Every so often, we take a little time on Mondays to pay tribute to the Muthas! That is, reprinting the adorable metal/maternal Q&As that run in the magazine. Today, enjoy Chris Dick’s chat with Cecilia Verstraelen, mutha of Soilwork’s Dirk Verbeuren. 

Six months ago, Google mandated that we remove the hate speech contained in comments for interviews that editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian and staffer Justin Norton conducted with (respectively) Inquisition (May 1, 2014) and Daniel Gallant (May 5, 2014). At the time, we were unable to delete those comments, so we simply took the interviews down. Now we’re able to better moderate the Deciblog, so here are the interviews as they were originally printed.

Six months ago, Google mandated that we remove the hate speech contained in comments for interviews that editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian and staffer Justin Norton conducted with (respectively) Inquisition (May 1, 2014) and Daniel Gallant (May 5, 2014). At the time, we were unable to delete those comments, so we simply took the interviews down. Now we’re able to better moderate the Deciblog, so here are the interviews as they were originally printed.

We’re pumped to bring you the video for “Aeon of Cold.” Don’t be fooled by that first uplifting 30 seconds. The vast majority of this rips, triumphantly.

Sure, Jake E. Lee may have served with distinction during his tumultuous five-year tour of duty under General Sharon, summoning forth a mind-boggling cascade of super-solid riffage and shredding through the tears when he got fucked out of lucrative Bark at the Moon (1983) writing credits, but the guitarist nevertheless gets about as much love from the Osbourne camp as a circa-1982 bat.

The Dinosaur Jr shredder and Witch founder was part of seminal proto-grind band Deep Wound, and in that a critical historical figure in Choosing Death.

If you’ve been paying any attention whatsoever to this magazine over the past 100+ issues, you know the Decibel staff unconditionally loves the shit out of two things: metal and cats. And we know we’re not the only ones.

From Alice Cooper’s face paint and Iron Maiden’s elaborate stage sets to Watain’s demon-summoning rituals and Ghost’s hooded robes, heavy metal has always had a close relationship with “performance.” Substance comes first, without a doubt, but performance ain’t far behind. Dimmu Borgir dress up like Satanic carnival barkers. Glen Benton branded an upside-down crucifix into his forehead. Robb Flynn had that Insane Clown Posse hair during The Burning Red days. Simply put, the spectacle of creating extreme music seems to be one of its most potent aspects, and countless bands have used it to their advantage.

In the July 2013 Decibel, Justin Norton interviewed Patricia Rosa, mother of Joe and Mario Duplantier of Gojira for our recurring “Metal Muthas” column. Patricia passed away two days ago, so to honor her, we’re reprinting that interview. Our condolences to the Duplantiers.

There are some diverse affectations in this photo; let’s talk about them.