Month: December 2011

Late Christmas gift to self? Buy Mitch Harris’ guitars

December 30, 2011

OK, some of you won’t be reading this. No, you’ll be too busy trying out all that gnarly shit that fat Santa and his team of Jawa slaves brought you, right, cross-legged in front of a screen eviscerating pixellated alien invasions, or maybe, if you reside in the boondocks of the Southern states you’ll be…

For Those About to Squawk: Waldo’s Highlights of 2011

December 30, 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. Say goodbye to Father Time and hello to Baby New Year. The releases really slow down this time of year; there’s really not much for me to pecking write about, so…

R.I.P. David Gold

December 29, 2011

Having been out of the loop for reasons mostly pertaining to visiting family and cramming food into any available space in my body, I was gutted to hear about the passing of Woods of Ypres’ mastermind, David Gold. As I’m sure the pertinent details surrounding the car accident that took his life one week ago…

Dive Bombs and Dive Bars – Ramming Speed’s Guide to America’s Rock n’ Roll Venues

December 29, 2011

Reviewing music is good, but really, everything needs to be reviewed. Bands, albums, riffs, chicks, scenes, zines: all of it. And venues especially. In order to help us review anything that could ever possibly be construed as “heavy metal,” the dudes from Ramming Speed will be offering their critiques of bars, clubs and basements across…

King Diamond – “Abigail”

December 28, 2011

This is the album that solidified Diamond’s legend as not only one of the great metal vocalists of all time, but a great horror storyteller (and songwriter) with a flair for the dramatic.

Did Zakk Wylde Tell Someone to Kill the President?

December 28, 2011

No, no he didn’t. But some nutcase swears he did. James Vernon McVay, who rocks my favorite kind of tattoos- all faded and shitty, slashed the throat of a 75-year-old hospice nurse as the first step in his foolproof plan of driving to Washington DC to assassinate President Obama. And now after being caught he’s…

STREAMING: Riotgod “Firebrand”

December 28, 2011

It’s not often we bring you a bit of rock swagger. Mostly it’s darkly blasts, noisy grinds, or the brutalest of death that streams to the masses on the Deciblog. Mostly. Today, three days after an old fat dude in a puffy candy cane outfit dropped a deuce or two (socks, no-market cologne, lottery tickets,…

The Lazarus Pit: Golgotha’s Unmaker of Worlds

December 23, 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 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 celebrate another sunny Christmas with…

NUNFUCKRITUAL: Brief interview with hideous(-ish) mainman Teloch

December 23, 2011

Jeez, you do tend to reproach yourself when the wheels are set in motion and you’ve gone and booked Sunday evening interview time with a dude who shares his working hours between black metal kingpins Mayhem and the evocatively titled NunFuckRitual. Teloch came with the disclaimer that he has some pretty gritty stories to share….

KSP Blows His Load Over Another Band Few of You Give a Fuck About

December 22, 2011

Amsterdam-based KONG has been one of my favourite bands for over twenty years. I remember coming across a half-page story about the band in an issue of Metal Forces like it was yesterday, except it was 1990. The piece was promoting this oddball Dutch instrumental band and their debut album, Mute Poet Vocalizer, claiming it…

True Widow – A Top Five From The Soft Side

December 22, 2011

My mind has been bothering me a lot lately, and I’ve been trying to erase it or dull it for weeks. I know that marijuana and shoegaze is a good way to lose long spans of time, so I contacted my contact about having sleepwalk-champions True Widow create me a top five to numb my…

A Very Deciblog Xmas Day IV: My Favorite Xmas Horror Movie

December 22, 2011

Welcome to The Five Days of Deciblog Christmas, in which we corral your favorite extreme heroes into revealing embarrassing holiday anecdotes. Consider it free bonus footage as you prepare to give Amazon half your paycheck because you’re too lazy to support local businesses. On day four, after the jump, we stuff your stocking with “My…

Deck the Halls from the Bowels of Hell

December 21, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=0E-U-s8lCcQ I won’t waste your time describing this video which is pretty self-explanatory and should definitely be watched… but also this is the closest I get to a Christmas vacation so I don’t want to break my back writing all these difficult words when I could spend it explaining to my parents why listening to…

Big Boss (Root) Interviewed

December 21, 2011

Where do you see Heritage of Satan as a single album and as part of Root’s catalogBig Boss: This album fits perfectly into discography of Root. It is the symbolic ninth album, so this serial number really says something. [Smiles] I’m not sure how I feel about Heritage of Satan. It feels less complete than,…

A Very Deciblog Xmas Day III: The Best Record to Honor the Birth of Baby Jesus

December 21, 2011

Welcome to The Five Days of Deciblog Christmas, in which we corral your favorite extreme heroes into revealing embarrassing and hilarious holiday anecdotes. Consider it free bonus footage as you prepare to give Amazon half your paycheck because you’re too lazy to support local businesses. After the jump, day three gets down to business with…

Metal Machine Music

December 20, 2011

Don’t worry, this post has nothing to do with Lou Reed or his 1975 two-LP celebration of noise as “music.” Although, given the choice of listening to that album or LuLu, we’d take the former in a heartbeat. But we digress. We’re actually here to distract you from the ridiculousness of the season with a…

Studio Report: Rumpelstiltskin Grinder Grinds Out “Ghostmaker”

December 20, 2011

“Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, by nature, is a band that goes a little too far and takes things a little over the top,” guitarist/vocalist Matt Moore tells Decibel. “And we are completely in touch with our core values on Ghostmaker.” The band is currently putting the final touches on the follow-up to 2009’s Living for Death, Destroying…

A Very Deciblog Xmas Day II: The Relative I Only See During the Holidays Who Hates Me Most

December 20, 2011

Welcome to The Five Days of Deciblog Christmas, in which we corral your favorite extreme heroes into revealing embarrassing and hilarious holiday anecdotes. Consider it free bonus footage as you prepare to give Amazon half your paycheck because you’re too lazy to support local businesses. On day two, after the jump, we bring you “The…

Live Review: Napalm Death, London Underworld, 16th December

December 19, 2011

Just around the corner from the Camden Underworld, the BrewDog bar is exhibiting all the signs that tonight’s show is going to be over-subscribed despite Napalm Death’s much-anticipated and completed new album, Utilitarian, in cold storage until the New Year. The Scottish independent brewery’s own titular tribute to the Dead Kennedys’ anti-fascist anthem, the 7.8%…

STREAMING: Nekromantheon “Blood Wisdom”

December 19, 2011

What do you get when you cross prime German thrash — Sodom, Kreator, specificially — with the unparalleled gravity of Brazilian thrash, which was influenced by prime German thrash? Norwegian noisemakers Nekromantheon. Formed in 2005 in the same town (Kolbotn) that birthed the mighty/Deci-approved Darkthrone, this power trio from the North is perhaps one of…

A Very Deciblog Xmas Day I: The Worst Gift I’ve Ever Gotten

December 19, 2011

Welcome to The Five Days of Deciblog Christmas, in which we corral your favorite extreme heroes into revealing embarrassing and uproarious holiday anecdotes. Consider it free bonus footage as you prepare to give Amazon half your paycheck because you’re too lazy to support local businesses. After the jump, let’s kick off the week with “The…

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

December 16, 2011

Wow, the end of a year, huh? New beginnings, resolutions and, well, hopefully some good metal releases coming in the next year. The release schedule is drier than Betty White’s cooch right now, so since I don’t have too much to peck about, I’m basically going to trash Metallica in this column. I know it’s…

Remixing metal: What’s the worst that could happen?

December 16, 2011

Maybe it’s the straight-to-video action movie genre or the rising popularity of MMA that’s to blame, seeing that both seem to love setting action to metal guitars and electronic beats, but despite metal remix albums almost always sucking they’re not disappearing any time soon. On February 24th, Morbid Angel will release Illud Divinum Insanus—the Remixes,…

A Two-man Drum and Bass Band that Doesn’t Start with the Letter “L.”

December 15, 2011

Wither Lightning Bolt? The Providence bass and drum duo – not that type of bass and drum! – noted for their infectiously catchy and immensely noisy songs as well as their steadfast refusal to play on stages, employ a guitar player, use more than one cymbal and anything less than 2400 watts of bass amplification…

Saviours & Ramming Speed – 11/30 – Brooklyn

December 15, 2011

This show was at Saint Vitus, a heavy metal bar in Brooklyn. The place has a separate room for the stage, which is nice, or rather, brutal. I’d like to go there when there’s no show, because it was packed. I was there to rock, not to brush my cock against a bunch of bearded…

On Metallica’s 30th Anniversary, a thank you

December 14, 2011

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5no7Ym1JSA June 4th, 1996 was the day Metallica officially called it quits. While the short hair, Woodstock appearance and looming mainstream acceptance were warning signs, sitting at home and hearing “Ain’t My Bitch” for the first time solidified it: Metallica was no longer what they once were. As someone born in 1981, Metallica has sucked…

Ken Sorceron (Abigail Williams) interviewed

December 14, 2011

Becoming has a different feel compared to In the Absence of Light. What do you attribute that to?Ken Sorceron: Just looking back our catalog I would say each release has a different feel actually. I think we are proving to be one of those bands that recreates itself whenever and however we feel like it….

1991 Revisited: 20 Years Later and Metal Bands Are Still Bitter

December 13, 2011

The end of the year is always a time for reflection. Decibel‘s infuriating “Best of 2011” issue is out, and between angry emails sent to the magazine’s editors excoriating them for “fucking it up once again,” thoughts inevitably turn toward recollections of the past. We’re now 20 years removed from “the year that punk broke”—that…

Remembering Chuck Schuldiner

December 13, 2011

Ten years ago death metal pioneer Chuck Schuldiner lost his battle with cancer. As the fervor surrounding recent Death and Control Denied reissues clearly demonstrates, the man’s legacy has only continued to grow in the intervening years. There are several great remembrances floating around today — I particularly recommend NPR’s “Death is Never Finished” and…

INTERVIEW: Encoffination’s Ghoat on ritualism, working with death for real and “O’ Hell, Shine in thy Whited Sepulchres”

December 12, 2011

Encoffination do well to sound like they’ve been in the ground long before recording. A two-piece, drummer/duo located on opposite sides of the coast in Atlanta and San Diego respectively, their interpretation of death metal is begrudging of tempo and chokes the throat and nostrils with a real cloying miasmatic aesthetic. Guitarist/vocalist Ghoat insists it’s…