Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: Teenage Metal Rules the June Issue
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…
The kids are all right—but NOT all white—in June’s Decibel. Teenage metal rules our two biggest features, first in the form of a well-deserved Hall of Fame for Death Angel, the all-Filipino Bay Area thrash band who delivered 1987’s opposite-of-precocious ripper, The Ultra-Violence. And second, there’s our first-time cover stars (clearly big Jackyl fans), who avid readers of the magazine surely saw coming. Noisem already tore shit up in the Flexi Series, opened last year’s Decibel Tour (impressing the not-easily-impressed headliner Carcass), and came firing out of the gates with Agony Defined, our ninth favorite album of 2013. And because diversity is fucking beautiful, only 80 percent of them (the two sets of brothers—I know, math) are white; bassist Yago Ventura is a Brazilian/Peruvian transplant who now gets to enjoy the florid splendor of central Maryland.
Our trusty scribe Daniel Lake hung out with the Noisem boys to chronicle their rapid ascent. You’ll learn that a lot of it has to do with grindcore’s favorite hype man, Blake Harrison of Pig Destroyer, babbling incessantly about the death/thrash face-peelers to A389 head honcho Dom Romeo. Suffice it to say, everyone did their part. There’s more (sonic) diversity, yet equal parts focused ferocity in June follow-up Blossoming Decay, an album with a pinch of cello (don’t worry, it’s mostly just for a creepy intro) and zero sophomore slump meandering. Being the baseball fans we are, we love seeing a top prospect actually pan out. The June issue is in the store now, and if you don’t like exciting young bands, uh, you should check out the lead review of the new Faith No More album.
The June 2015 issue of Decibel also features High on Fire, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, and Tribulation, and can be purchased here. But anyone who doesn’t just get a full subscription may be get a surprise visit from Noisem and their chainsaw.
