Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: Kylesa Thrust Into Your Face

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…

Although Spiral Shadow dropped just over two years ago, Kylesa have been In The News of late: first via Laura Pleasants’ radical belt, featured front and center on our Women in Metal cover, and more recently via their Season of Mist comp From the Vaults: Part 1, not a crass between-albums placeholder, but a savvy reinvention and reintroduction of the band’s obscurities. So, now you’re good and psyched for the brand new album in April, right? Duh. But we still have a little more Kylesa love to thrust in your faces, in the form of the latest Converse x Decibel video.

The previous installment, featuring the inimitable Phil Anselmo, was among the best of the series so far, but this one succeeds by spotlighting Kylesa’s mellow, earnest thoughtfulness. Pleasants ponders effects pedals overspending and struggling to find the right headspace to write lyrics. Co-frontdude Phillip Cope has just as much to add about avoiding a signature recording style. It all makes for a compelling and intimate look at the Savannah avant-sludge crew in their longtime studio space, the Jam Room. Light up whatever you’ve got on-hand, air-drum for two, and get in the zone.

The January 2013 issue of Decibel, featuring Down, The Top Forty Albums of 2012, and an awesome Agoraphobic Nosebleed flexi disc, is on sale here. But why not just get a full subscription to  to ensure that you never miss an issue?