Month: February 2014

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

February 28, 2014

What up, beak freakz?  Notice the “z”? Yeah, I’m going nu-metal; a-parrot-ly it’s making a comeback. Nah, juzt kidding. Did you know there were two bandz named Portal? I did, and I’m going to review one of them. Oof. What time is it? Huh? PORTAL — no not that one, the one from Sweden — release…

New Song Exclusive: Dirge’s “Venus Claws”

February 28, 2014

Prepare yourselves, mortal ones, for a mighty slab of awesome to descend upon your unworthy skull.  First arising from the industrial haze of the mid-90s, France’s Dirge has shape-shifted through the past 16 years and (now) six albums to crush souls with music entirely in concert with their name. In two weeks, Dirge will see…

BREWTAL TRUTH: Drink This Now!

February 28, 2014

Last week’s Q&A with Exit-13 vocalist Bill Yurkiewicz got us thinking about Belgian beers. Actually, we’re frequently thinking about Belgian beers, but this is a good time of year for drinking the the big, high-ABV ones—and there are plenty of them out there. It also made us consider the “classics” of the beer world, iconic…

DB TOUR NEWS: New Santa Ana Opener and Dallas Venue Change

February 28, 2014

Late-breaking news for the just-around-the-corner 2014 Decibel Magazine Tour. We’ve added another regional opener that should get you lucky SoCal metalheads good and stoked. L.A.’s mighty deathgrind institution Nausea will be added to the Santa Ana show on Tuesday, March 25, at the Observatory. Gotta appreciate how we’re sticking to the theme of bands who take…

Exmortus – “Foe Hammer” Video Premiere

February 27, 2014

California’s Exmortus blew my ears and balls back with their debut full length, In Hatred`s Flame back in 2008. The quartet seemed destined to take their prodigious talents, love of aggressive 80s-inspired metal, interest in neo-classical shred and proclivity for combining all three of those elements to the top of the then-bubbling thrash revival. Then,…

Decibrity Playlist: Melt-Banana

February 27, 2014

Melt-Banana‘s last record Fetch earned a place in our top 10 of 2013. Since Kevin Stewart-Panko already asked the now duo of vocalist Yasuko “Yako” Onuki and guitarist Ichiro Agata nearly every question imaginable back in October (most importantly about their Geocities website), we weren’t left with much ground that hadn’t already been covered. Onuki…

STREAMING: RiotGod’s “Driven Rise”

February 26, 2014

Bob Pantella spends part of his year behind the kit for the Hall Of Fame certified band Monster Magnet. When he’s not playing with them and several other bands he leads RiotGod. We’re streaming their new track “Driven Rise” below. The band’s third album Driven●Rise will be released March 18th on Metalville Records/E1 and is…

Sucker For Punishment: Also Known as Heretication

February 26, 2014

This week’s a funny one, with one hugely, hugely obvious Album of the Week pick, one that’s most likely destined for my personal best metal of 2014 list. But after some real digging, I’ve found a couple other albums well worth checking out, too: a long lost reissue from a forgotten Metal Massacre band, some…

TRACK PREMIERE: Vices’ “Wasteland”

February 25, 2014

Hey, finally a band name AND song title combo that describes my managing editor’s life. Vices play hardcore with a blues rock edge, reminiscent of Maylene and the Sons of Disaster before they started to suck. “Wasteland” will make you want to go smash some liquor bottles down by the creek real good. Their debut…

Constant Lovers Visit the Amazon

February 25, 2014

This morning we’re streaming an exclusive new earthy, driving rocker from Seattle’s self-described “caveman goth” heroes Constant Lovers.

A night at the movies with Domenic “Nicky” Palermo from Nothing

February 24, 2014

**Welcome to the inaugural Deciblog Film Club, where each month we’ll poll someone from the extremely extreme community at large on a handful of films that have had an impact on their lives and their art. Think of it as an opportunity for all of us to lay down the blast beats and death growls…

STREAMING: Morbus Chron “The Perennial Link”

February 24, 2014

Last year Tribulation blew minds with The Formulas of Death. This year, fellow Swedes Morbus Chron are all grown up—the average age is 27.5—from 2011’s Sleepers in the Rift effort. By aging a few years, refining their craft, and spreading respective wings, the Stockholmites have created a record so immersive, so penetrating, and so tuned…

CONTEST: Gridlink – Win Test Pressings of Gridlink “Longhena”

February 21, 2014

Decibel and Handshake, Inc. are teaming up to give away TWO (2) copies of Gridlink’s new album Longhena. Why is that so cool? They’re test presses. The kind the label and band get from the pressing plant to spot check for errors and other vinyl-related anomalies. So, test presses, in general, are rare birds. The…

Michael Klassen from Culted on long-distance relationships and reaching for a state of grace in extreme music

February 21, 2014

Michael Klassen has never met Daniel Jansson. OK, you’re thinking, why should he? But given that Jansson is the singer in his band, it is kind of weird. Well, unconventional certainly. Klassen plays guitar, bass and provides other instrumentation in Culted, working out of Winnipeg, Canada, with Kevin Stevenson (Drums), Matthew Freisson (guitar/bass/other) and Erik…

BREWTAL TRUTH: Behold The Most Metal Craft Beer Collab Ever

February 21, 2014

Nope that’s not some new super-group featuring Powermad guitarist, Todd Haug, pictured above. OK, yes that’s Haug front and center, but this brootal crew is actually a confab of brewers and an artist who have come together to create a brand new beer called BLAKKR. From left to right we have Michael Berglund, Surly artist-in-residence;…

Hell Goes to America: Hellbenders Interviewed

February 20, 2014

I discovered Brazil’s Hellbenders the old fashioned way: their U.S. publicist pointed me in their direction. However, instead of doing what I normally do and ignoring the histrionic pitch (which, after having the band described as Brazil’s answer to Kyuss/High on Fire/stoner/desert rock, would have been the logical thing to do), I bit. And man,…

Decibrity Playlist: Junius (Part 2)

February 20, 2014

Last week, Junius helped celebrate the upcoming release of its excellent new EP, Days of the Fallen Sun, by having half of the band–namely, frontman/guitarist Joseph E. Martinez and bassist Joel Munguia–tell us about eight records that they were listening to back when things started in 2004. Now that everyone has (hopefully) had a chance…

See the new BRAINSQUEEZE commercial!

February 19, 2014

Live in California or fancy travel? The second Brainsqueeze Fest is coming to Oakland in April via our friends at Tankcrimes. Get your super passes now and check out the sick running order below. Decibel is happy to premiere the new ad as well. Friday 4/18 – Oakland Metro – all ages, bar w/ ID…

Fatality’s Wintour Diary

February 19, 2014

Last summer, the young bucks in Fatality wrote a cogent piece for the Deciblog on how you can successfully crowdfund a project without pissing off fans. As a result, we got to know bassist Adam Zed pretty well and found him to be a likeable and hilarious chap. Then, he approached the Deciblog about doing…

LIVE REVIEW: Failure at the El Rey 2/11/14

February 19, 2014

What a difference 16 years can make; there were probably more people at Failure’s first reunion show than bought their last album, 1997’s Fantastic Planet. The (mostly white male) fans packed into the El Rey Theater in their hometown of Los Angeles last Thursday night, February 11, for an evening with the heavy rock heroes….

Sucker For Punishment: Grumpy Old Men

February 19, 2014

Just as much as metal needs its forward thinkers, it also needs its defenders of the faith. Traditionalism in heavy metal is equally as important as progression, and in this day and age where young bands foolishly mistake “extreme” one-upmanship as being the most important tenet of the genre – sorry kids, power is paramount…

Get Altered

February 18, 2014

We’re exactly one month out from the release of Immortal, the sicker-than-a-resurrected-centurion-werewolf debut blaster from Sacramento death metallers Alterbeast, and to whet your appetite the band has graciously sent over an exclusive stream of a sonic power-up called “Vile Remnants.” Check the track out below, pre-order the record here, and, for the youngsters, check out…

TRACK PREMIERE: Prizehog’s “Shed”

February 18, 2014

Prizehog’s fourth album is called Re-Unvent the Whool. That should give you an idea of just how weird these weirdos are. They come from Portland, because of course. Disconnected sludge floating in an abyss of fuzz, “Shed” is a pretty good example of what you’re going to get when you contaminate your turntable with the…

STREAMING: Mayhem “Psywar”

February 18, 2014

The True Mayhem. Ground zero for Norwegian black metal. Since 1984, the Oslo-based outfit has made waves. Though it would take a good number of years—about three, actually—before Deathcrush hit posers hard, the group’s coup de grace was posthumous debut album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. With Euronymous dead and the Norwegian scene reeling from heavy…

Full Album Stream: Nebelung’s Palingenesis

February 17, 2014

If you don’t live along the east coast of the United States, then maybe you’re having a chest-beating trad metal day, or a beat-on-your-desk black/thrash day, or even a middle-finger-hoisting death metal day.  But if you were in the path of the snow storm that dumped a few lead-heavy white blankets up and down the Eastern Seaboard, then you probably…

STREAMING: Menace “To the Marrow”

February 17, 2014

What do members of Napalm Death, DragonForce, and Hate Eternal have in common? Normally, we’d have no fucking clue, but today the members premiere a new song from the Mitch Harris-led Menace. Now, most Decibel readers know Mitch Harris. He of Napalm Death. One of the fastest grind guitarists around. But he’s not shredding bar…

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

February 14, 2014

What’s up, you loveless fucks? As the year rolls along, so do the new releases — finally, it seems. Here’s my anti-Valentine’s Day rant. Gridlink release Longhena, and this thing is a pecking barn-burner.  Their longest effort to date, this record moves, kicks, and boy does it grind. There is a lot of non-traditional grind…

A389 Hardcore Headmaster Dom Romeo Interviewed

February 14, 2014

Last month, Decibel spent a few chilly Baltimore days taking in A389’s 10th Anniversary Bash.  That exceptional label has been responsible for lots of great releases, including #9 on our list of 2013’s best, Noisem’s Agony Defined.  The 4-show festival that celebrated the label and its friends was overwhelming in the number of bands that…

Talking Good Beers and Grindcore with Bill Yurkiewicz

February 14, 2014

Long before there was a Brewtal Truth column in Decibel or Municipal Waste was celebrating the Art of Partying or Three Floyds was making beers for its favorite metal bands, Bill Yurkiewicz and his grindcore band, Exit-13, were not only drinking amazing beers from around the world, they were writing songs about them. Yurkiewicz, who…

STREAMING: Dodsferd covers The Misfits

February 13, 2014

Dodsferd will soon release their ninth album The Parasitic Survival of the Human Race, which promises more punk along with the black. For your streaming pleasure today we have a Misfits cover from the upcoming album (We Are 138), bookended by audio samples from the Greek riots in February 2012. Check it out below and…