Decibel Books will publish "Deconstructing Towers: The Story Of Hydra Head Records" this December, the first full account of a label whose influence on extreme music has always outrun its paperwork.
Hydra Head was founded by Aaron Turner, later the frontman of ISIS and now a guitarist and vocalist in NEUROSIS, and it grew out of the Boston metal and hardcore scenes of the mid-1990s. It ran on an uncompromising aesthetic and, by the book's own description, was bound together mostly by handshakes. What it produced was a run of genre-defining records wrapped in artwork and packaging that treated the object as seriously as the music. A decade in, the label moved to Los Angeles — brighter lights, and a considerably longer way to fall.
The author is Shane Mehling, a longtime music journalist and the bassist in GREAT FALLS. He assembled the story from detailed accounts by the label's artists, Turner's former bandmates and the ex-employees who ran it day to day, covering nearly two decades.
Turner's own assessment, quoted in the announcement, is unusually unsparing for a subject who also drew the cover.
"Hydra Head Records was a complicated, gratifying, frustrating and ultimately life-changing enterprise to be a part of," he said. "Central to its existence was a dedication to musical freedom and creative integrity, coupled with a focus on fostering friendships through collaboration. Though the label fell short of those lofty intentions from time to time (and to be frank was a downright mess in certain departments), I like to think that the heart was always in the right place — and that what came out of the label left a lasting and positive impression within the underground realm it occupied."
He went on: "I am grateful to Mr. Mehling for diving headlong into the detritus left in the wake of Hydra Head's existence, to all the folks who took the time to talk with him about it, and who made it what is was in the first place: a sprawling, ungovernable, ferocious and (hopefully) endearing beast."
The book runs past 500 pages with a 32-page colour section, a large number of rare and previously unpublished photographs, and new cover art by Turner.
Decibel has put out a preview excerpt that goes back to the early 2000s and the major-label bidding war over CAVE IN, the label's own breakout act, triggered by "Jupiter" — which is as good a place as any to start explaining what happened to Hydra Head.
Books are expected to ship in early December 2026.