Month: January 2013
Slayer – “South of Heaven”
January 31, 2013 Chris Dick
Before bastard sons begat cunting daughters, flyswatter stakes were driven through chests and pleasures thought unobtained fully experienced, California thrashers Slayer were hell-bent on leveling not just previous milestones, but any band with an inkling of heaviness.
Interview with Cloud Rat
January 31, 2013 Kevin Stewart-Panko
Mount Pleasant, Michigan’s Cloud Rat play grind and they play it really well. They have a new album in the holster and on the ready entitled Moksha, courtesy the fine folks at Halo of Flies. What follows is an interview with guitarist Rorik Brooks and some vids and crap I lifted from their website. Check…
Live Review: Graveyard/The Shrine
January 31, 2013 Zach Smith
It’s only been a year since Graveyard last came to New York City, and coupled with last week’s sub-freezing temperatures and a second show in Brooklyn two nights later, I was curious to see just how many people would show up to Friday night’s performance. By the time I arrived at the Bowery Ballroom a…
Strength Beyond Strength: The Jason Statts Story
January 30, 2013 Justin Norton
As Decibel friend Brian Lew (aka Umlaut) says: the metal Gods work in mysterious ways. So there’s no need to tell you how we heard about Jason Statts, a Decibel reader and metal fan confined to a wheelchair after he was robbed and shot leaving his first ever gig about five years ago. The attack…
STREAMING: Anciients “Raise the Sun”
January 30, 2013 Chris Dick
There’s a time when two Dicks are better than one. But we’re not talking about porn here. Or, some swinger party in Urals. No, sirs. When the universe conspires to bring Chris Dick (me) and Chris Dyck (Anciient guitarist/vocalist) together, it means something. What exactly? Let’s leave it up to the cast of Ancient Aliens…
Decibrity Playlist: Misery Index
January 24, 2013 Zach Smith
With the throes of winter usually comes a dearth of new releases. So after perusing the innumerable year-end lists, there’s no better time to catch up on all of the records you missed, not to mention your back catalog. If you’re in a band, it’s also a good time to put out something new given…
Happy Birthday To Us: Photos From An Epic Evening of Metal
January 23, 2013 Justin Norton
In case you have been on a spiritual pilgrimage or without an Internet connection in recent months a quick reminder that we had a big party last weekend to celebrate our 100th issue. A bunch of bands that have graced the cover, best of lists or Hall Of Fame (some of them multiple honorees) played….
STREAMING: Necrowretch “Putrid Death Sorcery”
January 23, 2013 Chris Dick
Back in the old days—1988-1991—you didn’t need to sound “retro” to be cool. Even if you sucked you were cool because you were death metal. Black and white band photo, a group of scowling dudes, the obligatory cemetery backdrop (or rubble heap), and a kick-ass logo were all you needed to convince worldwide throngs you…
VIDEO PREMIERE: Lightning Swords of Death “Baphometic Chaosium”
January 22, 2013 Shawn Macomber
Man, it gets fucking crazy in the Lightning Swords of Death practice space if this video for “Baphometic Chaosium” — the title track of the new record available now — is any indication. There are what appears to be grown-up versions of the Phantasm munchkins, a rather busty-sassy ram-headed demoness, and several trim dudes in…
For Those About to Squeak: Ozzy’s Nibbles of the Week
January 22, 2013 Jeff Treppel
I have a pet hamster. His name is Ozzy. He is adorable but terrified of everything. However, over the course of his cohabitation with me, he’s become acclimated to the sounds of heavy metal, probably due to the fact that I play it for 16 hours a day. I’ve discovered that he actually has quite…
Second Annual Decibel Magazine Tour Lineup + Dates Announced
January 22, 2013 Albert Mudrian
After a bloody successful maiden voyage in 2012, Decibel Magazine is doubling down on veteran star power for our second annual national tour. This spring, the plague spreads as we bring you three living legends of death metal and grindcore: preeminent gore institution Cannibal Corpse; rabble-rousing U.K. grind icons Napalm Death, and NYDM stalwarts Immolation. While occultism permeated last spring’s inaugural…
Screaming Past ‘The Cemetery’
January 22, 2013 Shawn Macomber
Not only is The Cemetery an exquisite slab of nasty/fun uber-brutal indie horror — think Cabin Fever via Evil Dead — it also throws extreme music fans a serious bone with a soundtrack featuring a gang of grind n’ blasters including Fleshgod Apocalypse, Gorod, Ulcerate, Circle of Dead Children, Defeatist, The Year of Our Lord,…
INTERVIEW: GOJIRA’S Joe Duplantier on touring hard and his New York State of Mind
January 21, 2013 Jonathan Horsley
When the Deciblog caught up with GOJIRA frontman/guitarist Joe Duplantier last week, he was clocking up the road miles across Canada on in a tour that’ll see the French progressive/death-ish metal quartet take in the west coast of America before snaking along the south and terminating in New York. Supporting their fifth album, L’Enfant Sauvage,…
Esa Holopainen (Amorphis) interviewed
January 21, 2013 Chris Dick
How will the new album, Circle, differ from Beginning of Times?Esa Holopainen: Our producer Peter Tägtgren has brought lot of old school ideology back to band. I guess that we have needed sort of encouragement to go for slightly more extreme sound world. It is more low bass-ed, guitar-oriented and there’s shit load of varieties…
Tales From the Metalnomicon: Cross the Border Into Satanic Hell
January 18, 2013 Shawn Macomber
Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a new twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors…
Happy 100 Call & Response: Mr. Ed Guesses Scores Given Old Decibel Reviews
January 18, 2013 Daniel Lake
Have you heard? Decibel Magazine just launched its 100th issue! We’ve kinda kept it quiet, only hyping it every other day or so for only the past several months. Turns out we’re hosting a celebration show in Philly this weekend! Who knew? I wonder who will headline… As this extremely extreme monument edged closer to…
Interview with Switchblade
January 17, 2013 Kevin Stewart-Panko
Let’s face it: there are too many bands out there releasing too much music for any one magazine-blog-social media platform combo to cover it all adequately. Or at least cover it all to the adequate degree that all those bands and PR people would want to be covered. Stuff gets lost in the shuffle the…
Decibrity Playlist: Ancient VVisdom
January 17, 2013 Zach Smith
The dudes in Ancient VVisdom’s have already put together a pretty impressive resume considering they only got started in late 2009. For starters, the Austinites have put out a split and debut full-length and hit the road with Ghost and Blood Ceremony (and, along with Pallbearer and Royal Thunder, will be supporting Enslaved starting January…
STREAMING: The Resistance “Face to Face”
January 17, 2013 Chris Dick
Guitarist Jesper Strömblad has dusted more bands than any prominent guitarist from Sweden. From In Flames and HammerFall to All Ends and recently resurrected Ceremonial Oath, Mr. Strömblad’s hasn’t had it easy. Same goes for his co-axeman Glenn Ljungström. First he bolted from In Flames and then Dimension Zero. But if any two guitarists command…
Anchors Aweigh: Clamfight full album stream and interview
January 16, 2013 Justin Norton
Clamfight has a much better ring to it than, say, Mollusk Warfare (and we already have Insect Warfare). We’d quickly exhaust our nautical jokes in a sentence or two so we’ll leave it at the headline. Here’s the scoop: for your listening pleasure below is Clamfight’s new album I Versus The Glacier. This writer digs…
CONTEST: Feel like a Viking. Win Turisas swag!
January 16, 2013 Chris Dick
It’s been ages since we hosted a contest where a band donned warpaint and rampaged heshers from sea to shining sea. In fact, we can’t recall if we’ve ever hosted a contest by a band as visually unique as Turisas. Sure, those old Darkthrone or Khold photos were cool, but Turisas take the “corpse” out…
STREAMING: Holy Grail’s “Riding the Void”
January 15, 2013 Jeff Treppel
Do you guys like totally ripping heavy metal? No? Well, okay, guess I’ll go away… Haha, just kidding! You nerds will never be rid of me. As a special Tuesday treat, here’s the new Holy Grail record, in its entirety. Our own Adrien Begrand has been losing his shit over this since he heard it,…
In Search of “Solace”
January 15, 2013 Shawn Macomber
Formed in 2005, instrumental heavy space rock outfit Cloud Minder was the first band to sign to Philadelphia “psych doom” label Anthropic Records, toured extensively with such kindred spirits as Earth, This Will Destroy You, and Film School, and were beginning to round the corner into what felt to them like even more sublime creative…
INTERVIEW: Jason “Venien” Ventura of VON on blood, Satan, and being unconsciously black metal
January 14, 2013 Jonathan Horsley
Even though VON have been kicking around since ’87, are pretty much responsible for Watain’s existence (their name, at least), they only managed to get their shit together and release debut LP, Satanic Blood, in October of last year. There are mitigating circumstances and all, what with the band splitting and going into what appeared…
Rami Jämsä (Convulse) interviewed
January 14, 2013 Chris Dick
What prompted you to return to Convulse? It’s been a very long time.Rami Jämsä: My old pal from Nokia asked [us] to play in his Heavy Metal festival 2012. At first I refused. Then original bass player Juha took contact and showed his interest. Pretty soon it was clear that there was no chance to…
For Those About to Squawk: Waldo’s Pecks of the Week
January 11, 2013 Andrew Bonazelli
Well, it’s a new year, and that means not much is coming out. There’s a ton of reissues that typically are released this time of year, but really there’s just nothing. I’ll scrape some shit off of the floor of my birdcage. The mysterious NINE COVENS are releasing On the Dawning of Light, which is…
Full Album Stream! Porta Nigra’s Fin De Siècle
January 11, 2013 Daniel Lake
Billed as “Decadent Dark Metal” by the excellent taste-havers over at Debemur Morti Productions, Porta Nigra have just graced the world with their debut full-length recording. Fin De Siècle appeared in Europe a couple months ago and has just made its way to American shores this week. The title translates to “end of the century,”…
One-Half of the New Weekend Nachos 7″
January 10, 2013 Kevin Stewart-Panko
We love us some Weekend Nachos ’round the hallowed corridors of the Decibel nerve centre and its various satellite offices. So, when WN vocalist John Hoffman emailed us earlier this week asking if we wanted to throw up the A-side of the band’s new 7″, the “DUH!” was positively Richter Scale-worthy. The track originally appeared…
Decibrity Playlist: Holy Grail
January 10, 2013 Zach Smith
If you’ve been keeping up with our last two issues (which also happen to be our year-end and 100th), you’ve probably noticed that there’s a new Holy Grail record coming out this month. While you’ll have to wait until January 22nd to see if your excitement about Ride The Void even comes remotely close to…
STREAMING: Defeated Sanity’s “Naraka”
January 9, 2013 Justin Norton
And so begins the relentless stream of new metal releases of 2013. First out of the gate is some tried and true death metal courtesy of Germany’s Defeated Sanity. dB is streaming the second track “Naraka” off upcoming album Passages Into Deformity, due Feb. 5 and available for preorder from Willowtip. The band describes the…