Christ, it is tough to believe The Day the Sun Went Out came out long enough ago for Boysetsfire frontman Nathan Gray to be playing in a band with his seventeen year-old son, but what perhaps surprise even more is the buzzing vitality of the raw, frenzied, shades-of-early-Integrity metallic hardcore I Am Heresy delivers.

Gray kindly offered Decibel the opportunity to stream two tracks in advance of the band’s upcoming Magic Bullet release and also gave us the lowdown on what it is like to pursue a “black metal Black Flag” sound with one’s very own spawn.

I AM HERESY: “I AM HERESY” by Decibel Magazine

How did I Am Heresy come about?

When we got Boysetsfire back together we decided early on if we were going to do it, it was going to be a pretty part-time thing — and, honestly, I’m not ready to retire. So basically I decided in whatever I did next I wanted to get back to heavy, chaotic, fun music. I was trying to figure out who I know who might want to play that kind of music and it ended up being…my son. He’s an incredibly talented guitar player. I’d hear him in his room playing all kinds of crazy shit. And I was like, “Uh, let’s do that.”

How old is Simon?

He’s seventeen. He’ll be eighteen in February.

Is this band a surreal bonding experience? I mean, if you had a rebellious son, he might be, I don’t know, bullying nerds in school or something…

Oh, I don’t even want to think of the things he’d be doing! [Laughs.] I don’t know. Maybe it’s weird. We get along really well. We like the same kinds of music. You know, playing music with my son is sort of like playing with anyone else who is really talented and writes music I like.

And it works!

Yeah, it does. It’s funny because I started I Am Heresy with my son and his friend Jonah, who is actually Josh from Boysetsfire’s son. While we were putting the rest of the band together those two said, “We’ll get some of our friends to do it.” And I replied, “No, no, no, no.” It’s one thing to be in a band with my son and someone who is practically my nephew. It’s another thing completely for a 40 year-old man to be in a band full of seventeen year-olds. Nah, I don’t think we’re going to do that. [Laughs.] For the other three guys I ended up getting friends of mine.

I AM HERESY: “BUTCHERS” by Decibel Magazine

You spent a lot of time the last several years doing more melodic stuff with The Casting Out. Is it cathartic to return to something as vitriolic and heavy as I Am Heresy?

I’ve always enjoyed a lot of different styles of music. What we do with Boysetsfire I enjoy. The stuff I did with The Casting Out, which was more pop punk, I enjoyed. This band, though, really feels like coming home. It’s one of those things where we play and I’m like, ‘Ah, that’s me.’ There are all these styles that I enjoy and want to play and just have fun with, but this dark, fucked up, angry stuff is just who I am. So it’s cathartic. It’s letting out that inner turmoil. It’s almost like sitting on a psychatrist’s bench for little bit. It’s wonderful. It’s great. It’s what makes me happy.

You’ve got to love and admire the optimism of people in the UK. While limited releases are a staple practice in underground music, adding both that exclusivity/collector appeal and some fiscal security, British grind champs The Atrocity Exhibit took it to, uh, extremes and limited the supply of 2011 faceripper Grind Over Matter to a paltry 25 units. Twenty five. Shit, now, this would be understandable if they were at the opposite side of the hall from awesome, but that’s not the case. Discounting family and friends, that’s like five copies for the general public. Sheesh.

Now, if the UK extreme music underground had some sort of regulatory authority they’d be crying shenanigans, calling them out on price fixing or something, or putting some sort of measures in place so that we export this sort of noise wholesale: it deserves to be heard. J.Randall thinks so, too. He signed them to Grindcore Karaoke, the web 2.0′s repository for the grind-fast and brutal. As such, The Atrocity Exhibit’s Damned and Blasted and Grind Over Matter are readily available to download. Praise be.

Following December 2011′s ass-haul across the United Kingdom with genre titans and progenitors Napalm Death (look ‘em up, they’re really swell), we caught up with vocalist/guitarist and designated driver (not strictly true) James Caygill to ask what’s the deal with the pessimism re: the limited output, and got some background on one of the UK’s fiercest, an introduction if needed. Over three cups of English tea, this is what we got.

Self-described “occult rock” outfit The Devil’s Blood garnered a fair amount of attention on 2008′s Come Reap EP. Now that time separates Come Reap from The Devil’s Blood’s lauded debut, 2009′s The Time Of No Time Evermore, the mysterious, Fenriz-approved Dutch duo has prepared yet another ritual in the form of The Thousandfold Epicentre, a rollocking adventure somewhere between early ’80s heavy metal and ’70s Canterbury scene.

But The Devil’s Blood is more than just a throwback group aimed to rekindle lava lamp escapades and Renn Faire nostalgia. Nah, there’s a bit more substance to The Thousandfold Epicentre. Sure, frontwoman F is also known as the “The Mouth of Satan” — which is interesting ’cause in Christian mythos King Evil is often depicted as a man with a gigantic winky — but if you separate The Devil’s Blood’s plasma-covered stage antics and ritualistic tendencies — which ideally shouldn’t be separated too far from the music — The Devil’s Blood offers a breath of fresh air in the scene of which they aren’t really a part. Kind of like Sweden’s Ghost, but, hey, we’re talking The Devil’s Blood here.

OK, with black candles covered in the blood of some unfortunate soul, curtains drawn, and Mötley Crüe’s “In the Beginning” fading, we bring you The Devil’s Blood new tune, “Die the Death”.

The Devil’s Blood – Die the Death by Decibel Magazine

** The Devil’s Blood’s new full-length, The Thousandfold Epicentre, is out January 17th on Metal Blade Records. It’s available HERE, where Fenriz — atop his unbacked, swivel office chair — listens and promotes occult-centric music from the deepest recesses of the undieground.

Welcome to The Lazarus Pit, a biweekly look at should-be classic metal records that don’t get nearly enough love; stuff that’s essential listening that you’ve probably never heard of; stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  This week, we tackle the best band to share a name with a Powerpuff Girls villain (sorry, HIM): Gang Green and their 1986 debut full-length, Another Wasted Night (Taang!).

The early 80s brought us the birth of straight edge.  Minor Threat, 7 Seconds, SSD.  Classic bands, classic message:  no drugs, no alcohol.  And then there was Gang Green, a revolving door lineup of Boston drunks and miscreants with pretty much the opposite message.  These dudes fought for their right to party!  And their right to skateboard and break stuff and hit on cute punk lasses.  And while that didn’t make them as legendary as the buzzkill crews, it did make them a hell of a lot more fun.

These guys were one of the early skate punk acts – their first recordings, seven quick bursts of idiocy on the This Is Boston, Not LA compilation, were released pretty much concurrently with DRI’s Dirty Rotten EP in 1982.  That was from the first incarnation of the band, when the members were a whole 17 years of age.  Then they dissolved.  Band main man Chris Doherty went on to play and a few other acts, and then returned to his original stomping grounds with a motley Beantown wrecking crew in tow.  That lineup would unleash some of the snottiest 18 minutes you’ll ever hear.

The big thing that set these guys apart was the fact that they weren’t afraid to go for the big classic rock licks.  The title track, the song they start the original US release off with, has bits that sound like their punk predecessors, sure, but it also has a very Motorhead groove and an almost southern rock thing going on behind the chorus.  “19th Hole” has a definite Van Halen guitar bit in the middle.  “Voices Carry” is an utter defilement of the ‘Til Tuesday song, complete with incompetently played synthesizers.  “Alcohol” is the big mission statement/anthem, its off key vocals telling the tale of an epic bender, and it’s been covered by everyone from Tankard (obviously) to Impaled Nazarene (not so obviously).  Not that everything is weird – “Skate to Hell” and “Hate” are both pretty bitching slices of skater shred.  Subsequent CD issues add an additional nine songs (and 17 minutes) to the track list, providing even more fun to be discovered!

For whatever reason, Gang Green don’t get as much credit as various other crossover acts like DRI, COC, etc.  Maybe they were too fun?  At any rate, even though they were more punk than metal (and got more metal after this album when they went to Roadrunner) you can pretty much draw a straight line from this to Municipal Waste or SSS.  You could probably also draw a straight line from this to the hospital or rehab, but that’s beside the point.  The point is, if you like skateboards, beer, metal, or punk (and chances are that, if you’re reading this, you like at least one of those things), you need to spend another wasted night with these guys.

Official site

Buy it here!

According to the wholly democratic, incorruptible and failsafe Decibel End of Year Poll, In Solitude’s superlative The World. The Flesh. The Devil. was officially the fourth-best album of 2011. (Yeah, in reality it was probably like the third best, but that doesn’t matter, not really. The thing is not to sleep on it.) The coltish Swede’s sophomore album drew deeply from the denim/leather wellspring of NWOBHM, and was redolent of King Diamond et al, but crucially had a darkness and a vibe that was all of its own creation. The thing about bands going retro with their sound is that any pastiche, no matter how empassioned and competent, is only ever going to dilute the magic; In Solitude succeed because they eschew pastiche, empassioned or otherwise, and merely borrow the landscape of ’80s metal. That they’re so young is kinda scary; they’re kinda like the hesher Goonies, all exhumed and necro.

Anyway, without further ado, here’s Pelle “Hornper” Åhman talking about the making of the album.

What sort of sound were you looking for this time round; was it intentionally retro?
Hornper: I think we were looking for a late ’70s, early ’80s sound but I think the most important thing was that we needed a sound that really gave room for the landscape of the atmosphere, so we had a few meetings with producer Fred [Astby, ex-Dismember] and he understood that it would be a good collaboration between us but I don’t think we were that sure what kind of sound we really wanted. As we started to record, we understood what we had to do.

For about a year now, the paper and staple parent to this little blog thing you’re reading has been offering subscribers exclusive bonus tracks and covers by some of the magazine’s favourite folks via the antiquated and nostalgic, but nerdishly cool, medium of the flexi disc. We are indeed bringing flexi back as stated in issue #86’s Call and Response featuring Landmine Marathon.

I’ve been informed that the DIY hardcore scene is also apparently doing their darnedest to make using quarters as weights part of your turntable use experience. Then again, while the circle pit may have gone the way of the dinosaur in HC circles, the 7” record never did, as you may have noticed if you’ve been to a show at any point in the last 30 years. Take that another step to the left and you can see why – however tenuously – the flexi might be the sort of thing hardcore heads desire to get their tattooed hands all over. Either way, a few of the labels making the flexi a conspicuous item of their release catalogue are BSVIV, Pirates Press and Baltimore-based A389 Records. As far as the latter is concerned, label boss Dom Romeo has some new material from Integrity coming later this month on a flexi called Evacuate, he’s also managed to squeeze Ringworm’s 1999 Madness of War demo on to 250 pieces of thin, but sturdy, plastic.

I have a couple A389 flexis in my personal possession. One, Kill Life’s “Dead End America” (w/Mike from Eyehategod on guest vocals) which is a collector’s collector’s item as it features members of Fucked Up, Magrudergrind and Crass, waves of cantankerous and filthy Black Flag-ish-ness and riffs on “Amazing Grace” and America as a whole. As well, I have Pulling Teeth’s delightfully faithful and hard-hitting cover of Rorschach’s “Lightning Strikes Twice,” with only 250 copies pressed on clear plastic. Awesome shit!

So, if you’re feeling nostalgic for the days Grim Reaper gave away free flexis of “See You in Hell” in the pages of Hit Parader, or enjoy getting off the couch and changing whatever’s on your turntable every two-and-a-half minutes, check this stuff out. I could have made life easy for you and embedded all the tracks mentioned above, but then what you do with all those quarters?

Why not use all those quarters and subscribe, if you already don’t, and get free flexis draped within the pages of the best metal mag ever sent directly to your abode every month?

Caspian – Live at Old South Church by The Mylene Sheath

My initial New Year’s resolution was to listen to more Repulsion demos and as that has been surprisingly easy, I’ve also decided to be nicer to you people. So not only are you getting some free streaming music by instrumental post-rock veterans Caspian, but you also get a chance to win one of two copies of this music on sweet, limited wax.

From our dear friends at Mylene Sheath:
- Send an email with your name and mailing address to info@themylenesheath.com
- Put “Caspian Live LP Decibel contest” as the subject
- Name the song you would most like to see Caspian perform live

Winners will be drawn at random from the submissions:
*One grand prize winner will receive a copy of the Live LP on light pink vinyl (limited to 100 copies, sold out)
*One runner up will receive a copy of the Live LP on pink/white marble vinyl (limited to 600 copies)

So there you have it, if you needed an excuse for your resolution to buy a record player then it doesn’t get much easier than this.

In a universe of unpronounceable band names from cultures far flung and unfathomably distant, the Deciblog herewith and hereby and therefore brings you Ptahil (allegedly mouthed “Pet-a, Hill”). The band name has its origins in the Mandaean religion (Wikipedia, thanks), which like all things cool as fuck, from an occultist’s point of view, emanates from then-Mesopotamia, now-Iraq (presently most of the current Mandaean adherents live in persecution in family-friendly, always-cheerful Iran). But this here Ptahil? They’re from Fort Wayne, Indiana, which ironically, from Ptahil’s point of view, is also called, City of Churches (Wikipedia, thanks).

Not one to be outdone by any other band with a weird name and Satanic tendencies, Ptahil’s new album, For His Satanic Majesty’s Glory, was “composed and recorded in complete adversarial ritual”, which means its sonic tendencies corrupt the pro-faith folk and incite the anti-faith folk. Or, you can just listen to it, taking away that it’s at once unconnected to the fast and forested Norse stuff and very connected to American sensibilities of down and dirty, low-end black.

To show you what we hear in Ptahil, we’ve summoned the free-app streaming gods at SoundCloud, obtained ever rightful, if somewhat malign, permission from Ptahil’s terran masters, and are now offering the full, unadulterated album of For His Satanic Majesty’s Glory for you to enjoy while you do spreadsheets and other desk-related work. If your eyes turn red and the boss notices, however, please see the legal agreement at the very bottom of the page. Yes, you consent to whatever nefarious stuff happens while exposed to Ptahil on the Deciblog.

Ptahil – For His Satanic Majesty’s Glory by Decibel Magazine

** Ptahil’s new album, For His Satanic Majesty’s Glory, is out now on Wraith Productions. Order it HERE, or find yourself burning eternally atop Satan’s black porcelain throne without water or toilet paper, though toilet paper might just make your subterranean matters much worse.

** Legal agreement: The Deciblog is in no way responsible on Earth, Heaven, Hell or whatever conceptual dimension for the contents of Ptahil’s audio sorcery. By listening to 1 second or in full, we bear no legal responsibility and all that stuff. Notarized and wax sealed.

First we’d like to congratulate Tombs on topping our annual list of the Top 40 Extreme Albums of 2011. It was, of course, well deserved. Not all our readers may agree with it, but then again there’s no satisfying the most extremely extreme readership in all of metaldom. You’re an opinionated lot, and we love you. Most of you.

So, we are here today to reveal what seems to be the key to a band placing its album in the Top 5 of our vaunted list: craft beer. Sure, intangibles like “good musicianship,” “excellent songwriting” and “killer image” come into play, but there’s no denying the link between the majority of 2011′s Top 5 placers and craft beer. Sure the sample size is small (one year), but please allow us to make stuff up elaborate.

#1 Tombs, Path of Totality: Needless to say, we showcased bassist Carson Daniel James’ love of craft beers and involvement in the craft beer world in this very forum. Exhibit 1-A.

#3 Mastodon, The Hunter: A German lager bearing their name was brewed by Mahr’s Brau for Mastodon’s appearance at Sonisphere back in July 2009. Exhibit 3-A.

#5 Brutal Truth, End Time: It’s no coincidence that BT front man Kevin Sharp’s Decibel column “Grinding it Out” is next to our own “Brewtal Truth” craft beer column. Sharp has also been known to tip a few cold ones with Dave Witte, the metal world’s true ambassador to fine beer. Exhibit 5-A: just open up the damn magazine and look at the two columns side by side. Sheesh, do we have to do everything for you?

(And who knows, had Jeff Hanneman not decided to rock this Heinie-inspired guitar back in 2009, World Painted Blood might have actually found its way into the Top 5, instead of languishing at #7. Maybe he should switch to Ninkasi’s Sleigh’r.)

But getting back to Dave Witte, based on our latest revelation regarding how bands can assure themselves a place in our yearly Top 5, it’s pretty much a lead-pipe lock that his latest effort with Municipal Waste will be topping our list at the end of 2012. Other contenders, if they put out albums in 2012 include Pelican, Clutch, Amon Amarth and Hansen (they’re putting their name on a new brew called MmmmHops IPA that’s sure to be killer).

Okay, so after the debut of this former vocalist for a “pretty large Christian heavy metal band” and her daughter on Toddlers & Tiaras, I’m starting to come around on James Durbin. The blaspheming begins at the 3:20 mark and lasts until you start emitting a Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?-esque cackle, at which point Decibel recommends ending your viewing session. (The hysteria sneaks up on you, just FYI…)

If you asked me, it’s maybe the mom who deserves the “poop crown” heralded herein.

Also, can’t namecheck Davis without giving her some respect after the jump.