Month: August 2011

When I heard Jani Lane of Warrant passed away last Thursday night, I immediately texted my attorney Juan Perez and recent Decibel cover artist Tom Neely, both of whom—like myself—are avid cock rock enthusiasts. Neely’s cogent response? “Too much cherry pie!” The details of Lane’s death hadn’t been revealed yet, but Tom was right, of…

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’s up, motherpeckers? Got some stuff for you this time; nothing too crazy, as it seems the releases are slowing down a bit, for a couple of weeks anyway. “You come…

This is a borderline case of premature ejaculation in the press/hype sense that the Deciblog maintained an unblinking vigil on Birmingham, England grind progenitors Napalm Death for news of the long-awaited follow-up to 2009’s Time Waits for No Slave, and ran like a fucking gazelle with a hot poker in its ass, straight to the…

There’s nothing this Decibel writer loves more than intrepid reporting out there in the concrete jungle to deliver old-school in-your-face journalism that’s so direct and unflinching, it stiffens the nipples of The Gray Lady. I’m lying. The only thing that got me out of the house this past Tuesday evening, when the sky was dumping…

If you happen to be in the neighbourhood of Port Burwell, Ontario a couple weeks from now, want to get away from it all but don’t want to get away from the metal, why not consider attending the inaugural Southern Ontario Metalfest? Modeled after the grand tradition of European open air festivals, the SOMF is planning…

Mike Scheidt, the Black Mastermind behind YOB, gives mass and weight to sound waves. And I’m pretty sure that defies one or two of the laws of physics, which means that he’s doing something supernatural. Which makes sense, because I’ve always considered YOB to be a sort of spiritual, transcendental experience. Not that I believe…

It will be a cold rest of the week in Boston as one of its sons is gone. Eric Stevenson, former drummer of the legendarily underrated band Only Living Witness, passed after a five-month battle with melanoma. He was 46. Stevenson was the father of a six-year old son and only three years ago had…

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 musical mavericks of Clutch, in our estimation, are the perfect band to represent the spirit of craft beer. The Maryland-based quartet has done its own thing musically and within the business side of the industry, and has been rewarded by a staunch following of diehard fans. They aren’t sexy, they aren’t trendy, but man…

I’m not trying to hate on Peter Frampton here, but I’ve been a bit leery of the entire live recording subgenre ever since I stumbled upon the devastating news that my favorite live album (Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide) wasn’t actually a live album. (What, was “Mama Kin” a song about the recording engineer’s “fuckin’…

One of the cool things about Italian facerippers the Secret is that they take the humanity and worthiness out of hardcore and replace it with a dark, doomy, occultist vibe. Like, their whole deal is really dark, shredding hardcore, but there’s that malevolence there that’s a product of jamming Darkthrone up loud and a total…

Because I couldn’t get to Wacken, the next best thing was reading the German websites for updates and photos.

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 time around,…

Spare a thought for all those hardy underground searchlights who’d been holding their breath waiting for Oakland, CA power-trio Brainoil to follow up the riff ‘n’ tumble of 2003’s superlative self-titled debut. They will have been dead and buried now, asphyxiated, gone purple in the cheek from the eight-year stretch when bassist/vocalist Greg Wilkinson, guitarist/vocalist…

It was only 18 years ago when Rorschach’s second album, Protestant, was released, but man, things were so very different. There was no Internet to help with communication or songwriting; if you wanted to write tunes, a bunch of people had to get face-to-face in a room.

I described them as a band that based their sound on the free-form noise and satanic soliloquy between the backend of “Don’t Burn the Witch” and the “At War With Satan” preview on Venom’s Black Metal.

CTS – Always Favour My Side by Decibel Magazine Alright, here’s another chance to win big. A lot of people go through life and they never win anything. Losers. Some babies are stillborn. The ultimate losers. Here is an opportunity to be better than that, by winning a copy of Catapult The Smoke’s new album…

Tour diaries suck. Here’s one from the future from Great Falls bassist/Decibel tell-it-like-it-isser Shane Mehling (not pictured, thank god). They will cover Sponge songs on request, but only from Rotting Pinata or Wax Ecstatic. Shudder before the insightfulness. Great Falls Future Tour Diary Wed, Aug. 3 – Baltimore, MD Fly in late and get picked…

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…

For whatever reason, when people talk about influential metal scenes of yore, the L.A.area  just doesn’t seem to get the credit it’s due. Sure, the whole Hollywood/Sunset Strip glam thing left its mark in the mid-’80s, but some of the world’s biggest and influential, ahem, “real” metal bands arose from the L.A. area much earlier…

What’s it take to walk the working class death metal mile? Immolation stalwarts Ross Dolan and Robert Vigna school Scion A/V on death metal’s majesty and decay in this exclusive follow-up to the Decibel premiere of the slick video for “A Glorious Epoch” last month. As a bonus, here is high quality footage of Immolation…

Denial Fiend could be considered an all-star death metal crew but that’s kinda disengenious when it’s more a case of seasoned offenders stitched together by previous convictions and a jonesing for horror movies and punk. Since forming in 2006, Denial Fiend have been part of the new old-school death metal revival much in the same…

Thanks to MTV, the words Jersey Shore have become synonymous with glistening douchetards, making plenty of us Jersey natives extremely upset at the portrayal of our seaside haven. So it was a sight for sore eyes when I saw this most excellent of men’s swimsuits while strolling the Asbury Park boardwalk this past weekend. It…