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, we have the second, best release from the second best band to be named after a ...

Tuesday marked the 25th anniversary of Cliff Burton’s death. Metallica were traveling through Sweden on the Damage Inc. tour in support of Master of Puppets, when the band’s bus crashed just outside Ljungby, killing Burton. He was 24. Sometimes it’s easy—perfectly natural, too—to over-egg it and go nuts when evaluating the dead’s music or art. But, fuck, Cliff Burton was pretty ...

According to the calendar hanging on the wall about two feet to the left of my bulbous head, today is Rosh Hashanah. In technical terms, this means today is the first of the high holidays, or Yamin Noraim, celebrated ten days before Yom Kippur and is observed on the first two days of Tishrei, the seventh month of the Hebrew calendar. Not being at all religious or Jewish, I have no idea what any ...

09/23/2011, Terminal 5, NYC Is this exciting, or what? Seeing Queens perform their self-titled was cool, but I never, ever thought I’d get to see Kyuss…or, uh, anything like Kyuss, either. When I found out about the NY date, as Decibel’s self-appointed toke-master general, I felt it was my duty to attend. In addition, I thought I better weasel my way back stage and interview desert ...

I was going to write what I hoped would be the definitive critique of the heart-stopping shit mountain known as Loutallica, but then I got this in my inbox: Korn announced today that they will release their tenth studio album, The Path of Totality on December 6. But this is unlike any Korn record. It's even unlike any record released before. Goddamnit! So the blood-starved Pimp Rock ...

To quote your bio: “SubRosa comprises the deep thrum that makes up the underlying plasma of our invisible surroundings.” What does that mean? Sarah Pendleton: We are attempting to be the sonic interpreters of that which is intangible. The name SubRosa implies mystery. Something hidden. Do you actively try to keep things a bit obscure? Rebecca Vernon: I don’t like it when people wear ...

Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. Well, once in a while, on Wednesday morning, a Decibel staffer or special guest will take to the Deciblog to bitch and moan at length as to why everybody’s full of shit and said dud is, in fact, The Shit. But for JYST’s second run, we’re expanding the ...

Because of the stature they have attained, much of the metal-loving world puts the Big Four as the sort of holy, uh, quadrinity of thrash metal. These are the bands—all American—that we consider the originators and finest progenitors of the genre. But not so fast. If we're to look at many of the Big Four's influences, the paths pretty much all lead back to the UK. So, it comes as no surprise ...

Looking to get off that sis river of dreams... ...and onto the thrashing, squalling river of rapture? Let Death Angel be your guide! The band is partnering with Jackson Guitars to give away three signed JS32 Rhoads guitars. All you have to do is fill out this online form and then mosey on down to one of the dates on the upcoming Anthrax/Testament/Death Angel tour. Oh, right, and -- ...

One way to make sure your festival doesn't suck, isn't polluted by buy-on bands and weird compromises that all but beseech the audience to head to the bar for every third act is to have Darkthrone's Fenriz choose the line-up. Using our favorite hiking metal punk's Band of the Week blog to draw upon, the UK's Live Evil festival does exactly that. The brainchild of Marek Steven and Mark Lewis, Live ...