Chris Dick

Fallen, the eighth album from Burzum, will be released in North America on April 5.  The album is the second to be released via Varg Vikernes’ imprint Byelobog Productions (via Candlelight for the territory).  The album features seven new compositions by the controversial Norwegian musician; each adding another storied journey to the celebrated Burzum legacy….

I’m pretty sure the dudes in Full Blown Chaos are tough as skyscrapers on the surface but soft as teddy bears on the inside. Just look at these guys. They make UFC superstars piss their pants and ask for mumma, but shove a Blue Heeler puppy in their face and chances are they’d go into…

Scion A/V just announced the line-up for the 2011 Scion Rock Fest. Uh, it’s ridiculous! Morbid Angel, Obituary, Death Angel, Municipal Waste, Agalloch, Integrity, Bastard Noise… Well, you can just read the handbill for the rest. This looks to be an awesome ear-destroying fest. And it’s fucking free (if you RSVP)! Also, Decibel are co-sponsors….

Perhaps the expiration date has passed since the Decibel-sponsored Darkness Reborn World Tour has been toe tagged for almost a month now, but semi-deep reflection over the events at Philadelphia’s Electric Factory warrant at least a few digital inkwells be spilled in reverence to one of the three bands supporting headliner/arctic Mad Max lookalikes Dimmu…

All wars must come to an end. For the Deciblog and Sodom, this week is our final week we assault to your sensitive senses in the form of streaming thrash metal madness from our favorite German legacy act. Though Kreator and Destruction get props, too. For week 7, we’re capping off things with a two…

You write long songs. At what point do you go, “OK, I’m done. The song is complete.”? M. Lehto: A Collapse of Faith and also the previous album The Womb of Primordial Nature have long songs on them, no question about it. It’s something that worked for me naturally as I usually like to make…

Over the past few years, we metallers have seen our special sigil—the goat horn—stripped of its significance (i.e., magical power) by clueless celebrities (Miley Cyrus gets it wrong first then gets it right second) and pop culture junkies looking add ‘edge’ to their persona. That ‘edge’ they seek is, or rather was, ours. True, I’ve…

Is is Week 6 already? Time sure does fly. Between Week 1’s double smartbomb drop in “In War and Pieces”, “Hellfire” and Week 5’s god-blessed existential query in “God Bless You“, Sodom shows that despite its members nearing the nifty Fifties they can out-Thrash just about any young buck nu-thrasher in a bootleg Forbidden shirt…

Back when time was kept on watches and not phones (i.e., the period shortly after the demise of the trilobites) Swede Dan Swanö was producing records by Opeth, Katatonia, 59 Times the Pain, Millencolin, Coercion, and bunch of other “nobodies”. Decibel got a peek at Mr. Swanö’s “studio guestbook” when we inducted Katatonia’s Brave Murder…

For the last five weeks, we’ve slowly peeled Sodom’s In War and Pieces apart by presenting you, our faithful reader and hopeful subscriber (shameful plug), an advanced audial view of what the German legends have in store for 2011. We used war metaphors (terrible ones, really) and tried our best to come up with sensible…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0mTkZyNwuY Typically Dimmu Borgir get it right (OK, not right if you’re an BM elitist who mailorders and uses Money Orders instead of credit or Paypal to pay for the latest ‘diehard’ re-re-press of Asgardsrei) when they pick a video ‘single’. “Progenies Of The Great Apocalypse“? Yes. “The Serpentine Offering“? Yes. “The Chosen Legacy? Yes….

Four weeks ago, dB premiered two tracks, “In War and Pieces” & “Hellfire”, from Sodom’s upcoming full-length In War and Pieces. Streamed by millions (well, not that many, but it was significant), thrashers got to hear legends in what appears to be their prime. Yeah, we said it. Then, “Through Toxic Veins” & “Nothing Counts…

.neon has been ready for more than a year now. What took so long?Herbst: There were some problems between Prophecy and my old label. But fortunately all turned out to be cool in the end. You know, it’s very frustrating, when you work so hard on something and you simply won’t get anything back. I…

Until 2009’s What We All Come to Need, Decibel has had a long honeymoon with Chicago instru-metallists Pelican.

Hello fellow Deci-punters. Typically, we don’t toot our own Viking horns—well, we’ve done it before when Decibel Managing Editor Andrew Bonazelli released his acclaimed A Regular book and when Decibel Editor-in-Chief Albert Mudrian clashed swords with Da Capo Press to bring the Precious Metal book to life—but on this occasion, which is near Christmas, originally…

Over the last three weeks we’ve been fortunate enough to open three cans of Sodom agent orange on your sorry fiveheads. Week 1 we premiered an uncompromisingly intense set of tracks in “In War and Pieces” & “Hellfire”. For Week 2, another two cans (“Through Toxic Veins” & “Nothing Counts More Than Blood”) of Sodom…

5. Black Sabbath “Paranoid” intro riff Tony Iommi is the fuckin’ man. The way his guitar sounded back in the ’70s was just evil compared to everyone else. Whether it had something to do with the way he layered distorted guitars on the recordings, or whether it was due to his playing style or missing…

By Nate Hall (U.S. Christmas) #5. Dixie Collins – Weedeater It takes a special kind of person to create a sonic mirror, a tone that reflects the individual hitting the strings. When Dixie straps on his cheap Squier P-Bass, slugs back some of Kentucky’s worst and switches on his amps, the ungodly wails that erupt…

Since we do more interviews than we ever care to admit (transcription is the devil!), we figured we’d open the journalistic kimono to our Facebook and Twitter friends/haters when the opportunity to interview Chicago tech-death specialists Veil of Maya presented itself.  We always ask the same damned questions. “When did you form?”, “Why did Johnny…

Over the last two weeks we’ve been fortunate enough to open two cans of Sodom tear gas on your sorry asses. Week 1 we premiered an uncompromisingly intense set of tracks in “In War and Pieces” & “Hellfire”. For Week 2, another two cans of Sodom tear gas were ceremoniously launched out of the dB…

Track-by-track commentary by Zafrir Zori (Dukatalon) “Pai’s” [audio:https://www.decibelmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/01-Peis.mp3] A person who holds an arrogant truth, taunts, preaches, and tries proving everyone wrong ends up being the worst of them all. “Run” [audio:https://www.decibelmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/02-Run.mp3] This one deals with a state of mind where you want to run away and dwell in a secluded place, but such place…

There comes a time–mostly mid-to-late teens–when you want your preferences known. Any and all preferences. Musical, religious, movie, food, drink, fuck partner, etc. You broadcast your preferences anywhere there’s retail space. Could be on a folder you bring to class (admittedly, I’ve never seen, “I fuck Amanda” instead of “I love Amanda” scrawled on a…

Last week, we here at the Deciblog unfurled two tank-shredding Sodom tunes, “In War and Pieces” & “Hellfire”, to much fanfare. Rockets were bursting in air, bombs all red glare, we’re here to prove Sodom’s still gallantly streaming. This week, as previously announced, we have two more daisycutter songs in the form of “Through Toxic…

Arrving at the infamous Trocadero later than expected, party Decibel—all one of us—found Holy Grail amping up their final song of the night. Aggressive, competent and young, but replete with every leather pants-ed cliché known to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Manowar, the Californians may (some day) evolve into a formidable heavy metal machine. For…

In honor of the holiday most associated with one of the seven deadly sins — gluttony — we’re pleased to give you Death Metal Rooster Explained. True, roosters aren’t turkeys, but to date no one has uploaded a video of a turkey roaring for 30 seconds. Or… Since we think we’re funny, here’s Heretic Soul…

This much is known: though black metal from the kingdom was initially informed by Venom, Bathory and Hellhammer, inventive teenagers and twentysomethings in Oslo, Bergen and various towns all over the country quickly transformed it into something else.

German thrash beasts Sodom released their debut demo, Witching Metal, in 1982. Holy shit! That was 28 years ago. Few of us can remember what we were doing in 1982* — probably watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan or wondering, “Who is Ozzy Osbourne? And why does he like bats so much?”, but…

It’s no fucking time to start a record label. Physical sales have been hit by multiple (and surgical) airstrikes, digital downloads have flatlined, and record stores (not the big box crap either) ain’t having it easy. So, what does Scion A/V do? Of all the crazy things to finance, even angelically, Scion A/V have started…

So, two Norwegians — ex-Emperor/ex-Zyklon guitarist Samoth and Mindgrinder/ex-Scum guitarist Cosmo — and one Swede — ex-Dark Funeral/ex-Aeon drummer Nils Fjellström — team up to form The Wretched End. Now, typically Swedes despise the Norwegians for one reason or another (usually because the Norwegian Kronor has more purchasing power than the Swedish Kronor and the…

OK, when Albert, Scott K., and myself think doom metal we automatically throw horns, put on our ankle length leather jackets, and head out to the moors for an “atmospheric” photo shoot. Actually, we don’t have moors here in Pennsylvania, but a trip to Centralia, PA always sets the right “mood”. Anyway, there’s been far…