Month: August 2011

No Running to the Hills Today

August 31, 2011

Even though Iceland is bankrupt, cold and Bjork is printed on their money, 200 of its peoples are getting real tired of being in America, especially during the three dozen simultaneous natural disasters on the east coast. So what do you do when you need to get back to your homeland but regular planes are…

2011 NFL Preview: Scott Kelly and Chris Brock on the Oakland Raiders

August 31, 2011

We’re just a few weeks away from the return of the NFL, thank god. So, as usual, we contacted some of our favorite extreme musicians to pump up the underachieving fuck-ups they call their favorite teams. This Wednesday, two of the Bay Area’s finest, Scott Kelly of Neurosis and Chris Brock of Early Graves, try…

Disposable Heroes: Torche’s “Meanderthal”

August 31, 2011

There’s little more annoying on this planet than the immoral majority telling you how essential, transcendent and (huh-huh) seminal a particular extreme album is, when you know that it’s overrated as fuck. Hence, our new Wednesday morning column, “Disposable Heroes,” in which one brave soul sails against the current to inform all you clones why…

The Rathskeller, German Beer & KMFDM: Aug. 27, 2011

August 30, 2011

Victoria, British Columbia, is on an island, and as a result gets skipped by 9 out of 10 touring bands. Other than, say, Anchorage, Alaska, this is probably the most inconvenient city of any size on the West Coast to get to. It’s the capital of BC, but it’s distinctly removed from the rest of…

2011 NFL Preview: Greg Weeks on the New England Patriots

August 30, 2011

We’re just a few weeks away from the return of the NFL, thank god. So, as usual, we contacted some of our favorite extreme musicians to pump up the underachieving fuck-ups they call their favorite teams. This Tuesday, Red Chord bassist and still-reigning Hottest Dood in Metal Greg Weeks has typically high hopes for his…

The Armageddon Contest

August 30, 2011

Broken Hope lyrics always seemed like mini-synopses of potential horror sagas, so perhaps guitarist/wordsmith Jeremy Wagner’s the burgeoning second career as a dark fiction author should not come as a huge surprise. In his debut novel The Armageddon Chord — ably reviewed in the current issue of Decibel by Lucas Hardison — Wagner intertwines the…

UK doom duo Pombagira talk voodoo and Iconoclast Dream

August 29, 2011

It took a lot of guitar amplification to put together Pombagira’s fourth album, Iconoclast Dream. We’re talking some 19, 20 vintage amps and cabs in the arsenal; that’s overkill for most bands, even those more mob-handed in personnel would struggle to justify having such an inventory. But with extreme doom, where tempos are slow and…

2011 NFL Preview: Erik Rutan on the Philadelphia Eagles

August 29, 2011

We’re just a few weeks away from the return of the NFL, thank god. So, as usual, we contacted some of our favorite extreme musicians to pump up the underachieving fuck-ups they call their favorite teams. To kick the week off, Hate Eternal kingpin Erik Rutan can’t wait for Ron Mexico and the Rape Stands…

Plop Culture Dump O’ The Day: Animals Reenact the MTV VMAs

August 29, 2011

Mazzy the kitten as Britney Spears, complete with fake albino python. The epic shit-show of the year happened last night. MTV is a pathetic punchline at this point in history, but there’s one thing the VMAs were good for: an animal reenactment photoshoot, starring Mazzy, Muncie, and Mona the kittens and Moxie and Sugar the…

For Those About to Squawk: Waldo’s Pecks of the Week

August 26, 2011

Every other Friday, Waldo the African Grey Parrot, frontbird of thrash-grind immortals Hatebeak, will get you caught up on the week’s latest “extreme” releases. What up? Talk about beak, I mean bleak—these upcoming releases are about as barren as the Jundland Wastes on Tatooine… What can be said about KITTIE that hasn’t been said before?…

The Deciblog goes over the mountain with Randy Rhoads biographer Joel McIver

August 26, 2011

Randy Rhoads died 10 years before the official guitar tablature for Tribute found its way through my door, subsequently bogarting so many onanistic early-90s teenage years of practising guitar for the edification of no one save for the family spaniel. But the impact of his style—all neoclassical Ritchie Blackmore one minute and kinda like a…

How Far Would You Go?

August 25, 2011

I’ve done a lot for metal over the years. In an attempt to sport the longhair uniform, despite genetics handing my follicles a bum deal, I walked around looking like a frizzed out crackhead throughout most of the 80s. Rooms in my house are filled with records, CDs, magazines and not much else to varying…

Ancient VVisdom, A Godlike Inferno – Contest

August 25, 2011

We all have plenty of loud, noisy music to worship the goat with – never enough, in fact. But when it’s time to take it easy and still be evil, it’s not so easy, is it? Danzig has made acoustic evil in the past, Ulver did those strange soundtracks, and Burzum’s prison albums weren’t particularly…

Queensrÿche – “Operation: Mindcrime”

August 24, 2011

The Queensrÿche of today hardly resembles the leather-clad, high energy band of young metallers that burst onto the global underground in 1983.

How to Market Your Band, the Bag of Dicks Way

August 24, 2011

What Is Moira’s Lake? from Envinity on Vimeo. “The Most Expensive Album You’ll Buy This Year” That is the first thing you read on the promo page for Envinity’s Moira’s Lake. Here’s the second thing: “Even Though It’s Brilliant, That Doesn’t Mean You’ll Like It.” And so begins our quest throughout the worst, most self-important…

Disposable Heroes: Confessor’s “Condemned”

August 24, 2011

There’s little more annoying on this planet than the immoral majority telling you how essential, transcendent and (huh-huh) seminal a particular extreme album is, when you know that it’s overrated as fuck. Hence, our new Wednesday morning column, “Disposable Heroes,” in which one brave soul sails against the current to inform all you clones why…

The Jesus Lizard’s David Yow Goes Solo in NYC

August 23, 2011

OK, we apologize for the somewhat misleading headline, but we stand by its essential truth. Ex-Jesus Lizard/Scratch Acid frontman David Yow will be presenting his first solo NYC art exhibit called “Glass Gas Mask” this week at Fuse Gallery (93 2nd Ave, New York City). If you thought his lyrics and onstage antics were out…

A Rick Perry Supporter Plays With Madness

August 23, 2011

“It takes balls to execute an innocent man.” That appalling line (allegedly) uttered by a voter in support of Texas governor and now GOP presidential contender Rick Perry has dragged the infuriating, tragic case of Todd Cameron Willingham — executed in 2004 for a deadly arson he almost certainly did not commit — back into…

EXCLUSIVE: “No Stairway!” …Mick Barr’s Coiled Malescence album stream

August 22, 2011

Mick Barr is not the sort of guitarist to just chill on the money chords, putting out the catchy riffs and hanging off the pentatonic scale until the familiarity sends you tripping. No way. Whether it’s his work as one half of the mind expanding avant-garde duos Orthrelm and Crom-Tech, the dual-personalities of solo projects…

Plop Culture Dump o’ the Day: Gathering of the Juggalos

August 22, 2011

Photo by Bucky Turco for ANIMALNewYork. Welcome to the armpit of America, better known as the Gathering of the Juggalos. Since 2000, it’s been a misogynist/homophobic paradise, a narcotics flea market, and a reason to live for the roughly 20,000 attendees and enthusiasts of Insane Clown Posse. Check out Emma Carmichael’s account of her experience…

The Lazarus Pit: Celestial Season’s ‘Solar Lovers’

August 19, 2011

Welcome to The Lazarus Pit, a biweekly look at should-be classic metal records that don’t get nearly enough love, stuff that’s essential listening for students of extreme metal that you’ve probably never heard of.  Stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall of Fame for.  This week, we…

Full Disclosure: Primordial’s Alan Averill’s state of the world address

August 19, 2011

Spare a thought for Primordial frontman Alan ‘Nemtheanga’ Averill who, mid-scream at last week’s Bloodstock Festival, Derby, England was robbed of his powers. In comic book terms, this was like grounding Superman and surgically enhancing him the old lead contact lenses. But more remarkable is that he lost it in the first place, like, even…

Exploring the Color Spectrum with White Orange. And Red Asses

August 18, 2011

The psychedelic slew-foot of Portland’s White Orange first came to my attention because of the intricate design of their …And This is Why I Speak to You in Parables picture disc EP. My copy of …Parables sat at the front of my ‘to listen to’ pile for a long while. I would love staring at…

Finally Here: Decibel’s Swoop Haircut Generator!

August 18, 2011

Are you oblivious to trends in fashion and style? Are you a filthy long hair who doesn’t own a single hair product, except, understandably, Head & Shoulders? Have you ever wondered what yourself or a colleague would look like with a swoop haircut? Why not, right? Or maybe you’re trying to get your band into…

Exclusive- Century: “Oak God”

August 17, 2011

Century: “Oak God” by Decibel Magazine If you had told me fifteen years ago I’d be in Seattle writing about a song featuring Kevin Martin from Candlebox I would’ve punched you right in your goddamn time-traveling face. But thanks to Pennsylvania’s Century, this is now a reality on the track “Oak God” from their new…

Disposable Heroes: Electric Wizard’s “Dopethrone”

August 17, 2011

There’s little more annoying on this planet than the immoral majority telling you how essential, transcendent and (huh-huh) seminal a particular extreme album is, when you know that it’s overrated as fuck. Hence, our new Wednesday morning column, “Disposable Heroes,” in which one brave soul sails against the current to inform all you clones why…

Let’s Drink to El Chupa Cobras’ Black Whole

August 16, 2011

We don’t care how many records, CDs, T-shirts or sweat pants a band has sold in its career, it hasn’t officially “made it,” in our estimation, until it gets a beer named after it (or one of its songs). That is winning, no matter how you measure it. Even a little ol’ noise/math band from…

What it Takes to Be a Chump

August 16, 2011

I first learned of The Chumps at the dog park across from the basketball court where the opening sequence to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was shot — an appropriate setting, it turns out, considering how closely the band’s driving noise rock mirrors the churn, play, and occasional snarl of a large pack of pooches…

Heavy ship: Batillus’ captain Geoff Summers talks heavy doom

August 15, 2011

All of you good people out there whose recreational time is spent zoning out, hunting down and then getting suitably crushed in turn by overly hefty riffs should really be taking notice of New York doom outfit Batillus. Their debut longplayer Furnace has all of the weight required to wind on impact, but is also…

Exclusive Preview: Pentagram’s “When The Screams Come” DVD

August 15, 2011

You’d think that a band with 40 years under its belt would have figured out the whole commercialism part of the music business by now. Some of the more enterprising elder statesmen have given up on marketing their music — Marky Ramone has his own brand of pasta sauce, and Stephen Pearcy is hawking hot…