Month: September 2012

Agalloch – “The Mantle”

September 28, 2012

After nearly a decade of European dominance of all things anti-Abrahamic metal—starting with Bathory’s Viking-themed classic Hammerheart—Agalloch issued debut album Pale Folklore.

The Lazarus Pit Acrimony’s Tumuli Shroomaroom

September 28, 2012

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’re going on a 50 million…

Throw Me A Frickin’ Label Hack: Germany’s Oliver Kaah

September 28, 2012

Decibel knows you’ve got a metal wishlist 23 albums long and five gigabytes of Profound Lore records you still haven’t heard all the way through, but each week we like to give you the opportunity to tune in to a project that isn’t backed by anybody’s hype machine.  Because music is universal, expression is boundless,…

The Great Sabatini on Tour

September 27, 2012

Eagle-eye devourerers of Decibel will likely recall my review of Montreal’s The Great Sabatini’s latest album, Matterhorn in a recent issue. In reviewing their new record, I made reference to Pig Destroyer, Kyuss, Blind and Deliverance-era Corrosion of Conformity and described the proceedings thusly: “…hails from further out in left-field with more peaks and valleys…

Decibrity Playlist: Witchcraft (Magnus Pelander)

September 27, 2012

To celebrate the release of Legend, last week we brought you Witchcraft bassist Ola Henriksson’s playlist of weightlifting songs. We’d wager that this week’s entry, however, marks the first time any of the artists below have been, and likely will be, mentioned around these parts (other than this apparently). Not only did frontman and founder…

STREAMING: Bedemon’s “Lord Of Desolation”

September 26, 2012

Pentagram frontman Bobby Liebling has received much deserved attention for his comeback from a harrowing addiction and the revival of his musical career, not to mention late in life fatherhood. A few of his former bandmates might not have dealt with the same demons but they’ve had their share of tough times seeing their musical…

STREAMING: Stinking Lizaveta “View from the Moon”

September 26, 2012

“I think ‘Doom-Jazz’ means playing heavy music, but not robotically,” said bassist Alexi Papadopoulos to Decibel when we were all much younger. “We like to give ourselves the elbow room for self expression. We are very scientific about our modes and time signatures and cues, but that’s what makes it fun.” That’s exactly the type…

STREAMING: Snakedriver’s “Incessant Madness”

September 25, 2012

We’re of the opinion that there can never be too much metal in the world. Thus, we greet the news of a new label, Mutants of the Monster—started by C.T. from Rwake and David Hall from Handshake, Inc.—with great expectations. And the best way we here at Decibel can to celebrate the debut of this…

Benign Is Overrated

September 25, 2012

We’re just about two weeks out from a new Malignancy record (!), and the Yonkers, New York tech-death grinders have graciously provided Decibel with an uber-sick opening salvo entitled, “Global Systemic Collapse” — which actually might be one of the more cheerily optimistic tracks off Eugenics. Here’s what the band has to say about the…

Banger Films needs you! Help fund Metal Evolution’s “lost” extreme metal episode

September 24, 2012

Decibel usually maintains a safe distance from the film and TV business because, well, it looks totally fucked up and confusing and the printed word is a tough enough mistress to keep. But when anthropologist, award-winning film-maker and metal fan Sam Dunn came calling looking for funding and support for an extreme metal episode of…

Fursy Teyssier (Les Discrets) interviewed

September 24, 2012

How do you separate the debut and Ariettes Oubliées… as musical entities?Fursy Teyssier: I’d say that Ariettes Oubliées… is a much more dense and solid album than Septembre… as the concept of Les Discrets became more precise in my head, so I knew exactly which atmospheres I wanted to create and what the album needed…

Justify Your Shitty Taste, Celebrity Edition: KISS, “The Elder”

September 21, 2012

November 16th, 1981. Utter that date to any KISS fan and you’re going to get punched or hugged. Who knows, you may get nothing because maybe said KISS fan never did his homework. Either way, it doesn’t really matter because this is Justify Your Shitty Taste, and I’m talking Music from “The Elder” by KISS.

Bonin’ the Interhole: Portugal’s Malevolence

September 21, 2012

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….

And Bonzo Wept with Joy: An Interview with Hark

September 20, 2012

Hands up those of you who remember Wales trio Taint? Aside from having our man Bonazelli throw down as the band’s biggest supporter to the tune of given up first born and oaths taken on the graves of dead relatives, the trio gave the world three unfuckwithable albums (All Bees to the Sea, Secrets and…

Decibrity Playlist: Witchcraft (Ola Henriksson)

September 20, 2012

As detailed in our November issue, we’ve had to wait a good while between Witchcraft albums. When news of the band’s new record finally hit this May, the press release also nonchalantly dropped a couple of bombshells about the group’s lineup. Despite the changes, however, two pillars continue to be frontman/founder Magnus Pelander and bassist…

Inside The Shredder’s Studio #3: Jon Levasseur of Cryptopsy

September 19, 2012

Only a short introduction is needed here. This gentleman played on Hall Of Fame certified None So Vile, not to mention the inimitiable Blasphemy Made Flesh. He’s back in Cryptopsy and a big reason their eponymous new album rules. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re proud to welcome Jon Levasseur to the shredder’s studio this week. Hey…

STREAMING: The Casualties “Brick Wall Justice”

September 19, 2012

It’s isn’t often the “extremely extreme” or the “new noise” transitions from death, black, doom, or whatever to punk rock, so on September 19th, 2012 the Deciblog puts on a pair of 20-year old Doc Martens, trades our jean jacket with the Kreator backpatch for a leather one with studs and self-painted logos, and defies…

LIVE REVIEW: Fucked Up Deliver Sweaty Man Hugs For All

September 18, 2012

Fucked Up, Rifflandia Festival, September 14, Victoria, BCRifflandia has one of the coolest names for a music festival. It seemed in past years when it was smaller that it was more about the “riff” than it is in its current iteration, where hip-hop, Americana, indie rock and, well, Fucked Up intermingle. For instance, we preceded…

Meet A True Metal Badass: Papu Martinez

September 18, 2012

When through the magic of Facebook we recently learned that a twenty-five year-old aspiring solar panel technician and diehard thrash metal maniac from Calexico, California had tattooed the epic artwork from the poster of the inaugural Decibel tour onto his right forearm, it was pretty much inevitable we’d reach out. Turns out Papu Martinez is…

INTERVIEW: Mark “the Shark” Shelton on Hellwell side-project and new Manilla Road album

September 17, 2012

“Epic’s in my nature,” says Mark “the Shark” Shelton. “That’s all there is to it. It’s all about the telling of a good story.” He’s talking about his writing style and ethos for Manilla Road and new side-project with Manilla Road bassist Ernie Cunningham Hellwell, but such a declaration applies equally to Shelton’s expansive conversation…

STREAMING: Norska “Norska”

September 17, 2012

According to Russian linguistic experts, appending the suffix “ka” to the end of a word is to mean it’s little or so small it’s cute.

Bonin’ the Interhole – Francesco Marras

September 14, 2012

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….

Ahoy…or Something. Scythia Premiere “For the Bear”

September 13, 2012

Vancouver’s Scythia is a confusing bunch. Are they pirate metal? No, not really. Folk metal? Nah. They may have folk elements, but they’re not that dour. Yeah, you heard me. Battleshield metal? I made that up, but it makes them sound a lot tougher and more sinister than they actually are. Let’s go with what…

Decibrity Playlist: Vision Of Disorder

September 13, 2012

Back in 1998, Philly’s Troc hosted a fantastic triple bill featuring Sepultura, Vision Of Disorder and Earth Crisis. Notably, each band had released a record that year that, for better or worse, would serve as a turning point in its career. While Sepultura ushered in the Derrick Green era with Against and Earth Crisis jumped…

STREAMING: Lecherous Gaze — “War Woman”

September 12, 2012

We get a lot of music in these parts that doesn’t make you feel good. So dB will gladly accept sweet party anthems secure in the knowledge that many readers give ample spins to Appetite for Destruction when they are claiming to dissect some obscure 80-minute black metal opus. “War Woman” comes from Oakland’s Lecherous…

Ehsan Kalantarpour (AtomA) interviewed

September 12, 2012

So, what happened with Slumber? I know there were record label complications, but I didn’t know there were member issues.Ehsan Kalantarpour: After the first and only album Fallout Slumber got locked in a doom/death style. We felt that the album set way too strict formula on what we could do next. We wanted something much…

Hydra Head Flashback: A Decibel Predecessor Label Profile, Circa ’99

September 11, 2012

By now you probably know that Decibel came into blood-splattered existence in October of 2004, but you may not know that Editor-in-Chief Albert Mudrian and Publisher Alex Mulcahy began collaborating on regional indie record shop in-store magazine Stereo-Type well beforehand. In light of today’s shitty announcement that Hydra Head Records will be closing shop, we…

Dublin Death Patrol Deliver a Bay Area Beatdown

September 11, 2012

Like London, Ontario and Paris, Texas there’s a city in the California Bay Area with the same name as one of the great metropolises of the world. Yep, Dublin, CA was named after Ireland’s capital, but this East Bay suburb is probably best known in the metal world for being the hometown of some heavy…

Sink Into A Flame Bath

September 11, 2012

This morning Decibel has the pleasure of bringing you an appetizing little slice of “mile-high deathgrind” courtesy Denver’s own Enemy Reign. Culled from the super-solid, old-school-meets-new-school-and-for-once-they-actually-get-along upcoming full-length pummeller Between Hell and Oblivion, “Bathed in Flames,” guitarist Nick Guenther tells us, “puts everything we love about metal on display.” “Between the scorching blast beats, classic…

INTERVIEW: Noisear’s Dorian Rainwater on the New Mexico grind crew’s “Turbulent Resurgence”

September 10, 2012

What else could New Mexico nerve-shredders Noisear have named their forthcoming album? Turbulent Resurgence kinda sums everything up nicely; in the year since the release of the near free-jazz grind lunacy of Subvert the Dominant Paradigm, the band have shed some serious personnel and had to regroup and re-focus. But despite the changing of the…