Fear, Emptiness, Decibel: Bring the Noise
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…
We’re obviously pretty psyched about August’s Noise issue (even though for me it’s just another reminder that I’ll probably never get to do a Hall of Fame on Helmet’s Meantime or Today Is the Day’s Temple of the Morning Star). We’ve already told you about the basic premise, i.e., defining “noise” and specifically dropped some behind-the-scenes anecdotes about Melvins’ Stoner Witch HOF. Not surprisingly, we’ve had a couple of recent blog posts directly related to the stomach-churning, skullfucking contents of this issue, so here’s a little bonus footage for you.
William Bennett (Cut Hands) interviewed
For the unfamiliar, you should know right off the bat that Bennett is one of the driving forces behind controversial, influential power electronics entity Whitehouse. While that project is a pretty good entry point, Cut Hands delves even further into obscurity, combining “hand percussion and electronic ‘noise,’ and is chiefly informed by the mysterious music of Central Africa and its Caribbean counterparts, according to Chris Dick’s profile in the mag. In this post, Chris offers some deleted scenes from his conversation with the enigmatic Bennett, in which the veteran artists discusses the origin of the Cut Hands moniker, the evolution of electronic music since his start with Whitehouse in the ’80s, the relevance of Haitian voodoo symbols in Cut Hands’ music, his future plans, and plenty more.
Full Album Stream: Jar’d Loose “Turns 13”
This Chicago four-piece probably should’ve been profiled in the Noise issue, but we were too busy giving Scott Seward substantial real estate for his typically insane (and insightful, and hilarious, and spot-on) ramblings about his top 25 noise albums of all time. The oversight is rectified by a positive Kevin Stewart-Panko review in the forthcoming September issue, but you can stream Turns 13 right now and see what the fuss is about. What do Jar’d Louse sound like? What the hell, let’s give you a spoiler, courtesy of KSP: “There’s a Helmet-like, hypnotic repetition to the metronomic drumming and the way space, gaps and minute pauses are utilized to keep the listener on an anticipatory edge while Eddie Gobbo’s turpentine and sandpaper-soaked voice spins surreal yarns.”
Sucker for Punishment: Kill Everyone Now, Metaphorically
Like Dalton in Road House, Adrien Begrand is nice… until it’s time to not be nice. That’s why he’s tasked to bang out the Sucker for Punishment column every Wednesday morning: to be honest and unmerciful in picking through that week’s extreme music releases. This just happened to be a week where he mused about two noise-oriented bands we honored with long profiles—the Austerity Program and Boris. Of the former, Adrien notes that “their first full-length album since 2007’s Black Madonna treads the same path they always have, combining the churning, grinding skronk of Big Black with the mechanical power of Godflesh.” As for the always challenging Boris, Adrien says, “this time around, the past pop/shoegaze experiments loom large as well, as the bulk of the tracks here boast a much stronger sense of melody than the band’s earlier heavy work.” Mildly related, he also has something to say about the polarizing Soft Pink Truth, but we’ll leave that for you to discover.
If you want more noise in your life—and what we have to admit is a totally unrelated, but still killer Arch Enemy flexi disc—pick up the issue here.
Sure, you could JUST get the August 2014 issue of Decibel… but if you don’t just get a full subscription,Justin Broadrick will scream in your ear ’til you’ve got tinnitus!
