Month: January 2014

Agnostic Front – “Cause for Alarm”

January 31, 2014

Agnostic Front’s Cause for Alarm is an atypical Hall of Fame induction. Most of the previous 100-plus albums that have graced these pages were created by bands that had a solid core and had been playing together (if not recording together) for years.

Get TWO free FLEXIS in the next DECIBEL!

January 31, 2014

Due to an equipment failure at our flexi disc printer, we were unable to include a flexi in the March issue of Decibel. Since we never leave our loyal subscribers in the lurch, you’ll be chuffed to find not one, but two flexis in the April issue! Fire up those turntables, as Decibel Magazine Tour…

Throw Me a Frickin’ Label Hack: Bulgaria’s Claymore

January 31, 2014

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)…

BREWTAL TRUTH: Drink This Now…Whatever It Is

January 31, 2014

Anyone who’s sampled more than a few craft beers can attest to the fact that it’s not always clear from the label what’s going to be inside the bottle. Oh sure, it might say something like “Brettanomyces-fermented Belgian quad aged on oak with cherries and bottle conditioned,” but figuring out what that’s going to taste…

Streaming (some of) the Monuments Collapse/Breag Naofa Split and Why Physical Copies Don’t Suck

January 30, 2014

The fucking hassle and amount of fucking time I wasted just to put this stupid stream up wasn’t worth it. San Francisco’s Monuments Collapse and Seattle’s Breag Naofa have had a split release available since last month. It originally came out around the Christmas rush and was probably forgotten/ignored for that reason. Here, we present…

Decibrity Playlist: Indian

January 30, 2014

After dropping the best album of its career earlier this month with From All Purity, the dudes in Indian are in the midst of (hopefully) enjoying some time off before hitting the road at the end of March. Given that guitarist/vocalist Will Lindsay is also probably not all that enthused about stepping out into the…

Grind! Stream the new Cripple Bastards song

January 29, 2014

Here’s some fresh new grind to get you through midweek. Below, stream the new track “Nemico A Terra” from certified legends and lifers Cripple Bastards. It’s off the new album Nero In Metastasi, due in North America on February 18th and available for preorder from Relapse. Frontman Giulio The Bastard says: ‘Nemico A Terra’ translates…

Sucker For Punishment: Dutch Lessons

January 29, 2014

On paper it looks like a fairly slow week for new releases, but actually the quality versus quantity ratio is better than average, with no fewer than three albums I heartily recommend. Enjoy and savor, because these kind of weeks don’t come along very often. Astrophobos, Remnants of Forgotten Horrors (Triumvirate): Well, if this isn’t…

EXCLUSIVE: At the Gates’ first interview about new album

January 29, 2014

On Monday, Swedish death metal legends—that’s right, fucking legends—At the Gates announced that they signed to Century Media and planed to record and release their first new studio album since 1995’s landmark Slaughter of the Soul later this year. No biggie, right? Well, Decibel thought it was worth looking into a little further, so frontman…

STREAMING: Fluisteraars’ “Dromers”

January 28, 2014

Continuing the trend of posting streams from bands whose names I can’t pronounce, this week we have a full album stream from Fluisteraars. Apparently it means “the whisperers” in whatever language they speak in the Netherlands. Not a hell of a lot of whispering going on to these ears, but there are definitely some nuances….

Beyond “Bear Claw Tavern”: Scythia Premiere “Reflections”

January 28, 2014

Last month Canadian epic/progressive metallers Scythia made a viral digital splash with the absurdist Pogues-meets-Dream-Theater-meets-drunken-hobbits video for the rousing anthem “Bear Claw Tavern” off the upcoming album …Of Conquest, and now the band reveals another exclusive jam here this morning. “This track is a ‘one-of-a-kind track’ on the record,” guitarist/vocalist Dave Khan tells Decibel. “‘Reflections’…

Album Premiere: Iron Hand “Injected Fear”

January 27, 2014

Iron Hand are a crusty d-beat/hardcore band from New Haven, CT, and, courtesy of Safety Meeting Records you can stream their awesome debut 12-inch, Injected Fear right here, right now. Injected Fear is a rugged and lean 18 minutes of the sort of unpolished fury that’s probably best experienced live as it rattles around an…

Neige (Alcest) interviewed

January 27, 2014

** We interviewed Alcest frontman Neige for the March 2014 issue of Decibel [HERE]. The magazine interview focuses on Neige’s childhood influences, working with Slowdive’s Neil Halstead, and how the sea became central to the Frenchman’s inner and outer calm. The remains of that interview are below. You’re kind of seen as the ex-black metaller….

Surly Brews Asator Viking IPA For Amon Amarth Show

January 27, 2014

The weather may be brutally cold when Amon Amarth, Enslaved and Skeletonwitch roll into Minneapolis on Saturday, February 8, but there will be a special strong beer, brewed specifically for this event by Surly Brewing, waiting for them. Surly is sponsoring the show at Mill City Nights and head brewer Todd Haug decided to provide…

Sucker For Punishment: Innocence, Experience, and Salad

January 24, 2014

Extreme metal fans complaining about the “lack of darkness” on an album with more than its share of shade have a severely skewed opinion of what constitutes “dark” music.  But that’s completely understandable. After all, when you subsist on a diet of nothing but barbecue and someone hands you a salad, you’re going to wonder…

Streaming: Morfin drop some choice old-school death metal with “Cryostasis”

January 24, 2014

Courtesy of FDA Rekotz, the Deciblog is proud to bring you a wee afternoon poke in the eye by way of “Cryostasis”, taken from Morfin’s debut LP, Inoculation. The album drops on Feb 21st. You can pre-order it here. Morfin will be mother’s milk to all those old-school death metal connoisseurs who get their necks…

Original Trouble Drummer Releases Red Howes Beer

January 24, 2014

What’s the connection between craft beer and metal? We hear this question a lot. Well, specifically, we are asked this question a lot since our craft beer book, The Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers, was published last November. For people who aren’t necessarily into both things, it’s hard to see the commonalities. On the…

Stream Full EP by Sisters of… (AKA Don’t Judge a Band By Its…)

January 24, 2014

As a general rule, we would suggest you not listen to instrumental “post” metal.  It certainly has its occasional charms and does an admirable job drawing the aurally cautious into the integrity-crushing arms of extreme metal.  Beyond the realm of intellectual curiosity and compositional hedonism, however, this gravity well of musical talent too often grows…

Sweet Smooth Smoke Rising. An Interview with Vaporizer

January 23, 2014

Those of you who pay rapt attention to the Throw Me a Frickin’ Bone column might already have taken note of Vaporizer and the kind words I’ve bestowed upon their intense irascibility and how I gave their EP a nod as one of the top self-releases of last year. If you haven’t already checked them…

STREAMING: Junius “Battle In The Sky”

January 23, 2014

I don’t usually premiere tracks on here, but when I do, there are few bands I’d rather talk about than Junius. After spoiling us with excellent full-lengths in 2009 and 2011, these Massholes are finally returning with a collection of new recordings next month after a nearly two-and-a-half year break. Given that a few weeks…

Decibel Exclusive: Read a Jack Grisham short story

January 22, 2014

T.S.O.L. vocalist, author and provocateur Jack Grisham has visited the land of the extremely extreme several times in the past year or so. He wrote a moving tribute to Jeff Hanneman in our memorial issue last July. In August, he joined the Deciblog for a career-spanning interview where he talked about the classic Dance With…

STREAMING: Hark “Palendromeda”

January 22, 2014

What does the word “Hark” mean? It means to “pay attention to”. Who said Decibel never educates? Truth be told, whenever I hear the word “Hark” I immediately think of the song, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing“. But there might be some deep-seated issues with church choir with that one. For the band Hark, the…

Stream the new Deadkill album

January 21, 2014

Deciblog faithful, for your streaming pleasure we have the new Deadkill album No, Never! available starting today from our friends at Good To Die Records. Give it a listen and then read a track-by-track breakdown from the band. Orpheus Bryan Krieger: Brutal opera about descending into the depths of hell for one you love: love…

TRACK PREMIERE: Nashville Pussy’s “Pillbilly Blues”

January 21, 2014

Finally, a track premiere from a band whose name I can pronounce! It’s not a name I can say in polite company, but, you know, baby steps. Hard to believe these guys have been slinging their unique brand of shitkicker punk for nearly 20 years, but here they are, on full-length number seven and still…

Professor Death Metal Strikes Back

January 21, 2014

Not long ago we introduced you to Concordia University professor/extreme music lifer Vivek Venkatesh. Today the man we affectionately call “Professor Death Metal” graciously gives us a sneak peak at “From Pride to Prejudice to Shame: Multiple Facets of the Black Metal Scene within and without Online Environments,” a chapter he co-authored with professor Jeff…

STREAMING: Monument of Misanthropy’s “Anger Mismanagement”

January 21, 2014

Last time we heard from Monument of Misanthropy, they were charging towards the completion of their IndieGoGo campaign to launch their debut album Anger Mismanagement. And guess what? MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. Go high-five a fellow metalhead in celebration. High-fiving your own reflection in a mirror will do in a pinch. So what does the metal community…

STREAMING: Nocturnal Breed “Speedkrieg”

January 20, 2014

The last time lead Nocturnal Breed headman Kenneth Svartalv (aka S.A. Destroyer) ushered his forces into war was back in 2007, just as world financial systems were crumbling under their own gluttonous weight. Now, some seven long-ass years later, S.A. Destroyer returns with the Breed in tow and V. Fineideath replacing A. E. Rattlehead on…

For Those About to Squawk: Waldo’s Pecks of the Week

January 17, 2014

Still a little slow around here, if you know what I’m pecking about. But let’s just dive into it, shall we? Culted release Oblique to All Paths on Relapse.  Culted are a file-sharing kind of group that never really all get into the same room. Amazingly, though, they’ve crafted an angry, nasty ambient drone/black metal/sludge…

Your Regional Openers for the 2014 Decibel Magazine Tour Are…

January 17, 2014

Carcass, the Black Dahlia Murder, Gorguts and Noisem aren’t nearly enough. Here are the regional openers who’ll kick off select dates of the 2014 Decibel Magazine Tour.   Maruta Tues, March 18 / Orlando, FL @ The Beacham Theater Founded in the swamplands of South Florida in 2005, Maruta have been blurring the lines between…