Interviews

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Staying true to this breakneck creative pace, Austin Lunn is mere weeks away from dropping Panopticon’s sixth LP, the enthralling and resonant Autumn Eternal. The album is a thematic companion to his two previous LPs, but musically, it eschews the “blackened bluegrass” approach in favor of emotionally charged, mournfully melodic black metal (think Winterfylleth meets early Katatonia). We talked to Lunn about creating Autumn Eternal, taking inspiration from nature and being a musician in the often-disheartening environment of the digital age.

 Chris Jericho is one of the most decorated professional wrestlers ever: a six-time world champion and the first-ever undisputed WWE champion. He is also one of the most vocal celebrity metal fans on the planet as well as a metal musician who has toured the world repeatedly with his band Fozzy. Jericho’s latest project, however, might be the only one that could earn the extreme moniker.

This morning, the Deciblog shines the unsigned band spotlight on Edmonton’s long-standing denizens of death metal, Display of Decay. 

Immortal Bird vocalist Rae Amitay talked to us about Eminem albums, music school and the difference between keeping the rhythm and fronting a band.

One of the best things about heavy metal is the sense of community it fosters: we’re all in this together because no one else fucking cares. So when an unexpected metalhead pops up in daily life, it’s always a cool feeling. Sometimes it’s that weird guy at work who never says a word to anyone but comes in one Friday wearing a Stargazer shirt…and sometimes it’s an MLB All-Star relief pitcher with more than 200 career strikeouts and a beard with its own zip code.

Two weeks ago, you had a chance to listen to Lychgate’s new album, An Antidote for the Glass Pill.  Now hear from the music’s creator about how philosophy and dystopian literature contributed to the organ-saturated black/doom album.

In the latest issue, Autopsy joins our revered two-time Hall Of Fame Club, which includes metal stalwarts like Celtic Frost, Carcass and At The Gates. To commemorate the Severed Survival HOF we’re printing our exclusive “Illustrated History” of Autopsy with Eric Cutler and Chris Reifert from late 2013.  

For the majority of you, the name Adolyne may not ring a bell, but in Western Canada, the Saskatoon noise-niks are on the tips of more than a few tongues

Hell’s Headbangers is regifting us with Cianide’s 1997 album Death, Doom and Destruction.  The album was already a threatening slab of primitive extremity, and the reissue has extended the dread by appending a set of five demos (Rage War) and a 7″ (The Truth) that includes a Master cover of the same name.

Since 1999, Miroslav “Curby” Urbanec has been putting on the Obscene Extreme Festival in Czech. Billed as a “freak friendly extreme music festival,” OE has faithfully and respectfully catered to the grind, crust, punk, hardcore and death metal hordes. We caught up with Curby to ask about trying to book obscenity and extremity for one part of the world from the other.

On August 1, blackQueen will release their new Billy Anderson-produced album The Directress, which features guest appearances by musicians including Uta Plotkin, Joy Von Spain of Eye Of Nix, and Wrest of Leviathan. Pete Jay talked to us about his love of horror soundtracks and the comeback of his passion project. 

These metal mercenaries are coming back with new material, some of which you can hear below in the video they’ve put together, excerpting the new song “CroMagñon” from their forthcoming album Obelisk, and we wanted to hear about where this music was coming from and what the members of Black Table have been up to since we last spoke.

Peroria’s atmosph-sludge-tribal-psych-rock heroes and denizens of long form song structures, Minsk returned to active duty this last April with their fourth full-length, The Crash and the Draw. Christopher Bennett and Timothy Mead cover all bases thoroughly and definitively in the interview that follows. 

The proverbial long way to the top has definitely been a long one for Byzantine, which started in a part of rural West Virginia with minimal access to heavy metal and widespread economic problems. Many of the band’s best songs since their formation have touched on the problems of Appalachia, particularly rampant prescription drug abuse. Decibel  talked to frontman Chris “OJ” Ojeda about his long metal apprenticeship and one of the world’s most dangerous jobs: prescription pharmacy delivery driver in rural America. 

What do Cathedral, Death Penalty, and cover artist Lucifer have in common? Guitarist Gaz Jennings, of course. Here’s our exclusive interview with the grand maestro of doom riffs.

Gabriele Gramaglia incorporates a love of Converge-heightened, spastic hardcore heaviness into his anguished odes to the great outdoors.  The percussion and vocal rhythms here really set Gramaglia’s solo project apart from the pack.  The music retains black metal’s otherworldly quality without losing the attention of mere mortals like us.

I know it’s early on Monday morning, but what better time to explore new dimensions of sound  with Weird Owl than before you’ve had your first cup of coffee?

Italy’s Forgotten Tomb may’ve helped spearhead depressive black metal, but they’ve moved on from the group’s early monochromatic, manic styling to emerge as a mature, self-aware black metal act with influences ranging from Burzum to Pitch Shifter to Eyehategod. Forgotten Tomb’s new album, Hurt Yourself and the Ones You Love, is massively heavy, penetratingly introspective, and, yes, pitch black dark. From its lyrics (read Ferdinando ‘Herr Morbid’ Marchisio’s response below), its stark cover, to its cross-over black, Hurt Yourself and the Ones You Love is Forgotten Tomb’s best work yet.

A few months ago, French grinders Nolentia and stoner doomers, Drawers were invited to participate in 2015’s edition of the long-running Brutal Fest, an annual tour that brings European bands to Cuba. We got in touch with Nolentia guitarist/vocalist, Ghis and Drawers drummer Olivier Lolmede to get an account of the experience.

Tribulation have psych rock elements, their drummer has a psych rock band. Coincidence?

Back in 2005, I talked to Starkweather guitarist Todd Forkin about his band’s then new album for issue #16.  It was one of my first freelance pieces for the magazine after leaving the friendly confines of 1032 Arch.  At the time, Croatoan was the band’s third LP and first since 1995’s Into the Wire.  While the Philadelphians have dropped another LP and split in the intervening years, April saw the re-release of their first two records via Translation Loss. So 113 issues later, it’s fitting in some way that vocalist Rennie Resmini closes out this little series after the break. To every one who has contributed to or read even one word of these playlists over the last three plus years — thank you.

Undead are so mysterious they aren’t even mentioned on the cover of Decibel’s July 2015 issue. Yet, they do, in fact, appear in said issue under the noms de guerre Necros and King Oscuro. See, nobody knows much about Undead. Even the label’s publicist put up his respective hands as to the band’s origins. Well, if anything is known about Undead it’s that they like Death. A lot. Pre-progged out Death. The group’s new album, False Prophecies, recalls 1988 perfectly. But it’s more than that. There’s aspects of Possessed, Master, and Obituary. Our blood bleeds old-school death (and Death). Yours should after Undead gets its fangs into you.

We at the Deciblog have spoken to Dr. Vivek Venkatesh a few times already, learning about his work and his simultaneously academic and visceral interest in the more extreme forms of metal.  Last October, we had the opportunity to speak with him again, this time in preparation for an article that focuses on the intersecting paths of academic study and metal.

Even though Gruesome “pays homage to death metal’s most celebrated founding American acts, Death” (according to a press release), the band’s tastes in the genre don’t stop and end there.  That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given that the group features members of Exhumed (Deci-fav Matt Harvey), Possessed, Malevolent Creation and Derketa.  So while Savage Land, the quartet’s debut, may sound very Schuldiner-esque, guitarist Dan Gonzalez was kind enough to tell us about some other death metal bands. 

In Decibel‘s June issue cover story, we offered several examples of well loved and respected authors of extremity who dig the Noisem sound and overall ethic.  Blake Harrison of Pig Destroyer, Matt Harvey of Exhumed and Gruesome, and Bill Steer of Carcass all sounded off on their enjoyment of the, uh, blossoming band.

Carcass drummer Dan Wilding also had a few things to say about the band, and while we weren’t able to fit them into the article, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hear about them anyway.  Here now, for your reading pleasure, are Mr. Wilding’s thoughts on Noisem from the time he spent touring alongside them.

It’s been over 20 years since Sigh’s debut album dropped in 1993. Not surprisingly, not only has the extreme music landscape changed since then, but so has the Japanese outfit’s musical output.

One of the reasons Napalm Death has been so successful is their relationship with producer Russ Russell. Russell has worked with the band since 2000 and will probably be with them when they are making albums in their 70s. He joined us from England for a chat on working with the grind legends. 

While it was a pretty brutal winter here on the East Coast, we have no doubt that our friends in the North Star State had a much rougher go of it weather-wise.  Or, as Tanner Anderson told us last month (more of which you’ll be able to read more about very soon in print), “I haven’t seen my testicles since November of last year.”  Fortunately none of that stopped the Obsequiae frontman from finishing up his band’s excellent second album, Aria of Vernal Tombs, which is set for release next month.

Meet the new ruler of the Planet of the Apes, listen to his music, and enjoy some cocaine-dipped bananas with our exclusive premiere of The Humans Soundtrack Volume II.