RAS be known in the end. I was frustrated when I was young because there were so many other bands having a lot of success, and we didn’t.

The fact that The Day of Wrath is appreciated now is kind of justice. As you know, much greater musicians like Vivaldi and Bach had no success when they were alive. Bach, when he died, FEBRUARY 2024 : 50 : DECIBEL

was basically considered out of fashion. He became the greatest [composer] after centuries. If Bach had that destiny, then I cannot complain. I consider Bulldozer very, very little in comparison to Bach, but it’s not a big problem if you don’t receive good feedback from the beginning, as long as you are appreciated after some time.

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AFTER THE BURIAL AKHLYST ARMORED SAINT BODYSNATCHER BORN OF OSIRIS BROKEN HOPE BRUTUS CANCER BATS ČAD CYNIC CRYPTOPSY DARKEST HOUR DARVAZA DEVIL MASTER DHG DOPETHRONE EVIL INVADERS GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT GRAND MAGUS GUILT TRIP HAVOK HEXEVESSEL IMPALED NAZARENE INCANTATION KAMPFAR KHOLD LAID TO WASTE LEFT TO DIE LEGION OF THE DAMNED LIK MADBALL MENTAL CRUELTY NECROT NIGHT VERSES OBSCURA PARTY CANNON PLINI PRIMORDIAL RED FANG RIVERSIDE SADUS SEVERE TORTURE SHOW ME THE BODY SKELETAL REMAINS SNĚŤ STONED JESUS TEN56 TERRORIZER TEXTURES THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER THIS IS HELL TOXIC HOLOCAUST TRIUMPH OF DEATH perf. HELLHAMMER TULUS UADA UFOMAMMUT VED BUENS ENDE VILLAGERS OF IOANNINA CITY VOMITORY WHITECHAPEL EUROPE - CZECH REPUBLIC

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st ory by

DUTCH PEARCE p hot os b y

VIOLETA ÁLVAREZ, BLOOD COUNTESS, GENE SMIRNOV and LIANA RAKIJIAN add it io n al p h o t o e dit ing b y

ESTER SEGARRA

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Our editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian told me himself that for a tour happening on Decibel’s 20th anniversary, he “really wanted to take a different approach for the tour and avoid legacy artists with this one.” He elaborates, “I’m immensely proud of every lineup we’ve ever rolled out there, but I feel that it was vital that we help give younger bands larger platforms.”

THE TOUR OF REVELATIONS ince the very first run in 2012, when Behemoth, Watain, the Devil’s

Blood (R.I.P.) and In Solitude (R.I.P.) conquered the great divide in the name of Satan and literacy, never has there been a more black metal-oriented Decibel Magazine Tour—until this year. Like numerous religions’ end-of-time tales coming to fruition, these four acts poised to take the stage under the banner of Decibel resemble nothing if not supreme demonic warriors charged with the task of conquering 22 cities starting February 21. ¶ Most every year prior, the Decibel Tour has been at least partially blackened and infernal with black metal, but 2024 will indisputably be the most underground-focused lineup the magazine has ever curated and unleashed. We see now that the most consistent aspect of this long-running endeavor is Decibel’s willingness to both listen to its readers and take chances. As darkness spreads across the land, and as the sway of the black arts continues to draw in the masses, so too will Decibel answer the call, sending forth four of the most prominent and promising purveyors of darkness, infernal and majestic alike. : D E C| I DE 5 4 : S E| PFEBR T E M BUARY E R 2 0 2 32024 B E LCIBEL 54

From the scorched soil of Houston, TX, Necrofier will initiate each evening’s rites with their unique and fiery brand of melodic black metal. Then that blackened oddity which fell to this earth having traveled unknown starpaths only to crash-land and further mutate in stygian Floridian swamps, that thing whose name is Worm will provide further support, adding a crucial hallucinogenic element to the night’s festivities. The occultation of Philadelphian vamp-punks Devil Master will come like the glint of a blade caught in the moonlight. A blade that will soon drip crimson with the dazzling and unearthly riffs and kinetic raptures kicked up by these singular maniacs. Finally, after a proper initiation, a heady concoction and a mesmerizing performance, the grim executioneress Hulder will take her place upon the stage.

BURNING SHADOWS IN THE SOUTHERN NIGHT Guitarist/vocalist Christian Larson says he “had to read [the email] a couple times before it sunk in” that Decibel editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian was inviting his band to provide opening support on the magazine’s 11th tour. After his “mind went racing for a little while,” Larson says he realized, “The lineup is stacked and, holy shit, we are going to be on the Decibel Tour!”

Necrofier first broke into the black metal underground in late 2018 with the release of their three-song demo, Visions in Fire.

DECIBEL : FEBRUARY 2024 : 55

have been great, but it will be nice to be on a tour that’s all black metal rather than being the one black metal band on the bill. I like it either way, but this will be different and I am looking forward to it. I don’t like repeating the past; the only move is forward. It’s even better that Decibel is featuring all newer bands. Good to see [the magazine] fanning the flames [...] At some point, the old guard won’t be around anymore, and it’s up to us to carry things into the future. Total Southern Darkness across the world!”

Additionally, this tour will take Necrofier into parts hitherto unknown to the band. “Besides Baltimore, we haven’t been to most of the cities up the East Coast, and we have been getting a lot of requests to come that way,” Larson says. “Very excited to finally play in NYC with Necrofier; it’s always a test to get a crowd there worked up.

Sometimes the best shows there just have everyone just relaxed watching the show. We intend to light a fire under them! In general, we try to do this every show we play. Have the audience feel the energy we are releasing and have them feed it back to us. We may be early on this tour, but don’t intend to sit back and take it easy. I like to lay my soul on the line and make it hard to follow us.”

NIGHTS IN HELL

Composed of veteran members from all over the massive extreme metal scene, Necrofier burst out of the gates, furious and ready to incinerate any and all with riffs deadly sharp and compositions spellbinding. Through the sheer quality of their timeless melodic black metal stylings and their commitment to steady gigging, the Houstonbased quartet released their debut full-length, Prophecies of Eternal Darkness, three years later with the help of Season of Mist.

While, according to Larson, the Decibel Tour “will be [their] longest run as a band so far,” Necrofier are no strangers to the road. “Last year we did a tour with Danzig and Cradle of Filth for a couple weeks,” the frontman tells us. “It was a surreal experience. Danzig was on fire this tour; singing was on point and he was jumping off monitors and really putting on a show every night. One night we were watching [at the side of the] stage, and we were buzzed singing along, and Danzig kept coming by and pointing at us while he was singing, so of course we just got louder and more excited.”

This is the rowdy and wholeheartedly committed kind of energy the Texans bring both to their black metal and their live performances. Looking ahead to the upcoming tour, Larson points out.

“All these bands are in our same scene here in America, and it’s good to see one really strong bill backed by Decibel.”

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It’s an auspicious sign when there already exists a good amount of camaraderie between the bands before the tour has even begun. As Larson relates, Necrofier and Hulder “did a run of shows in Texas” last year. “Great people and really looking forward to hitting the road with them again. We all got along really well, and we mixed together well musically.”

He adds enthusiastically, “It’s going to be a killer tour. Devil Master and Worm are both great bands. Wanna see if Worm has any more theatrics up their sleeve for the tour; heard good things about their first live shows. Devil Master always [put on] a good rowdy show, too! It’s a good combination of bands, and we plan to light the stage on fire every night.”

Necrofier’s riff-forward black metal boasts the kind of combustibility that simply must be witnessed in the flesh. Within minutes of being in the presence of their formidable live performance, their dedication to the arcane and obscure ways is beyond question. “Playing and receiving the energy back from the crowd every night keeps me going on these longer runs,” Larson enthuses.

“It’s a feeling you can’t replace with anything.”

This year’s tour, he says, will be especially important for Necrofier. “The shows should be perfect for us to spread darkness across America and reach some new blood that might not be familiar with us. The other tours we have done

Not only the black sheep on this tour, Worm are a true anomaly under any circumstances.

Originally a raw one-man black metal band, nowadays a progressive blackened death-doom experience of celestial unbound, Worm have spent the decade since the release of their 2014 cassette debut, The Deep Dark Earth Underlies All, evolving from the lowly crawler that gives their name to something more similar to the makers of Dune, the giant, godly sandworms whose secretions bestow powers that transcend the mortal limits within and beyond time and space.

Deep in the wetlands of the American South, Phantom Slaughter founded the band. Back then, Worm was, aesthetically, black-and-white Xeroxraw black metal. Sonically, they were something like the Les Légions Noires version of the Worm we know and love today. Phantom Slaughter would eventually become Worm’s everythingbut-the-drummer by the time they signed with Iron Bonehead to release their debut fulllength. (Both tapes released independently were nearly an hour each.) By Worm’s breakthrough Foreverglade, their third album and first to have 20 Buck Spin officially in their corner, the band had fully mutated into a doom-laden, blackened cosmic horror abnormality.

And in that decade, Worm have played *checks notes* five shows. “Indeed!” Phantom Slaughter confirms. “This will be our first official tour. Our show in New York was my first time playing live.

It was truly an unforgettable experience.”

Live, Phantom Slaughter performs vocals, helming the band in full corpsepaint and hellish battle garb such as spiked gauntlets and a heavy cloak further concealing his identity.

The first two performances—one at Saint

Slaughter warns, “Those in attendance will witness a bloody Necromantic Black Mass. Dreary occult and vampyric sorcery will consume them.

They will never be the same again.”

And those who have been waiting for their chance after years of following Worm to finally witness these songs live? “They may find that seeing us live is even better than spinning the record. We have a bunch of props and theatrics going into these shows. It will not just be an average concert, but a real experience they can get lost in.”

ECSTASIES OF NEVER ENDING NIGHT

Vitus in April 2023, the other at our own Metal & Beer Fest in Philadelphia—are already the stuff of legend and infamy. For Worm’s final song of the night, “Shadowside Kingdom,” a woman came out onstage dressed in a revealing sheer white gown, and with the help of Phantom Slaughter, laid down on a table and bared her breasts as he got orally ritualistic on her, so to speak, before he returned to the microphone.

Phantom Slaughter says the show in New York “solidified the idea that I could take this band on the road without losing the atmosphere and overall vibe of the recordings. Previously, I had always viewed this band as a studio project, but I feel much differently now. I'm able to express myself in a completely new way and it has been very inspiring. I cannot wait to get back out there. Especially on a tour as grand as this.”

Regarding what he thinks of this black metalleaning lineup, Phantom Slaughter gives full sanction. “I anticipate this tour to shed light on the new era of black metal,” he says. “Showcasing some of the strongest acts out right now. We all have our own individual identities, yet remain in conspiracy with the dark lord. It is truly a great mix of styles that represent the genre today.

We all bring our own unique interpretation of black metal to the table and exist within our own worlds. I think the shows will be visually striking and cover a wide spectrum of styles. I’m proud to share the stage with these dark warriors.”

For those wondering why we refer to Worm, a death-doom band for all intents and purposes, as a black metal band, well… here it is from the profane mouth of Phantom Slaughter himself: DE : D E C| I B 5 8 : S E| PFEBR T E M B UARY E R 2 0 2 32024 E LCIBEL 58

“We’ve never stopped being a black metal band in my eyes. It is at the very core and foundation of everything we do. Even if we add other styles into the mix, it will always stem from the genre.

I actually think our new material is some of the most blackened stuff we’ve done.” Presumably he’s referring to the three songs from Starpath, Worm’s recent split with Dream Unending. But then he adds, “Plenty more on the way, too! 2024 will bring many surprises.”

There are a few secrets that Phantom Slaughter is willing to reveal, such as which members of Worm will be joining him for the Decibel Tour dates. He tells us he will once more “be on vocals” while “Wroth Septentrion will handle lead guitars/Necromantic shred. We will also have some help from a few pals.” And given that he’s only ever played five shows, Phantom Slaughter says he’s looking forward to “all of the shows. I’ve been planted in the swamps of Florida for most of my life. Will be great to take in some new sights. I’m really looking forward to all the dates in California. We seem to have a lot of fans there and I’ve never been, so I think it will be a nice turnout.”

The set list for the night, he tells us, “will be quite different, actually,” only specifying that they’ll “be playing a couple of tracks from our new split with Dream Unending. It’s only right since I feel like [those songs are] some of our strongest material to date and have a sort of live energy to them.”

For the few of you still unfamiliar with the heady and intoxicating riffs emanating damn-near superfluously from Worm, Phantom

While Worm are gearing up for their first tour ever, Philadelphia’s lost souls Devil Master are freewheelin’ and headbangin’ from one tour to the next like some renegade band of vampires cursed to travel the land in search of new faces and fresh blood. In fact, they’re out with Fuming Mouth and Final Gasp when we catch up with them to talk Decibel Tour 2024.

“We have done several-month tours back-toback, and our ongoing headlining tour is our technically longest yet,” confirms Disembody Through Unparalleled Pleasure, Devil Master’s bassist and vocalist.

“As vampires, naturally we must rest all day in the van until the sun sets,” relates guitarist Darkest Prince of All Rebellion. “As Dracula Himself said… ‘Tour is an abyss… profound as a thousand nights…’”

Since 2016, with the release of their self-titled demo tape, Devil Master have been blending first-wave black metal, death rock and postpunk into a cauldron with shitty dive bar beer and horror punk aesthetics, and coming out with some of the most exciting and enjoyable extreme metal of the 21st century. No wonder then that Relapse scooped them up not long after the release of their follow-up, 2017’s phenomenal Inhabit the Corpse. And the band’s first release on Relapse? Manifestations, a compilation of both tapes. What more proof do you need that Devil Master have been that goat since day one?

Considering the other bands, Darkest Prince reasons that, for all their uniqueness, they’re not quite the outcasts of the tour some might suspect them to be. “While Hulder and Necrofier may be more purist [in a black metal sense], Worm is stylistically different than us to some degree. Still, while we do not consider ourselves pure ‘black metal’ by any means, the spirit which instigated the genre is there for sure.”

Darkest Prince fully expects this year’s tour to be “majestic, punishing and in honor to the Vigor of Evil! Alongside such acts each night is sure to be one burned in the brain and soul for all those attentive in attendance.”

Together, Disembody Through Unparalleled Pleasure, Darkest Prince, Infernal Moonlight Apparition (rhythm guitar) and Wrought by Fathomless Hands (drums) will bring us, according to DP, “a night of metal punk

CLANDESTINE TRANCENDENCE F E AT U R I N G T H E T R AC KS “ I A M N O T H I N G , I A M E V E RY T H I N G ” & “ T H E U N I V E R S E I S W E E P I N G ”

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magic with us being at our tightest, playing our most intricate songs yet!” Of those who have not yet seen Devil Master, but have long anticipated their chance to, he says, “They picked a good time to finally see us.”

As for those yet uninitiated, he’s somewhat more diplomatic. “It depends on the individual since we cannot assume anything for anyone!

People have so many different opinions and takes on what we do. We like to let the show and music do the talking.”

would have been September, roughly. The actual writing process took around three months from the beginning to a fully hashed-out album and, from there, the demos were sent over to CK, who learned the material and booked studio time for January. From there, all of the keys, guitars and vocal tracking was done in a few months. This album is the first material that I tracked in a new studio space that I acquired toward the end of last year. In all actuality, my ‘studio’ is an uninsulated steelwalled warehouse space without any heat.

As such, I had to warm my hands on a heater between guitar takes in order to get the album recorded since it was around 20 to 40 degrees much of the time.

VERSES IN OATH A crow caws in the distance as if reciting an elegy, but for whom? The wind picks up. For a minute and a half, this is all we hear: a crow and the wind. This is the beginning of what will surely come to stand as one of the decade’s strongest black metal albums. This is “An Elegy,” the intro to Hulder’s second album, Verses in Oath.

If the vision was to roll out a Decibel Tour without any legacy acts, it’s just in time as far as Hulder are concerned. For what is Verses in Oath if not the beginning of a legacy, truly?

Like Necrofier, Hulder slay no-frills black metal so good that it veritably transcends the genre.

There’s cross appeal with compromise to the standards of the genre itself. Like Worm, Hulder was once a solo endeavor. Beginning as a one-woman band in 2018 with the release of demo Ascending the Raven Stone, the woman behind Hulder made a name for herself over the course of five-plus years through prolificacy, dedication and relentless innovation unto excellence. And like Devil Master, Hulder and her minions have gigged and toured relentlessly since becoming a full band.

Simply put, the woman stands apart—and with the release of Verses in Oath, her darkest, heaviest, fiercest, most cohesive and most epic album to date, it’s impossible to deny the powerful evil that she has unleashed upon the world.

Like all of her other works, Verses was recorded at De Pestkerk, the band’s home studio. But something felt different this time around. “It felt like a much different process and headspace than my past works, in some ways,” she says.

“All of the instrumentation and vocals were recorded in my own studio, but drums were recorded and performed by CK at the Underworld Studios in Portland, Oregon.”

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“The last thing to be done was bass, which was tracked by Necreon,” she continues. “Unlike the last few releases, this record is the first time that I have not worked with CK for the mixing process. This time, the entire tracked album was sent over to Tico Tico Studio in Kemi, Finland.

Ahti Kortelainen handled all of the mixing and mastering for the material, and I couldn’t have asked for a better fit.”

The number of influential extreme metal albums that have been recorded and/or mixed and/or mastered by Kortelainen at Tico Tico is staggering. Suffice it to say, don’t be surprised when you notice his name on some of your favorite records. “Seeing as how many of the records that have been a consistent inspiration to me have passed through his hands, I reached out to see if he was interested in taking on the work,”

Hulder says. “It was a true honor to bring him into the process.”

Even well-established Hulder fans will be surprised at how intensely the band leveled up on Verses in Oath. Hulder says she sees it as both “a natural progression as well as a bit of a forced work, if that makes sense. Going into the album’s writing process, I knew that I wanted to go darker and heavier than what was achieved on [2021’s] Godslastering [Hymns of a Forlorn Peasantry]. This was something that I knew immediately after that album was released, and I was able to dive into that a bit with The Eternal Fanfare MLP. Prior to the aforementioned MLP, I had never really written or played anything in a low tuning like A-standard, and I felt that it evoked some new energies for me. So, I guess the process was natural in that I knew that the material needed to go in a darker direction, but it was forced because I had never attempted to write anything like it before.”

She continues to describe how she pushed herself to make Verses in Oath the best album it could be, an album that stood apart and, indeed, above. “In recent years, I have seen many black metal bands that seem to sound a lot like each other. While I don’t think that this is a new phenomenon by any means, it isn’t one that I set out to be a part of. My first few demo tapes seemed to get lumped in with the same handful of other contemporaries of the time, and many reviews or write-ups would mention the same few bands that ‘must have influenced me.’ Many of the times, these assumptions were far from correct.”

If the obsidian-dense riffs don’t give it away that you’re experiencing a newer, stronger Hulder, you’ll notice soon enough once the vocals come roaring in. While her screams have always been menacing, her new style of growled baritone bellows sound positively primordial and immensely more powerful. “The vocal style on Verses in Oath was also something entirely new for me,” she admits. “Forcing myself to produce deeper vocals felt necessary after the music had been demoed out.”

Throughout her career as a black metal musician, Hulder seems to find everything she’s looking for within herself. Even the cover of Verses in Oath was something she came across one day while she was “walking a trail that [she] frequents most mornings. A strong windstorm the night before had toppled a large hemlock and exposed its massive, intricate root system. The way that it interacted with the rain and sunlight in that moment was nothing short of majestic, and I knew instantly it would be the cover. Something so seemingly steadfast and powerful being swept away only to expose a muddied abyss below felt like an appropriate metaphor for many reasons.

The initial plan was a full cover painting, which was one of many preconceived plans that would not come to fruition. I worked with my good friend Liana Rakijian to capture the image, and in the end it felt like a physical embodiment of the music held within the album.”

always seem to be favorites from those that come to see us, so we will ensure that the older material isn’t neglected.”

But as the band prepares to embark on their greatest headlining tour yet, the BelgianAmerican woman behind the wheel allows that playing songs from the new album does not come easily. This is common among innovative bands that consistently push themselves: They find that they almost have to catch up with themselves.

“The biggest challenge that I anticipate facing will be the execution of the material from Verses in Oath. I wrote and recorded the material with a strong intention of creating something that would be a challenge for myself, and I will have my work cut out for me when the time comes for rehearsals. Beyond that, on a personal level, Necreon and I live a very clean and intentional lifestyle when it comes to nutrition, and a fairly isolated routine, so being on the road for a month without access to our freezer full of elk meat and wild mushrooms is always interesting to navigate. Much of our time at home is spent in nature, and being on the road is obviously very different and requires some mental calibration.”

But there’s no denying how excited she and the rest of her band are for the tour. “This will be an opportunity for me to push the music to a new level,” she says. “I look forward to growing the stage presence and overall live experience to new heights for the tour. At this point, I do not really remember where I was when the opportunity [to headline the Decibel Tour] first arose. I just remember feeling anxious to get the album finished so that we would be able to unleash it upon the world in time for the tour.”

HARKEN THE END When she received the invitation to promote her 2024 full-length on this year’s Decibel Tour, Hulder says she was “honored and very surprised to hear that the people at Decibel had Hulder in mind as a headliner. From the moment that I started this band, I have had my sights set on creating something that would invoke feeling and atmosphere. The aim is to invoke a visceral response when my work is heard, and I have been surprised to see the amount of people that have connected with the music that I have created thus far. The beginnings of the band were uncertain to me, as I wrote and recorded the demo tape in my bedroom and didn’t know anyone in the city where I was living at the time. The idea of touring and putting out any material that would have any reach at all was not something that I had considered.

Imposter syndrome aside, this will be Hulder’s most extensive tour. “Yes, this will be the longest stretch of shows that the band has done together,” she confirms. “The live lineup on this tour will be the same core group of myself, Necreon [bass] and Vapula [drums]; however, we will be bringing in Keld on guitar. I am a fan of his work with Majesties and Obsequiae, and seeing as how he : D E C|I BDE 6 2 : S E|PFEBR T E M B EUARY R 2 0 2 32024 E LCIBEL 62

and Necreon had been acquainted for a decade or so, it seemed like a good fit.”

Incidentally, this same lineup’s first dates “were alongside Necrofier in Texas [in October of last year], and the band sounded the best that it has yet,” Hulder claims. “It’s been great to work with others that understand the vision and are also passionate about moving forward as things progress. It’s taken some time to get to this point, but I feel that this lineup will endure.”

Hulder adds that she thinks the Decibel Tour lineup “fits well together because all of the bands have an entirely different sound from one another. It also helps that all of the bands on the tour are dedicated to working and are serious about their craft.”

As of now, she’s not entirely sure what songs we can expect to hear from Verses in Oath. “The new material has been handed to those in the live lineup, and we will likely make that decision together as everyone gets a feel for what would translate best in a live setting.” She does note, though, that the “Decibel Tour set list will have a strong focus on the new material.

With that said, songs like ‘Upon Frigid Winds,’ ‘Unholy Divine’ and ‘Bestial Form of Humanity’

The bold decision to look beyond the legacy acts that have, prior to this year, been the standard for Decibel Tours, in order to give opportunities to rising and highly motivated younger bands proves Decibel’s commitment to the future of extreme music. This year’s tour promises not just a night of dark and blasphemous metal, but a vision of things to come. While Necrofier, Devil Master and Hulder will all continue to evolve their live shows, Worm are only just developing theirs. Depending on when you catch the tour, it might only be one of Phantom’s first few times performing vocals live.

But as these four bands, each with their unique kind of sonic sorcery, embark on this shared journey, they are torchbearers into a yetunknown future. As Decibel turns 20, this tour represents not only a celebration of the past, but the advent of a new era. As the trek unfolds across those 22 cities, each night will be a hellish revelation, a communion with the dark arts and a testament to the everlasting fervor of the underground. Gaze fixed on the horizon, ear ever to the ground, this year’s tour will come to seem like a dark prophecy. One that foretold the rise of new blood and the evocation of terrifying new sounds, but also the timeless pursuit of dark majesty.

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INSIDE ≥

66 CHILDREN OF BODOM Northern comfort 66 DAY JOB Not-so-quiet quitting 68 MASTER Still feeling the Burns 69 SEXLESS MARRIAGE Probably millennials 69 UPON STONE Slaughter of the snare

ALL THE NOISE THAT FITS

Teratogenesis After a decade hiatus,

FEBRUARY

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Records actually released in 2023 from last year’s most anticipated feature

8

Records from last year’s feature that cracked our 2023 Top 40 Albums list

5

Records from this year’s most anticipated feature we expect to get bumped to 2025

1

Records we’ve already heard that we can guarantee will be on our 2024 Top 40 Albums list

JOB FOR A COWBOY climb back in the saddle

J 8

ump through a time portal back to 2004. Myspace is still alive. The first Decibel magazine issue features the Dillinger Escape Plan on the cover. And deathcore is the emo-haired boogeyman of the metal scene. When Arizona outlaws Job for a JOB FOR Cowboy released their 2004 demo and wildly successful Doom EP A COWBOY the year after, they represented what old-school heshers feared Moon Healer most. ¶ In 2008, they were deputized by Dave Mustaine to appear M E TA L B L A D E on his Gigantour with Children of Bodom, High on Fire and In Flames. Distancing themselves from the deathcore tag, they played the genre on hard mode by upping the metallic technicality on Ruination. ¶ Still, the old guard had concerns. “What if, one day, we see Cannibal Corpse playing a Hot Topic-sponsored set?”

Job for a Cowboy basically had a side stage view of that in 2009. As Cormac McCarthy wrote in No Country for Old Men, “You can’t stop what’s coming. It ain’t all waiting on you. That’s vanity.” ¶ Over the course of 10 years and four LPs, Job for a Cowboy steadily expanded their sound. But it was 2014’s Sun Eater that revealed the band’s barrage of creativity. Dense with riffs and as polished as a fresh cosmonaut helmet,

ILLUSTRATION BY MARK RUDOLPH [MARKRUDOLPH.COM]

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the record leaned hard into their progressive tendencies while retaining a cold, clinical edge.

A decade later, they continue their celestial journey into extreme prog with Moon Healer.

Opener “Beyond the Chemical Doorway” crosses the threshold into a world of lunar and lunatic guitar wizardry. Axemen Al Glassman and Tony Sannicandro are at their slithering and stabbing best, jamming a million ideas into the album’s 40-minute universe. The breakdowns and beatdowns appear sparingly, like echoes of an old radio signal. Deathcore chugging textures occasional passages, but it’s not the album’s engine. “Etched in Oblivion” invites classic shred and an ’80s wail into a mutation of cosmic brutal melodeath. Bursting with dark energy, Moon Healer achieves a sound that’s alien, but not alienating.

Any worthwhile prog record needs a robust bass sound, and Nick Schendzielos sounds agile and thunderous as ever. The drumming is unrelentingly restless; a many-tentacled performance from Navene Koperweis that accentuates the percussive nature of the band’s most dizzying riffs. But founding vocalist Jonny Davy is the record’s burning heart. His snarls capture seething violence, restraint and bloody release.

If you crave big choruses and pre-existing structures, Moon Healer’s boundless spirit may feel like a meteor shower bombardment. Because of the album’s ever-shifting kaleidoscopic compositions, there aren’t no-brainer singles—and the album is better for it. Down to the final death march of “The Forever Rot,” it’s a record that largely eschews the familiar and challenges the listener to keep up. —SEAN FRASIER

CEREMONIAL BLOODBATH

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Genesis of Malignant Entropy SENTIENT RUIN L A B O R AT O R I E S

A good time was had by all

Ceremonial Bloodbath’s total war death metal sound is laced with chaos, but remains laserfocused on appealing to the headbanger’s most primal instincts, administering adrenaline hits in all the right places. A quick intro lights the fuse. “Exhumation of the Ominous” opens their new album at full steam. You may soon suspect you are graying out from the G-force.

The production is raw—surely no one lost too much sleep on the usual slings and arrows of record engineering—but it ain’t naive. There’s a physicality to the Vancouver quartet’s sound, a low-end beef that gives tracks such as “Bloodlust Raids of Vengeance” a heavyweight power.

Too many bands forget this, favoring speed and 66 : FEBRUARY 2024 : DECIBEL

the delirium of collective intensity over weight, mass and scale.

To pummel a death metal audience, to rout them, you need both. We want it all. We get it, a fuzzed-out fog of frequencies advancing in formation, Dave Meat’s vocal presented as Jurassic rasp turned to mustard gas, and enough tempo modulation, supernatural intrigue, BM nihilism and atonal guitar squeal to justify the running time. These jams are epic, but don’t outstay their welcome. The breakdown riff towards the denouement of “The Boneless One” is nasty and evil, but moments such as this are really a considered act of human kindness; it’s generosity songwriting, a band giving us exactly what we want.

And there are many more similarly gnarly moments to lean into. Oh yeah, sure, they’ll be writing for themselves and they’ll be mean, bestial and all. (Grrr!) But they’re nothing if not a bunch of goddamn empaths. Ceremonial Bloodbath know which buttons to press, how we get our kicks. —JONATHAN HORSLEY

CHILDREN OF BODOM

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A Chapter Called Children of Bodom (Final Show in Helsinki Ice Hall 2019) S P I N E FA R M

Final corpse hammerblow

Children of Bodom left a complicated legacy. The first four albums redefined melodic death metal by injecting it with neoclassical virtuosity and a snarling attitude. The last six felt like they were produced by a band unsure, their vision knocked off kilter by external pressures and frontman/ guitarist Alexi Laiho’s alcoholism and subsequent health problems—problems that cost him his band in 2019 and his life in 2020, at the age of only 41.

A Chapter Called Children of Bodom (Final Show in Helsinki Ice Hall 2019) acts as a celebration of his life and an incredible body of work (along with his longtime compatriots Jaska Raatikainen, Janne Wirman and Henkka Seppälä). It’s certainly not as ghoulish as some of the posthumous Motörhead live releases recorded during the last years of Lemmy’s life. Laiho sounds as fierce as ever here as he and his bandmates rip through a set heavy on the back half of their catalog. The previous concert album they put out was 13 years and five albums earlier; it’s nice to have well-recorded live versions of their later work. This release makes a strong case that, even if some of those albums were uneven, the highs were still very high: “I Worship Chaos” and “Platitudes and Barren Words”

sit comfortably alongside acknowledged bangers like “Follow the Reaper” and “Needled 24/7.”

Children of Bodom thrived onstage.

Chapter does an excellent job of capturing the band’s sheer energy and love of the music— securing their legacy as one of metal’s greats.

—JEFF TREPPEL

DAY JOB

8

The Auger HEX

From 9 to 5 you’re not alive

Only occasionally does a band’s whole aesthetic truly match their music.

But that is the case for Day Job, whose debut fulllength The Auger is the perfect soundtrack for a dawn-to-dusk bout of backbreaking labor outside in the unforgiving elements.

The Alabama three-piece fits nicely into the grueling, mid-tempo sludge rock that certainly pulls inspiration from grueling, mid-tempo AmRep bands and other noisemongers that don’t mess about too much with unconventional song structures or fiddly guitar parts.

Instead, this is straightforward bass/drums/ guitar trudging along with heavy riffs and rhythms and fed-up vocals. There aren’t really hooks here so much as an overall grossness, like mud squishing between your toes that somehow worked itself into your boots—a sound that elicits a feeling you regretfully enjoy.

Of course, something that is this similar to the long, joyless experience of working a shitty construction project does come with the baggage of being, in total, a little too same-y at times. But to the band’s credit, despite a lack of diversity, they end the album right when your patience is nearing its end. Consider it the icecold Miller High Life handed to you after the last post is jammed in the ground.

So, yeah, The Auger may not be what you throw on when the in-laws come over to relax by the pool, but if you need to vent after the boss chews your ass out again for some straightup bullshit, take this Day Job and shove it in your ears. —SHANE MEHLING

FAWN LIMBS & NADJA

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Vestigial Spectra ROMAN NUMERAL

Terminal perceptual isolation

With their admirable string of releases over the past four or five years, new-school Pennsylvanian grind-and-gristle mashup Fawn Limbs were already making some pretty weird music.

Collaborating with longtime drone/ambient thaumaturges Nadja hasn’t particularly made the Fawn Limbs aesthetic more bombastic or less, noisier or more bearable, any more frenetic or more meditative than it tended to be on earlier recordings. While some band collaborations succeed in highlighting the strengths of both participants—letting the component artists each graft a few signature ideas onto everyone else’s contributions—Vestigial Spectra joins some of the more seamless offerings in this category (Converge and Chelsea Wolfe; Full of Hell and Merzbow; the Body and just about everyone else) in its ability to seem like the cohesive work of several fully-in-sync musicians.

Vestigial Spectra is a dense, overwhelming, buzzing, haunting brain-broiler of a record with very little space between riff ‘n’ scream demons and fuzzy-synthy worldbuilding. Both are done extremely well, and the integration is so complete that extricating one from the other is both impossible and foolish.

The spiritual darkness is apparent even from the taut electronic whir that makes up “Isomerisch,” the album’s opening two minutes.

“Black Body Radiation Curve” then buries the listener in a kind of Hadean avalanche, a chopped and spliced metallic hardcore equivalent of something off Blut Aus Nord’s latest abomination. The twinned mood pieces “Redshifted” and “Blueshifted” don’t quite sound like anything receding or approaching, respectively, but hover ominously nonetheless. And the 11-minute closer “Metastable Ion Decay” culminates the experience with a caustic march through shadows that are so much thicker and sharper than the mere absence of light. Don’t try to shoehorn Vestigial Spectra into frequent rotation, but when you do choose it, it will rule you. —DANIEL LAKE

GOETIA

8

Goetia

PERSISTENT VISION

Death’s angry rumble

Hailing from Washington, D.C. and featuring members of Genocide Pact, Brain Tourniquet and Deliriant Nerve, Goetia came on to our radar after Persistent Vision announced a reissue of their previously self-released cassette/digital EP onto black gold (or whatever variants of such tent the trousers of pedantic collectors) as well as electronically coded plastic, a format still hanging on for dear life. Our previous statement should, however, be amended to read “stormed onto our radar like an angry swarm of battleready elephants spitting angry swarms of killer bees at whatever really pisses off elephants and killer bees.”

At the heart of the matter, Goetia play death metal. Pumping through that vital organ/nerve center is acidic thrash and a hardcore sensibility that takes varieties of subtle and not-so-subtle cues from the rich District of Columbia tradition onward to the metallic hardcore glory days of Hydra Head and Relapse. Certainly, there are ties to the new thing that sees once-teenage lovers of Carnivore and Earth Crisis YouTube videos and the Resident Evil soundtrack presently clipping Bolt Thrower, Autopsy and Mortician in certain spots. Whoever denies such after the loping intro and outro of “Christ Shadow” is a fibber on par with the elected public officials of the band’s hometown. But the power trident from the nation’s capital extracts as much energetic venom from early Entombed as recent Converge on house-on-fire opener “Nachzeher,” and what presumably is/should be live set closer “Goetia,” while throwing delicious helpings of insanely screaming drill press whammy bar leads into “Kokkuri”’s fiery mix.

Goetia’s history literally spans a mere few months of 2023: The Year of Our Dark Lord.

So, who knows what’s going to happen, where member focus is going to lie and how many other bands these fellas are going to join/form.

But if this is what three dudes and a couple months can produce, watch the fuck out!

—KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

INFERNAL EXECRATOR

7

Diabolatry

P U LV E R I S E D

Master blasters

With member monikers like Kommando Antichristo and ChristSlaughter, the writing is usually on the wall—fashion-forward Blasphemy couch-commanders or Bestial Warlust basement-dwellers. Singaporeans Infernal Execrator, with their third album Diabolatry in tow, aren’t really either. Rather, the quarrelsome quartet arrived at their brand of black metal through late-’90s wind-’em-up efforts by Marduk (Panzer Division Marduk), Triumphator (Wings of Antichrist) and Impaled Nazarene (Rapture).

On the surface, this is as interesting as watching Will Rahmer get tossed out of Maryland Deathfest. But Infernal Execrator aren’t of the “wage all-out war (but not in my high GDP country, please)” type. Against super-blasty paeans such as “Aeternalis Diaboli Satanas,” “Marauders Prayers of Profanation” and “Asmodei Bestialust Conjuration,” to their Nordic heroes, there’s another side fighting for attention. Namely, songs vying to be songs, where Infernal Execrator demo a modicum of restraint. “Corporeal Adversaries,” “Blazing Acheronic Tyrants” and DECIBEL : FEBRUARY 2024 : 67

—CHRIS DICK

MASTER

7

Saints Dispelled HAMMERHEART

Still pledging allegiance

After 2023 was swarmed by death metal’s old guard (Obituary, Cadaver, Suffocation, Cannibal Corpse,

Incantation, Cryptopsy, Autopsy), it’s now time for one of the subgenre’s oldest and longest running DM acts to return. Metal lifer Paul Speckmann has led Master’s thrashin’ death for nigh on 40 damn years. His tireless dedication to rupturing eardrums with foul punkish extremity should not be underestimated—especially in a scene that never really gave the bassist/vocalist the deserved dues for his filthy contributions to its formation. Residing in Czechia, Speckmann is backed by guitarist Aleš Nejezchleba and new drummer Zdenek Pradiovsky, and the biggest compliment you can give to the latest iteration of a band whose “past members” sheet is as lengthy as their founder’s beard, is that it sounds like Master.

In that respect, Saints Dispelled will not shock those who know what to expect from loose, rawboned death metal, and consistency therefore remains key to longevity. “Walk in the Footsteps of Doom,” the title track and the Venom-ous “Marred and Diseased” could have been dug up from the sessions for the band’s legendary 1990 self-titled, such is the style of filth chewed up and spat out here. It’s all serviceably raging mate-

8

LUCIFER Lucifer V

Show me the fever, into the fire | N U C L E A R B L A S T

Practically incanted from the stinging mists of a BÖC production, something on the order of “The Siege and Investiture of Baron von Frankenstein's Castle at Weisseria,” Lucifer slink and skip and slash through album number five. Emerging from said fortress of infinite darkness—and infinite jest—Johanna Platow Andersson commands the Stockholm five-piece with a playfully haunted conviction, revitalizing their flagging decade with peak thrills on Lucifer V. Doomy, unhurried, Lucifer I in 2015 strolled

68 : FEBRUARY 2024 : DECIBEL

through the woods to grandma’s—dappled, dank, deceptively dangerous. Sabbath to Patti Smith, its Rise Above pedigree reflected vintage hard rock. Lucifer II three years later beefed up like Zeppelin II, husband Nicke Andersson Platow’s Hellacopters bleeding through. Stillborn March 20, 2020, Lucifer III fell victim to a slump carried over 19 months onto a listless volume four. This new one sounds like the follow-up to Lucifer II. Restoring 40 minutes of full mojo, “Fallen Angel” exits the freight yard first atop a Too

rial, with blues-poisoned “The Wiseman” contrasting effectively against the double-bass-belching death-thrash of “The Wizard of Evil,” performed with undying passion for a style of metal that has gone through numerous stylistic evolutions since its mutation from thrash. Master’s music will forever remain sealed in amber in that hideous mutational stage, and that’s cool—that’s all we need from them. —DEAN BROWN

RYUJIN

7

Ryujin

N A PA L M

Wild and crazy Gyze

This sounds like an insult, but Ryujin may have crafted the best album of 2004 with their selftitled re-debut. Here’s why it isn’t an insult: It has to be deliberate. You don’t hire Trivium’s Matt Heafy as your manager/producer if you aren’t going for the kind of world-conquering, crowd-pleasing melodic metal that took that year’s Ozzfest by storm. And to their (and his) credit, they absolutely succeed.

Fast for Love riff driving a Runaways train.

Restless and nervy, its vocal chorusing and hacksaw power chords prickle neck follicles like 1977 Queens of Noise Cherie Currie, Joan Jett and Lita Ford. Deal with the devil, worth every soul.

Second tolling “At the Mortuary” gongs next-gen Birmingham: ghost with rabies or scabies or Cujo. Graveyard clutch “Slow Dance in a Crypt” flits amongst the headstones like an undead ABBA, its sweaty rhythmic sway better than nearly everything off Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid’s sorry 2021 return Voyage. Title for the ages “A Coffin Has No Silver Lining” slams the lid on timeless ’80s cock rock: “Who will wake you from this nightmare? Baby, it’s you.”

—RAOUL HERNANDEZ

PHOTO BY CHRIS SHONTING

Diabolatry’s lighthouse cut “Infernal Storm of Oblivion” pit guitarist/vocalist Ashir and his battlemate Halphas D. Nihilist against their more violent proclivities. When not flying at sub-light speeds, the duo has actual songcraft in them. The production of Nizam Aziz (also of Impiety fame) is more than serviceable.

In general, previous albums Obsolete Ordinance (2018) and Ad Infinitum Satanic Adherent (2014) have been well-regarded by the willingly flagellant, and it’s likely Diabolatry will mend the wounds inflicted by anonymous bands in masks the world over. Infernal Execrator are certainly capable of the genre they hoist. Just don’t count on anything outside of well-established lines.

Known as Gyze for the first decade of their existence, Ryujin were a fairly standard melodeath band, opening for acts like Soilwork and Disarmonia Mundi. They changed their name—and sound—to better represent their Japanese heritage. That translates to a hybrid of the best parts of Soilwork, DragonForce, Alestorm and Trivium, aided by traditional Japanese instruments like the shamisen, dragon flute and taiko drums.

Which, admittedly, is probably anathema to a good portion of our readership, but if you like watching impossibly muscled heroes power up their special moves for five episodes, this is for you. It’s not a stretch to describe this as anime metal—especially considering they literally cover one of the opening themes from Attack on Titan. Highlight “The Rainbow Song” would fit perfectly over the credits of My Hero Academia.

Ryujin capture the kind of earnest, upbeat vibe that makes shonen anime like MHA and One Piece so popular, while also providing some killer death metal riffs and neoclassical solos to make up for the lack of literal fight scenes. Definitely worth subscribing to Crunchyroll for. —JEFF TREPPEL

SEXLESS MARRIAGE

6

This Is Not Love MOMENT OF COLLAPSE

In sickness and in health

Sexless Marriage are idea men. On This Is Not Love, their second full-length, the Bostonian quintet shows off a batch of very slick parts and riffs; but like Easter eggs, you really have to go hunting for them.

This is ultimately a hardcore punk band.

Though the band boasts members who have been in Deafheaven, Doomriders, the Red Chord and Umbra Vitae, this is largely stripped-down and traditional. That’s evidenced by the bonus track being a faithful cover of Void’s “My Rules,” which fits seamlessly with much of the album: 14 tracks, with a lot of them being super short and having a whole lot of D-beat. And while there’s nothing bad about a lot of D-beat, their reliance on this overshadows what they’re best at.

Both “Wet Room” and “Harsh Light” are noise rock dirges that highlight Mike Morowitz’s compelling and downright obscene-sounding vocal rants; “Delicate Flesh” ends with one hell of a hook; and “Sundowning,” “Tethered,” “Flirting With Disease” and closer “Tourist of Grief” have these bite-sized treats nestled inside you’ll want to return to. But all of that grimy goodness is stitched together by too many parts that sound like they were written in a weekend.

Sexless Marriage come off like one of those bands where some talented friends got together to play some fun songs without caring much

beyond that. Ironically, the problem is there’s enough quality stuff on This Is Not Love that, had they gone a little further, this would’ve been truly great. —SHANE MEHLING

THANAMAGUS

7

Lie in Wait

SEED OF DOOM

Promo perditus

I got off on the wrong foot with this one due to a weird idiosyncrasy related to my promo. Essentially, the first track on my advance is repeated twice.

The opener—creatively titled “Intro”—includes a short passage of ambient noise before launching into the actual song, whereas track two, “Severed Spiritual Limbs,” is the exact same song as “Intro” minus that 30 seconds of ambient noise. Let this stand as a testament to how easily baffled I am. (Um, is this an intentional thematic device or am I traveling backwards in time?) Also, the word “spiritual” was misspelled in the track listing; what happened here, guys?

Regardless of any promotional boondoggles, Thanamagus are onto something noteworthy, aligning merciless Teutonic thrash, (think late ’80s Kreator and Destruction) with Dark Angel’s ornate, hyperkinetic guitar concertos and wicked, Altars of Madness-esque speed and camp.

The overprocessed David Vincent-esque vocals are serviceable, but are essentially a utility that fail to offer much in the way of individuality or charm. That one qualm aside, the constantly evolving interaction between the guitars and Charles Koryn’s staggering drum performance are justification enough for this project.

In fact, the six-string orchestration occasionally even alludes to the ostentatious grace flaunted by outfits such as Psychotic Waltz and Crimson Glory; there’s undeniable sophistication here camouflaged by all the blight and devastation. Should this aspect be developed a bit more on future efforts, Thanamagus would be onto something undeniably distinctive. As it stands, this debut short player is breezy and well-recorded (Ascended Dead, take note), and best of all, the listener can hit play essentially anywhere and be sure to land on something interesting. I look forward to this outfit’s next move. —FORREST PITTS

TYRANEX

8

Reasons for the Slaughter GMR

Making their mark

Full disclosure: Since 1987, I’ve been obsessed with Swedish thrashers Ice

Age. The band may have floundered over the years for reasons not uncommon to history’s list of floundering bands, but the Gothenburg quartet’s General Alert, Instant Justice and Demo ’88 (especially the latter) remain some of the most entertaining thrash of the genre’s long history. Linnea Landstedt has been holding down six-string duties alongside fellow axe-slinger/ vocalist/original member Sabrina Kihlstrand since the mid-’10s and, as such, I’m by default required to become obsessed with Landstedt.

Even if Ice Age’s 2017 Breaking the Ice ain’t so hot.

Landstedt is also the voice and face of Tyranex, featuring current and ex members of Inisans, Trotoar and Nominon playing quirky thrash/speed metal inspired by Agent Steel, Gama Bomb, Evil Invaders and Toxik. The band is certainly adept at offering up riffing that’s able to get heads banging while the gray matter underneath all that windmilling hair contemplates the fetching tempo changes in “Full Circle”; “Do or Die”’s alchemy of Devo and DragonForce; the title track’s ability to make Voivod sound like a power metal band; and the songwithin-a-song soloing excellence emerging from the callouses of Landstedt and Will Tomao.

Feel free to call bias on my obsession, but Landstedt is the element that elevates Reasons for the Slaughter to powerhouse level. Her voice ranges from Satanic snarl and invisible orange wail to phlegmy, NYC dirty needle jab and meaty Bay Area bellows. As songs like “Megalomania,” “Wipe Out” and “Where Light Ceases to Exist” ride a roller coaster of rapid-fire pedals, classic gallops, stuttering two-beats and infectious skronking all massaged into insanely well-structured and flowing compositions, Landstedt ties it all together by energetically deploying her arsenal of earworm vocal phrases, such that it’s not a stretch to visualize her bouncing off the studio walls. Just like yours truly has been doing for the past 35 minutes. —KEVIN STEWART-PANKO

UPON STONE

6

Dead Mother Moon CENTURY MEDIA

Thick rattlehead

Americans are fighting for their right to party (in Sweden). Angelenos Upon Stone have ascended after a raucous reception to their single, “To Seek and Follow the Call of Lions.” Now cradled by Century Media, the push above the proverbial mantle is real. What sets the band apart from other newcomers vying for a slice of ’90s Gothenburg three decades after the fact? Not much.

Upon Stone punch hard, though. The trio of first-siders “Onyx Through the Heart,” “My DECIBEL : FEBRUARY 2024 : 69

Destiny; A Weapon” and the title track pile on the heaviness and aggression, stitching overtly melodic leads into the fray with feverish intensity. The cool coda to “My Destiny; A Weapon” is the only respite. The rails come off not necessarily with familiar melodic death metal tropes (those I’m okay with), but with the vocal and drum production.

First, frontman/four-stringer Xavier Wahlberg possesses a capable bark. He’s just too loud in the mix. The same goes for drummer Wyatt Bentley, whose pounding on “Paradise Failed,” “Dig Up Her Bones” and “Onyx Through the Heart” gets the job done. The effect mutes the thrust of Ronny Lee Marks and Gage’s punish ‘n’ trem guitar playing. Let’s face it: Swedes like Cromlech, Eucharist, Unanimated and Gates of Ishtar, whom Upon Stone remind me of, didn’t earn UG kudos by amping up the vocal/drum presence.

Dead Mother Moon is energetic, errs on the brutal end of the spectrum and has the right attitude. It’s just hard to hear anything but snare and vocals. —CHRIS DICK

VEMOD

8

The Deepening PROPHECY

Mod scene

I could tell you that Vemod’s grandiose, surprising new album, The Deepening, was worth the wait—and it is—but that rote phrase doesn’t fully capture how remarkable this record is, and how thrilling it is that it exists at all. The Norwegian trio’s release schedule has been glacial from its very beginnings in 2000, when founding duo Jan Even Åsli and Eskil Blix were in their early teens. They released the rough-hewn Kringom fjell og skog demo in 2004, then waited seven years to put out one split, one more demo and a truly stellar full-length, Venter på stormene, all within a two-year span. The trio basked in well-deserved underground buzz, played a handful of European festivals… then vanished for the next decade.

Those of us who were lucky enough to see Vemod on the first go-round are now sporting gray hairs in our ponytails. Our ears still work, though, and tracks like “Der guder dor,” with its dreamy melodic passages, or the proggy, gently flowing “True North Beckons” demonstrate just how much Vemod have matured since their rough ‘n’ ready Nidrosian days; the riffs are cleaner, the production is liquid, and while serviceable growls do appear, they largely take 70 : FEBRUARY 2024 : DECIBEL

a backseat to heroic clean vocals (the lustrous choral harmonies on “Fra drommenes bok I” are to die for).

There’s still black metal to be had, too, but it’s sparse and elevated—elegant, even. Vemod have followed in the steps of their shape-shifting Scandinavian brethren Enslaved and Ulver, but spared us by not releasing any half-baked sonic experiments along the way. The epic title track best encapsulates what Vemod have become—an emotive, multi-layered, atmospheric metal powerhouse whose members have not forgotten their original coal-black roots, but now choose to fix their eyes upon the heavens instead. —KIM KELLY

WOLFHETAN

8

Vor uns das Feuer, über uns der Himmel EISENWALD/ H O U S E O F I N K A N TAT I O N

Blast from the somewhat recent past

Getting a new Wolfhetan album after over a decade feels like a treat, but it isn’t exactly new, per se. No, this pagan black metal band chose to wait an inordinate amount of time to release Vor uns das Feuer, über uns der Himmel (“The fire in front of us, the sky above us”), having recorded it between 2013 and 2015.

Why the long wait? It’s hard to say. Their inordinately majestic (and independently released) 2012 album Was der Tag nicht ahnt (“What the day does not suspect”) was a bit of an “if you know, you know” album; it was a release where, if mentioned to the right person, would be met with adulation, but Wolfhetan mostly languished in unfair obscurity, leaving those “in the know” to wait and wonder (and proselytize).

Now on German label Eisenwald, Wolfhetan can hopefully find the recognition they deserve.

Having already broken free from pagan black metal’s many goofy tropes on their second album with a twofold majestic and aggressive approach, the long-gestated Vor uns das Feuer, über uns der Himmel gives this trio a chance to let their signature style evolve and mature. With a fire in their spirit and ancient lore guiding their songcraft, the even more stately Wolfhetan circa 2013-2015 offers what could be a new bar in pagan metal.

There is none of the outrageous Paganfest stuff here. No dancing, no dudes dressed as trolls, and the rest of the baggage that their chosen style carries is noticeably absent. Instead, we get an incensed and reverent album—too

long for vinyl (sorry, nerds), but just enough to be truly satisfying.

Who knows what Wolfhetan sound like now, though? Hopefully we find out sooner than this most recent wait lasted. —JON ROSENTHAL

YATSU

8

It Can’t Happen Here ROMAN NUMERAL/ THE GHOST IS CLEAR

It’s already happening here

When you’re dealing with topics as sensitive and important as gun violence, false allyship, systemic racism and political apathy—to name but a few of the wounds Yatsu are forcefully shoving their lyrical fingers into on this new album—it’s a huge plus that everyone actually understands you, no matter how angrily you might be screaming your words of revolt and rebellion. It might seem like a silly complaint, considering the primordial ooze where all records like this slithered out from (Scum, naturally) isn’t exactly an example of clear diction and flowing poetry; but still, all credit to these Dallas-Fort Worth maniacs—and their vocalist JD Sweat in particular— for not shying away from clarity and purpose.

It’s also a curious compliment considering how dirty and cross-pollinated Yatsu’s sound actually is, with heaps of noise and feedback adding extra layers of chaos and apparent uncontrol to their already pretty much unhinged brand of powerviolence-infused grind. Which, considering guitarist Lane Oliver has also been involved in one of the best noise records of the year (Diminishing’s The Unnamable), it does make sense. That these 17 songs never quite veer off the rails, despite always seeming on the verge of it due to their constantly unpredictable, chaotic nature, is in fact the best thing about It Can’t Happen Here—the actual concept of song is never removed from their songwriting no matter how crazy things get, which makes it a much deeper and lasting experience than pretty much any record within the aforementioned genres this side of Full of Hell’s output these last few years.

In the end, despite the very real and very heavy subject matter, this is a highly replayable set of songs, full of inventive details, refreshingly unstuck to any canonical genre, but still coming across as familiar and as instantly exciting as a simpler raw grind record made as god (i.e., Napalm Death) intended.

—JOSÉ CARLOS SANTOS

by

EUGENE S. ROBINSON

CELEBRATING THE SABBATH WITH

RONNIE JAMES DIO h

ere. Take this.” Henry Rollins passed me a cassette tape when cassette tapes were something people passed off to each other. And what it was, was 1983’s Holy Diver, the Dio classic. “We couldn’t get this out of the van our last tour. So, you take it.”

At the time, I was living in a oneroom garden shed behind a house in a field of dead or dying grass. I was subletting, and so knew no one in the house. Everyone else I knew had run off on tour, so it was me, the dead grass, the swelter shack and this cassette tape. Well, those and vials of LSD that I was supposed to be holding for a friend who didn’t want to risk traveling back home with it.

When I wasn’t in the shack, trying to not die from the heat, or the hunger, I was in my van. (I had scant resources, and like I say in my memoir, A Walk Across Dirty Water & Straight Into Murderer’s Row [Feral House], I was reduced to eating the dead grass at one point.) Scrounging for a meal someplace or going to one of the few remaining classes I had to take to get out of college.

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Holy Diver was with me in the shack. Holy Diver was with me in the van. Holy Diver was with me when I decided to test that LSD to see if it was real. I wasn’t on tour that summer, but I had planned to replicate Rollins’ tour experience and listen to this record until it revealed its secrets to me. In other words, I was never NOT listening to it, and secrets it did reveal.

Maybe it was the acid, but I more strongly suspect it was just Dio, some clever wordplay and a darkening worldview that made my next move clear: I had to talk to Mr. Ronald James Padavona. I was publishing a magazine called The Birth of Tragedy, and so I had a platform, and he had a press agent. I also had what I felt was a value add: I had just interviewed Anton LaVey from the Church of Satan, something I gleaned would appeal to Dio. And the press agent agreed.

So, set for the first day that I figured I could get my head clear, I headed up to a business park where I was going to meet Dio. A strange place to meet the man, but that

wouldn’t be the strangest or even the most chthonic that happened to me while digging deep into the record’s sinews. The weird left-hand path had been happening the entire time I listened, which was really the entirety of the summer, and so heading up to El Camino Real to meet him? Just the cherry on the top.

I park. My pager buzzes. I find a payphone and call back. It was the press agent. Dio would not be appearing. In a babble of confusion, apparently “they” were out to get him, and so ensued a pas de deux of deep, deep paranoia. I never found out who “they” were, but this was life-and-death seriousness and so he’d be disappearing for a bit.

And he did.

Moreover, my interview with him did as well. My obsession with him lasted through Last in Line, and then, possibly connected to having to return the LSD—or what little was left of it—it passed. And I didn’t think of Dio again until Barcelona, where a woman I was talking to burst into tears when I announced what I had just read from my phone:

Ronnie James Dio had died. She, apparently, used to date him.

So, in tribute to the man, I started to catch up on what I missed and, in a fitting bow of the head to December and the reason for the season, I heard his most subversive thing yet: his version of “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” a Christmas tune from a guy who you might have correctly imagined wasn’t celebrating shit on Christ mass. I listened to it. Again. And again.

And even more.

By this time, I had moved out of the shack, figured out how to make my menu go well beyond dead grass and, by some measure, “grown up.”

But “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”—very possibly whose name would be Legion—was killing me, and it set the tone for Christmas 2010, where Dio stepped into an eternity that would forever have marked both him and me. Outside of Fear’s “Fuck Christmas,” I can’t think of much of anything more fitting for mistletoe and hot toddies. And really, I doubt, neither can “they.”

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