Featured
When There’s No More Beer in Hell: Cross Examination Returns with Dawn of the Dude
August 21, 2014 Kevin Stewart-Panko
This almost didn’t happen. By ‘this,’ we mean the interview portion of our announcing the return-of-sorts of St. Louis’ Cross Examination to the world of playing crossover thrash while balancing tens of beers on their livers. The quintet, after about six years of silence, has a new 7″ out and available as of last month…
Christ, Not Death: Exclusive Napalm Christ Stream!
August 21, 2014 Shawn Macomber
Napalm Christ lives up to its name. Need we say more? Actually, no, no we don’t. ‘Cause we’ve got the exclusive stream of the band’s upcoming catchy-yet-dark-as-fuck self-titled 12-inch streaming below. (Pre-order here.) Enjoy! A389-146 NAPALM CHRIST (Napalm Christ) 12" by A389 Recordings
Decibrity Playlist: Lazer/Wulf
August 21, 2014 Zach Smith
Despite teases here and there, it’s now been five long years since the last Irepress record (yes, I realize this is a Lazer/Wulf playlist–I’ll get there next sentence, I promise). Given that the group is one of my favorite acts around, it’s high praise that stumbling upon Lazer/Wulf has helped satiate my craving for new…
STREAMING: Children of Technology’s “Future Decay”
August 20, 2014 Jeff Treppel
You want music that sounds (and looks) like one of the high-octane action scenes from the classic film The Road Warrior? Well, Children of Technology embrace the post apocalypse pretty enthusiastically with their dystopic D-beat punk attack. They even dress up like members of Lord Humongous’s gang of marauders, which is way more awesome than…
Shark Week is for Sissies: Exclusive Hammerhead Premiere!
August 20, 2014 Shawn Macomber
A few years back super-under-appreciated Minneapolis noise rockers Hammerhead reunited for Amphetamine Reptile’s twenty-fifth anniversary bash and released an EP dubbed Memory Hole…which for a long while seemed to describe the place where the band was destined to disappear down. Happily, it is not so, and today we have your first exclusive taste of the…
Sucker For Punishment: Worlds Apart
August 20, 2014 Adrien Begrand
I was among those critics lavishing praise on Pallbearer’s debut album Sorrow & Extinction in February 2012, marveling at its surprisingly graceful take on doom metal. However, as the year went on, I felt I had to pull back from the praise of the critical hive mind, because the more I let that record settle,…
Inside The Shredder’s Studio #13: Carl Byers of Coffinworm
August 19, 2014 Justin Norton
Since their debut When All Became None was released about four years ago critics have struggled to find a moniker that fits Coffinworm. Are they blackened crust? Doom punk? Blackened death? Blackened tilapia? After a while all of these phrases begin to sound a lot like the Applebee’s menu so we’ll settle with the trustworthy…
Darkness Undivided: Exclusive Music Blues Stream!
August 19, 2014 Shawn Macomber
Think you’re having a bad day/life? Well, Stephen Tanner is pretty sure he’s got your ass beat, and then some: The bassist of experimental sludge-y noise rock auteurs Harvey Milk is about to release a unsettling-yet-mesmerizing, pitch-fucking-dark concept album about his life entitled Things Haven’t Gone Well under the apt moniker Music Blues and we’ve…
See A Little Light: Exclusive Darkness Divided Stream!
August 18, 2014 Shawn Macomber
To co-opt/augment Riki Rachtman’s old Headbanger’s Ball sign-off, on Written in Blood Darkness Divided has one foot in the metalcore gutter, one fist in the Between the Buried and Me/Devin Townsend-y gold. And for those who don’t reflexively hate the former, the latter will be a very welcome development indeed. Anyway, here’s your chance to…
Aðalbjörn Tryggvason (Sólstafir) interviewed
August 18, 2014 Chris Dick
** Sólstafir have been roving the plains of Iceland for the better part of two decades. Though originally a black metal act, replete with corpsepaint, the Reykjavikians transformed into something else years later. We’re not entirely sure if Sólstafir are post-metal, post-rock, or post-themselves, but whatever genre of music they fall into, they’re entirely unique….
Pig Destroyer Frontman J.R. Hayes Reflects on “Twin Peaks”
August 18, 2014 Andrew Bonazelli
If you’ve been with us for a while, you surely remember our January 2008 issue, in which we not only bestowed Album of the Year honors on Pig Destroyer’s Phantom Limb, but talked to vocalist J.R. Hayes at length about major influence David Lynch. “With [Lynch], it’s like you’re watching paintings that move,” Hayes said…
For Those About to Squawk: Waldo’s Pecks of the Week
August 15, 2014 Jesse Chase
Well, the editors of this told me “if you don’t have anything nice to squawk, don’t squawk anything at all.”So like you’re not going to be able to bear what I have to pecking say about this week’s major release, like can’t peck it at all, Paul. What time is it? MIDNIGHT release No Mercy for…
Tough To Untie: Exclusive Colombian Necktie Stream!
August 15, 2014 Shawn Macomber
Only a few days left until metallic hardcore levellers Colombian Necktie unleash the scary/sick debut full-length Twilight Upon Us, but for those who can’t wait we’ve got an exclusive stream of the track “Guiding Light” below: Check out another track here. For more information visit Bandcamp, Twitter, and/or Instagram.
Throw Me a Frickin’ Label Hack: Finland’s Edge of Haze
August 15, 2014 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)…
The Deciblog Presents More “My Awesome Day Job” Content: USA Out of Vietnam Does a Secret Vegan Supper Club. Of Course.
August 14, 2014 Kevin Stewart-Panko
In simplistic terms, I guess one would/could say USA Out of Vietnam is a space rock band. Actually, the Montreal outfit is a genre-defying entity that incorporates elements of everything from psychedelia, shoegaze and black metal to doom, noise rock and Angelo Badalamenti-sounding soundtrack stuff. The band has a new record out on New Damage…
Decibrity Playlist: Young Widows (Part 2)
August 14, 2014 Zach Smith
Last week, we brought you the beginning of Evan Patterson’s “dark country and folk” playlist. In two-and-a-half years of doing these, it’s safe to say that his picks–most of which originated on 7″ singles–are some of the more obscure, yet fascinating, we’ve encountered. While Part 1 tackled tracks from 1956 to 1963 (don’t miss the…
Sucker For Punishment: Tumbleweeds
August 13, 2014 Adrien Begrand
It’s another light week for new releases, and mercifully so for yours truly, who is currently recovering from a hot and loud weekend at Heavy Montreal, where the likes of Metallica, Slayer, Twisted Sister (who totally ruled), Voivod, Municipal Waste, Exodus, and dozens more bands played to around 40,000 people over two days. Fellow Decibel…
VIDEO PREMIERE: Funeral Horse’s “Stoned and Furious”
August 12, 2014 Jeff Treppel
Funeral Horse clearly watch the same terrible shot-on-VHS 80s movies that I do, because their video for “Stoned and Furious” captures them perfectly: the dead-on framing, the cheap sets, the “acting.” That’s enough reason to watch the video on its own, but hey, throw in some some quality stoner punk and you have yourself a…
Alekhine’s Gun Fits Queens For A “Crown of Knives”
August 12, 2014 Shawn Macomber
Force of nature. Is there a phrase that better encapsulates the pure transcendent fury actress/frontwoman/fool crusher Jessica Pimentel exudes during a performance by genre bending extreme metallers Alekhine’s Gun? Maybe, maybe not. That sort of charisma and élan is admittedly difficult to bind up in words — as anyone privileged enough to have been on…
John Browne (Monuments) interviewed
August 11, 2014 Chris Dick
** UK/US prog metallers—the ‘djent’ tag is now deprecated—Monuments have a new album out, The Amanuensis. If you can’t pronounce ‘amanuensis’ or don’t know what it means, well, guitarist/songwriter John Browne provides an explanation below. Now joined by ex-Periphery vocalist Chris Barretto, Monuments are stronger than ever. The Amanuensis is a more straight-forward effort, but…
Q&A with Pure Hell on Innovation, Evolution and the ’70s Punk Scene
August 11, 2014 Laina Dawes
Pure Hell are known for three things: 1) being the first all African-American punk band; 2) having a wickedly cool band name; and 3) being the focus of a very popular online photo from 1978, depicting the quartet with dyed, glow-in-the-dark, chemically-straightened hair and ill-advised face paint. Formed in Philadelphia in 1974, they were inspired by…
STREAMING: Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats “Runaway Girls”
August 8, 2014 Chris Dick
One of the coolest bands on the planet are UK psych-rock-doom outfit Uncle Acid & the Deadbeats. Having come off a strong third album in 2013’s Mind Control, Uncle A is poking their tweed ‘n’ weed heads out of the bong water long enough for the lucky among us to hear new tune, “Runaway Girls”….
Infected Or Infectious? Exclusive Oozing Wound Premiere!
August 8, 2014 Shawn Macomber
No need to ponder the true secret of the ooze any longer: We’ve got an exclusive stream of a ultra sick new track from Chicago thrash mavens Oozing Wound. It’s entitled “Drug Reference” and will, moments from now, commence fucking with your head… “Drug Reference” is an entry in the excellent Adult Swim Singles Program…
STREAMING: Horrendous “Nepenthe”
August 8, 2014 Chris Dick
“Traditional, classic death metal,” is how guitarist/vocalist Damian Herring describes Horrendous.
Fest or No Fest, Don’t Call it a Fest Promises to be Pretty Awesome
August 7, 2014 Kevin Stewart-Panko
Next Friday the 15th, the inaugural Don’t Call it a Fest slams into the Motor City with all the impact of a severely downgraded credit rating and an avalanche of housing foreclosures. Even during the best of times, Detroit has always had a negative air surrounding it; some of that civic black eye has been…
Decibrity Playlist: Young Widows (Part 1)
August 7, 2014 Zach Smith
Given how well our last and only playlist from a Louisville native turned out courtesy of Coliseum’s Ryan Patterson, we had high hopes for one from his brother and fellow Derby City dweller Evan. While the former focused solely on Killing Joke and caused me to listen to “Total Invasion” on repeat for months, the…
And Christy For All…
August 7, 2014 Shawn Macomber
Howard Stern Show regular, Charred Walls of the Damned drummer, Halloween enthusiast, and Decibel contributor Richard Christy sure does get around. A few months ago I saw him sit in with Stryper for “Sing Along Song” at Terminal 5 in New York City — clad in a sweet vintage To Hell With the Devil shirt,…
Low Fidelity: Haunted House Summers
August 6, 2014 Justin Norton
Long before he took up residence in a pair of New Jersey record stores Krieg frontman Neill Jameson (aka Imperial) was a kid looking to make a buck during the long, hot East Coast summers. He found a job as a professional ghoul at a boardwalk haunted house in Wildwood, New Jersey. The Deciblog convinced…
A Spirit Wasting Away: Exclusive U.S. Premiere of Triptykon’s “Aurorae” Video
August 6, 2014 Shawn Macomber
No need to fuck around too much here: Triptykon’s Melana Chasmata is an absolute beast of an album — a churning cauldron of clever invention and legit representation that expands the boundaries of a genre in pretty desperate need of boundary expansion. It is that rare release to which — whether one eventually loves or…
Sucker For Punishment: Godsmack Day Edition
August 6, 2014 Adrien Begrand
Happy Godsmack Day to all you Boston readers. You must be so darn proud. Anyway, on with the show: Alestorm, Sunset on the Golden Age (Napalm): What grades did the pirate get in school? HIGH SEAS!!! Belphegor, Conjuring the Dead (Nuclear Blast): A merciless return to simple, blasphemous black metal, the Austrian veterans keep it quick…