Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: This Year’s Decibel Magazine Tour is One Sequel That Won’t Suck
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…
I grew up in the late ’80s/early ’90s, and despite Steven Spielberg and George Lucas providing a few shining examples for the rest of the class, we didn’t really know how to make sequels then. Ghostbusters, Gremlins, Revenge of the Nerds, Teen Wolf and Major League were all great, great things that lost their way. So, as you can imagine, we don’t want the Decibel Magazine Tour to make a stupid fucking mistake that turns everybody off—you know, like Ogre becoming a nerd or trading the immortal Mr. Stay Puft for a dancing Statue of Liberty. (Although, I will admit, the incorporation of a Spider Gremlin onstage wouldn’t be the worst idea ever.)
No, we want the dB Tour to be a name that bands, promoters and fans not only trust, but get excited about. It worked the first time, with Behemoth, Watain, In Solitude and the Devil’s Blood on the marquee, but that doesn’t guarantee a second box office sensation. So, we’re taking the transparency route in the June issue. Although we wish it was so easy, we didn’t just snap our fingers and make Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death, Immolation, three killer rotating support acts and eight wild card regional openers materialize from thin air. Kevin Stewart-Panko painstakingly details how this death and grind behemoth was assembled from scratch. If you’ve ever read boilerplate advertorial about a tour and wondered “why didn’t they go after so-and-so band” or “what were they going for having Band X open for Band Y,” it’s all laid out right here for your judgmental eyes.
One piece of insider info that didn’t make it: how we got members of all three fairly spread out headliners in the same room well before the launch of the tour. Answer: Longtime cover photo maestro Ester Segarra shot the frontmen in London. Cannibal were on tour in Europe, which made Corpsegrinder a relatively easy get. Barney Greenway took the train in from Birmingham. And Ross Dolan flew in from Yonkers overnight on no sleep. Somebody has to get brutally screwed over to bring you the goods, right? We wouldn’t have it any other way.
The June 2013 issue of Decibel also features Kylesa, Intronaut, a Carcass Heartwork hall of fame entry, and an awesome Cannibal Corpse flexi disc. You can purchase it here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?
