Chris Dick

Moored by American funk and disco, reggae, dub, krautrock and the individual members’ sonic predilections, Killing Joke was more than the sum of its parts. It was a scene unto itself.

Friday, March 11, 2011: Philadelphia, PA (Kung Fu Necktie)After hastily packaging our new Viking Funeral LPs, meeting up with our most excellent roadie and merch extraordinaire, Jeffrey Hollis, bidding farewell to our friends at The Acheron and The Anchored Inn (best new bar in town! 59 Waterbury Street 11206), and packing all our gear into…

There’s nothing like regurgitated giblets in the morning. Using tools of the trade (i.e., fork and knife), we consume the gross, the unsightly, and the wrong to get us ready for traffic, silly ridiculous Excel spreadsheets, and reading press releases about odd bands signing to mainstream indie labels (uh, Jungle Rot signed to Victory). It’s…

At what point to you feel a song has been completed? I typically ask this question of bands who write long songs to see if there’s a threshold and if there is when to they feel it’s been reached.James Kelly: For us, it is when it has climaxed in terms of the energy we intend…

“Γοργόνειον III”, the front cover painting commissioned by Relapse Records for Horseback’s double album “The Gorgon Tongue” has quite a bit of history behind it.

The disconnect between classical music (all types) and heavy metal (all types) is probably less to do with musical form (although blues-based heavy metal is obviously divergent) than class. See, people into classical music are largely of a different economic, educational, and social background from dudes who headbang and play air guitar to “Fucked with…

Discovery Channel has Shark Week. Decibel Magazine has Stream Week. We’ve ‘streamiered’ (copyright, please) Septicflesh’s “A Great Mass of Death” (Season of Mist), In Solitude’s “Serpents Are Rising” (Metal Blade), and now we’re saving the best — Decibel Editor-in-Chief Albert Mudrian has officially screamed the following platitude while standing on his desk both hands outstretched…

You know, it wasn’t just me that went apeshit over Septicflesh’s previous album, Communion. Yes, I thought Sumerian Demons sucked, so going from suck-a-puck (it’s hockey playoff time) to rule-the-school (it’s exam time) is quite an accomplishment for the longstanding Greeks. Decibel contributor, The Mountain Goats mainman, and Stephen Colbert-approved John Darnielle also felt the…

The retro metal thing hasn’t played itself out quite yet. Sweden’s In Solitude (interviewed in the upcoming dB #80) are, perhaps like countrymen Ghost and Enforcer, on the forefront of the throwback-yet-modern sound emanating from the greatest metal country on planet Earth (my determination; feel free to dispute). Sure, the name In Solitude sounds like…

OK, I’ve never owned a vest. Not sure why. When I was young, I remember older kids around the neighborhood (we’re talking Flint, Michigan here) would sport denim vests proudly over the top of name-a-‘80s-metal-band-or-cola-here t-shirt. It was their uniform. Even in mid-August, they’d walk around in their denim vests (hair picks in the back…

Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. Well, every Wednesday morning, a Decibel staffer or special guest will take to the Deciblog to bitch and moan at length as to why everybody’s full of shit and said dud is, in fact, The…

No secret to anyone familiar with Decibel, its fearless editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian, or the magazine’s highly-trained metal taskforce that “seminal” (their words not ours) Florida outfit Morbid Angel are crucial the existence of proficiently extreme, Lovecraft-informed death metal. Countless—as a quick test of our quantitative use of “countless”, ask your fav band if Morbid Angel…

5. DawnSlaughtersun (Crown of the Triarchy) (1998) A barely known album. This time not via No Fashion Records. Necropolis Records from the U.S. took care to bring this release to life. Unfortunately, no tour, proper promotion or distribution supported this third album of the band, so maybe a few diehard fans will remember the group….

Viewing ApparitionsBy Scott Koerber On Sunday night, NY Doom-Death progenitors Winter brought their hypnotic blend of Hellhammer-meets-Amebix-on-quallludes to a sold out crowd at Union Pool in Brooklyn, NY, the band’s first show in 20 years. In the years since their last live appearance (way back in 1991), the band has risen from obscurity to legend…

HENDO vs. FEDOR: Should It Happen? When I first heard of this match up, it sounded like a perfect fit: two legends of the sport who have never faced each other despite being in the same promotion for years! Granted, they are not in the same weight class, but since when did petty things like…

Greek grape-leaf dolmas rule. So too does Greek black metal. Stretching as far back as Rotting Christ, Varathron, Necromantia, Zemial, Thou Art Lord, Greece’s storied black metal history rivals the Norwegians. In fact, the Norwegians were heavily informed by the extreme sounds of the Mediterranean. Not to dwell on the past too much, we’ve brought…

Ominous Doctrines of the Perpetual Mystical Macrocosm is your fifth record. How do you feel it compares, artistically speaking, to its predecessors?Dagon: Artistically and technically, it’s the best album Inquisition has done in every sense. The performance is tight, the production is clear and very organic, the riffs are rich and more on the attack…

On March 1st, we streamed new Vicious Rumors tune, “Razorback Blade”. It ruled. Yeah, we’re sure you said, “Vicious Who”? They’re ’80s. Not as in nu-’80s, but ’80s. They were there when riffs were fast (as a shark, possibly?), aggression was the primary emotion, and white Reebok hightops (the ones with the big, floppy tongues)…

UFN 24: Quick Thoughts • Antonio Rogerio Nogueira: “I will let Phil choose how he wants to lose this fight.” That has got to be the best quote I’ve heard all year! • There’s only one Mr. Wonderful, and his name is Paul Orndorff (a pro wrestler who is most famous for feuding with Hulk…

Every year — well, the last two for this writer — key parts of team Decibel travel from the City of Brotherly Death (i.e., Philadelphia) to Harm City (i.e., Baltimore) for the exalted festival extremely extreme music, Maryland Deathfest. Every year, Maryland Deathfest is an endurance test. How many kick-ass bands can one — or…

What’s the difference between American Heritage (MySpace link) and American “Fucking” Heritage?Scott Shellhamer: One has more fucking than the other. Adamn Norden: Regular American Heritage will act like it wants to get to know you first. Your primary influences—if we’re using food ingredient methodology to determine most to least—are “masturbatory fantasies of middle-aged bureaucrats”. Can…

Have we seen the last of Cro Cop in MMA? Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic is a living fighting legend, of that there is no doubt. But 99% of the clips from his fights on the countdown show to UFC 128 were from his days in Pride – not surprising, since he’s been everything but devastating…

It’s no secret Decibel and Napalm Death aren’t just Facebook friends but bestest pals. We’re the beat to their blast, so to speak. Decibel editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian’s favorite band is, well, Napalm Death. The Brummies (that’d be folk from Birmingham, England) were well chronicled in Mudrian’s Choosing Death book, were cover stars for dB #53,…

Obliterating everyone in attendance at this year’s Scion Rock festival in Pomona, California, British black metallers Anaal Nathrakh appear poised for extreme metal dominance. Though the group’s history takes them back to 1998 (debut album, The Codex Necro, landed in 2001), it’s the recent output, namely 2009’s In the Constellation of the Black Widow, that’s…

Hello All! Dorian Rainwater and Thomas Romero of Noisear here. We have been asked to give a Top 5 feature by the amazing people at Decibel Magazine. We have chosen to give our main influences in the extreme metal/grindcore genre, which have had a huge impact on us and serve as a key element to…

ZUFFA PURCHASES STRIKEFORCE: Drunken Hallucination or Impossible Reality? When I first read the news about this unexpected deal, I couldn’t believe my eyes! I was at an after party here in Göteborg (HammerFall had just had a listening session for our new album with journalists from all over Europe) and I was just checking the…

Do you see much similarity—musically, thematically—between Belus and new album Fallen?Varg Vikernes: Yes I do. Musically because it’s still Burzum (…) and thematically because to some degree Fallen deals with the same subject, only it’s not in a mythological context, and on a personal level. I know you didn’t see Belus as black metal. But…

Quick thoughts on UFC Live 3 Sanchez vs. Kampmann Martin Kampmann got ripped off. He should have won that fight, and not just because Diego Sanchez’s face looked like he had been run over by 14-wheeler, but because Kampmann landed more accurate strikes all evening and defended all of Diego’s relentless take-down attempts save for…

What happens when members of Aussie brutes Destroyer 666 and Aussie precision bombers Razor of Occam team up? Assaulter. Is it thrash metal? Yes. But does it have a bit of black metal? Yes. Actually, it’s the very sound replicated in the mid-’90s but with a double-punch to the nuts and noggin. Says Simon Turner…

So, you haven’t picked up our cover story [db #77] on the inimitable Death. Yeah, I know. Reading’s hard, but somebody’s got to do it. No, you say? OK, then. You’re missing out on the most exhaustive Death story ever told. Not by journalists (well, there’s one interviewed for the story), but by the ex-members…