FEAR, EMPTINESS, DECIBEL: GET THE “WOMEN IN METAL” ISSUE NOW!

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…

Yes, this is our Women in Metal issue. It doesn’t exist to make us feel better about the fact that this happened, and yes, I’m obviously talking about the Bleeding Through callout. (Seriously, though, I seem to remember something about me being enlisted to model this because I was the only one in the office who owned a jeans jacket, and our budget was infinitesimal. One of those ideas that was shaky in concept and then just ugh in execution.)

Anyhoo, this issue’s just slightly better. Anyone with a brain who’s ever read this magazine knows it’s not our “holy shit, there are women playing metal and some of them are good” revelation, but simply a way to throw horns to the ones who do just that without making them get all “fierce” in Hot Topic bustiers. As Albert says in the ed notes, “90 percent of the women featured here have been profiled or had their bands’ records reviewed in these pages prior to this month (and they will be written about again).” And probably even on the cover again someday — god knows, Royal Thunder just put out one of our favorite records of the year, and it was only their first full-length.

So, yeah, partial newsstand proceeds go to Girls Rock Philly, Electric Wizard did a flexi exclusively for us (Liz shows up in the cover story to be predictably blunt and insightful), and over 70 musicians and behind-the-scenes industry folks share reflections on their metal journeys, past and present. Get your meows and wows, right here.