Year: 2010

The heaviest music magazine in North America just got half an ounce heavier — the most vicious, crushing half an ounce you’ve ever experienced. It gives us tremendous pleasure to announce the launch of the Decibel Flexi Series. From now on, Decibel will treat its loyal subscribers to a new, extremely limited vinyl flexi disc…

So, two Norwegians — ex-Emperor/ex-Zyklon guitarist Samoth and Mindgrinder/ex-Scum guitarist Cosmo — and one Swede — ex-Dark Funeral/ex-Aeon drummer Nils Fjellström — team up to form The Wretched End. Now, typically Swedes despise the Norwegians for one reason or another (usually because the Norwegian Kronor has more purchasing power than the Swedish Kronor and the…

First off, can someone send me a picture that would fall under the search title “Metalhead Reading”? Jesus Inverted Christ, the internet, all I want is a guy with gauntlets and a novel. It can’t be that elusive. Anyways, the post-metal version of book publishers, McSweeney’s, put up this game the other day that asks…

Hopefully you’ve already heard the news about our incredible new Decibel Flexi Series—a subscriber-only treat in which one band each month will drop exclusive unreleased music on clear vinyl inside the magazine—and if so, you know that the first artist stepping up to deliver the brutal is, appropriately, Brutal Truth. But that’s not the only…

“Phil Anselmo looks like a giant angry baby!” So came the cry from a friend who had just opened her mailbox to retrieve her issue of Decibel. Because I’m the last person to receive a copy (the post office can suck it), I didn’t know what the heck she was talking about. Then my copy…

I know it’s hard to leave the house on Thursdays: Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Night Court AND L.A. Law? On the same channel, no less? If there’s ever a night to eat potato chips out of your bellybutton, this is it. OR, if you live in the greater Philadelphia area and feel comfortable setting…

OK, when Albert, Scott K., and myself think doom metal we automatically throw horns, put on our ankle length leather jackets, and head out to the moors for an “atmospheric” photo shoot. Actually, we don’t have moors here in Pennsylvania, but a trip to Centralia, PA always sets the right “mood”. Anyway, there’s been far…

Oh, lordy. A post-emo kid in a tragically deep v-neck t-shirt and festooned with the requisite rejected-by-Flock-of-Seagulls haircut runs to MTV for help confronting his deathcore band fronting tormenter via Bully Beatdown, a reality show based upon the flawed premise that if you have a professional mixed-martial artist humiliate some asshole on television, that’ll be the end…

#5. The end of the “Morrisound” era. In the late ‘80s Morrisound Studios in Tampa was the place to record, and it provided the first real clear production, in my opinion, of double bass work that was happening in the early days of extreme metal. For the first time you were able to hear things…

When they’re not getting down with the Cinnabon sickness at the Mall of America, Minneapolis BM punks Wolvhammer enjoy decimating faces on tour. Drummer/resident smartass Heath Rave will give us the gory, hopefully idiotic details. Wednesday, Nov. 3, Austin, TX After a brutal overnight drive, including a stop at a clinic (sore throat, not sore…

By Nate Hall (U.S. Christmas) #5 John Ehle: The Land Breakers, The Winter People, Trail of Tears. (Describing the Cherokee) Male and female, they were hospitable but uneffusive. The men appeared to be respectful but remained aloof, were secure within themselves. They would shake a stranger’s hand silently while looking off toward the horizon, securing…

I don’t think I’ve ever personally beat up on Oceano. I’ve definitely attacked their chosen genre and I’ve lobbed bombs at many of the band’s contemporaries, but the alpha and omega of deathcore has never really crossed my desk… until the iPad. See, to promote their new album, Contagion, they had a contest. What could…

By Tim Goergen (Within The Ruins) It is always good to come back to the East Coast. Today was in Greenville, NC. After a 10-hour drive through the night from Columbus, GA we finally arrived in Greenville around 2:00 p.m. and immediately hit up the first Wal-Mart we could find. I grabbed some chicken strips…

When they’re not getting down with the Cinnabon sickness at the Mall of America, Minneapolis BM punks Wolvhammer enjoy decimating faces on tour. Drummer/resident smartass Heath Rave will give us the gory, hopefully idiotic details. Saturday, Oct. 30, day off Drove all day to Denver. Took a different way than what I’m used to coming…

First off, if you didn’t know, Kim Thayil is fucking old. Real old. He looks like Kim Thayil’s dad. But aside from that, the band’s back together, Chris Cornell’s hair is long again and they have that new song that isn’t great but it’s still Soundgarden and Lord knows that’s better than the fifty shithead…

The first time I saw comedian Sam Kinison in action was on “Married With Children”’s Christmas special in 1989. He played Al Bundy’s guardian angel, a sort of Clarence to Al’s George Bailey. Even as an angel, Kinison was so shrill and gritty, and his laugh was disgusting. I wanted my guardian angel to sound…

Last night Terminal 5 In New York City was the host for the quasi black-metal “Darkness Reborn” tour, featuring Dimmu Borgir, Enslaved, Blood Red Throne and Dawn of Ashes. Sorry Dawn of Ashes and Blood Red Throne—I’m sure you ruled, but also ruling was slurping down the devil’s hooch at a nearby dive bar instead…

Strange things may or may not be afoot at the Circle K, but, man, this video of Keanu Reeves talking about potential directions a third Bill & Ted film could go is as awesomely oddball as his Herzog impression is on target. Movie Trailers – Movies Blog Let’s face it, they’d need an auteur like…

By Simon Hawemann (War from a Harlots Mouth) 5. Swarm of the Lotus – “Nightmare Paint” “Nightmare Paint” is such a twisted and shattering song, it reminds me of grating doors or grating metal even. It sounds like an earthquake, pure chaos, like elemental forces – out of control. Things you would expect to happen…

OK, it’s long established that the dudes at Scion A/V and the dudes at Decibel shake hands, break bread together, and then go home to blast some deathly hate over a glass of fine Merlot. If only to discuss and dissect the extremest of extremely extreme metal. That’s what dudes do. When Scion A/V has…

For most people, winter conjures images of pumpkin spice chai in a cozy Starbucks, pining for an iPad/BlackBerry/Xbox and the birth of the little boy who would go on to drive Mel Gibson insane. Those people are, of course, assholes. For us, it’s impulse killings in Olympic parks, stabbing your labelmates 20+ times and Abbath…

Hot on the heels of this summer’s Profound Lore debut, Of Seismic Consequence, Chicago prog-monsters Yakuza scored perhaps the baddest-ass black metal tour of 2010, scorching the States with Triptykon and 1349. Frontman/White Sox fan-for-life Bruce Lamont will periodically fill us in on the gory details. Day 12—Detroit Detroit Majestic Theater. This is a gig…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb85NNe7lNA If it weren’t for the website Reddit, the disgustingly successful Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear would have probably never happened. It’s a powerful place with a lot of dedicated members, some who happen to be real into noiserock. That’s why there’s a “Subreddit” where people post their favorite clips from bands like Dazzling…

When they’re not getting down with the Cinnabon sickness at the Mall of America, Minneapolis BM punks Wolvhammer enjoy decimating faces on tour. Drummer/resident smartass Heath Rave will give us the gory, hopefully idiotic details. Thursday, Oct 28, Fargo, ND Um, what can I say about Fargo? We’ve played here many times now. It’s an…

Since we, rather Albert, wrote the book on the absolutely probable history of death metal and grindcore (available here as a shameful but necessary plugadelic), we felt there has been a dearth of grindcore and grindcore-related things on the Deciblog. We know. We’ve got Sailors With Wax Wings, Valient Thorr, Gene Simmons, and fucking Shadowgarden…

Get ready for your two minutes hate. Hellmouth, Detroit’s blackened hardcore heathens, are dropping their new album, Gravestone Skylines, on 11/16 and wanted to give us a brief yet throttling listen to one of its tracks, “Exodus.” Gravestone Skylines by Hellmouth But the real news is that the band will be releasing a limited vinyl…

During a conversation with Atheist frontman/guitarist, Kelly Shaefer, we jokingly asked him to come up with 5 of Atheist’s worst songs.

Adult Swim’s Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal is all your childhood (or adulthood, as the case may be) fantasies wrapped into a game for your iPhone. Note: I don’t have an iPhone, but I will play Robot Unicorn Attack Heavy Metal on your iPhone if you have one. The game is simple: You’re a robot…

Upstart Connecticut noise merchants Pristina have already received the Cosmo Lee invisible oranges-up in our print edition. Now, the band who unleash a gashing rendition of the title track from Today Is the Day’s 1997 classic Temple of the Morning Star [check that shit out here] regales us with five similarly radtastic extreme covers. Today…

We here at Decibel try to stay apolitical due to the fact that all stripes of metalheads should be welcomed into the fold to get their fucking faces torn to shreds by brutality. But a keen-eyed reader, W. Jaczkowski, sent us this screenshot with some un-apolitical words for the current mother of a girl who…