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 dig through the Metal Blade vaults and find one of the true oddities in their catalog – a debut album that ...

We've been geeked on Finland's answer to My Dying Bride since 2003 when the fearless Finns issued debut album, The Morning Never Came. Years and four full-lengths later---the latest of which is the subtle yet stunning Emerald Forest And The Blackbird---, we're still nuts about Swallow The Sun. So much so, we pre-empted the album stream premiere by interviewing keyboardist/king metalface Aleksi ...

Bands like Gojira and Godflesh might be major brand names ‘round these parts, but mention them to your average Metallica-loving broseph and you’re likely to get a squinty-eyed, the-fuck-you-say? half-nod.  But Decibel just won’t quit.  We dig deeper, danker, darker and dirtier (though rarely fitter or happier) to turn up a few otherwise overlooked gems.  While Throw Me a Frickin’ Bone ...

The little birdies over at Century Media want us to present a sweet contest where One (1) winner can get tickets to see Decibel cover darlings Paradise Lost [issue #92, HERE], Devin Townsend, and Katatonia in the righteous flesh when the bad-ass tour of late summer kicks off September 4th in Seattle, Washington. But guess what? Not only will the One (1) winner get tickets, but CDs from all ...

When we were told that Chicago's Like Rats featured members of grind provocateurs, Weekend Nachos getting in touch with their inner Tom Warrior (the one who's written about in the Only Death is Real book, not this one), we got pretty excited. We got even more chuffed when Dom at A389 came a ringin' with the offer of sharing the entirety of the band's latest, and first full length, with you ...

To celebrate Tuesday’s release of Dead End Kings, we asked Katatonia guitarist Anders Nyström to a pick a non-Katatonia record that related in some way to each of his band’s nine full-length records. Last week, Anders’ entries took us from 1993′s Dance Of December Souls up through and including 1999′s Tonight's Decision. Now, starting with 2001's Last Fair Deal Gone Down—our number ...

One of the more intriguing things to have landed in my inbox recently is Finland's Arkhamin Kirjasto. It might be because music writers are anxious to drop a label on something and it's damn near impossible to classify. Is it power metal? Hard rock? Or, as the band says on their Facebook page, "Lovecraftian Hard Rock/Death Metal"? That sort of has all the bases covered, even if Lovecraft liked ...

Normally, we like to pen a few lines of senseless drivel to entertain before you click that orange button thingie, but today---as August rightfully wanes into oblivion---our digital inkwell is virtually dry. Parched, if you will. That being said, we're going to let Daylight Dies dash your hopes and weather-make your sunny day outright cloudy. They can do that, you know. It's time to enter an ...

You may have noticed that Decibel has a bit of a Deciboner for Gaza. Witness the recent Deciblog posts where we premiered a new track and had a fucking parrot review the new album, No Absolutes in Human Suffering. Well, we're not done yet. No sir. To celebrate the release of the new album today (Aug 28), the good folks at Blackmarket Activities have graciously offered up one copy each of the ...

The latest rhythmic noise rock opus from Hex Machine, Fixator, is out today and, boy, it sure is a careening, seething monster of a record -- squalls, hooks, and powerhouse riffs galore. You needn't take our word for it, though: The band has graciously offered the Deciblog a full stream below. Hex Machine's upcoming fall tour will feature the lineup of Trevere Thomas on guitar/vocals, ...