Decibel’s Black Metal Hall of Fame Issue Dissects Eight Classics

Decibel magazine is known for covering the extreme of the extreme. If you want to unearth the most underground black metal act that's only available via covert tape-trading networks based in Thailand -- well, chances are that Decibel already knows about them. The magazine's signature piece is its Hall of Fame feature, which celebrates definitive albums from the metal canon by interviewing every single member who performed on said record.

The magazine has created a special issue dedicated to their Hall of Fame pieces from the black metal genre. It's full of corpse-painted Christ haters and key albums by Darkthrone, Emperor, Rotting Christ, Enslaved and Venom, to name a precious, blasphemous few.

"Of all the genres covered in the six-year history of the Decibel Hall of Fame, it's by far and away the most difficult to assemble those of the black metal variety," editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian told Noisecreep. "So I'm exceptionally proud of being able to produce a special issue of Decibel featuring eight Hall of Fame entries!"

Mudrian was quick to point out that that the strict nature of the HOF -- interviewing all of an album's players -- does present challenges beyond the logistical nightmare of tracking down these elusive black metallers. "Bear in mind that all band members must be interviewed to assemble these pieces, hence the lack of Bathory and Mayhem Hall of Fame articles," he said, referencing the fact that some of the members of those bands are now dead and largely unavailable for interviews.

"But we've still managed to bring together the scene's largest -- and often most controversial -- figures, such as Varg Vikernes, Bård 'Faust' Eithun and Fenriz, as well as members of the genre's most popular bands of total like Immortal and Enslaved for this special issue."