Month: April 2013
Life to False Metal 2: Live Falser
April 30, 2013 Jeff Treppel
It’s been a few months, I’ve posted about appropriately metal things – I’ve earned myself a break from the death metal mines. Luckily for you, the three people that don’t close the page when they see my byline, some of the stuff I listen to when I’m giving my ears a break is just close…
“Bloody ‘ells!”: Cauldron Tour Diary Part 1
April 30, 2013 Shawn Macomber
We asked Toronto’s premiere purveyors of “true, unadulterated heavy metal” Cauldron to keep tabs on the havoc and devastation left behind in the wake of the band’s epic America’s Lost tour and dudes did not disappoint with the diary below. Remaining tour dates are listed at post’s end. Purchase Cauldron’s excellent Tomorrow’s Lost here. David…
EXCLUSIVE: Vektor-Scion A/V video premiere
April 30, 2013 Justin Norton
So, this is pretty cool. Decibel has teamed with Scion A/V to offer our fine blog readers the first peek at a new interview and performance video featuring sci-fi metallers Vektor. The footage was shot during the recent Scion A/V Earache Records showcase. Per what you’d expect from Scion A/V the video is immaculately shot…
BLACK METAL: EVOLUTION OF THE CULT AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER
April 29, 2013 Jonathan Horsley
Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult is a 600-page book by UK author Dayal Patterson that delves deep into the history and development of black metal as an art form and a culture. It is released on November 13th, but is now available to pre-order from Amazon at a discounted price. Published via Feral House,…
STREAMING: Ramming Speed “Grinding Dissent”
April 29, 2013 Chris Dick
The last time we had our balls in the same pool as Boston-based thrashers Ramming Speed was a long time ago. They were guest blogging about dive bars (HERE) and we were tickled florescent green. Since then, Ramming Speed have visited more dive bars, helped jean-jacketed heshers snap a neck or two, signed to Prosthetic…
Tales From the Metalnomicon: Do You Have Anything to Declare?
April 26, 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… No fences, no borders. Free movement for all…It’s about fucking time to treat people with respect. So railed Propagandhi on the incendiary Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes track “Fuck the Border,” but as…
Throw Me a Frickin’ Label Hack: Belgium’s Humanity Defiled
April 26, 2013 Daniel Lake
Because every day another band records another song. Because 83% of those songs are unlistenable and you can’t be bothered to sift through the dreck. Because metal is about not giving a shit and waking your own personal storm. Because music is universal, expression is boundless, and even indie labels (whatever that means these days)…
No One Wins, Everybody Hurts. Multiple Truths Interviewed.
April 25, 2013 Kevin Stewart-Panko
The latest entry into the world of scathing, screamy, melodic hardcore is Chicago-centric Multiple Truths. For the most part, the quintet, formed by guitarist Justin Wettstein, did and do things the old-school way: rehearsing regularly together, hanging out like a small gang of record collecting nerds and taking the time to find and refine their…
Decibrity Playlist: Coliseum
April 25, 2013 Zach Smith
In case you haven’t heard, the new Coliseum record—which was one of our Top 20 Most Anticipated Records of 2013—comes out on Tuesday. Our May issue not only has Shane Mehling’s review of Sister Faith (spoiler alert: he likes it), but Adrien Begrand’s profile of the Louisville trio. In fact, said interview with Ryan Patterson…
STREAMING — The Guilt Of…
April 24, 2013 Justin Norton
You might remember our friends from specialty vinyl label Last Hurrah. Last year, they pressed an ultra limited vinyl run of 16’s Lost Tracts Of Time. This summer, they will release a full length album from Mike IX project The Guilt Of… Although this will only be released on vinyl Decibel scored an early peak…
STREAMING: Evile “Underworld”
April 24, 2013 Chris Dick
Name one British thrash metal act from the Golden Age of Thrash that kicks ass and makes newcomers Evile look like prepubescent chipmunks. Do it. Xentrix? Cerebral Fix? Hellbastard? No, no, and no. OK, we’re way off. The Brits had their share of awesome. Sabbat, Onslaught, Lawnmower Deth, Sacrilege, Seventh Angel, and Acid Reign were…
Aesthetic Mess: Crappy Legacy Metal Act Cover Art in the 21st Century
April 23, 2013 Jeff Treppel
Guys in metal bands grow old. We know that. It’s natural and can’t be helped. Sometimes they continue to put out good music, sometimes they lose the fire that drove them back in the day. That’s fine. We aren’t here to talk about the music. We are here to take a look at some of…
Bon Appetit, Bitch!: F.K.Ü. Counts Down Elm Street’s Sickest Kills
April 23, 2013 Shawn Macomber
Swedish retro thrashers F.K.Ü. — i.e., Freddy Krueger’s Underwear — cite “80’s horror flicks and old copies of Metal Forces magazine” as the band’s primary inspiration, and the band has spent over a decade now backing up that claim, encapsulating odes to Maniac Cop, Hellraiser, C.H.U.D., Motel Hell, and a bevy of other seminal horror…
Exclusive Cannibal Corpse Flexi Disc Now Available!
April 23, 2013 Albert Mudrian
They’re three-time cover stars. They’re Hall of Fame inductees for Tomb of the Mutilated. They’re headlining our second annual Decibel Magazine Tour. It’s safe to say we have an, um, uncharacteristically sharp affection for Cannibal Corpse. So, what better time for the living death metal legends to commandeer our Flexi Series than our special dB…
INTERVIEW: ARKHAM WITCH on Lovecraft, Live Evil 2013, and The Lamp . . .
April 22, 2013 Jonathan Horsley
According to their Facebook page, UK doom/Heavy Metal quartet Arkham Witch‘s personal interests include, “Ales, Histories, Wars, Invocations and Audible assaults. Drinking as fuck!” And their description of their sound is pretty much bang on too. “Old School Heavy Metal/Doom infused with Lovecraftian horror, tales of mighty Barbarians and festering evil superstitions!” What’s not to…
Tomi Koivusaari (Amorphis) interviewed
April 22, 2013 Chris Dick
The consensus seems to be “Amorphis is back.” Was process to create Circle any different from previous albums? The energy is palatable.Tomi Koivusaari: We started to think before recording this album that maybe we should change the process of making album this time, as the last four albums we did at same studio with almost…
Decibel Magazine Tour Issue Now Available!
April 19, 2013 Albert Mudrian
Although we wish it was that easy, we didn’t just snap our fingers and make Cannibal Corpse, Napalm Death, Immolation, three rotating support acts and eight regional openers materialize for the 2013 Decibel Magazine Tour. It takes careful consideration, foresight, finagling… and a touch of good old fashioned dumb luck to bring you the most…
Throw Me A Frickin’ Label Hack: Seattle’s Giza
April 19, 2013 Daniel Lake
Because every day another band records another song. Because 83% of those songs are unlistenable and you can’t be bothered to sift through the dreck. Because metal is about not giving a shit and waking your own personal storm. Because music is universal, expression is boundless, and even indie labels (whatever that means these days)…
Still Havin’ a Good Time. An Interview with Soothsayer.
April 18, 2013 Kevin Stewart-Panko
The news that rabid, unhinged, original wave thrashers, Soothsayer have returned may not mean much to anyone under the age of 35 who lived outside of southern Ontario or the band’s home province of Quebec, but they’re back and I for one am rather pleased at the news. Initially reconvening to play an old-school Quebec…
Decibrity Playlist: Woe
April 18, 2013 Zach Smith
One of my favorite albums so far this year, Woe‘s Withdrawal, drops on Tuesday. To mark the occasion, guitarist Ben Brand sent along the following playlist that I’m pretty sure only he could adequately describe: “In honor of the transition into Spring, I want you all to start thinking about getting that garden growing. Inch…
Black Metal At The Pickle Barrel: A Night With Quorthon
April 17, 2013 Justin Norton
If you spend enough time on the Internet you begin to think that most readers visit sites just to stir the proverbial shit pot. But occasionally the Web will serve up something so delightful and unexpected that it validates the whole premise of connecting the world and equipping the population with tools to allow them…
STREAMING: Sodom “S.O.D.O.M.”
April 17, 2013 Chris Dick
If you were to ask us what the acronym S.O.D.O.M. means, we’d have to be honest with you. We don’t know. Storm of Death of Metal? If Sodom were Czech, it might work. Sacrifice of Dead on Mars? Maybe Giorgio Tsoukalos were involved in the song’s conception, then we’d give it a 86.5% match. Or,…
Help Helms Alee Fund Their New Album
April 17, 2013 Shane Mehling
The best high school house party of all time disguised as an experimental rock band, Helms Alee is trying to Kickstart funds so they can record, package and self-release their third album, Sleepwalking Sailors. But the ladies and dude are coming at it from a different angle — they’re selling you the pre-sale of their…
STREAMING: Ides of Gemini’s Hexagram 7″
April 16, 2013 Jeff Treppel
As you can tell from the giant picture there, our very own J Bennett has a band (he’s the one that isn’t wearing a dress)– along with drummer Kelly Johnston and Black Math Horseman’s Sera Timms – and they’re pretty awesome. Hell, Ghost picked them to be their sole opener on their current North American…
Uncle Acid’s Intro to Cinema
April 16, 2013 Shawn Macomber
We’re less than a month out now from the release of Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats’ sublime psychedelic doom n’ roll tour de force Mind Control, and, lord, does the tranquil-yet-oddly-sinister old school VHS clamshell-esque cover artwork suit the album’s messianic death cult lyrical theme and transcendentalist sonic vibe. “The whole album reeks of VHS…
Italy’s most cult: Dark Quarterer show how it’s done in 80s rehearsal footage
April 15, 2013 Jonathan Horsley
The following home-shot recordings of cult Italian metal champs Dark Quarterer should serve as a how-to for any bands, young or old, who want to marry metal’s appetite for epic derring-do and mysticism with a resolutely blue collar work ethic and run with it. You see, epic metal just doesn’t magic itself epic after a…
Adam Zaars (Tribulation) interviewed
April 15, 2013 Chris Dick
I’m trying to put a finger on The Formulas of Death, but I can’t. Was the intention to make an album that’s hard to fit into one easy category?Adam Zaars: No, that wasn’t the intention, but I’m not surprised to hear the question. The intention was just to create flowing music. It would have been…
Tales From the Metalnomicon: Kier-La Janisse
April 12, 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… In her exquisitely rendered, frequently disquieting, always edifying new book House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films well-respected critic, festival programmer and King Diamond…
Throw Me a Frickin’ Label Hack: Odela Exposes its Proggy Bits
April 12, 2013 Daniel Lake
Because every day another band records another song. Because 83% of those songs are unlistenable and you can’t be bothered to sift through the dreck. Because metal is about not giving a shit and waking your own personal storm. Because music is universal, expression is boundless, and even indie labels (whatever that means these days)…
North. Interviewed.
April 11, 2013 Kevin Stewart-Panko
Hmm. How did we miss this one? Did we miss this one? Was it only I who wasn’t paying attention and missed it? Either way, Arizona’s North has a “new” album out. It’s a wall of crushing, psychedelia-tinged post-Neur-Isis mania entitled The Great Silence, though “new” is a bit of a misnomer as it was…