Well, we all know that as the year winds down, so do the releases. This is the time of year when most labels put out compilations or package DVDs to try to grab that last dollar from the consumer.  So, without further ado, here we go. Slams, slams and more slams. Disfiguring the Goddess release Deprive on Decomp.  This was written and performed by one-man maelstrom Cameron Argon. There’s ...

With two triumphant star-studded national tours under our bullet belt, Decibel Magazine is raising the (bloody) stakes on our hotly anticipated third cross-country domination. This spring, we’re proud to bring you the reanimation of death metal demigods Carcass alongside melodeath powerhouse the Black Dahlia Murder, technical death metal heroes Gorguts and emerging death/thrash squad ...

OK, I'll admit up front that this is a total asshole post. It was my intention when I started doing these weekly Brewtal Truth posts to specifically write about beers that are fairly widely distributed in the U.S. and available now. I have made an exception on a couple of occasions, but this one is just egregious. Nonetheless, there is a certain seasonal appropriateness to it, so please forgive ...

It's always nice to hear bands that not only rip shit up but can also find the time and talent to compose some serious songage.  Last week, French-Canadians Incandescence dropped their debut album of rollicking black metal full of actual chops and interesting structures.  After releasing a few songs on their La Valse des Ombres EP two years ago, the duo burrowed deeper into their collective ...

When I was a kid, of course I loved Christmas. Gifts, food, candy, chocolate, family and friends dropping by and bringing more gifts, food, candy and chocolate, a fat man breaking into your house and not stealing shit...what's not to like? Then, during my angsty teenage-and-early-20s, I really developed a rock-solid hate-on for the holiday due to many of the same reasons I used to love it as a ...

Grand Magus grand magister JB Christoffersson said to us recently: "Well, in heavy metal the drums are extremely important, maybe more important than many people realize. There has been a tendency in “modern” metal to focus too much on a fat guitar sound, resulting in really weak sounding or fake sounding drums. In my experience, the fat guitar sound is a result of the combination of drums ...

So, maybe your metal band ain’t destined for a multi-million dollar CGI family film. There are still opportunities to license your music for movies, TV and other audiovisual media. If you’re serious about it, you’ll need to cozy up to music supervisors (they’re paid to find the perfect music for a project) and licensing specialists (who pitch music for said project). For Decibel issue ...

We presume they had some turkey and stuffing, but Drugs of Faith also celebrated Thanksgiving week by releasing the four-track EP Architectural Failures. The effort--the trio's first since 2011's Corroded full-length--is hopefully just a taste of what's to come as the Virginians are set to drop their next LP in 2014. In the meantime, vocalist/guitarist Richard Johnson (who appeared with Pig ...

This summer, Neill Jameson wrote an article for us that more or less took over part of the Internet for a day and even got some love from the late Roger Ebert's website. Neill -- also the creator of one of our 100 best black metal records (for Krieg's The Black House) has an open Deciblog invitation to post more record store tales as the spirit moves him. We're happy to have him return with the ...

If you haven’t noticed yet, the beginning of December has given way to the annual deluge of year-end lists, publication after publication, writer after writer offering their choices of the best albums of 2013. It’s completely overdone, but still something I relish to this day, as that perpetual desire to discover great new music never ceases. However, it’s easy to forget there are still ...