Chris Dick

“This song represents the album quite well and what October Tide is all about,” says vocalist Alexander Högbom. “It breathes the coldness of Grey Dawn and mixes it with the present. It’s 100% October Tide”

Get to know Mörk Grinning with this quick essentials list.

Going back to Into the Grave, Sweden’s terribly heavy death metal outfit Grave had few peers. Now, some many moons later, the Stockholmites still have few peers on new album, Out Of Respect For The Dead. Built on solid death metal foundation (no question), Grave’s new album pummels, punishes, and putrefies, with tracks such as “Mass Grave Mass”, “Flesh Before My Eyes”, and “Trail of Ungodly Trades” feeling freshly peeled off the skin of a recently-dead corpse. We tracked down frontman and original member Ola Lindgren to see what makes Grave tick after decades of cemetery work and mausoleum repair.

We were tempted to post a mid-’80s photo of German thrashers Exumer. But, alas, this would be a misrepresentation of the reality of time. Actually, that’s not entirely true. For the better part of two decades Exumer has parlayed Euro-centric thrash into solid gold. That’s right, from 1985 to 2016, the Germans have transcended time and trends to make what is arguably the best thrash album to hit the public since Exodus’ Force of Habit.

** After a late night driving session with a friend trying to trick me into falsely identifying Finnish melodic death/rock outfit Fall of the Leafe’s third album, Fermina, I figured the Deciblog could use some Finnish mastery. Though this piece would go nicely to complement my cover story on Finland (HERE), it’s really too hard to forget how great Fall of the Leafe were. Early on, they held the tenets of melodic death metal tight–with flair–but as they matured, so too did the music. OK, so albums from Fermina on were light on death metal, they were heavy on wicked riffs, oddball songwriting, crazy singing, and emotion. Check out my favorite Fall of Leafe tunes below!

Of Terror and the Supernatural
Dirty weapons
dB Rating: 8/10

Change is good: Ketzer progress beyond the confines of black metal in a very Tribulation-esque movement. 

Every week, Decibel will premiere a new demo by a band of heavy nature. There’s no boundaries here, either. Death, black, doom, sludge, progressive, stoner, retro, whatever! It’s all fair game. What’s this new section on the esteemed Deciblog called? DEMO:LITION, naturally.

This week we have Germany’s Anasarca on the DEMO:LITION chopping block.

With a name like Brimstone Coven, it better be good. Hailing from West Virginia, Brimstone Coven take on throwback metal–the kind with real singing–and summon it full-throttle into the present. Rife with roving, mountain-sized riffs that are festooned in fuzz and cleverly populated with harmonious vocals–think vintage Ozzy meets John Lawton–, the group’s new album, Black Magic, represents the new era of ’70s-inspired metal. So, sit back, burn some incense, turn down the lights. It’s Brimstone Coven time.

Unfortunately, we haven’t found an inverted cross tree topper. Yet. 

Our resident video game expert counts down the titles that bring the metal. 

Chris Dick’s five essential metal-on-metal covers, by At the Gates, Slayer, Sepultura, and more.

“This direction is Lower. It requires madness, by losing sanity key.”

A black metal addendum to our Finnish Metal Issue, starring Sami Tenetz of Thy Serpent.

“My lyrics deal with us being a post-apocalyptic species, aware of our inevitable demise, quite possibly by our own hands.” 

** Decibel catches Intronaut wizards Sacha Dunable and David Timnick between mind-blowing jam sessions and trips to Jack in the Box. We kid about the Jack in the Box thing. Anyway, the California group are just days away from issuing their new album, The Direction of Last Things, on the Century Media label. And having spent large sums of time with Intronaut’s fifth full-length, we’re of the opinion that it’s yet again a mind-blower. From the innovative brutality of “Fast Worms” to the slick heavy prog of “The Pleasant Surprise”, The Direction of Last Things is an album that’s immediately incredible, but unfolds untold levels of awesome the more you’re with it.

For the past 28 years, Florida death metal stalwarts Malevolent Creation haven’t cowered to trends, changes in the wind (or forest), or any other pervasive force. They’ve stuck to their respective death metal guns, and, after all these years, have come out the other side as true representatives of Florida death metal. The kind of death metal that set the scene on fire in the early to mid-’90s. Well, Malevolent Creation are back with a new record, Dead Man’s Path, and a new label, Century Media Records. Sure, new records are one thing, but the fact that Dead Man’s Path smokes is quite another. Read on as we question main man Phil Fasciana about the bad (jail) and the good (death metal).

** Nostalgic types need nourishment. Our days can’t always be filled with blastbeats, dirty riffs, and socio-politico lyrics. We need to feel as if we’re on another planet, in another world, some place not where we are now. To start the quest to spaces unknown, Decibel has compiled five killer atmospheric death metal songs to take you right into the weekend. Now, there’s a fine line between atmospheric death and atmospheric doom/death (or death/doom), but we’re not terribly interested in delineating such a line today. We’re more interesting in the journey itself, the way these songs transport back to times that probably never happened, but they’re as real as today.

“‘Summon The Spawn’ was one of the first songs that we ever recorded and it ended up being the opening track on our debut demo of the same name,” says Revocation axe-slayer Dave Davidson. “It’s a fast, thrashy song with some weird twists and turns to throw the listener off guard. This one was a bit of a fan favorite in our local scene back in the day and I still hear people call out for us play it on recent tours that we’ve done.”

** German black metallers Nyx were formed by Blitz and Vinterbarn. The group’s new album, Home, is an expression of what black metal emotional qualities are rather than its direct spiritual linkage to the Infernal One. With that, Nyx embark on strange and wonderful and perverse journeys on Home. Certainly, Nyx are for fans of Myrkur (not because they’re female either), and first-album Lantlos, with maybe some early Bethlehem and demo-era Empyrium. We interview Blitz and Vinterbarn in preparation for the premiere of Nyx’s “Beyond”!

Cure your Monday blues with Shumaun’s “Miracles of Yesterday,” a blend of metal, prog rock, and pop that isn’t the typical Decibel fare.  

** For the better part of our lifetime, Swedish death metallers Grave have dominated the landscape. They released seminal album, Into the Grave, ushering a new wave of heaviness not found in their Stockholm peers. They released Soulless, an album that combined the brutality of death metal with an unheard of groove. When Grave went on hiatus in 1997, the world had thought they could leave death metal to the next generation. The world was wrong. The Swedes returned in 2002, with Back from the Grave and have since then pounded out death metal albums of the highest quality with the best old-school mentality. So, let’s respect Grave. And let’s cheer on the savagery that is new album Out of Respect for the Dead.

Decibel is proud to announce the trailer to Wolfheart’s “Fire & Ice” for the upcoming Decibel Flexi Series. This amazing track of melancholic death will be the insert (on snow white and ice blue plastic!) to our December 2015 issue, which may or may not feature more than one Finnish band on its cover or in its inside pages.

Ordeal
Alone Again
dB Rating: 9/10

The second coming of Lycia wouldn’t have been possible if main songwriter Mike VanPortfleet didn’t possess the same spark that kicked things off in 1988. Older, wiser, yet still wandering the same lonely plane as all those years ago, VanPortfleet (along with vocalist Tara Vanflower and collaborator David Galas) has released a vibrantly glum album in A Line That Connects. The title is literal, actually. Musically, it’s a nod to all things past Lycia, including the groundbreaking and influential effort, Cold. Read on as the Cold lineup, reunited for posterity, discuss A Line That Connects.

Monotony Fields
Killing-it Fields
dB Rating: 9/10

For over 25 years now Brazil’s Krisiun has waged war on death metal for death metal by death metal. To mistake the trio as anything but death metal–and their dedication to the craft–deserves the severest of punishments. Now stronger than ever, the Brothers in Death have a new album out called, Forged in Furty. Still fast as fucking lightning with a cattle prod up its ass yet memorable as a gruesome car crash, Forged in Fury sets alight pretenders and posers with great intensity. Read on as we question Hell’s most notable percussionist, Max Kolesne.

It should come as no surprise that the new Skepticism album, Ordeal, is a monolithic slab of incredible. The group’s status purveyors of the ultra-slow motion (aka funeral doom) isn’t for everybody—even the mustached, carabiner-on-belt-loop crowd—but that doesn’t matter. The magic of stomach-churnin’ heaviness, death rite fervor, and mind-numbing repetition is best when observed, commented on, absorbed, and enjoyed by the few.

M
One Last Bitter Retreat
dB Rating: 8/10

It’s taken UK apocalyptic funeral-black metallers Lychgate two years to follow-up lauded debut Lychgate. In the years between the Brits have delved into the darkest recesses of funeral doom and black metal’s psyche, employing church organs in full effect to turn what is traditionally a Christian instrument against itself. Furthermore, Lychgate have gotten stranger, more decadent. The progressive underpinnings of Lychgate recall vintage Genesis, but don’t let the reference sway you in any direction. This is evil, uncompromising and uncomfortable music, the likes of which normally emanate in strange waves from Norway. This time it’s from the bowels of historic London. To make matters worse (or better) Esoteric’s Greg Chandler is on vocals.