Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: Rotting Out Working Out

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 at Decibel are big fans of working out, then immediately ruining the slight good we did with alcoholic overindulgence (which is not the worst thing in the world when it leads to vomiting that same evening—thin is in!). Rotting Out vocalist Walter Delgado seems just a tad more disciplined. I mean, take a look at the dude. Not just the body, but that friendly toothless grin. It’s hard to imagine that expression changing while he plants you into the ground, fist over melon, cartoon-style. Stuff of nightmares.

Delgado’s also a great storyteller, unpretentious and open, and it shows in the latest Converse x Decibel video. When he’s not leading his throwback SoCal hardcore crew through ragers like “No Clue” and “One More Kiss,” he’s an avid power-lifter. We asked him to explain his unique passion and learned plenty. For starters, just finding a gym on the road can be brutal—not all of them cater to the lifts Delgado’s interested in, and it’s not easy to fit in two to three hours of work before popping back in the van. As you can imagine, the day-to-day strain of training is incredible (“your body doesn’t know how to shut down properly”), but one of the pros is that a power-lifter’s goal is to gain weight. So, like our man says, “I fall asleep with cinnamon rolls in my mouth.” Sounds like the life we all aspire to, with only the physical fitness part lacking.

The May 2014 issue of Decibel features Triptykon, Mastodon, and Failure, and can be purchased here… but you don’t just get a subscription, we may send Delgado to your house to power-lift YOU.