DECIBEL Top 40 of 2012 by RECORD LABEL

A few months ago I cancelled my subscription to Decibel Magazine. It was partly because of the lackluster content (the excessive coverage to totally shitty bands) and partly because there were two months when the magazine did not arrive.

Since, I have bought the magazine occasionally and I actually just purchased the issue with the Top 40 of 2012, especially because of the induction of Sarcofago's I.N.R.I. into the Decibel Hall of Fame. The article is great, what's not so great is the inclusion of bands like August Burns Red and the Top 40 itself, which includes some obvious and deserving ones, alongside others that really just seem to make the cut because they either know people or are released by the right label.

The following is the main reason why I don't subscribe to the mag anymore:

Relapse 5
Nuclear Blast 5

Century Media 4
Season of Mist 2

Profound Lore 2

Metal Blade 2

Roadrunner 1

Neurot 1

Epitaph 1

Debemur Morti 1

Eone 1

Young God 1

Dark Descent 1

Spinefarm 1

No Sleep 1

Hydra Head 1

Prosthetic 1

20 Buck Spin 1
Tee Pee 1

Listenable 1

Handmade Birds 1

Self-Released 1

Inside Out 1

Seventh Rule 1

Lupus Lounge 1

Black Market Activities 1

So I Renewed My Subscription to DECIBEL Magazine

So after only a couple of months of having cancelled my Decibel subscription I had to renew it. There was no way around it.

First, I kept on getting these e-mails regarding the upcoming issues and those kinda got me thinking and jonesing.  Second, three issues that followed the issue with Electric Wizard on the cover were so great  (Chuck Schuldiner, Ghost & Pentagram) I found myself making frequent visits to Barnes & Noble. Considering that the retail price plus the gas consumed adds up to quite a bit more than the per issue price of a subscription should have been enough to rethink my cancellation.

But the most important factor regarding my renewal was the fact that as far as metal writing goes there is no mag that comes even close to Decibel. If there is anything that Decibel has going for it is its editor Albert Mudrian. Period, the man has taste and the pull to gather the most talented staff. Also, as a side note, I am inclined to think that the few shit bands that get included in the mag are part of the price he has to pay to keep the mag afloat. I mean, the latest issue features Chimaira for fuck's sake!

Anyway, I have been reading metal mags since i was about eleven years old. I am hooked. So after I cancelled my subscription I thought I'd be able to replace Decibel with something else. There are a few great fanzines, but those don't come with the regularity of a real mag and would leave too much time in between without learning about underground music. The 'mainstream' (for lack of a better term) options available are not at all enticing; Revolver is for children and people with awful taste, Zero Tolerance comes in tiny size, is printed in eye-irritating colors and minuscule fonts and seems to have been designed by someone with Tourette's and Terrorizer's emphasis on folk and power metal gets on my balls, plus their design is fucking awful as well. And did I mention that Terrorizer and Zero Tolerance being imports cost $10. Fuck, not in this economy. Oh yeah, and then there is Hails & Horns, but please, does anyone read that shit?

So Decibel may be far from perfect  but still beats out the competition by a longshot. It is not only the writing - the finest I have seen regarding metal in my thirty odd years - but the well-thought out and always entertaining structure of the magazine (some of the regular columns are hit & miss but nothing is perfect) which elevates this periodical and puts it playing by its own standards. So yeah, I capitulate...

ERIK DANIELSSON Writes Foreword to METALION: THE SLAYER MAG DIARIES

Bazillion Points Books reveals that frontman Erik Danielsson of Sweden's black metallers WATAIN has contributed an impassioned foreword to the upcoming 744-page hardcover book METALION: The Slayer Mag Diaries, an anthology and memoir by Norway's extreme metal godfather Jon Kristiansen.

The Swedish Grammy-winning Danielsson previously contributed to Slayer XX, the final issue of the legendary Slayer Mag, released in 2010. The musician also appears in the METALION book's gallery of color portrait photographs shot by Kristiansen.

Says Danielsson: "The first issue I got was Slayer X, and it was a monumental experience of being thrust into the very depths of the mad universe that was the black/death metal underground... Dead or alive, Slayer Mag will stand as a synonym for that unnameable, bloodcurdling feeling of solemn secrecy and evil genius that this movement has bestowed upon us."

Years in the making, METALION includes over 600 reproduction pages from every issue of Slayer Mag, spanning from the early 1980s through 2010. In addition, author Jon Kristiansen recounts his life's story, from alienated outsider to central figure in Norwegian black metal to world-weary metal survivor. The book also features over 100 rare photographs, including two color sections and a portrait gallery of photographs taken by Kristiansen himself.

"The greatest heavy metal story ever told" will be available in June 2011, wherever books are sold, and is available for preorder now with two bonus limited patches from Bazillion Points Books, "America's smallest but heaviest book publisher."

http://www.metalionbook.com

So I Cancelled My Subscription to DECIBEL Magazine

So this afternoon, after not so careful deliberation I decided to cancel my subscription to Decibel Magazine. It's a shame because I still enjoy the magazine and have been a faithful reader ever since I first picked up a copy at a Barnes & Noble back in May 2005 (Mastodon cover) but the magazine's delivery for the past couple of months has just been retarded.

Last month I received the GWAR issue about three weeks late. After noticing the mag in the newsstands I sent an e-mail to the customer service department and was told to wait. When I sent another e-mail about a week later and probably just a few days before the next issue was scheduled to hit stands, I was finally sent out the issue. I was told that I was not the only one experiencing problems and that since subscriber copies now include Flexi Discs, those copies take longer to process at their plant.

One should learn from experience, but they didn't. I was at Barnes & Noble on Sunday, and there it was; Electric Wizard, one of my favorite bands on the cover and I couldn't read it. Or, I could have read it, right there and then, but then what is the fucking point of having a subscription? So as soon as I got home I sent another e-mail to the magazine and two days later I was told to wait until Friday. That's three more days. I was informed that most subscriber copies had made it by the previous Wednesday. Take note here; the American postal service ain't bad at all. If mail takes two more days than it is supposed to, then chances are the packages are just never going to make it. Then, why should I have to wait an extra week?

Needless to say, the February issue / No 76 did not make it today (Friday). Irritated, I sent another e-mail and asked to cancel my subscription.

I still like Decibel magazine. So much so, that after cancelling my subscription I headed to Barnes & Noble to pick a copy of the Electric Wizard issue. The thought of waiting three more days to read it was a tad too much.  But other issues are not as appealing. It's a matter of taste, I am sure.

Decibel is a highly entertaining and informative magazine and a far superior read than anything that is out there right now. Not like they have much competition, what with Revolver's utter shittiness, Zero Tolerance's minuscule font, horrible format and god awful distribution and Terrorizer's exorbitant prices and hideous layout, but right before I renewed my subscription two months ago, I had to think hard whether I wanted to go one more year. I was unsure for a few reasons; namely, the extensive and tiresome coverage of a few high profile bands that get extensive and tiresome coverage elsewhere and a few annoying monthly columns that are a total waste of space (and I ain't talking about Kevin Sharp's or Richard Christy's columns) .  So the advantage of not having a subscription is that I will now be able to afford the luxury of choosing which issues I actually want to own.

SLAYER #20 + Morbid 12" Out Now

Description by Metalion Slayer Mag.
Interviews and articles with:

WATAIN
MORBID
WHIPLASH (Tony Scaglione)
BATHORY (several interviews and reviews in a somewhat big tribute feature)
666 (Norway)
SADUS
KREATOR
SAVAGE THRUST
MEDIEVAL
INVIDIOUS
DEATHRASH
OBSCURITY
NOCTURNAL GRAVES
SADISTIK EXEKUTION
SUNNO))
GROTESQUE
MASTER’S HAMMER
DESTROYER 666
PAGAN ALTAR
STRID
JARBOE
FUNERAL MIST
NIFELHEIM
as well as other more or less familiar features.

This issue also contains a A2 poster of Jon Nødtveidt with the actual cover for SLAYER XX on the reverse side.

This issue also comes with a mini LP by Swedish legends MORBID, the mini LP is called “Ancient Morbidity”, a statement from the band concerning the tracks on this “12 (From the interview in SLAYER XX BLOOD FIRE DEATH)

Tell us why those tracks was chosen for the “Ancient Morbidity” release? Is it important to know the exact origin of the tracks for instance?
- We wanted to offer something special to SLAYER MAGAZINE of course, so we dug deep into closets to get stuff that has never been released before – and pulled out some raw early stuff. “Tragic Dream” was a weird lullaby-esque track that Dead liked a lot, I think it was one of those things that Gehenna came up with when he was drunk and Dead then bugged him remember the riffs when he was sober. “Tragic Dream” was later on used as an intro to “Disgusting Semla”, but originally it was used as a beginning to “From the Dark”. The track “From the Dark” went through many many different arrangements, and all four guitarists contributed to it various ways. It proved very difficult to arrange, and one member even claim it should have been divided into three songs! This is an early recording, and as such it differs quite a lot from later versions. This version of “Wings of Funeral” predates the contributions later made by Napoleon Pukes, such as the guitar intro to the track that was added on “December Moon”. The live track “Necrodead” is taken from the very first gig (Ultrahuset April 26 1987), it is an encore version that never has been released and that will never be released anywhere else but through this SLAYER MAGAZINE release… The “12 is finished off with some true words spoken by the one and only Dead. It is taken from a SCAPEGOAT recording done by Dead and Gehenna - presumably in the bed room or something, (SCAPEGOAT later turned into MORBID) and is most likely recorded in ‘85.

The front cover is a slightly altered version of Dead’s suggestion for cover for the reunion “7 that was planned to be recorded upon his return in ‘91. The back of the cover is Dead’s poster for the cancelled reunion gig, that Dead and I tried to pull together in ‘89. Both back and front have been skillfully retouched by Erik Danielsson. The insert has the original art work by Dead.

A side:
Tragic Dream/From the Dark

B side:
Wings of Funeral
Necrodead

I’m of course extremely proud that MORBID had chosen SLAYER MAGAZINE to present this “12 so I feel I come to full circle with this.

100 pages, a lot of sadistkly exekuted artwork and personal photos.

Erik Danielsson not only did the the design of the MORBID “12 but also the front and back design of SLAYER XX as well as contributing several written pieces.
It has been a rough road putting all this pieces together, I took a break from all the activities concerning the magazine and I thought it would be all over……… I did decide that SLAYER 19 didn’t completely live up to be the last issue, so I wanted it to end in a proper way……..Don‘t know if it is better but at least I feel better about it………

Comparing it to other issues I never cared about, I just make what I make at my best way possible. Sometimes t is good and sometimes it is shit, but you can never know that when you are creating it………. Still, if you thought SLAYER was shit in the past this will not change your mind, it is SLAYER with all the errors, shitty journalism etc. Even if if it has been over six years since the last issue I don’t think anything could change that……….And don’t expect any new issues anytime soon - I feel like its all over……..truly an ending in flames. Finishing some of the pieces have taken an outstanding amount of time and to get into that process again is very unlikely.

I hope this lives up to expectations. I just purchased my copy for $27 and the only shipping available costs $15.30 for a total of $42.30.  I'll let you know if I feel like a sucker when I receive it.