Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: Electric Wizard Enchant the Cover of October’s 10th Anniversary Issue
By now, you guys know that we love to celebrate milestones. Our 50th issue show in Philly had quite the eclectic lineup, with locals A Life Once Lost headlining, supported by Julie Christmas’ where-are-they-now looney bin Made Out of Babies and pre-coffee-grinding/album of the year-caliber Tombs. The 100th issue show, well, you know all about that — there’s a DVD, for Christ’s sake, which is what you do when post-accident John Baizley plays with Converge, John Darnielle shows up for an opening invocation and Tomas Lindberg DJs. Not to mention we do a special cover story for every year’s incarnation of the Decibel Tour, offering unique transparency into how these roving metalfests are curated and executed.
Today, we break out the party favors again (and I wish I meant hard drugs): the October 2014 issue marks our actual 10th anniversary. We’ve banged out 120 of these bad boys since the Dillinger Escape Plan scowled their way into your hearts in October of 2004. And while that issue was only controversial for a logo that lasted 32 issues too long, this one has notoriety to spare. Dare I say it’ll be our biggest shit-stirrer since the Danzig issue more than four years ago, which singlehandely spawned a Sunday paper-style Henry & Glenn Forever. Not surprisingly, J. Bennett is the author of this month’s cover story as well, exploring the perpetual psychodrama of Electric Wizard. The piece is rife with acrimonious allegations between the Dorset doom legends and former members and label heads. Specifically, Jus Oborn dubs Lee Dorrian a “corporate, money-sucking cunt.” It gets even more fucked up, if that’s possible.
If extreme metal shit-talk isn’t your thing and inside-baseball Decibel lore is, Sean Frasier interviews the staff and a variety of hard-hitting musicians for our own personal oral history. On the eve of At War With Reality’s insanely-anticipated debut, Chris Dick delivers a Hall of Fame on At the Gates’ The Red in the Sky Is Ours. And 1349 tackles Voivod’s frantic “Tornado” for the Flexi Series. Loads of cool shit going on. Welcome to the party, pals.
October’s 10th Anniversary issue of Decibel also features Opeth, The Haunted, Incantation and Midnight, and can be purchased here but why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?
