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STREAMING: Hod’s “Through The Gates”

July 16, 2014

Hod wants to make sure you get their name right: “Hod is not an acronym. It is not H.O.D. It is Hod. Can we all get it straight now?” Yes, we can. We can also stream a new track from their forthcoming album Book Of The Worm. Give it a listen below and then find…

Sucker For Punishment: Heavy Metal Breakdow-ow-own

July 16, 2014

This was a week where the heavily hyped albums and hive mind faves were few and far between, forcing a metal critic to – gasp – do some actual digging. And there is indeed some interesting stuff out there, including work by some old German veterans I’d counted out long ago, a children’s deathcore band…

VIDEO PREMIERE: Miasmal “Excelsior”

July 16, 2014

“Cursed Redeemer is in my opinion a bit rawer and more live-oriented than our previous stuff,” pontificates Miasmal stringbanger Pontus to Metalship, “with a tad more rock ‘n’ roll thrown into the mix. I think you can hear that we’ve been playing a lot live since the first album, we have grown together a bit…

TRACK PREMIERE: Cardinal Wyrm’s “Dreams of Teeth”

July 15, 2014

One look at the chipper trio above should clue in any somewhat knowledgeable reader that Cardinal Wyrm play doom metal.  The Bay Area group definitely has the look of people that have seen some shit. This is the fun kind of doom, though! Theatrical and grandiose, closer to Rev. Bizarre, Violet Theatre, or even Bauhaus…

Sounds of the Damned: Chris Alexander Talks Fangoria Musick

July 15, 2014

To paraphrase the demon that once mauled Albert Brooks in his own car on the side of a darkened road back in ’83: Hey, d’ya you want to hear something really scary? Yeah? You sure? Alright, then, Fangoria Musick — the exquisitely eclectic, ceaselessly unsettling new digital download music label from the legendary flagship magazine…

Our GWAR bobblehead contest winner!

July 14, 2014

We’d like to say that we were overwhelmed with video responses paying tribute to Oderus. Actually, it’s probably appropriate that too many people were busy partying this summer to record an ode. But one proud blog reader stands out: Mr. Kyle Messick. True to our word we are sharing his video entry with the world…

Mutilation Rites Full Album Stream: Harbinger

July 14, 2014

My ears are ringing like mad. Last night at the Metro Gallery in Baltimore, I caught Mutilation Rites play a ripping set that could be called loud in the same understated way that a Boeing 747 landing on your face could be called loud.  Fuck.  Ing.  Loud.  The performance was enveloping, engulfing, overwhelming, and it…

Top 5 Metal Songs We Hate To Admit We Like

July 14, 2014

Every metalhead has a few skeletons in their respective closet. And by skeletons, we mean musical skeletons not anything particularly untoward or, possibly, illegal. Growing up first on pop music, then on cock rock, and then with thrash, death, black, and every fucking sub-genre (and sub-sub-genre) offshoot, it’s pretty easy to see and hear where…

Real Time War: Exclusive Twitching Tongues Premiere!

July 14, 2014

Not a huge fan of live records? Me either. But Twitching Tongues actually kill it on World War LIVE, a venture into the format that serves the band’s roiling, infectious Integrity-meets-old-school-Life-of-Agony sound shockingly well. Here’s the cutesy official explanation… Recorded live in the Van Nuys stadium called THE PIT in front of twenty screaming fans,…

Lee M. Bartow (Theologian) interviewed

July 11, 2014

** The original interview with Theologian’s Lee M. Bartow is featured in our stupendously awesome, but-not-so-metal “noise issue” (HERE). So moved by Bartow’s answers to our questions, we felt compelled to post the entire transcript while, as the saying goes, the iron is hot. Bartow’s not one to joy around and his music–self-admitted as “industrial…

Catch Bastard Feast in the Act with Osculum Infame

July 11, 2014

Three years ago, the Portland, OR foursome known as Elitist floored us with a gritty, hateful debut full-length called Fear in a Handful of Dust.  To nix any confusion about whether or not they played sweet-cheeked djent (as another band named Elitist was doing), the band re-antichristened themselves Bastard Feast, and next week marks the release…

Not the Rough Boys Pete Townshend Was Singing About, but Still Pretty Rough

July 10, 2014

Not that this has anything to do with that, but ever since I was a kid, one of my favourite songs has been Pete Townshend’s “Rough Boys” from his 1980 solo effort, Empty Glass. And despite the fact I can usually feel vast numbers of my brain cells begging for mercy before committing honourable hari-kari,…

STREAMING: Pelican’s Arktika

July 10, 2014

As psyched as we were for the last year’s new Pelican album, we were just as excited to see the band in the live setting again after a long six year wait. Now those worlds are set to collide soon when the Chicagoans drop Arktika, a nine song 2013 live set recorded in Russia. The…

STREAMING: Wolfpack 44’s “The Enemy Below”

July 9, 2014

Ricktor Ravensbrück was one of the mainstays of The Electric Hellfire Club, a band that made all of the stuff mentioned in metal fun again on industrial albums like Calling Dr. Luv and Burn, Baby, Burn! Seeing EHC in their 90’s heyday was quite an experience. Ravensbrück is back and Decibel is excited to stream…

STREAMING: The Haunted “Cutting Teeth”

July 9, 2014

It’s been three long years since The Haunted dropped surprise album, Unseen, on metaldom. Peter Dolving is no longer part of the band. Ceremonious or not. Former throater Marco Aro has returned, and with him a viciousness not heard on Unseen or The Dead Eye. The Swedes, in effect, are back! While some of you…

Sucker For Punishment: Buying Time is Here

July 9, 2014

When it came to new metal music in the first half of 2014, personally I feel it was mediocre at best, with only one album, Triptykon’s Melana Chasmata, deserving of the adjective “exemplary” a rung or two higher than a small handful of releases that qualify as being “very good”. However, this year’s release schedule…

FREE DOWNLOAD: Electric Citizen’s “Savage”

July 8, 2014

Our own Adrien Begrand has been raving about Electric Citizen for months now (like here, for example), and since he has pretty impeccable taste (for a Canadian), I figured I would check them out – and he was right. The nice thing about this whole occult rock trend is that the bands need to have…

And STILL “No Salvation”: Exclusive Coliseum Premiere!

July 8, 2014

For its tenth birthday Louisville, Kentucky’s rightly celebrated progressive punkers Coliseum may have re-signed with Deathwish, but it’s the rest of us who are getting the gift: A totes beautiful deluxe reissue of the band’s instant classic self-titled debut rager featuring eight bonus tracks, a full remix by Toxic Holocaust’s Joel Grind, extensive liner notes,…

William Bennett (Cut Hands) interviewed

July 8, 2014

** The original interview Cut Hands’ William Bennett is featured in our groundbreakingly awesome “noise issue” (HERE). What follows below is the full transcript. If you’re adventurous enough to you’ll succumb to Bennett’s Afro Noise. What is Afro Noise? William Bennett: This was the name of the debut Cut Hands record, essentially referring to two…

Metal Yoga With André Foisy #3

July 7, 2014

André Foisy plays guitar in Locrian and is a certified yoga instructor who teaches at Turbodog Yoga in Chicago, IL. You can find his yoga teaching schedule and more information about him on his blog. — A lot of musicians get wrist problems. Playing guitar, bass or pounding on drums places a lot of strain…

A “Festering” Ear Worm: Exclusive Acrania Premiere!

July 7, 2014

Thanks to Acrania the world shall soon no longer need wonder what it would sound like if George Orwell served as spiritual advisor to a uber-brutal modern death metal band — these London slammers’ kinetic, oppressive, appropriately-titled debut full-length Totalitarian Dystopia will answer that question in fairly definitive fashion at the end of next month….

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

July 3, 2014

Ok, Happy Fourth of July. You know, like, it’s  that day and all. GOATWHORE release Constricting Rage of the Merciless. Let’s not really discuss the title, as I don’t know what it means. Produced by Erik Rutan, this definitely has a full sound, full of clarity and definition without losing any teeth (or beak, in this…

KSP (Sorta) Plays A&R. Client #1: Shroud of Despondency

July 3, 2014

One of the most distinct memories I have pertaining to Milwaukee black metal outfit Shroud of Despondency is as follows: the scene was February 2011, Clearwater Beach, Florida. My wife, kid and I were in the midst of our annual pilgrimage down south in order to escape the depressing, bone-chilling cold of another southern Ontario…

Decibrity Playlist: North

July 3, 2014

I first read about North via Catherine Yates’ review of What You Were back in 2008, but it wasn’t until I perused our Managing Editor’s writeup of the record in that year’s top 40 that I thankfully got around to listening. Even though it’s been a while since then, once you’ve read last year’s interview…

Inside The Shredder’s Studio #12: Woody Weatherman of COC

July 2, 2014

Woody Weatherman of Corrosion of Conformity has influenced generations of shredders. His career has spanned many phases: the massively influential crossover albums, their unexpected commercial run in the ’90s and the return of the old school lineup in recent years. COC remains as relevant as ever and just released their new record IX. Mr. Weatherman…

Sucker For Punishment: Hail Sateen

July 2, 2014

With the way the metal scene leaps on to musical trends can be hilarious and frustrating, how labels will get a whiff of a fresh sound, whip themselves into a signing frenzy, beat it to death and beyond, and strip the music of all the charm it had in the first place. So it’s understandable…

KILLING IS MY BUSINESS: Band Managers Ryan Downey & Mark Vieira

July 2, 2014

Think of a band manager as the “mom” of a band. While they’re not necessarily involved in the music-making, they oversee many of the behind-the-scenes logistics that make it possible. As you’ll read below, there’s a whole lot of people and decisions swirling around even a young band, so it pays to have someone that knows…

STREAMING: We Have a Ghost’s “We Have a Ghost”

July 1, 2014

While perhaps not the most extremely extreme thing we’ve covered on this blog, We Have a Ghost are nonetheless one of those bands that dovetail nicely with metal mentality. For one thing, it’s a real downer of a record. A lot of it feels reminiscent of the more unsettling ambient passages from The Fragile-era Nine…

Tales From the Metalnomicon: Fresh Blood (On the Page)

July 1, 2014

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Today the Metalnomicon offers up introductions to two brand new publications with pounding, bleeding heavy metal hearts… All this time we thought we could only listen to, or play instruments, or scream our metal….

The Deciblog Interview: Jamie Myers

June 30, 2014

Jamie Myers: her voice is the stuff of both fever dreams and Byzantine nightmares. Since getting involved with underground music back in the 90s she has progressed from punk bands to playing bass and singing in Hammer of Misfortune and a guest slot with Wolves in The Throne Room. After returning to Texas to start…