Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

I have nothing to do with the average Decibel cover other than pitching Albert shitty concepts that are immediately rejected by both band and management. The best was asking Dillinger Escape Plan to do something with protractors and compasses (seriously, this was my great idea), which was understandably nixed, fine. But then they showed up butt-ass-naked on Kerrang! like two weeks later. Uh… yeah. I need to learn the phrase “just give them an axe/machete.”

Now, Municipal Waste did just fine on their first Decibel cover this March. As in, the tablecloth under the Tony Foresta platter actually looks like it could be his white T-shirt. Inspired! I think! Anyway, their Fatal Feast visualization was so repellently grandiose, we invited them back in April for the Flexi Series. And the thrash upstarts kindly knocked it out of the park with DRI/Nuclear Assault-nodding “Religion Proof,” a choice cut from the Feast sessions. Tony’s disembodied head nods in approval: “Ever since I got that Plutocracy/Aproctous split back in the day, I always wanted to put out a flexi record. When Decibel asked us, I was pumped.” Share the joy, and then grab a copy of the April issue with the flexi here. Quantities are, of course, limited.

-AB

The April 2012 issue of Decibel, which also features Cannibal Corpse, Deceased, Impetigo, a list of The Top 25 Zombie Metal Songs of All Time, and no Rob Zombie whatsoever, is available for order here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one of these killer flexi discs?

(click to enlarge)

Oklahoma City gets all the good stuff. Well, maybe not all the good stuff, but five years ago they stole Kevin Durant from a metropolis whose literacy rate is in double digits, and now they pretty much get the one-off metal show of the year. If you’re a proud OKC resident (or reside in the multiple surrounding bumfuck satellites), get pumped.

On Saturday, April 28, the Decibel Magazine Tour with collide with the U.S. Torture Tour at the Big Friendly’s Diamond Ballroom. And when I say “collide,” I mean someone should make an ad with both logos on football helmets crashing together and just fucking exploding, except with freshly decapitated heads inside. This Devastator of a lineup consists of Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth, Watain, Exhumed, the Devil’s Blood, In Solitude, Abysmal Dawn and Arkaik. The cost of such a mega-event must be offensively prohibitive, right? Um, try $23 adv./$26 DOS. Roughly the cost of either package’s standalone shows. Plenty of time to get your flights/carpools organized. Bring me the head of Rumble the Bison.

-AB

The March 2012 issue of Decibel, which features Municipal Waste, Napalm Death, Cattle Decapitation, and an awesome Torche flexi disc, is available for order here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Overkill’s The Years of Decay is our March Hall of Fame, which is available here now. Anybody who’s heard it—or really anybody who’s even a casual Overkill listener—knows that this is our big chance to churn out a bunch of shitty “e-limination” puns. I’m watching the (rad) video as I write this, and I assure you, the YouTube commentariat has that base covered. (Although, oddly, the most recent topic of discussion seems to be a qualitative comparison of Overkill and Avenged Sevenfold, which I can’t be bothered to research further.)

Anyway, as you might imagine, there’s all sorts of good shit in the HOF about back-in-the-day Terry Date, the vintage Hetfield “Yeeaaah!”, the band’s brief ascension to Euro-pop mag cover boys, and that classic lineup’s unfortunate disintegration during Bobby Blitz’s honeymoon. But the most interesting thing to me is that Blitz remains polarizing enough that I presume some of you will be pumped about this feature, and others squarely in the “fuck that, can’t stand him” zone. Which leads to a natural question: Who is the most annoying vocalist for an otherwise totally awesome band?

-AB

The March 2012 issue of Decibel, which also features Municipal Waste, Napalm Death, Cattle Decapitation, and an awesome Torche flexi disc, is available for order here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

I’ve only met Dave Witte once, at the editor-in-chief’s palatial Playboy Mansion-esque estate over the Fourth of July (all metal folk remained fully clothed, thank god). He’s a startlingly accomplished whiffle ball pitcher and an otherwise gregarious dude, which in my book is good enough to put his beret-ed mug on the March cover. More notable to you, perhaps, is his long, varied and unfuckwithable extreme music c.v., which branches furthest from the underground in the form of Municipal Waste. The party-thrash institution’s fifth album, The Fatal Feast, isn’t merely an excuse for Dave, Ryan, Phil and Tony to do a gross-out cover/interior spread—it doubles as an interstellar concept album that you really must read about to believe. It’s in the Decibel webstore now, bolstered by the pink-on-white, two-track Torche flexi disc of your dreams.

In other news, as you’re by now well aware, we’ve corralled four bands who are big fans of beer-buzzed suburban backyard whiffle ball games—Behemoth, Watain, the Devil’s Blood and In Solitude—for our inaugural Decibel Magazine Tour, starting in April. Well, dates and ticket info have finally been released, with all sorts of insane deals that are selling out already. Pig out here while there’s still time.

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

For a band with just two proper full-lengths in eight years, Torche are a perpetual hot topic. Part of that’s our fault, but we like to think there are constant bursts of killer interstitial material (2007’s In Return EP, 2010’s Songs for Singles sorta-EP, last year’s split with Part Chimp, featuring three Guided by Voices covers) that make the hype less annoying. So, while the boys prep their latest release (an LP, we think) for Volcom this April, we’re happy to administer another get-you-by sludge-pop syringe in the form of our latest dB flexi.

Appearing in the March issue are two brand-new, never-before-heard Torche tracks: “Pow Wow” and “80’s Prom Song” (they fucked up the apostrophe, not us). If you’re one of the many who dig the pop rocks that Steve Brooks and co. have been crushing post-Floor, these buds are definitely for you. “Pow Wow” and “80’s Prom Song” were actually recorded during the Hydra Head sessions for Singles, but never used for some reason. Find out if they’re a bridge to the new material or simply two kickass jams that will make your iPod a less wrist-slitting shithole for a few minutes.

Check them out below, and then order a copy of the March issue with its hot pink and white plastic (you’re welcome) glory:

dB015 Torche Flexi Disc by Decibel Magazine

-AB

The March 2012 issue of Decibel, which also features Municipal Waste, Napalm Death, Cattle Decapitation, and an Overkill The Years of Decay Hall of Fame, is available for order here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one of these awesome flexi discs?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

We’ve already employed this space—and some of our own in print—to tease and please you, Dangerous Toys-style, about the first-ever Decibel Magazine Tour. Well, here’s a straight-off-the-presses scoop for you: It debuts this (gravity blast, please…) April, and features (D-beat, please…) four bands! I know it’s annoying when information’s parceled out via turkey baster like this, but in two weeks you’ll get a grandiose lineup announcement with all the dates and ticket info and assorted sweatpants boner shit.

Until then, we can at least try to be mutually beneficial. We’re going to have regional openers on a number of the dates. I know you don’t know the specific cities (it is a pretty thorough national tour, so your best guesses are probably correct), nor do you know the genres of the headliner and openers (not NSBM, tempting as it was), but let us know who YOU want to see on the dB tour. There’s actually still time to make it happen.

-AB

While we all await the big tour announcement, you can order the February 2012 issue of Decibel, which features Goatwhore,The Top 25 Most Anticipated Albums of the Year preview, and Autopsy’s killer inaugural flexi disc, right here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Hey everyone. Hope you had a stellar break sharing Trans Siberian Orchestra dubstep mixes/thoughtless $25 Amazon gift cards with your loved ones. If the cover of the new Decibel is any indication—Ben Falgoust rocking a gotta-shit scowl while the other three dudes in Goatwhore do their best Mona Lisa impressions—2012’s gonna be another utterly fucked-up yet strangely satisfying year.

There’s a je ne sais quoi to NOLA metal bands, something iconic about the way they present themselves that’s tough to articulate, yet immediately identifiable. Everyone wears extra black, but they do it right. Like fellow N’awlins linchpins Crowbar, Eyehategod and Down, our February cover stars are among the hardest-working, no-bullshit, most authentic extreme bands around, qualities evident in their radical fifth LP, Blood for the Master. I just hope we remember the Goat when it’s Top 40 time at the end of the year—or, since we’ll all be obliterated, that Woody Harrelson and John Cusack remember.

The February dB also features our always, uh, completely accurate Top 25 Most Anticipated Albums of the Year preview, plus features on Black Tusk, Evoken, Will Haven and King Diamond, and Autopsy’s killer inaugural flexi. It’s up to you to see who else is representing on the gauntlet tip.

-AB

You can order the February 2012 issue of Decibel here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Everybody loves a comeback. It’s why we still pay attention to Metallica (that’s why we still pay attention to Metallica, right?), why we were so psyched when Celtic Frost (almost) erased Cold Lake with Monotheist and the ensuing Triptykon action, and why there’s just a sliver of hope in your rotted heart that maybe Morbid Angel, Cryptopsy and the Haunted find the strength to stop fucking around sometime next year.

Autopsy’s Shitfun maybe wasn’t that egregious an offender compared to the above. Well, the cover was, although I enjoy imagining that thing as a Halloween-size Butterfinger. Anyway, after the death metal hall of famers dropped their 1995, um, turd, and transmogrified into Abscess, they were neatly filed in the “unlikely comeback” department. Then Macabre Eternal placed high on our ever-unfuckwithable Top 40 Extreme Albums of 2011 list, and We All Good Again.

We so good, in fact, that Autopsy are graciously keeping the hot streak ablaze on the latest installment of the Decibel Flexi Series, a special rerecording of “Mauled to Death,” which super-fans might remember from their ’87 demo. It’s raw, unmastered, polished only by sweet metallic purple on blue vinyl, and only for subscribers. Give it a test drive below, and since I won’t be annoying you next week, happy (barf) hellidays.

Autopsy “Mauled To Death” (2012 unmastered version) (dB014) by Decibel Magazine

-AB

The February 2012 issue of Decibel, which also features Goatwhore, The Black Dahlia Murder, Black Tusk, a preview of 2012′s most anticipated new releases, and a King Diamond/Abigail Hall of Fame, can be ordered here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Decibel Deleted Scenes time. We couldn’t quite cram this into the splattered entrails of January’s Cryptopsy HOF, but Adrien Begrand compiled some stirring None So Vile testimonials from the technical death metal legends’ peers. Here are those musicians’ choice cuts on our latest inductee.

John Longstreth (Gorguts, Origin)

“Slit Your Guts”—what an amazing death metal song, right? That screamy, shrill intro piece—it sounds like they were paying homage to a drill press. The stop at 0:25, the solo is beautiful, the opening lyrics are “Pardon, please…” Holy cow, what went wrong with these guys? Some sort of rotten black brilliance was causing some serious torment in these dudes’ heads. How else could it be written? Definitely a poignant and early representation of how nail-biting, nervous and strung-out death metal would come to sound. A definite influence for me and Origin. Thank you for this song and album! Congratulations, gentlemen! You deserve it!

Click to read more…

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli to get in on today’s needless-listing fun…

HIPSTERS

“Well, someone didn’t like Wolves in the Throne Room.”

REASONABLE NERDS

“Somewhat surprised that neither Batillus nor Hull cracked the top 40, while Junius—a meh-ish post-something-or-other band w/ a Coldplay vocal influence—did.”

UNDERGROUND ELITIST DOUCHEBAGS

“well im glad to see decible is still totally clueless and of total shit taste as they should be. stay out of the trve vndergrovnd!”

PEOPLE REALLY EXCITED ABOUT LULU

“Over the half the bands on that list won’t even be around in 5 years. Horrible.”

PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY BUY RECORDS 

“Glad to see Yob, 40 Watt Sun, Tombs, Subrosa, and Graveyard among a few others getting some love.”

-AB

If you wanna read the Top 40 list to which everyone is so reasonably reacting, you’ll need to buy the January 2012 issue of Decibel here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Teaser time! It took us almost eight years to earn (and lose, and re-earn, kind of) enough cred to make this happen, but we’re proud to announce the first-ever Decibel Magazine Tour, coming next April to an unflushed toilet near you! And dickish enough to not announce that much more about it! But we do have the glorious official tour logo above, rendered by sketch-tastic auteur Justin Bartlett (Trap Them, Wolves Like Us, Locrian), with text lettering courtesy of in-house design scumbag Bruno Guerreiro.

While a real-deal announcement about the actual participants will be made sometime after the new year, you can actually somewhat determine what bands are onboard from Justin’s art. Study closely, then take a stab in the comments. Hint: Orgy haven’t officially reformed yet, so gotta wait ’til 2013 on that one.

-AB

While you wait for the big announcement: the January 2012 issue of Decibel, which features Lamb of God, Behemoth, Opeth, Mastodon, and a Cryptopsy Hall of Fame, can be ordered here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Lamb of God and their new American goatees get the cover, and Agoraphobic Nosebleed and their frozen corpses stuffed with holiday cheer get the flexi, but the main component of Decibel’s January issue that will get the internet’s privates in a knot is the Top 40 Albums of the Year list. I’ve been at this job since 2005, and back in the day I recall reading about how “adventurous” and “fresh” the list was, but then snarkiness was invented in roughly 2009, and now it’s, at best, “polarizing.” But “polarizing” is good! Ghost are polarizing! Gnaw Their Tongues: polarizing! Nickelback playing halftime at the Lions game tomorrow: considering the intended audience and surrounding context: believe it or not, polarizing! It definitely won’t be dull, ’cause despite the fact that we’ll lovingly fellate 3-6 albums you adore, the rest will drive you fucking nuts, and you’ll hurt our feelings in comments sections across the universe. We all know the drill. Anyway, I don’t want to go on about the Top 40 much more, because Albert made me write the print edition intro again, and the requisite bitterness, arrogance and self-deprecation is already piled on there. Check the issue out in the webstore, and go Megatron!

-AB

The January 2012 issue of Decibel also features Behemoth, Opeth, Mastodon, and a Cryptopsy Hall of Fame, and can be ordered here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

I was impressed when Wormrot crammed three songs onto our eighth Decibel flexi disc back in August. One of those also happened to run away with the coveted Best Flexi Song Title award (“Fuck… I’m Sober”). Until now. I don’t know if Wormrot’s short sharp shock treatment inspired Agoraphobic Nosebleed to one-up their international brothers in grind, but shit just got real. No matter what you think of ANb’s pathological need to provoke, you can’t say they half-assed their flexi, appearing this January in conjunction with our annual year-end festivities.

Scott Hull’s staff of elves has painstakingly assembled our first ever holiday-themed flexi, Make a Joyful Noise. If you thought Mariah and Kenny G had the market cornered on Christmas sounds the whole family can enjoy, check out this 11-song, four-minute stocking stuffer, featuring future caroling classics like “Hung Like a Stocking by the Chimney With Care,” “Santa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” and (…) “Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Holiday Cheer.” A limited number of copies of the issue with the flexi are now available in the Decibel webstore , so order now. In the mean time, the lyrics to this masterpiece, reprinted after the jump, should whet the shit out of your appetite.

Agoraphobic Nosebleed “Make a Joyful Noise” (dB013) by Decibel Magazine

Click to read more…

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Our year-in-review issue goes to print in, like, minutes. (Hopefully I’ve had some semblance of lunch by the time Vince and Axl throw this post up.) So, let’s throw the usual rhetorical stalling out the window and get to the point: Guess what band will grace the cover of this hand-wringing/throat-slashing funfest and win a Decibot T-shirt. The only hint I’m allowed to give you is actually a really big one: They’ve never been on the cover of Decibel before. Hit it!

-AB

The December 2011 issue of Decibel features Megadeth, Municipal Waste, Animals as Leaders, Landmine Marathon, Hammers of Misfortune, and an awesome Goatwhore flexi disc, and can be ordered here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

We’ve done three special one-off Decibels now, and have pimped them in this very spot like Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver (you can do anything you want with them… but no rough stuff, all right?). The one you see above is my favorite, not necessarily because I prefer thrash to black metal or a general ’90s metal countdown, but because a shark eating a skeleton eating a pizza is only half the fucking cover art by acclaimed metal artist Andrei Bouzikov (Municipal Waste, Skeletonwitch, Cannabis Corpse).

Anyway, the content is just as choice: a galloping rundown of the top 50 thrash albums of all time, buffered by seven radical Hall of Fames:

Slayer, Reign in Blood
Anthrax, Among the Living
Testament, The Legacy
Metallica,  …And Justice for All
Megadeth, Rust in Peace
Anacrusis, Reason
Prong, Beg to Differ

The latter three are exclusive to this issue, duh. If you’re wondering why the Big Four haven’t been fully represented in the Hall until now, well, it took years of busting ass from writer Chris Dick to make it happen. (Which you probably could’ve guessed—I mean, it’s Megadeth.) But it’s really funny and harsh and long—I’m sure I’ll post some deleted scene action here someday, since we basically had to cut it in half. Anyway, the Thrash HOF issue is available only in Decibel’s webstore and select indie record shops (go here to find a store near you). If you missed out on our previous special issues, we’ve put together this triple-threat bundle for extreme convenience. You’re welcome.

Any other thrash-centric HOFs you wanna see in the future? Comment away.

-AB

You can order this very special one-off issue right here. And, of course, the December 2011 issue of Decibel – which features Megadeth, Municipal Waste, Animals as Leaders, Landmine Marathon, Hammers of Misfortune, and an awesome Goatwhore flexi disc – can be ordered here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Three weeks ago we played a little hide the salami “Guess the Next Decibel HOF,” and “Mark” busted right out of the gates to correctly identify Tragedy’s self-titled debut. Like, for real, on the very first comment. One might assume Mark’s exploiting some inside info, but if you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t trying, and since everyone here’s exhausted from fledgling fatherhood and binge-drinking, fuck it, he wins! We’ll be in touch regarding the subscription soon, dude.

The feature itself—conducted by Kevin Stewart-Panko with the whole band in the back room of an Indian buffet in Baltimore—is a slow-burner. Yannick Lorrain, Billy Davis and the Burdette brothers were originally reluctant to sit down and talk about their evolution from His Hero Is Gone, but once they got comfortable, the anecdotes started to ricochet in all directions, mirroring the adventurous chaos of Tragedy’s music. Was the album’s cover randomly pulled out of the trash at Kinko’s? Possibly. Did the band almost get curb-stomped by a cabal of neo-Nazis in Poland? Perhaps. Are they one of Portland’s last legitimately awesome exports before that city became a stronghold of sniveling pussy indie bullshit? Could be! Read all about ’em in the MegaDave issue.

-AB

The December 2011 issue of Decibel also features Municipal Waste, Animals as Leaders, Landmine Marathon, Hammers of Misfortune, and an awesome Goatwhore flexi disc, and can be ordered here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

I’m kind of scared to interview Dave Mustaine. Not because I have a Vic Rattlehead backpiece and placekick my cat every time she comes within three feet of my Peace Sells… vinyl box. And not because he’s an intimidating, confrontational guy with a scary-low tolerance for perceived affronts. Mostly because he has a tendency to ramble like the bum downstairs who just tried to buy one of my smokes for a quarter, and we don’t have a Decibel intern right now who would transcribe that clusterfuck for me. Luckily, Jeff Treppel is a true believer with infinite patience, and he did an unsurprisingly stellar job on December’s Megadeth cover story.

It’s about time we gave MegaDave a cover all to himself (he shared the glory with Testament and Slayer back in February of ’10). Hell, there are plenty of occasions to commemorate. The oddly stylized new record is, in fact, number TH1RT3EN, and Dave just celebrated the big 5-0 with a (literally) backbreaking Big Four homecoming. Most surprising of all, he comes off as legitimately introspective and humble for the duration of the piece. And bonus: the cover image is just the right blend of really cool and disarmingly creepy. The December ish also features a super-exclusive interview Jef Whitehead of Leviathan (speaking of confrontational), as well as Daniel Ekeroth’s favorite new-school Swedish death metal bands, stories on Absu, Animals as Leaders, Muni Waste and… yeah, you can see it all for yourself right there on the cover.

-AB

The December 2011 issue of Decibel also features Landmine Marathon, Hammers of Misfortune, and an awesome Goatwhore flexi disc, and can be ordered here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Goatwhore’s Carving Out the Eyes of God settled in at #27 on our Top 40 Albums of 2009 list, and in the accompanying write-up, Liz Brenner enthused that the blackened-death clusterfuck was the sort of “neck-bulging, fist-extending sort of heavy that makes it hard to breathe freely or form sentences that don’t start with ‘fucking.’” I know we tend to get hyperbolic about NOLA sludge at dB, but… hold on, let’s get to a period. Fucking a. (You go, Liz.)

It’s so cool and gratifying when a solid, hard-working veteran band starts lurching towards greatness—unless you have your shit together from note one of song one on album one, evolution and development are pretty great things—and now we’re all psyched about album numero cinco, due in 2012. This month’s installment in the dB Flexi Series isn’t a sneak preview per se, but it’s the first piece of new music you’ve heard from Goatwhore in a long time—a cover of Motörhead’s self-explanatory and totally correct “(Don’t Need) Religion,” off 1982’s Iron Fist. The gents banged out the cover during sessions for the as-yet-untitled new Metal Blade LP, and you can stream it right here in advance of the hard copy, which will—as always—be available to subscribers only in the December Decibel.

Goatwhore “(Don’t Need) Religion” (originally by Motorhead) (dB012) by Decibel Magazine

-AB

The December 2011 issue of Decibel also features Megadeth, Municipal Waste, Animals as Leaders, Absu, and Russian Circles,and can be ordered here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one of these awesome flexi discs?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

I’ve been an editor at Decibel for six years now, and I’m a Tony Gwynnian one for three on successfully executing a Hall of Fame feature—Quicksand’s Slip was my “groundball with legs,” way back in June of ’07. This meant interviewing all four members separately by phone, which necessitated specializing a few questions for each dude, but in the end mostly asking the same goddamn thing, worded the exact same way, four times. While conforming to dB standards and practices made the process a little boring at times, it was nevertheless interesting to identify the small fissures in memory and chronology in their shared experience. You get a more thorough picture. I’ve always disliked group interviews for that very reason—interviewing band members one at a time prevents, say, the singer from hogging the conch, the drummer from clamming up, the bassist from waiting for somebody else to tell the story, then chiming in with the cursory “Yeah, what he said.”

On the flipside, if you can corral a band in one room and there’s still some semblance of camaraderie and enthusiasm, you can get some entertaining overlap, and the guys do your job for you, going off into tangents and anecdotes you’d never dreamed of addressing. Most of our Ministry HOF went down that way, as Bill Rieflin, Chris Connelly and Paul Barker requested that they be interviewed together and separately from Al Jourgensen. And our forthcoming December HOF is 100 percent like that, as our esteemed writer (no hints) got an esteemed band (ditto) to chat about their classic record over dinner, and the piece wound up all the better specifically due to the way in which it was conducted. They riffed off each other, and good shit happened (then again, I wasn’t the poor bastard who had to transcribe it, so what do I know?) Guess the artist and album based on the clip below and, as usual, we’ll hook you up with a six-month subscription.

DECIBEL HALL OF FAME DECEMBER 2011

-AB

The November 2011 issue of Decibel features Skeletonwitch, Alice Cooper, Machine Head, Chimaira, Brutal Truth, and an awesome Anaal Nathrakh flexi disc, and can be ordered here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

It took us a while to get industrial pioneers Ministry in the Decibel Hall of Fame — classic case of the classic lineup hating each other’s classic guts. But enterprising staffer Chris Dick finally convinced the infamous “Book Club” (Paul Barker, Bill Rieflin, Chris Connelly) to sit down together and reminisce upon the bad old days alongside polarizing ringleader Al Jourgensen, and now we’ve got a satisfyingly blunt, insightful and acrimonious history of The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste.

I seem to recall lobbying for The Land of Rape and Honey and/or Psalm 69 when Team dB was debating the apex of Ministry’s long run. Near the end of this HOF, Rieflin wisely notes that Mind is a transitional record between the two. Literally, yes, duh, but he’s underscoring how all over the place it is; and yet, it really does boast some of the most powerful hybrids of Ministry’s “phase B” and “C.” (“A” being the “Everyday Is Halloween” era, which we’ve all tried so hard to forget.) Honestly, though, I feel like this is an outfit that never quite captured a start-to-finish stone-cold classic. They admit as much in the piece, as the Book Club straight up obliterates the record’s penultimate industrial/hip-hop hybrid “Test” (Al’s idea). It’s much harder to fuck with “Thieves,” “So What” and “Burning Inside”—although Al certainly tries with the latter.

The good-times HOF is in the Skeletonwitch issue, obvs, but you tell us: Which Ministry album is at the top of your personal Hall of Fame? (Filth Pig will not get your knuckles smacked in this classroom.)

-AB

Yeah, you could just order Decibel’s November 2011 issue, which also features Alice Cooper, Machine Head, Chimaira, Brutal Truth, and an awesome Anaal Nathrakh flexi disc — but why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?