Featured

by Kim Kelly Richmond We’ve got a super-short drive today, so we wasted as much time as possible before hopping back in the van and firing up The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Josh brought along a bunch of brainless DVDs, so between those and Michael’s unwavering dedication to picking on Josh, it went quickly. Richmond is a…

While bands seem to really like doing these playlists, there is one theme that has become prevalent over the last 18 months: what gets listened to in the van while on tour. We’ve had the likes of Ufomammut, Intronaut, BATILLUS, Anciients and Kowloon Walled City (Side A of their list being my personal favorite) tell…

For your streaming pleasure this Wednesday we have a new song from the Finnish black metal band Sacrilegious Impalement. It’s a smoker in 1349 fashion. Stream “Down For Grim Lord” below and get in touch with the band here. Lux Infera is available from Woodcut Records. More on the band, in their own words: Formed:…

I think I’ve said it before and I think I’ll have to say it again. Black metal, on the Deciblog, isn’t represented fairly.

We asked Toronto’s premiere purveyors of “true, unadulterated heavy metal” Cauldron to keep tabs on the havoc and devastation left in the wake of the band’s epic America’s Lost tour and dudes did not disappoint. Part I lives here. Part II is posted below. Purchase the excellent Tomorrow’s Lost here. A handful of remaining dates…

by Kim Kelly As far as American black metal goes, Cobalt have got the market cornered on that classic “convoluted, vaguely threatening backstory” angle. The Colorado duo emerged in 2003 after the demise of Phil McSorley’s solo project, Grimness Enshroud, and quickly armed themselves with a sparse but jaw-dropping catalog. Through Cobalt’s raw, artful compositions…

Your friends at Decibel have teamed up with A Pale Horse Named Death to entertain you this summer. We’ll be hosting a blog series for the next five weeks detailing production of a video for their new album Lay My Soul To Waste and premiering the “DMSLT” video at the end. In the first installment,…

Lantern are a two-man death metal band from Kuopio, Finland, whose debut LP, Below, is the sort of warped and twisted 40-minute head-trip that should be mother’s milk to all those Decibangers who were weaned on the impenetrable darkness of bands such as Demilich and Demigod. Formed by a surprisingly mellow dude with a a…

** The Black Dahlia Murder’s Trevor Strnad details the band’s new album, Everblack, in this track-by-fucking-track run-down. Whether you’ve followed the Detroit-based outfit from their humble Motor City beginnings to the mountainous perch from which they gaze down lovingly and loathingly (that’s a word, shut up) at fans and critics alike, Everblack’s a monster of…

Do not adjust your volume. Despite a roster of luminaries from the Chicago metal and avant-garde scene, including Jef Whitehead (Leviathan), Sanford Parker (Minsk, Twilight), Bruce Lamont (Yakuza), Drew Markuszewski (ex-Nachtmystium, Avichi), and jazz cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm, this project from visual artist JR Robinson starts off squarely on the noise/drone end of the extreme spectrum….

Holy hell! I’m FIRED the peck up about this band from Baltimore. NOISEM release Agony Defined on A389, and man, is this a ripper! Part old-school Kreator, part old Pestilence at times, these kids — and I do mean kids — get this deathy thrash thing down pat. This thing moves and breathes, and has…

We all come to grips with death in our own way.  Personal loss has informed much of our favorite music, and last month a much more widely experienced sense of loss affected the heavy music community when Jeff Hanneman passed away.  Artist Justin Bartlett’s tribute to the late guitar hero came about as an online…

The ninth annual Chaos in Tejas fest begins in Austin, TX tonight. I have barely recovered from last weekend and Maryland Deathfest, but ever since attending CIT for the first time last year, I made the promise to myself that sleep, work and all that other crap can be worried about later when there’s more…

As someone who takes the subway every day, I’m disappointed in myself for never having thought to pair albums with various lines. So I give loads of credit to Kings Destroy vocalist Steve Murphy for not only coming up with the idea (not to mention his preference for express trains and disdain for the L),…

For your streaming pleasure today we have a track from Kalmah’s new album Seventh Swamphony. Listen to “Deadfall” below. Preorders are available in the band’s webstore. The album will be released via Spinefarm on June 18. From the press release: Finnish death metal legion Kalmah are pleased to unleash their seventh studio offering this June,…

How’d Highness come together?Brent Eyestone: Highness is a name I’ve wanted to use on “something” over the course of several years. There’s been just about as many lineups while the ultimate realization was being formed. Originally, the band was to be half of the All-American Rejects and half of Forensics when Mike, one of their…

Pre-show vampification ***As chronicled by Alia O’Brien, singer/flutist/organist for Canada’s finest occult rockers, from their current tour with Kylesa, White Hills, and Lazer/Wulf. Remaining tour dates listed below; preorder their phenomenal new LP, The Eldritch Dark, here Many people that we met in New Orleans insisted that the city is alive, and a short stay…

The Body’s Lee Buford is a man of few words, but he makes up for it with his band’s sheer amount of recorded output. They’ve hunkered down in Machines with Magnets in Providence, Rhode Island, and they are using their time in the studio to its fullest. “We’re recording three records right now at the…

We’ve been bringing you exclusive and comprehensive Slayer content since issue #2, featuring our first-ever Hall of Fame for Reign in Blood. Now’s your chance to get all of their cover appearances in one affordable package. Thrash over to the webstore and pick up our version of the Big Four.

Iceage may be young bucks creating some of the most intriguing/enlivening post-punk noise rock out there these days, but spinning the excellent You’re Nothing we had a hunch the much-lauded Copenhagen quartet might have ingested some metal along the way, too — and wound up getting this uber-sophisticated list of five extremely extreme favorites from…

You started recording in December 2012 and finished in April 2013. That’s a long time to track. Who are you? Metallica? I’m kidding. It was done in pieces, correct?Dez Fafara: [Laughs] Yes it was. The first part was that we had the demos and went on a two month run in the states and I…

With a spat of excellent releases from the likes Light Bearer, Amber, Momentum, Northless, Multiple Truths and Protestant, Halo of Flies Records has recently and consistently been knockin’ ’em out of the park. Another stellar forthcoming release is Certain Death, the new 7″ from Pittsburgh grinding powerviolence-ers, Heartless. To celebrate the occasion – and to…

Sometimes our love for quasi-musical extremes has a flattening effect on the diversity of material we hear.  Dynamics traverse the vast range from loudest to loudest-er, wanton mayhem and terror begin to appear tame enough for family breakfast conversation.  It can be refreshing to hear an album like Slidhr’s Deluge try to save black metal…

Do you love Decibel‘s most favoritest non-metal-but-kinda-pretty-metal band? Live near Charleston, South Carolina? Or just happen to be passing through the area this coming Monday, May 27th? If so, make sure you roll on over to Monster Music & Movies for a special in-store performance and signing session with Baroness, scheduled for 4:00 pm on…

Adam McGrath plays by his own rules, nobody else’s, not even his own. So when he sent over a list that simply included five “sweet” songs, who were we to argue? Not only does his time in Zozobra (guitarist/vocalist) and Cave In (guitarist) give him more than enough cred, judging by his selections (the first…

As quickly as Maryland Deathfest architects Evan Harting and Ryan Taylor brought the rage to outdoor stages, photos capturing the scene on Saratoga Street emerged, taken from the multi-story parking garage atop the venue. One thing very noticeable in said pictures are glowing cell phone screens being held aloft as folks attempt to capture the…

Things always come full circle. And when they do it’s either super-rad or pretty depressing. For Repulsion’s first visit to Stockholm, Sweden, it’s super-rad. Why? Let’s just say, the extremely extremes of Sweden’s early metal scene influenced Flint, Michigan’s grindcore/death metal revolutionaries Repulsion and, in turn, the dudes from the city whose motto is “Strong,…

Shredding in metal dates directly back to Tony Iommi, who is inexplicably still writing riffs and will be a big part of the new Black Sabbath album due next month. So, we figured it was a good time to invite a new generation of doom shredder into the studio this week. Mark Thomas Baker of…

How would you describe Aosoth to a newcomer?BST: We’re a French black metal band. The project has been created in 2002, but started really being an active band when MKM (vocals) asked me to join as a guitarist and song writer. That led us to record our first EPs and our first album. What originally…

***As chronicled by Alia O’Brien, singer/flutist/organist for Canada’s finest occult rockers, from their current tour with Kylesa, White Hills, and Lazer/Wulf. Remaining tour dates listed below; preorder their phenomenal new LP, The Eldritch Dark, here Two days and ten degrees (Celsius!) stood between our homes in Toronto, Canada and our first date supporting Kylesa on…