It's impossible to be hyperbolic about the legacy of Jeff Hanneman. Our own Justin Norton comes right out and says it in this month's cover story: "Every band ever featured in this magazine owes [Slayer] something." Hanneman and Slayer have coursed through Decibel's lifesblood from the onset, from two Hall of Fames to two exhaustive cover stories. For #105's long-form tribute, we compiled a ...

When it comes to creativity and vision, the best of us don’t compromise. It’s easy to shift and jump on a trend to make a buck, or follow blindly when someone promises a path to success. It’s a path many of us would take. Those destined to make a mark never compromise on their vision, their integrity or their standards. They do what they want and don’t expect anything for their work, or ...

As much as I swore I was never going to do a blog post about goddamn Metallica, when Bazillion Point Books contacted me about doing a spread celebrating the 30th anniversary of Cliff Burton's first show with Metallica (March 5, 1983, for those of you who aren't so good with math) – featuring actual photographs taken at said show – the opportunity was too good to pass up. So here you go, a ...

Suicide Silence seemingly started playing shows out of the blue, and quickly ascended to headliner status and gigantic tours. In 2007, I saw them lugging gear outside of a small club as they prepared to open early in the evening for Nile. In 2009, they had moved up the ladder and were second on the bill at the Carcass reunion gig. Many of the younger fans went batshit crazy when Lucker took the ...

Of all the “traditional metal” albums that have come out in the past year, one that’s snuck up on a lot of us here at Decibel is Residual Alcatraz, the debut by Greensboro, North Carolina’s Dogbane. Not only did the album get a positive review recently, but also we were honored to profile the band in this month’s issue. They’re a good bunch of guys who have a deep appreciation for the ...

Calling the split "amicable but lamentable to say the least," Averse Sefira have sadly called it a day. The long-running Austin black metallers are survived by a stellar discography -- see Advent Parallax or Tetragrammatical Astygmata for the incontrovertible evidence -- as well as a very entertaining, sporadically updated blog that explored the band's occult adventures. Here, for example, ...

We're obviously not breaking the news that Riot guitarist, Mark Reale (far L in photo), passed away on January 25 from complications from Crohn's disease. Nonetheless, we wanted to pay tribute to a musician—and more importantly, a band—that hasn't gotten his/their due in American metal history. Reale was not only a founding member of Riot, he was the primary songwriter in the band. Though we ...

In honor of GWAR guitarist Cory Smoot, who passed away yesterday as the band was preparing to enter Canada, we offer this typically deranged Frank Lemke review of this fall's annual GWAR-B-Q in Richmond, originally trimmed for space from the magazine. Saturday, September 17 The National, Richmond, VA The GWAR-B-Q was booked outdoors, at Hadad’s Water Park, primed to be a celebration of ...