Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: From the Makers of Leviathan Comes… Seed of Leviathan!!!
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…
Most of our covers feature snarling white men brandishing weapons. It’s what we do (“we” being the whites): make funny faces while threatening your livelihood. The March issue is a little different, and is unsurprisingly getting plenty of mileage on social media despite very few individuals to this point actually reading the accompanying story: as you can deduce, it’s Jef Whitehead of Leviathan, cradling his baby daughter Grail. The same notorious one-man USBM isolationist who responded to an interview request from our own J. Bennett nine years ago with, “I’m not interested in being in your magazine. At all.” The same man who faced multiple disturbing criminal charges—including domestic battery and sexual assault with “tattoo tools”—just four years ago. And we thought this cover was the end-all/be-all of shit-stirring. Not the case.
What’s amusing is that most of the backlash stems not from Whitehead’s legal woes (28 of the initial 34 charges were dropped, and he was found not guilty of all but one of the remaining six, which both he and Profound Lore label head Chris Bruni hotly dispute), but the presence of a baby on the cover. Selflessness, devotion and responsibility: not kult. And to be quite honest, we not only assumed that the generally private Whitehead would never go for such a provocative public look; we didn’t even suggest it. Turns out that after the shoot, Whitehead and cover photographer Shimon Karmel both thought the image would be cool, and pitched the idea to us. Really, what makes it so startling is that Whitehead, who has had issues with substance abuse, has transformed himself into a prolific, productive and (in life, not art) positive one-man army. Or, technically, one-man/one-woman army; he’s teamed up with girlfriend Stevie Floyd of Dark Castle to forge their own Devout Rcrds, which is dropping the vinyl for the astonishing new Leviathan album, Scar Sighted. And nine years after being soundly dissed, J. Bennett crafts a refreshingly candid feature about where this mercurial artist was and where he intends to go.
It’s just one component of maybe our most schizo issue yet: Living Colour Hall of Fame! Twenty slam-dunk Hall of Fames that have (so far) bounced off the rim! An Orange Goblin flexi! Pick it up here so your trolling can be as informed as humanly possible.
The March 2015 issue of Decibel also features Carcass, Living Colour, and Paradise Lost, and can be purchased here. But you’ll make Grail cry if you don’t just get a full subscription. You don’t wanna make a baby cry, do ya?
