Chris Dick

“…that fuzzed out soundscape was exactly what we were looking to achieve. We actually didn’t have any specific genre in mind starting this band, we just wanted to make music as heavy and gritty as possible. If anyone wants to label it doom, stoner or sludge is entirely up to them. But we’re totally fine…

Power metal isn’t a frequent sight on the Deciblog. For that we (kinda) apologize. There are times when powerful metal, with soaring vocals, eagle cries, and shiny battle armor rules our respective roosts. But most of the time it doesn’t. Power metal, at least of the Euro variety, is, well, too Euro. We do have…

“We haven’t changed our style dramatically”, vocalist and bassist Niilo Sevänen explains. “Fans can rest assured that it is still classic Insomnium. Of course there’s also some new flavors here and there, and maybe it’s even more diverse compared with the last album. The easy stuff is easier than before, the heavy stuff is heavier….

Formed in 2007. As of 2014 no original members are left standing in I Declare War. How does that lineup dynamic fit into I Declare War’s new album, We Are Violent People By Nature? It doesn’t. Not one iota. And why should it with a band with huge t-shirt slogans like, “Fuck your tits! Show…

Miss those summer road trip days? Of course you do. It’s March. Weather’s an unpredictable bitch and the likelihood of something cool happening is pretty much nil. Well, France-based The Socks are an unlikely candidate to warm up your otherwise shitty spring. Now, you’re probably thinking: France + good ‘ol hard rock = yeah right….

Only a mere month ago German black metallers Entartung featured a track (HERE) on the Deciblog. Spirits were crushed, churches were defiled, and minds were corrupted. Now, the time has come for Entartung to unfurl the great fear that is Peccata Mortalia. Normally we laugh at our own hyperbole, but Peccata Mortalia is, like other…

** It’s not secret dBHQ gets excited when we hear Swedes Grand Magus have a new album at the ready. So, when the Stockholm-based trio Grand Magus announced Triumph and Power as their new full-length our Malevolent Creation sweat pants bulged a bit. The following is the full conversation between Decibel and Grand Magus beardman/ass-kicker…

Savage Messiah frontman Dave Silver knows his thrash ABCs. Formerly of Brit thrashers Headless Cross, Silver’s built a veritable thrash empire around Savage Messiah, for which there are four neck-snapping full-lengths, the newest of which is the upcoming The Fateful Dark. Actually, on new album, The Fateful Dark, Silver and his fellow Messiahs embark on…

Last year Tribulation blew minds with The Formulas of Death. This year, fellow Swedes Morbus Chron are all grown up—the average age is 27.5—from 2011’s Sleepers in the Rift effort. By aging a few years, refining their craft, and spreading respective wings, the Stockholmites have created a record so immersive, so penetrating, and so tuned…

Decibel and Handshake, Inc. are teaming up to give away TWO (2) copies of Gridlink’s new album Longhena. Why is that so cool? They’re test presses. The kind the label and band get from the pressing plant to spot check for errors and other vinyl-related anomalies. So, test presses, in general, are rare birds. The…

The True Mayhem. Ground zero for Norwegian black metal. Since 1984, the Oslo-based outfit has made waves. Though it would take a good number of years—about three, actually—before Deathcrush hit posers hard, the group’s coup de grace was posthumous debut album, De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. With Euronymous dead and the Norwegian scene reeling from heavy…

What do members of Napalm Death, DragonForce, and Hate Eternal have in common? Normally, we’d have no fucking clue, but today the members premiere a new song from the Mitch Harris-led Menace. Now, most Decibel readers know Mitch Harris. He of Napalm Death. One of the fastest grind guitarists around. But he’s not shredding bar…

With pseudonyms like Hand of Doom, Black String and Command, Sweden’s Vampire immediately evoke early ’80s heavy metal and early mid-’90s black metal. A non-coincidence, really. Vampire’s eponymous debut is the nexus of heavy metal and black metal, where Destruction and Motörhead meets Unanimated and Bewitched. Vampire, however, make the cross-generational/genre melange unique, menacing in…

Monday night. Hours after a severe weather incident. In most cases, a metal show in Philadelphia on such a weeknight after such a crippling storm would’ve kept longhairs and horn throwers home. A venue vacant, save its sadluck staff. Tonight, however, Philadelphians surprised. They came out in droves not just for the headliner, Amon Amarth,…

The last time death metal legends Massacre released an album, France was testing its last atomic bomb. Pretty amazing, to think of it. Fast forward a few years, and Rick Rozz (ex-Death), Terry Butler (ex-Death), Mike Mazzonetto (Pain Principle) and Edwin Webb (ex-Diabolic) emerge from the limestone graves of central Florida to release Back from…

Symphonic death has enjoyed a fair bit of popularity over the years—largely in Europe—but Fleshgod Apocalypse might be one of the best bands of the style. Formed in 2007, the Italians have spent the last seven years refining bombast, adding bombast, and making bombast more, well, bombastic. The group’s latest long-player, Labyrinth, featured Fleshgod Apocalypse…

** We interviewed Alcest frontman Neige for the March 2014 issue of Decibel [HERE]. The magazine interview focuses on Neige’s childhood influences, working with Slowdive’s Neil Halstead, and how the sea became central to the Frenchman’s inner and outer calm. The remains of that interview are below. You’re kind of seen as the ex-black metaller….

What does the word “Hark” mean? It means to “pay attention to”. Who said Decibel never educates? Truth be told, whenever I hear the word “Hark” I immediately think of the song, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing“. But there might be some deep-seated issues with church choir with that one. For the band Hark, the…

The last time lead Nocturnal Breed headman Kenneth Svartalv (aka S.A. Destroyer) ushered his forces into war was back in 2007, just as world financial systems were crumbling under their own gluttonous weight. Now, some seven long-ass years later, S.A. Destroyer returns with the Breed in tow and V. Fineideath replacing A. E. Rattlehead on…

Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister is a living legend. An untouchable icon. But Lemmy and his Motörheads didn’t always have ace albums. In fact, across Motörhead’s storied–we’re talking almost four decades–career, the monoliths of metal have had some real stinkers. While we implore you to check out Lemmy in our February 2014 issue (click HERE) we’re also…

The Unguided’s previous album, Hell Frost, was the product of ex-Sonic Syndicate members Richard and Roger Sjunnesson venturing away from the sway of record companies and their malignant henchmen. Meeting favorable reviews–largely in Europe–The Unguided took off, pulling the sounds of Soilwork, Killswitch Engage, and Scar Symmetry and making them distinct and memorable. Some three…

Charmand Grimloch (aka Joachim Rygg) was, at one time, black metal’s preeminent keyboard player. His stints with Emperor as a session player propelled him to heights unknown. Well, his black metal solo project Tartaros produced notoriety, but nothing on the scale of what he accomplished by coat tailing Ihsahn and the boys. After Tartaros went…

For years, Opeth toiled in relative obscurity. Caged to Candlelight Records for three fantastic albums and Peaceville for one stupendous full-length, the Stockholmites’ import-only status could’ve continued had Opeth’s new home, Music for Nations, not been a label proper.

** Every year we do it. Decibel assembles a list of killer albums based on a secret algorithm. This year, I wanted to add to our Top 40 list (as published HERE). Albums I felt were overlooked on our list. The artists and albums reflect my opinion only and weren’t subject to the secret algorithm….

Many of you might have noticed—If you listen to radio that is, but that’s another blog entirely—on Black Friday many U.S. radio stations flipped from their respective formats to Holiday. All across this great (not so great if you follow Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity with any seriousness) land of ours Adult Contemporary and Pop…

By now, Scion A/V, the creative enterprise of Scion, which is a subsidiary of Toyota, is familiar to most metallers. Take it as a multinational sticking its cash-filled fingers into the underground’s bum or as an unlikely benefactor to artists like Immolation, Arsis, Enslaved, Primordial, and countless more, the company willing to throw multi-stage music…

** As a longtime Vader devotees, Decibel had no clue (OK, I didn’t) debut album, The Ultimate Incantation, was recorded with the legendary Tomas Skogsberg at Sunlight Studios first. The sessions were scrapped and Vader landed at Rhythm Studios with Paul Johnston (Benediction, Cerebral Fix). The rest is history, so it goes. We tracked down…

Israel and thrash metal. Not two things associated with one another. Now, Israel and black metal, well, that’s something more common. If only marginally. Turns out Hammercult, not to be confused with HammerFall, Hammer Fight, Hammer Horde, or Hammer Witch, is the latest sensation from the Levant. Where’s the Levant? Near Turkey. Near Iraq. Near…

The last time Portugal’s Malevolence released a full-length President Bill Clinton was still basking in acquittal glow for semenizing Monica Lewinsky. If Lewinsky (or the scandal name “Tailgate”) don’t ring a bell, well, you’re probably too young. Of course, we don’t expect you to recall Malevolence, whose Martyrialized full-length ultimately got lost in the melodic…

Grand Magus grand magister JB Christoffersson said to us recently: “Well, in heavy metal the drums are extremely important, maybe more important than many people realize. There has been a tendency in “modern” metal to focus too much on a fat guitar sound, resulting in really weak sounding or fake sounding drums. In my experience,…