Albert Mudrian is about to get on a plane and fly to California. He is the editor-in-chief of Philadelphia’s Decibel magazine, which has been booming since 2004, and sent a new factor to print Tuesday. He has a “day off,” then travels to Los Angeles to watch the West Coast edition of the magazine’s annual “Metal and Beer Fest,” which debuted at the Fillmore here in Philadelphia in 2017.

Decibel is one of the few heavy and excessive music magazines that you have not only in the United States, but also on planet Earth. The magazine, which is published locally through Red Flag Media (10th and Arch), also hosts an annual U. S. tour, and Mudrian is the author of several books on excessive music while collaborating with the Decibel website.

Mudrian, however, is also a big baseball fan and has been a Fan of the Phillies for decades, long before the team took that turn in the mid-2000s. We sat down with him to give us his take on the current state of the Phillies and the intersection. between conventional sports and heavy steel music.

Crossing Broad: You’re a big baseball fan. Napalm Death has released 3 albums since the Phillies last made their final playoff impression. How does it make you feel?

Albert Mudrian: (laughing) I’m in pain, but why? It happens to me. It’s been a decade since the Phillies made their last impression in the playoffs. This past age, I really like to think that it started around 2001, when they made the decision to pass 86 and 76 almost every year, but not qualify for the playoffs. For me, I see this bygone era as a full decade as it unfolded. I literally did my best to enjoy it and not take anything for granted, and not become the normal fucking boring fan of the Yankees season while waiting for the playoffs to begin. I enjoyed all the dominant years, especially towards the end of this race, when the 2010 and 2011 groups were exceptional and beat each and every one in this incredibly ugly division, the NL East Division. Not that it’s not ugly now, but I guess it’s another story. But honestly, it feels like a million years to me, while at the same time it’s fine to me because I literally took out every single ounce back then. He was hardly more pragmatic about things than the other Phillies enthusiasts who were dating as well, because he was looking to blow up this team in 2012. Like “shit, those guys are getting old. ” You may literally see the decline. The list was very expensive. All they had in the pipeline was Domonic Brown, who at the time, I think, was MLB’s third prospect. There was some hope there, but we knew there were not enough reinforcements. To answer his question, I probably deserve to just pay attention to those 3 Napalm Death logs, which I think are Utilitarian, Apex Predator, and Throes . . .

CB: Throes of Joy on. . . in –

Mudrian: Array. . in the mouth of something. Never the name, even though it was the Decibel album of the year 2020, I just call it “Throes” in my head.

CB: Well, it’s the music that counts, not the name of the album. Anyway, baseball is in an attractive state right now. The owners have just locked up the players. We’re talking about a universal designated hitter, commutes, seven-round doubleheaders, and all the other rule changes. Is the game well placed right now or not?

Mudrian: It isn’t, however all this communication is just bullshit, because it’s about the cash. Basically, they announced that they were going to pull all of this out of the collective bargaining bargaining, as if they didn’t even bother to communicate about the speed of play, the universal designated hitter. All they are going to communicate is about the cash and the structuring of the monetary aspect of things, which is extremely important. But at the same time, there is so much to do, and they are slipping and losing ground. Whether it lasts a month or two or even starts to jeopardize spring training, or it ends in April and they lose games, it’s a waste of ground. It fits into a regional niche sport, which is smart. I don’t care because it’s a regional niche world. It means nothing to me, however, if I am them, I cannot expand my product as well as I would if I had a national level like the NFL or the NBA. Look what the NBA has done. Why can’t Major League Baseball fall back on this expansion model? Is awesome. I don’t think the game is in a smart location, however I do think there are some wonderful players in the game right now. I think because of the way things are structured, there are too many groups looking to make their way to a title, which makes the ‘haves’ and the have-nots’ super transparent and only creates a bad one. baseball. It may not necessarily come up with a title. It is not a guarantee. I’d like to see things like a salary cap. I would like to see a minimum wage. I do not know how to do it. But man, those are things that would definitely get monetary viability advantages in the long run, and then they can help you grow the game and have competitive groups across all markets.

The Denver Khemmis appear in Decibel Magazine’s December factor.

CB: Jonathan Broxton used Black Sabbath for his front-end music, and Mariano Rivera had Enter Sandman, though honestly, there’s rarely a cross between baseball and excessive music, but you can move on to a Flyers game and still listen to Pantera and Megadeth on the SOUND system, and I think we place a lot of Eagles enthusiasts who will at least enjoy Metallica or dive into something heavier. Is this the extent of the crossover of excessive music in conventional sport?

Mudrian: I don’t know, because I like a niche sport, but I think it’s more about things like combined martial arts and wrestling. I hear about this moment from other people who say, “oh, there’s this fighter and his walkout music is this band Amenra,” which is this eight-member European doom steel band that’s going on to sell a few thousand copies in North America. And this guy is a valid fighter. I looked at his Twitter account, and he’s reaching a million fans (note: it’s AEW’s Malakai Black) This is an excessive example of things. I think it’s been like that, like when you have such a massive audience and you stick to something like one of the “four major sports,” and I move to five in football, just for you, Kevin.

CB: I that.

Mudrian:… from the way the numbers verify it, you can’t really go that far. Or even go beyond everything that already has a massive audience, like Metallica or Pantera. Pantera is heavy, sure, but they still sold millions and millions of records. Maybe you like to slip into Lamb of God or whatever, but I think the crossover is limited. This does not mean that the athletes themselves are not interested. The first user I like to use as an example is Sean Doolittle, the baseball reliever, who I think he finished last year with the Mariners and started with the Reds. Most likely, he’s having his heyday with the Athletics and then the Nationals, but he’s a true fan of excessive metal. In (Oakland), when he was closer, he was swooning over Ride the Lightning era Metallica. It was definitely another vibe with someone like him. There are those people, but they are usually the exception. He just watches the music of the Phillies. There are some smart songs that aren’t metal, but there are some bad things, like J. T. Realmuto. It’s not a smart scene. We’re a long way from the Pat Burrell days of Holy Diver.

CB: Chase Utley no longer passes Zeppelin.

Mudrian: There is no Kashmir in this range.

Veteran MLB reliever Sean Doolittle is a well-known heavy steel fan (Stephen Brashear-USA TODAY Sports)

CB: There are notable sports enthusiasts in our music world. Erik Rutan (Morbid Angel, Hate Eternal) loves the Eagles and made a steel canopy of the death of “Fly Eagles Fly”. The Slayer boys were photographed dressed in Raiders clothes. Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris is perhaps a bigger football fan than me. Probably this is where most of the crossing comes from.

Mudrian: I think so. They are like the rest of the people. There was a time when punk and steel musicians felt alienated from the “jock culture”. This kind of thing disappears a little bit as one ages and can appreciate it for what it is. as if the captain of the football team no longer threw you in a locker and you could possibly watch an adult football match, I think there’s a detail of that as you get older, as you see more and more That’s not to say there are other people who have been around since the beginning who love heavy steel and sports, however, you regularly see it metastasize a little more with age.

CB: This stereotype bothers me. He is the symbolic flesh-headed football player who hears steel to be pumped, then hits his head with his own helmet, and is now in a position to cross a brick wall. Our music is competitive and makes the juice for athletes, however. we are not all Neanderthals.

Mudrian: I never understood that. For me, it’s been to have to pay attention to that kind of thing so I don’t run down a brick wall, to not have to hit my head with anything (laughs), it’s a way to avoid that kind of habit. in other people, if you have that kind of tendencies, or that repressed aggression and frustration (extreme music) it’s a relief. The overwhelming majority of people I know who are enthusiastic are other super cool people. Don’t get me wrong, there are several fucking troglodytes. I heard one this morning, which I was very disappointed that we posted a code of conduct for Metal and Beer Fest on social media. They took a moment to email us to tell us that the steel was about “hate and violence” and that we didn’t perceive things. I don’t know how you have the courage to write this email.

CB: I’ve noticed that heavy steel is the opposite of that. To me, it’s like we’re in the parking lot before the Judas Priest show. Everyone is drinking beers, talking, laughing and having fun.

Mudrian: Sure, the roots are there. Of course, there is aggression and alienation. But it’s been very community-based. Having been preoccupied in this scene for so long, it’s something that has become clearer to me over the years. I’m not saying it’s perfect, however, it can take any subset of other people or any organization and there will be assholes in that organization. It just happens. Metal enthusiasts are less difficult to stereotype because of their overall appearance.

CB: In 2010, Matt Harvey of Exhumed challenged you to gamble. He said that if the Giants beat the Phillies in the NLCS, you write an essay on why the Giants are great, then grow a Brian Wilson beard, dye it black and post a photo with that beard, have you already accepted this bet and met your market percentage?

Mudrian: Man, I forgot. You know, I feel like there was a gentleman’s agreement, that the effects of the series would be punishment enough for whoever lost that battle. At that time, it was indeed so, that I had won my vital bonus. , Cody Ross’s visions are still strong. Hopefully I won’t forget; I don’t have any data on what “Harv” was intended to do if the Phillies were successful in that exhibition there because I think it was something that was equally implausible.

But yes, no, I didn’t realize it. I flatly denied that and felt depressed during a total off-season. He wasn’t satisfied until Ruben Amaro Jr. threw a ton of cash at Cliff Lee, and then he was fine in 2011.

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