Year: 2013

Opeth – “Blackwater Park”

December 31, 2013

For years, Opeth toiled in relative obscurity. Caged to Candlelight Records for three fantastic albums and Peaceville for one stupendous full-length, the Stockholmites’ import-only status could’ve continued had Opeth’s new home, Music for Nations, not been a label proper.

New Year’s Metalutions

December 31, 2013

In 2014, I resolve to: Descant the insalubrious. Yoko Ono Chimaira. Stop smashing hammer faces. Train my army of attack hamsters. Look into whether or not goat sacrifice requires a permit. Resist your touch of evil. Follow Darkthrone on tour. Convince Albert to do a Hall Of Fame on Nightwish’s Wishmaster. Transcribe Obituary lyrics. Watch…

INTERVIEW: Sindre Solem from Obliteration

December 30, 2013

On November 12th, Norwegian death metal atavists Obliteration finally broke their silence with Black Death Horizon, the long-awaited follow-up to their awesome 2009 LP, Nekrospalms. Where ‘psalms spread the gospel of old-school death metal through riffs redolent of Autopsy et al, Black Death Horizon finds Obliteration visiting a new plane of extreme metal. Death metal,…

Top 5 Albums NOT In Our Top 40 Of 2013 List

December 30, 2013

** Every year we do it. Decibel assembles a list of killer albums based on a secret algorithm. This year, I wanted to add to our Top 40 list (as published HERE). Albums I felt were overlooked on our list. The artists and albums reflect my opinion only and weren’t subject to the secret algorithm….

Celebrate 10 years of Seventh Rule by winning all their records

December 23, 2013

What with a holiday season to service and a ten-year anniversary to celebrate, the good people of Seventh Rule Recordings have doubled down on the good cheer and offered you the chance to win their entire vinyl discography in their 10 Year Glitch Prize Package Says a dispatch from Seventh Rule’s Portland HQ: “Seventh Rule…

Decibel’s Top 13 Most Metal Holiday Songs Ever

December 23, 2013

Many of you might have noticed—If you listen to radio that is, but that’s another blog entirely—on Black Friday many U.S. radio stations flipped from their respective formats to Holiday. All across this great (not so great if you follow Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity with any seriousness) land of ours Adult Contemporary and Pop…

TRACK PREMIERE: Monument of Misanthropy’s “Entering a New State”

December 23, 2013

If I commissioned a sculptor to create a monument dedicated to the hatred of mankind, it would probably be a metalhead with hair dangling in front of its eyes, carved from black onyx and brimstone, and “Entering a New State” would be blaring in a continuous loop from a speaker tucked inside the statue’s mouth….

For Those About to Squawk: Waldo’s Best Pecks of 2013

December 20, 2013

Well, we all know that the year is winding down, so it’s that pesky time for end of the year lists. These are in no PECKticular order, so, you know, these are just some of the releases that are a better than fit to line my cage with. Noisem, Agony Defined:  This is thrash played the…

From the Shuman Vault: Nosvrolok’s Maledictum Parasytus

December 20, 2013

Years ago, a former non-Decibel coworker caught wind that I was digging into the grimy corners of the blackened underground.  This coworker – a Mr. Shuman – immediately targeted my mailbox for blast ‘n’ rasp overload.  Data CDs loaded with entire discographies of 3rd tier blasphemers with photocopied cover art, cast-off compilations, and duplicate copies…

BREWTAL TRUTH: Drink This Now!

December 20, 2013

As far as we’re concerned, this is imperial (or Russian imperial, if you prefer) stout season. This is when it’s time to bring out the big guns, the sipping beers for those dark, cold winter evenings. Dark weather demands dark beers, and these are some of the blackest out there. It’s a fallacy that all…

He Who Laughs Last, Doesn’t Laugh With Beaten to Death

December 19, 2013

As long as Oslo’s Beaten to Death exists, debate will exist as to whether they’re taking grindcore into uncharted waters and making the world a better place because of it, or whether they just plain suck for the same reason. Personally, their first album Xes and Strokes and newest, Dødsfest! are two of the freshest…

Decibrity Playlist: Enabler

December 19, 2013

Enabler has had a pretty busy year. Amidst a slew of tour dates (including opening for Rotten Sound throughout the Old World), the group put out two EPs, the most recent of which it dropped last month. As if that wasn’t enough, according to Facebook, the Milwaukeeans are currently tracking their next full-length right now….

Scion A/V Music(Less) Music Conference – The State of Metal Merchandising

December 19, 2013

By now, Scion A/V, the creative enterprise of Scion, which is a subsidiary of Toyota, is familiar to most metallers. Take it as a multinational sticking its cash-filled fingers into the underground’s bum or as an unlikely benefactor to artists like Immolation, Arsis, Enslaved, Primordial, and countless more, the company willing to throw multi-stage music…

Episode DB005 – Neill Jameson of Twilight/Krieg

December 18, 2013

Prolific USBM artist Neill Jameson sits down with Albert and Andrew to discuss Krieg’s inclusion in the Top 100 Black Metal Albums of All Time special issue, the tumultuous new Twilight record and his bleak observations about life behind a record store counter in 2013. Featuring:Krieg “Fallen Princess of Sightless Visions…”Twilight “Lungs”Krieg “All Paths to…

Decibel Premiere: IRON REAGAN video

December 18, 2013

Today we close down operations for the Wednesday afternoon Deciblog in 2013 with one more batch of awesome. Thank you to the people and bands who have contributed, been interviewed or offered up their work for public appraisal on hump day this year. Iron Reagan has received a lot of love in our world: Worse…

Sucker For Punishment: An Anti-Top Five

December 18, 2013

It’s become fashionable on social media to complain about the sheer volume of year-end music lists that appear every December, and certainly more and more seem to surface every year, but to be honest I love year-end lists, and I try to read every one I come across. The excitement of discovering great new music…

In League with Santa: A Metal Holiday Gift Guide

December 17, 2013

If you’re like me, you’re super lazy and wait until the last minute to buy gifts for people. If you have a metalhead in your life, though, it can be difficult to find that perfect present. After all, it just doesn’t seem that clever to get them yet another set of Death reissues. Don’t worry,…

Jar’d Loose Celebrate ‘The State’

December 17, 2013

So the much-beloved MTV sketch comedy show The State premiered twenty years ago today (!) and to honor the anniversary Chicago avant noise rockers Jar’d Loose have churned out a nutty/awesome cover of the Craig Wedren-penned theme song: Original here. A Jar’d Loose Deci-premiere from last year here. Also, the band is doing short tour…

Weird moments in metal #1,327: Richard Pryor’s Black Death

December 16, 2013

The late, great Richard Pryor was many things. With his game face on he was the funniest man on the planet; Jerry Seinfeld said he was the Picasso of comedy. Pryor was a proper maverick who offended a whole bunch of squares who needed offended, and fittingly turned up in the weirdest of places, perhaps…

Peter Wiwczarek (Vader) interviewed

December 16, 2013

** As a longtime Vader devotees, Decibel had no clue (OK, I didn’t) debut album, The Ultimate Incantation, was recorded with the legendary Tomas Skogsberg at Sunlight Studios first. The sessions were scrapped and Vader landed at Rhythm Studios with Paul Johnston (Benediction, Cerebral Fix). The rest is history, so it goes. We tracked down…

STREAMING: Hammercult “Metal Rules Tonight”

December 13, 2013

Israel and thrash metal. Not two things associated with one another. Now, Israel and black metal, well, that’s something more common. If only marginally. Turns out Hammercult, not to be confused with HammerFall, Hammer Fight, Hammer Horde, or Hammer Witch, is the latest sensation from the Levant. Where’s the Levant? Near Turkey. Near Iraq. Near…

Throw Me a Frickin’ Label Hack: Oslo’s Shevils

December 13, 2013

There’s always been a hardcore softspot in Decibel’s metallic heart for the raw and the punk.  This writer admits to rarely getting stoked for such sounds, often preferring to hear artfully concocted studio recordings and leave the unkempt, wild fury on the stage where it’s most powerful.  But somehow Norway’s Shevils buried into these ears…

BREWTAL TRUTH: Drink This Now!

December 13, 2013

It was as easy to predict as the Seattle Mariners’ annual late-spring implosion: Decibel’s Top 100 Black Metal Albums of All Time caused some consternation amongst black metal fans. Shocking. This is, however, a crowd not hard to provoke. They seem edgy, a little overly serious and prone to interhole-induced fits of rage. Which makes…

My Awesome Day Job x 2. The Extended Andrew Carter Interview.

December 12, 2013

Andrew Carter. Who the hell is Andrew Carter? Well, if you ever want/need anyone to blame for giving me a start in the world of (ahem) “professional music journalism,” you can blame him as he was one of the principals who gave me my first paying gig at Terrorizer some 16+ years ago back when…

Decibrity Playlist: Wolvserpent

December 12, 2013

Wolvserpent was busy on the road in support of its recently released sophomore LP Perigaea Antahkarana, but it was guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist Blake Green’s other job that made him wary of even taking the time to put together a playlist for us. We’ll let the man himself explain the side effects–which, fortunately for us, he was able…

Watership Down: Stream the new RABBITS collection

December 11, 2013

Like bizarre stuff? Like cool covers of hardcore classics? Then you will dig our full album stream of Singles, Other Shit from Portland’s RABBITS. Take a listen below and then read the “virtual” liner notes compiled for your friends at Decibel. You can check our RABBITS on Facebook and pick up a copy from Eolian…

Sucker For Punishment: Thanks For Give Us Such Emotions

December 11, 2013

I’m not going to apologize for liking Nightwish. I might be only a small handful of Decibel writers willing to endorse the garish symphonic strains of the Finnish band (hi, Jeff Treppel), but I remain steadfast. Besides, for all the emphasis on extreme metal, isn’t Nightwish’s use of operatic melodies extreme? I’d even say that…

TRACK PREMIERE: Graveborne’s “Tiesi Päähän”

December 10, 2013

Graveborne have clearly studied at least 75% of the albums in our Top 100 Black Metal Albums of All Time Special Issue. Also, they are from Finland. That should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect when you click the Soundcloud link below. Still, it’s really, really good black metal, the sort…

Exclusive: Backtrack Premiere

December 10, 2013

The upcoming Backtrack record Lost In Life is a pretty damn awesome slab of modern NYHC and Decibel has the honor of premiering one of the best tracks in this space this morning. Check it out below then go preorder the whole album here. [Photo via Daniel Jeavons Photography.]

Chicago doom titans Indian stream new track from forthcoming album, From All Purity

December 9, 2013

Well folks, it is the holiday season; what with the temperatures falling and nights closing in, and even the walls closing in, too, it’s officially the most miserable time of the year. Respite is in short supply. Hard liquor and pharmaceuticals can only do so much. But, step away from the shotgun, there’s a hefty…