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“Thrash, Gothic, D-beat” . . . From Hell can spin their sound any number of ways, but, the truth is, they are probably having a bit of mischief with a description of a sound that pulls in as many different directions as there are explodo-throat moments of fierce, faceripping freak-outery on debut album, Heresy. Released…

There are times when you need to strip away the blastbeats, the growling, the hyperbolic horror movie cover art, the hyper-aggressive posturing and just rock. Plain and simple rock. Clutch does it. Maybe they jam a bit, but the core is tried and true rock. Same with Zakk Wylde when he isn’t over using pinch…

What’s up, beaks and geeks? Your old boy Waldo is gearing up for the U.S.’s biggest metal party of the year. And while I’d LOVE to do a Maryland Deathfest-centric blog, there just aren’t enough new releases by those artists this time around; but, you know, fuck it, right? ZOMBIEKRIG release Den Vanstra Stigens Ljus,…

It’s impossible to be hyperbolic about the legacy of Jeff Hanneman. Our own Justin Norton comes right out and says it in this month’s cover story: “Every band ever featured in this magazine owes [Slayer] something.” Hanneman and Slayer have coursed through Decibel‘s lifesblood from the onset, from two Hall of Fames to two exhaustive…

The man-boys in Converge suggest we shouldn’t have any heroes.  Ironic, that, since they qualify as heroes themselves.  Another hero whose deeds we love to celebrate is Neurosis vocalist/guitarist Steve Von Till.  The man has helped guide the forces of nature his band channels into masterpieces of world-ending ferocity, and this alone makes him an…

Today marks the final installment of Old School hardcore Thrusdays with the members Umea throwback punks, AC4. Check out parts one and two, if you should so desire. This week, I asked bassist Christoffer Jonsson and guitarist Karl Backman to list off the albums they spent as much time longingly staring at back in the…

Want to know how excited Fight Amp is to be playing its first hometown show of the year? So excited that my fellow South Jerseyans decided to give away a pair of tickets to their May 28th show at Philadelphia’s Kung Fu Necktie and asked us to help. Oh, did we mention that the evening…

We remember the folks who were around when we started listening to metal. One of the people I have a vivid memory of is my old friend Robert Dyer: a wild haired guitar aficionado that sat next to me in many a math class during our four years at a parochial prep school. Robert often…

OK, where’d this come from? Majestic Loincloth’s been in the works for a while, right?Richard Christy: Yes, I actually filmed Majestic Loincloth as a low budget live action film with all my metalhead drinking buddies back in Florida in 2002 and 2003. I’d gather everyone together on a Sunday, buy a case of beer, and…

You like free stuff? Of course you like free stuff. Free stuff is pretty punk rock (not that I would know; I look like I should be listening to Coldplay or The National). Moshpit Tragedy have a whole slew of awesome crust, punk, hardcore, and grind, all available for “name your price” on Bandcamp or…

Superlative sludge thrashers Lair of the Minotaur recently burst back out of the infernal regions brandishing the sick (and extremely limited) new seven-inch single Godslayer. This morning guitarist/vocalist Steve Rathbone  chats with Decibel about the latter while we stream the former — the band’s first new material since the excellent Evil Power full-length in 2010….

A couple of weeks ago we told you that UK writer Dayal Patterson had finished off a 600-page history of black metal, Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, a book that aimed to peel the corpsepaint off black metal’s sensationalist public image and look at how it started and how it got to where it…

Sight of Emptiness are the first melodic death metal act from Costa Rica. The six-piece are currently shopping their recently completed album, Instincts, to interested labels. Guest appearances include Christian Älvestam (AtomaA, Miseration), Glen Drover (Megadeth), Ralph Santolla (ex-Deicide, ex-Obituary), Ole Halvard Sveen (Lengsel), Whitfield Crane (Ugly Kid Joe), and the Costa Rican Minister of…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a new twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Blood Bound Books first came to the Metalnomicon’s attention via Rock ‘N’ Roll is Dead: Dark Tales Inspired by Music — an exquisitely depraved, cleverly devised anthology which is not only dedicated…

Because every day another band records another song.  Because 83% of those songs are unlistenable and you can’t be bothered to sift through the dreck.  Because metal is about not giving a shit and waking your own personal storm.  Because music is universal, expression is boundless, and even indie labels (whatever that means these days)…

Houston may well be home to one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball history this year, so we threw them a bone in the form of the first gig of the 2013 Decibel Magazine Tour. You know the score: Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death and Immolation bring the death and grind thunder, Cretin, Magrudergrind…

As I continue on with part two of the three-part old-school hardcore Thursday feature with the dudes from Sweden’s AC 4 (check out part one here), this week I make the not-so-daring proclamation that hardcore is synonymous with Minor Threat. That’s about all I have to say, or should have to say. With that, we…

When Call of the Void is not on the road (most recently in support of recently released Dragged Down A Dead End Path), guitarist Patrick Alberts returns to work and, as he describes it, deals with PTSD (“Post Tour Super Depression”). Having never been on tour, I can’t identify other than to say that his…

Jaz Coleman is known for tackling big subjects in interviews: climate change; the degradation of the food supply; technological singularity and the Renaissance. Spending some time with him in person — not in a Conga line of press interviews — is a much different proposition, even if he still hints at his scholarly pursuits. Decibel…

5. Saint Vitus. Crosses galore on the second Vitus logo. Three of them. For the Trinity perhaps. The original SVS logo only had one. Three’s a crowd, we say. But this logo is boss. Looks a bit cheap and overdone at first blush, but the barbed letters? Could be heavy metal cliché. Nope. Crown of…

It’s been shitty and raining in Los Angeles the past few days. Obviously you don’t care, since we have beautiful weather 99% of the time, but these are perfect conditions for Set and Setting. Not because Set and Setting are shitty; they aren’t. If you’re going to listen to heavy post-rock like this, it’s best…

We got semi-retired punk/metal atavist Stevo do Caixão, currently of Tombstones and formerly of the legendary Impetigo, as well as Axeslasher guitarist/vocalist Professor Pizza, and metal scribe Andy O’Connor — sadly, that’s his real name — currently of Pitchfork, Metalsucks, and Noisey, among other publications, to break down the upcoming Maryland Deathfest, debunk old myths…

For a long while, Shining (SWE) and Shining (NOR) were swappable entities to the uneducated metal hoi polloi. Thankfully, they’re hardly interchangeable sonically (and visually), as one’s firmly razor-deep in DBM and the other is applying jazz, rock, and black into something rather undefinable—they call it ‘blackjazz’—but altogether Norwegian. Guess which one we have on…

Hey there, beak geeks; it’s been a while. Your boy Waldo has been suffering from a seed allergy.The theme for this week is old-school, so let’s just dig right into it, shall we? The most overlooked “tion,” IMMOLATION hit us with a new record called Kingdom of Conspiracy on Nuclear Blast. Right in time for…

When it comes to creativity and vision, the best of us don’t compromise. It’s easy to shift and jump on a trend to make a buck, or follow blindly when someone promises a path to success. It’s a path many of us would take. Those destined to make a mark never compromise on their vision,…

Admission of personal bias:  I think Max is awesome, because I’ve seen Max do Max’s thing in Max’s band (Exist) and Max’s band is awesome.  I once described Exist’s music as not metal so much as a rad jazz quartet that decided to plug in and rip it up all loud-like.  Those proggy death-flecked jams…

First thing you need to know is that what you’re reading is being written in mid-April. Don’t ask why, unless you come out to the Fear Factory/Hate Eternal tour, MDF or Chaos in Tejas; then you can ask me why. Anyhoo, if all goes the way I’ve planned, I will still be coming off the…

If you live anywhere near NYC and love extreme music, hopefully you’ve had a chance to check out Saint Vitus Bar in Brooklyn. Once you find and step through the black doored entrance, not only does the front bar offer a wide variety of drafts and specials, but the back room hosts some of the…

Jim Van Bebber’s audacious underground masterpiece The Manson Family recently finished its first proper domestic screening run in a decade. The following is the second half of our lengthy interview with the underground director (read the first half here). In this installment: rejection in Hollywood, Philip Anselmo and modern music. ***** When did you decide…