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INTERVIEW: Carl Byers from Coffinworm on collaborative catharsis and hating humanity on some level

April 7, 2014

Indianapolis’ Coffinworm are essential listening for those who like their extreme metal to open up wide and drown any extant optimism in a genre non-specific swamp of sunken riffs and black metal noise ‘n’ hiss. 2010’s debut LP When All Became None was a loose-limbed doom record that was too anxious and fidgety to plant…

STREAMING: Sons Of Huns “Bless Those Who Follow”

April 7, 2014

When it comes to describing Sons of Huns’ music we’re at a bit of a loss. Nektar mixed with Black Sabbath mixed with Kill ‘Em All-era Metallica? Steamhammer mixed with Sleep mixed with Ace of Spades-era Motörhead? Sure, any and all of it. The Portland trio’s style also picks up heavy influence from ’70s sci-fi,…

A Straight Edge “Timeline”

April 7, 2014

Check out a raging slab of unadulterated, all-star straight-edge hardcore off the upcoming EP A Place Beyond from Boston’s Test of Time below — the precursor to a much-anticipated July full-length release By Design. “Having been involved in the hardcore scene for about fifteen years each,’Timeline’ is a reflection about the feelings that originally draw…

Robert Andersson (Morbus Chron) interviewed

April 4, 2014

** When we premiered “The Perennial Link” (HERE) off Morbus Chron’s new album, Sweven, we were pretty bummed. Not about the song–the song is basically untouchable–but that we didn’t get the opportunity to stream more, like the entire album. If you’re wondering why there’s so much chatter about Sweven, well, it’s an incredible entry into…

Check Out Turkey’s Chopstick Suicide!

April 4, 2014

Tomorrow (Saturday 4/5), the Dillinger Escape Plan are playing a Baltimore show with Retox, Trash Talk, and Norway’s black-jazzers Shining.  I plan to show up and receive a megadose of awesome, and I’m betting the Turkish hardcore oddballs in Chopstick Suicide might feel a little jealous about it. A couple years ago, Chopstick Suicide exploded…

BREWTAL TRUTH: Drink This Now!

April 4, 2014

We have two beer loves that are in direct contrast to each other: malty German brews and über-hoppy North American brews. These two things have nothing in common taste-wise. They are, of course, brewed with the same ingredients, but the ratios and the particular types of key ingredients used—such as hops, malt and yeast—are dramatically…

Fuck Winter. Listen to an Exclusive Stream of Blistered’s New EP

April 3, 2014

Blistered is a five-piece metallic hardcore outfit who call Tampa home and came to my attention courtesy the good folks at 6131 Records who are releasing their latest offering, and EP called Soul Erosion, which you can stream below. As winter goes on and my stir-craziness hits epic proportions, part of my decision to give…

Live Review: …AYWKUBTTOD

April 3, 2014

I was a wee freshman in college when Source Tags & Codes, the third full-length from …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, dropped in the winter of 2002.

Inside The Shredder’s Studio #9: Kevin Hufnagel of Gorguts, Dysrhythmia and Vaura

April 2, 2014

Kevin Hufnagel is traveling around the country right now blowing minds with Gorguts on the Decibel tour. We thought it was a perfect time to pull him aside and learn about the riffs that shaped his shredding style. Please welcome Kevin Hufnagel to the Inside The Shredder’s Studio. — Here it is: a list of…

Sucker For Punishment: All I Hear is ‘Burn!’

April 2, 2014

Remember when rock stars could act like total dicks and no one would even bat an eye? Imagine the lawsuits, the social media backlash if someone famous whipped a smashed guitar 30 feet into a festival crowd. Today’s rockers are pussycats compared to Ritchie Blackmore circa 1974. If you don’t know the story of Deep…

BREAKING: Decibel Tour Venue Change, Toronto

April 2, 2014

Attention, Canadians — and/or anybody crossing the border to catch the 2014 Decibel Magazine Tour in Toronto next Tuesday, April 8: We’ve got a venue change. The show will now be going down at the Opera House. The ticket link is still the same, so buy ’em while you can right here. Got it? Okay,…

KILLING IS MY BUSINESS: Pig Destroyer’s Scott Hull Talks Corporate Branding

April 2, 2014

Back when I started getting into punk and metal, I was naïve enough to believe that ideals were enough to keep someone making music that barely sold and appealed to almost nobody. Of course, my parents were paying my way through middle and high school in those days. How could I have understood that the…

STREAMING: Satyress’s “Dark Fortunes”

April 1, 2014

Satyrs are super horny (literally!) goat people. Satyress is the female version of that. Do not do a Google image search of the term unless you want to feel dirty. But if you want some awesome occult doom with an intense vocalist, Satyress the band are your thing. Their debut, Dark Fortunes, contains so many…

Decibel Exclusive: First New Meatmen Track in 19 Years!

April 1, 2014

This is not an April Fool’s joke, except on the politically correct thought police: We have the first new Meatmen track in two decades! When I was a kid I sat in my room and cranked The Meatmen at ridiculous volumes and memorized Tesco Vee’s banter on the classic Meatmen platters. So to say this…

Skinfather Wants You (To “Drown in Black”)

April 1, 2014

Maybe it isn’t a complete surprise that a rising death metal band would adopt a circa-1993 song title from Swedish extreme music legends (and Decibel Hall of Famers) Dismember as its moniker. How well Southern California’s Skinfather captures the spirit and unadulterated sonic brutality of that glorious moment in time, on the other hand, is…

INTERVIEW: Mike Abominator from Gravehill is going to crawl out the speaker and choke you to death

March 31, 2014

Gravehill rule for a whole bunch of reasons. The Californian alpha-headbangers just have this anything goes attitude to playing gory ol’ school death metal and would just as soon mix in a little hardcore punk and crust feel as they are to bring it down slow and low and meditate upon a doom riff for…

STREAMING: Monolord “Empress Rising”

March 31, 2014

“…that fuzzed out soundscape was exactly what we were looking to achieve. We actually didn’t have any specific genre in mind starting this band, we just wanted to make music as heavy and gritty as possible. If anyone wants to label it doom, stoner or sludge is entirely up to them. But we’re totally fine…

It’s MLB Opening Day and Your Team Doesn’t Suck (Yet)!

March 31, 2014

Why does every baseball fan everywhere look forward to opening day of Major League Baseball more than any other day of the season? For some it’s the only day their team isn’t in the cellar (Houston) or languishing in mediocrity (Chicago Cubs) or headed toward another 100-loss season (Seattle). For others it’s the possibility of…

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

March 28, 2014

OK, I know, its GOT to get better. There’s not too much I found this week, so I guess I’ll get into it. Nux Vomica releases the oh-so-crusty Nux Vomica (self-titled, for those of you that aren’t that quick on the uptake) on Relapse.  Calling this just crust would be a little unfair, sure there…

Album Stream: I Döden by Swedish Atmospheric Black Metallers Skogen

March 28, 2014

A little over a week from now, Skogen will release their fourth album in five years, called I Döden, meaning In Death. The three Swedes have compiled an hour of farsighted, contemplative black metal – not quite folk, even though quiet acoustic passages exist; often raucous but with the sharpest edges all filed away by…

BREWTAL TRUTH: The Next Generation

March 28, 2014

We’ll get the self-congratulatory crap out of the way right up front. We’ve been writing about craft beer in America’s only monthly extreme music magazine since 2009. No one else was writing about beer and metal at the time. So, we’ll go ahead and plant the we-were-there-first flag in that one. But, if you’ve been…

Into Mosh Pit: Nervosa Interviewed

March 27, 2014

Sao Paulo, Brazil thrash brigade, Nervosa had their debut album, Victim of Yourself hit the streets very recently, although the buzz in the patch-jacketed ‘n’ bullet-belted underground has been swirling around this trio for a couple years. Being a trio of staunch and avowed all-tits-no-dicks thrash heads hailing from a faraway, sun-kissed land will always…

Decibrity Playlist: Iron Reagan

March 27, 2014

Sure, it’s been a year since Iron Reagan dropped its debut full-length. Despite the various other commitments of its members, the band recently began a run of tour dates that will take them through April, all while wrapping up work on their sophomore LP (which, by the way, will be for Relapse). Given how much…

Jets Fan Tommy Victor of Prong Rights the Ship

March 27, 2014

NFL free agency has been in full swing for a couple weeks now. Prong’s Ruining Lives drops courtesy of Steamhammer/SPV on April 28; we asked longtime mainman Tommy Victor what he would do if he were in charge of his favorite team, the New York Jets. Snap your fingers, snap the ball, do not buttfumble….

Repulsion: Live Tonight!

March 26, 2014

In case the lineup of Carcass, The Black Dahlia Murder and Gorguts isn’t enough to convince you to attend the San Francisco stop of the Decibel Tour tonight (in which case you’re crazy) there’s another treat on hand: an exclusive appearance by Hall Of Fame verified legends Repulsion. Repulsion is near and dear to both…

Sucker For Punishment: Of Death & Cuttlefish

March 26, 2014

Everyone dies. Of course we all know that, we’re aware of it from an early age. Yet in metal the idea of death, actual death, not phony-baloney doom and gloom play-acting, has always been overly romanticized rather than dealt with head-on. The explanation is simple: heavy metal is still a very young subculture. Prior to…

TRACK PREMIERE: Raw Power’s “We’re Moving”

March 25, 2014

Raw Power have long been one of the most underappreciated bands of the early crossover movement (I even did a Lazarus Pit on them a few years back). Still going after 30 years of punk fury, their 10th full-length, Tired and Furious, is about to kick everyone’s ass. We have the first track for you,…

“Barf Out Riffs, Barf Out Thoughts”: The Die Choking Interview

March 25, 2014

Back in January Philadelphia grind-punk all-stars Die Choking — bassist/vocalist Paul J. Herzog (ex-Total Fucking Destruction), drummer Joshua T. Cohen (Cop Problem), guitarist Jeffrey V. Daniels (Burden) — hit the ground running, unleashing a leveling sonic devastator in the shape of a debut self-titled digital E.P. as infectious as it is unsettling. A few weeks…

Read ’em and weep: Will Lindsay of Indian gives us his all-time on-tour reading list

March 24, 2014

Chicago’s Indian are presently hauling their blackhearted nihilism across the tarmac of the UK and Europe in support of the Decibel-approved From all Purity. It’s a sick record from disturbed men, maybe more noisy, more off-the-chain than anything they’ve cut to record before, and if your record collection exists primarily to harsh your mellow (which,…

Dave Brockie: 1963-2014

March 24, 2014

In the late 90s, perhaps around 1998, I pulled over at a truck stop about 45 miles outside of Richmond, Virginia. I grabbed a few snacks and went to the checkout line when it occurred to me that the clerk was staring, somewhat horrified. I looked down and remembered why: my entire body was covered…