Dear friends, welcome to the second installment of our coverage regarding the upcoming Czech edition of “Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal & Grindcore” by Albert Mudrian, the editor-in-chief of the iconic American metal magazine Decibel. And it is precisely the author whom we shall introduce today in more detail.
Albert Mudrian grew up in Pennsylvania, in his own words “outside of any significant musical movement”. He was about 15 years old when he first encountered metal, at first bands such as Metallica or Testament, later on albums released by Earache Records, thanks to which he “developed an unhealthy obsession with the early ‘90s death metal and grindcore scenes”.
In summer of 1996, Albert began writing about extreme metal for the Philadelphia based publisher Red Flag Media, supplying them predominantly with album reviews of the likes of Embalmer, Mortician or Deceased. And as he stated, these articles then became his qualifications for penning down “Choosing Death”, which began in January 2002, when Albert was 26 years old, and concluded two years later.
While immersed in the process, Albert also got the idea of a metal magazine that would cover the happenings on the scene the way the U.S. pop culture magazines (such as Spin) did. And so, in September 2004 not only was the first edition of “Choosing Death” published, but also the Decibel monthly magazine was founded, becoming over time the center point of American extreme metal journalism.
Besides “Choosing Death”, Albert has one other book behind his belt, namely the “Precious Metal” anthology, which chronicles the origin stories of 25 cult albums of extreme metal.
And that is it for today. Enjoy and more next time!