Year: 2013

It’s been more than a decade since Steve Tucker played death metal as vocalist and bassist of Florida titans Morbid Angel. His first album with the band was Formulas Fatal To The Flesh, an underrated gem that we named one of the best 100 death metal albums in our special last year. Tucker is back…

This past Saturday I attended a Lamb of God show, quite frankly because they put on a good show and Testament was also playing. But what was particularly interesting at this show was that the venerable Bay Area thrash heroes of Testament were stuck opening this show for Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage. If…

Having been to hundreds of shows in my life, it’s pretty rare at this point that I get blown away by a totally unknown band – but that was exactly the case with Yidhra when I saw them play the Complex in Glendale, CA a few months back. On a great sound system, with Haxan:…

We called the latest from Axeslasher a “straight-up thrash-terpiece” in a blurb on our Halloween must-haves list a few weeks back, but Anthology of Terror, Vol. 1 — available here for a cool $6.66 — is sick enough to warrant a bit more coverage. Thus, the following track-by-track, courtesy guitarist/vocalist Justin Lascelle… Mark of the…

Courtesy of the good people at Willowtip, we’ve got a fierce, frantic and faceripping track premiere from Nausea‘s forthcoming LP, Condemned to the System. While Nausea have been grinding it out live over the past couple of years, showing up and throwing down at such shindigs as MDF and Bloodshed, they’ve hardly been prolific; Condemned…

Back in 1993, the least fashionable music—as far as extreme music is concerned—was heavy metal. Unless it was Iron Maiden, but they were also on the skids with Fear of the Dark. For Swedes Tad Morose, they had precious little chance of surviving the music climes of death metal, the nascent (and hyper-ascendant) black metal…

Unassailable living heavy metal legend. Close personal friend of Anton LaVey (R.I.P.). Internationally certified lab assistant? Believe it or not, all describe the immortal King Diamond, who finally graces the cover of Decibel this month. The thankfully newly healthy Mercyful Fate/King Diamond ringleader let J. Bennett into his inner occult circle — in the Dallas…

It’s been a busy week of streaming action at the Deciblog and we’re closing it out with yet another premiere. We’re happy to present the track “Champions” off Sandrider’s forthcoming album Godhead (out November 19). Check out Facebook to learn more about an upcoming appearance on KEXP and get tour dates. Champions by Sandrider Here’s…

We know, we know, this Trooper beer is old news. You’ve seen a bazillion blog posts on every metal website in the internetiverse about it and maybe, if it’s available where you live, you’ve even tried it. It’s an Iron Maiden beer, so of course you have. But it’s actually more than a typical “big-name…

In just two weeks, French sexies… uh… sextet Year of No Light will release their 3rd official full-length record, Tocsin, through Debemur Morti Productions.

Any devoted reader of Decibel and the Deciblog knows that most of the folks here are passionate about grindcore and baseball. So there’s no better way to mourn the end of the season and prepare for the long wait for spring training than a new Puig Destroyer track. Stream “First To Third” below — it…

Germany’s Obelyskkh may have one of the oddest monikers in extreme music today, but just as their choice of band name tests all parts of your pronunciation apparatus, so does their music cover all bases in the world of psychedelic, stoner, sludge, doom rock and metal on new record, Hymn to Pan out on Exile…

I live a mere 2,200 miles due east of Salt Lake City, so needless to say I’m not too familiar with many musical happenings there (other than Gaza, RIP). Fortunately, Rebecca Vernon and the rest of SubRosa were more than happy to educate me about their hometown via the quintet’s SLC music playlist. I’ll let…

One of the downsides of the staggering amount of album formats these days is finding all the extra tracks. Fortunately, our friends in Hall Of Fame certified Monster Magnet (Dopes for Infinity) are sharing some of the extra goodies on their new album Last Patrol. Here’s Dave Wyndorf on the bonus track “One Dead Moon,”…

This past week I was lucky enough to have young Baltimore thrash phenoms Noisem roll through my part of the world, and while I was already an admirer of the band – Agony Defined is the best thrash album of the year – I was curious to see how their intense yet riffy brand of…

If you haven’t heard Earthless’s From the Ages yet, you are missing out on the best instrumental psych jam album of the year. These guys don’t NEED a vocalist; any singer would just get left behind, abandoned to float off in space forever. The members of the band were kind enough to give a track by…

Austin, Texas purveyors of kinetic riffage and uber-burly grooves American Sharks just dropped a sick self-titled debut back in September — check out a stream here — and are now on the road with Clutch and The Sword backing it up. Bassist/vocalist Mike Hardin checks in with this report… Saturday, Oct. 12th: Texarkana Day one….

We’re all listed out after totalling up the scores for the albums of the year and putting together our Top 100 Black Metal Albums of All Time special issue. But author Dayal Patterson, a man in league with unfathomable evil, kindly dipped into his wellspring of arcane ancient darkness to muster the energy to give…

If the name Christophe Szpajdel doesn’t ring a bell you probably don’t own CDs or LPs (or, you’re new to underground metal; hey, we all start somewhere). ‘Tis the conundrum of being the product of a digital age. Liner notes, credits, lyrics, etc. often get pushed to some dark corner of a binary folder (or…

** Hard to believe Jungle Rot’s been kicking death metal’s can since 1994. With seven full-lengths in their body bag—the most recent of which is this year’s Terror Regime—the Cheese Staters have written the book on Midwest death. We sit down with founding member Dave Matrise via the wonders of technology (that’s the Internet for…

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)…

There are all kinds of new products popping out of the woodwork in the Decibel Universe right now. You may have heard of this limited-edition 100th Issue Show: The Movie DVD that’s just arrived at dB HQ. Then there’s the Top 100 Black Metal Albums of All Time special issue that’ll be the perfect holiday…

** Katatonia recently ventured through the U.S. with Cult of Luna, Intronaut, and Anciients. I sat down with old buds Jonas Renkse & Anders Nyström to have a laugh, chat, talk about old shit (not transcribed), and highlight “experiment” album, Dethroned and Uncrowned. Read on Katacolyts! What was the motivation behind Dethroned and Uncrowned? Anders…

Given that fall is about halfway over and the weather, at least on the East Coast, is getting frigid, we thought it was a good time to present our second ever season-specific playlist. While Chris Alfieri’s “Song to Burn Leaves To: A New Englander’s Fall Music Companion” compliments Torche’s “Summer Fun” playlist quite nicely, Vattnet…

At the Deciblog, we strive to find things for your listening pleasure. Occasionally, we can take it a step further like today with some excellent footage of the experimental black metal band Imperial Triumphant shot recently in their hometown of New York City (get past the slightly shaky start and things look better). Check out…

Pardon me if I’m a little distracted this morning, I just saw Slayer last night, and say what you will about Kerry and Tom heading out with a pair of hired ringers in Gary Holt and Paul Bostaph, but their all-oldies setlist warmed the cockles of this 43 year-old’s heart. No fewer than six Metal…

You always hear terrible stories of hard working bands, bands who are essentially playing for gas money, having their gear stolen, but Salt Lake City doom greats SubRosa took a particularly significant hit yesterday in Sacramento while they were enroute to a show in Oakland. In addition to vandalizing the band’s tour van, thieves made…

It was basically inevitable, wasn’t it? With the accelerated crossbreeding of black metal with every possible genre and subgenre (blackgrass metal!), it was only a matter of time before someone figured out that blast beats and hardstyle beats weren’t really that far off from each other. Obviously there have been a lot of black metal/industrial…

Three years after a momentum-murdering robbery, Philadelphia purveyors of sublime sonic wizardry and nightmarish soundscapes Cleric are back, hitting the road for a long-delayed tour in support of the brilliant 2010 album Regressions. (Stream it here.) But wait! There’s more! This morning Decibel is honored to premiere a brand new (and aptly titled) Cleric track,…

One of the first prominent death metal bands to emerge From Finland, Convulse left lasting impressions with their first two albums, 1991’s World Without God and 1994’s Reflections. However, the band was unable to sustain that momentum, ultimately splitting up not long after the release of Reflections. In keeping with the recent trend of 1990s…