Month: August 2013

Featuring ex-members of Family and probably some other bands, Brooklyn’s Grandfather is currently riding a wave churned by positive recommendations from the likes of Steve Albini (who engineered the band’s Why I’d Try debut), Spin Magazine, Brooklyn Vegan and a bunch of other press outlets that people apparently pay rapt attention to. Album number two,…

One-time cover stars Pelican hail from Chicago, metropolis of the Great Lakes states. While last year saw the departure of guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec, new blood has brought new tunes beginning with the 7″ the band will drop next week. To celebrate, guitarists Trevor de Brauw and newcomer Dallas Thomas, bassist Bryan Herweg and drummer Larry…

Jack Grisham’s place in the world of punk and extreme music is secure. In the early 80s, he was the volatile frontman of T.S.O.L. (True Sounds Of Liberty), a band that along with Black Flag and the Circle Jerks defined southern California hardcore. He handled vocals on their debut EP and the eternal classic Dance…

“The idea came from a discussion over a beer or two with a friend about Primordial possibly doing a set of epic Bathory tracks to commemorate our 20th anniversary,” says steelheart Alan Averill on the origins of Twilight of the Gods. “I realized this was pretty unlikely so he more or less made me a…

Hey, a hardcore band with an ironic album title. A quick click on the “play” button below will tell you exactly what No Sir think about you manage the’s future prospects. And if that’s too subtle for you, they list Albert Camus and David Lynch among their lyrical influences. Sonically, these West Coast punks sound…

Here are the two main things you need to know about Kharkiv, Ukraine’s future sleaze rock superstars John Gält: 1. The band’s superb debut full-length Served Hot is a brash, hook-filled throwback to hard rock’s better days, marrying a bit of Motörhead aggro and Priest-y chug-soar-chug to an old school Mötley Crüe swagger n’ sneer….

by Kim Kelly Earlier this year, it seemed as though Canadian black/death Satanists Weapon were still at the top of their game. 2012 saw the release of Embers and Revelations, their most ambitious album to date and their debut for heavyweight label Relapse. They’d hit the road for a successful North American tour with Marduk…

Three guys in pig masks? While we’d like to think that Purify the Horror were channelling the heist scene from BMX Bandits when they were working on their aesthetic, but it’s probably the whole anonymity thing that they were going for. Apart from the mortal threats issued during said bank job, the “Australian Goonies” doesn’t…

When was the last time you entered a cemetery with less than honorable intentions? Yesterday? Hail! Never? Well, you have some serious work to do. But what do cemeteries, (possibly) illegal activities, and California’s Ghoul have in common? Who the fuck knows?! We do know the Ghoulies latest EP, Intermediate Level Hard-Core, makes us want…

 Last Friday, August 2nd, I spent most of the day in a Washington, DC suburb to take in one of the oddest summer festivals around: Summer Slaughter 2013. Past years have found this tour loaded with distinctively death metal acts, abounding with brutality and breakdowns. This year’s edition of the tour certainly included a fair bit of…

Given the opportunity to write about craft beer every month in Decibel has been eye-opening. The idea that our “Brewtal Truth” column would have lasted more than four years (and counting) and even spawn a book—The Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers, out in November—is pretty amazing. Now it’s time to bring a little “Brewtal…

Today’s the first day of four of 2013’s This is Hardcore Festival. Last week, we spoke to owner and operator, Joe “Hardcore” Mckay about his background, the fest’s humble early years and most everything else concerning the annual Philly throwdown. Read it here. This week, we tracked down members from a few of the 54…

As many notable websites have pointed out this week (Grantland and HitFix to name two), it’s been ten years since The O.C.–and one of the best first seasons of television ever made–premiered on August 5, 2003. While I would have loved to come up with a post that actually related to Sandy Cohen and company,…

Neill Jameson is best known to readers as Imperial, frontman of the excellent USBM band Krieg. Along with Blake Judd, Wrest and Thurston Moore (!) he was also part of the black metal project Twilight. I got to know Neill during an interview about three years ago and we’ve kept in touch since. As our…

The stars have aligned. The planets in strange conjunction. The winds of time are flowing in reverse. What would the odds be that Swedish death metallers Evocation—long ago resurrected by revenge—are releasing a covers EP, Excised and Anatomised, a mere month before reanimated death metal lords Carcass are set to release the follow-up to Swansong,…

Thrill Jockey are known mostly for their weird post-rock and experimental psych acts like Trans Am, Barn Owl, Eternal Tapestry, and Tortoise. And that stuff is great, and we cover it, but it’s always a slightly uncomfortable match with the magazine. Recently, though, they’ve expanded into full-blown metal madness with Liturgy, the Body, and now…

We’ll make this into concise as possible, so as to allow readers to break on through to the other side that much quicker: A) False Prism and Cavern Apothecary — presented by Sadgiqacea and Hivelords respectively — are two of the best, most intriguing mindfuck metal releases of the year thus far. B) The bands…

Listen, we have seen Red Fang’s promo videos. We’ve witnessed their love of the grog. And at the risk of sounding guilty of cynical lifestyle profiling, surely asking Bryan Giles to compile a tour diary sounded overly optimistic. How reliable a witness could the Red Fang guitarist/vocalist be after being jammed on a van for…

** S. Craig Zahler was part of Decibel’s oral history on the illustrious rise and untimely demise of stateside metal bible, Metal Maniacs. Mr. Zahler interests, however, span more than writing reviews and making publicists fret. He’s a noted author, a script writer, and singer/drummer for doomy epic metal outfit Realmbuilder. The Metal Maniacs oral…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a new twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… The metal-loving elite purveyors of literary insanity over at Raw Dog Screaming Press are celebrating their tenth anniversary this weekend at DogCon 2 in Columbus, Ohio. Scheduled amongst many alluring events, readings,…

It’s been three years since we’ve heard a peep from death metal originals Malevolent Creation (with Invidious Dominion, in 2010). Decibel is lucky to get our hands and ears on a new track called “Face Your Fear.” Drummer Gus Rios tells us that it’s the first of many the band is writing. Stream “Face Your…

Carcass are back, and like John McClane, they’ve returned with a vengeance. The forthcoming Surgical Steel is the death metal icons’ first album of new material in 17 years; we delivered a glowing 9 out of 10 first-look lead review in the September issue, but that’s just one of many exclusive tools of the trade…

Because every day another band records another song. Because 83% of those songs are unlistenable and you can’t be bothered to sift through the dreck. Because metal is about not giving a shit and waking your own personal storm. Because music is universal, expression is boundless, and even indie labels (whatever that means these days)…

Given the opportunity to write about craft beer every month in Decibel has been eye-opening. The idea that our “Brewtal Truth” column would have lasted more than four years (and counting) and even spawn a book—The Brewtal Truth Guide to Extreme Beers, out in November—is pretty amazing. Now it’s time to bring a little “Brewtal…

Next Thursday, the eighth annual This is Hardcore Festival kicks off at the Electric Factory in Decibel‘s spiritual hometown of Philadelphia. This year’s line up is probably the most diverse and judging by what we’ve seen in advance to the weekend, 2013 promises to be the biggest in the fest’s history. We caught up with…

It was only fitting that Dawnbringer’s first NYC show was at Saint Vitus. After all, the middle stop of a three-day stint that was “the closest thing to a Dawnbringer tour that has ever happened” brought a band whose last two outstanding records have given it some well deserved recognition to a joint that has…