Year: 2012

Welcome to The Lazarus Pit, a biweekly look at should-be classic metal records that don’t get nearly enough love; stuff that’s essential listening that you’ve probably never heard of; stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  I wasn’t sure if this week’s entrant was…

Blackened clouds are gathering overhead, and it’s all our fault. North America’s premier heavy metal magazine is launching the maiden edition of its annual earth-scorching tour this April. The inaugural Decibel Magazine Tour will feature not just the long-awaited stateside return of Polish blackened death metal overlords Behemoth, but support from Swedish black metal provocateurs…

All of you long-haired wastoids presently staring at the fridge, beer bong ready, weed order placed, Cheetos-in-bowl, etc… impatiently waiting for the new Municipal Waste record to drop, you might want to wrap your headbang around the new demo from Iron Reagan. Featuring Waste singer/party enabler Tony Foresta and bassist Phil “LandPhil” Hall, the line-up…

In a couple days time, if you’re looking for something to do in Baltimore that doesn’t involve dodging bullets or dealing with shitty temperature fluctuations, why not mosey your bulbous buttocks down to the Sonar Compound to help celebrate A389 Records’ eighth birthday? The label is one of our favourites around these parts and now…

Out of all the things I’ve done in my life, the most common question I’m ever asked is: “What was it like interning at Decibel Magazine?” Well, years after the fact, I’ve finally decided to take a look back and reminisce about what it was like being “The Fucking Intern.” The first thing I did…

The overblown, furious, tarnished melodies of Birds in Row is the reason why Deathwish Inc. is going to be releasing the French trio’s debut full-length. But the always killer Vitriol Records was able to slip in first and release Collected, a vinyl compendium of everything the band has bruised folks with so far. Vitriol is…

What do you make of Second Ring of Power after all these years? It’s getting a second chance at life, so to speak.Jan Kuhanen: All of our albums have been re-released, so Second… is in no way specific. Plus, we have some bonus stuff with all of them except with the first one. Ismo Toivonen:…

As far as back-together-for-the-first-time-since-’85 reunions go, we’ll take a newly reformed English Dogs—one of the UKs prime purveyors of crossover back in the day—over Van Halen any day. And lucky for us here in the U.S., three-fifths of the lineup that brought us the essential-listening thrash classic Forward Into Battle—drummer Andrew “Pinch” Pinching, lead guitarist…

It’s your lucky day, readers. Ever-evolving Nashville pitch-black metallers Enfold Darkness have graciously sent along a new track for Decibel to premiere and it is a doozy! Check it out below… Enfold Darkness: “Lairs of The Ascended Masters” by Decibel Magazine Here is what Enfold Darkness founder/lead guitarist Matt Brown had to say about the…

Being in an unsigned band can be a slog. Flip through that Rolodex and there is no record company honcho to get you press, to hustle embattled magazine staffers to review your record and maybe get some broke freelance guy to call you up and write a feature. There’s no one leaning on promoters and…

The ever-resourceful (not to mention corporately brave) folks at Scion A/V have targeted Los Angeles as the city where they’ll corral a label — this time Nuclear Blast Records — and ask select number of the label’s artists to perform for an audience. Of course, they’ll be performing for an audience. It’s not like Deicide’s…

Every other Friday, Waldo the African Grey Parrot, frontbird of thrash-grind immortals Hatebeak, will get you caught up on the week’s latest “extreme” releases. Holy reissues, Batman! Wow, just like the end of the year, the beginning doesn’t hold that much, but there are some reissue type things that’ll be a good peck for you,…

Earache records is officially 25 years young this year. While it was the vinyl-only release of The Accüsed’s The Return of Martha Splatterhead that marked the label’s debut, it was the release of Napalm Death’s inconic/incendiary/etc debut, ‘87’s Scum, that started an uncanny hot-streak for the label, one which saw them go on to bogart…

Between the variety of magazines, websites and projects that currently leave me little time for much else in life outside of writing for the variety of magazines, websites and projects I have on the go, I do a fuck of a lot of interviews. Sometimes, you’ll find me writing about the same band/person in multiple…

Another awesome show at Saint Vitus. This was a Brooklyn Vegan / Brutal Panda event, and you got to love them BP boys. Philly’s heavy rockers Javelina headlined, plus Atlanta’s latest excellent development, Whores, plus some openers. For eight bucks: not bad. Factor in a pint of Fleischmann’s whiskey and some pounders of Bud, and…

Nails/Skin Like Iron: Split EP by Decibel Magazine On January 31st two unfuckwithable hardcore bands are co-self-releasing a four song 7″ that’s roughly a ten minute pillage of your every unshielded orifice. And while you should already feel compelled to pick up this split by Nails and Skin Like Iron, any skeptics can now hear…

Having not released an album since 2005’s Southern riff compendium In the Arms of God, and since reformed as of summer 2010 with the much-loved Animosity-era lineup, anticipation for Corrosion of Conformity’s new studio album is such that we’d like to think that this stream of “The Doom” will be greeted by fainting fits, impulsive…

There isn’t just a horde of zombies coming from Camp Terrorizer. There are hordes of zombies. Plural. As the first Terrorizer, helmed by the inimitable Pete “Commando” Sandoval, album since 2006’s Darker Days Ahead, Hordes of Zombies repositions two members of Morbid Angel as the bad-ass mother-monster truckers we’ve come to expect (at least since…

We suckered you in with the giveaway, but in addition to that great offer, you’re gonna get more Anvil than you know what to do with. First, though, we’ll start with the tickets. Five lucky winners will receive a pair (that’s 2) of tickets to to see Canada’s finest old school metal-on-metal purveyors on Tue,…

Christ, it is tough to believe The Day the Sun Went Out came out long enough ago for Boysetsfire frontman Nathan Gray to be playing in a band with his seventeen year-old son, but what perhaps surprise even more is the buzzing vitality of the raw, frenzied, shades-of-early-Integrity metallic hardcore I Am Heresy delivers. Gray…

You’ve got to love and admire the optimism of people in the UK. While limited releases are a staple practice in underground music, adding both that exclusivity/collector appeal and some fiscal security, British grind champs The Atrocity Exhibit took it to, uh, extremes and limited the supply of 2011 faceripper Grind Over Matter to a…

Self-described “occult rock” outfit The Devil’s Blood garnered a fair amount of attention on 2008’s Come Reap EP. Now that time separates Come Reap from The Devil’s Blood’s lauded debut, 2009’s The Time Of No Time Evermore, the mysterious, Fenriz-approved Dutch duo has prepared yet another ritual in the form of The Thousandfold Epicentre, a…

Welcome to The Lazarus Pit, a biweekly look at should-be classic metal records that don’t get nearly enough love; stuff that’s essential listening that you’ve probably never heard of; stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  This week, we tackle the best band to…

According to the wholly democratic, incorruptible and failsafe Decibel End of Year Poll, In Solitude’s superlative The World. The Flesh. The Devil. was officially the fourth-best album of 2011. (Yeah, in reality it was probably like the third best, but that doesn’t matter, not really. The thing is not to sleep on it.) The coltish…

For about a year now, the paper and staple parent to this little blog thing you’re reading has been offering subscribers exclusive bonus tracks and covers by some of the magazine’s favourite folks via the antiquated and nostalgic, but nerdishly cool, medium of the flexi disc.

Caspian – Live at Old South Church by The Mylene Sheath My initial New Year’s resolution was to listen to more Repulsion demos and as that has been surprisingly easy, I’ve also decided to be nicer to you people. So not only are you getting some free streaming music by instrumental post-rock veterans Caspian, but…

In a universe of unpronounceable band names from cultures far flung and unfathomably distant, the Deciblog herewith and hereby and therefore brings you Ptahil (allegedly mouthed “Pet-a, Hill”). The band name has its origins in the Mandaean religion (Wikipedia, thanks), which like all things cool as fuck, from an occultist’s point of view, emanates from…

First we’d like to congratulate Tombs on topping our annual list of the Top 40 Extreme Albums of 2011. It was, of course, well deserved. Not all our readers may agree with it, but then again there’s no satisfying the most extremely extreme readership in all of metaldom. You’re an opinionated lot, and we love…

Okay, so after the debut of this former vocalist for a “pretty large Christian heavy metal band” and her daughter on Toddlers & Tiaras, I’m starting to come around on James Durbin. The blaspheming begins at the 3:20 mark and lasts until you start emitting a Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?-esque cackle, at which point…