Chris Dick

There’s a time when two Dicks are better than one. But we’re not talking about porn here. Or, some swinger party in Urals. No, sirs. When the universe conspires to bring Chris Dick (me) and Chris Dyck (Anciient guitarist/vocalist) together, it means something. What exactly? Let’s leave it up to the cast of Ancient Aliens…

Back in the old days—1988-1991—you didn’t need to sound “retro” to be cool. Even if you sucked you were cool because you were death metal. Black and white band photo, a group of scowling dudes, the obligatory cemetery backdrop (or rubble heap), and a kick-ass logo were all you needed to convince worldwide throngs you…

How will the new album, Circle, differ from Beginning of Times?Esa Holopainen: Our producer Peter Tägtgren has brought lot of old school ideology back to band. I guess that we have needed sort of encouragement to go for slightly more extreme sound world. It is more low bass-ed, guitar-oriented and there’s shit load of varieties…

Guitarist Jesper Strömblad has dusted more bands than any prominent guitarist from Sweden. From In Flames and HammerFall to All Ends and recently resurrected Ceremonial Oath, Mr. Strömblad’s hasn’t had it easy. Same goes for his co-axeman Glenn Ljungström. First he bolted from In Flames and then Dimension Zero. But if any two guitarists command…

It’s been ages since we hosted a contest where a band donned warpaint and rampaged heshers from sea to shining sea. In fact, we can’t recall if we’ve ever hosted a contest by a band as visually unique as Turisas. Sure, those old Darkthrone or Khold photos were cool, but Turisas take the “corpse” out…

What prompted you to return to Convulse? It’s been a very long time.Rami Jämsä: My old pal from Nokia asked [us] to play in his Heavy Metal festival 2012. At first I refused. Then original bass player Juha took contact and showed his interest. Pretty soon it was clear that there was no chance to…

Few metal bands of the world truly frighten. Whether it’s songs of Satan, ancient fjords, circumcised babies, or dismembered women (far more common than dismembered men, mind you), metal bands have covered it all ad nauseam. And we, as metal acolytes, have become accustomed to that which would normally repulse or scare. But, there are…

If you’re well-heeled in the arts of underground death metal—is there another kind, actually?—the name Mike Hrubovcak should ring a bell. Right. Hrubovcak, not to be confused with his brother J.J., is sort of a Renaissance Man. The frontman’s throated for Vile and Monstrosity, as well as his own weighty projects in Divine Rapture and…

Before there was death-thrash or thrashy death, there was Sepultura, lovingly pronounced either Seh-poll-tour-a or Sep-ull-trah by many a hesher. Contrary to popular opinion at the time, Sepultura were not from the deepest parts of the Amazon or Brazil’s most violent of favelas.

Often, there is a lot of left over content that doesn’t quite fit the narrative or direction of a story. Case in point #1: Converge for dB #96. Case in point #2: Throughout the interview process, the members of Converge had rad stories to tell, but somehow the quotes never quite made the cut. So,…

It is time to celebrate the death of 2012 with the Top 5 Funeral Doom Songs (of all time, perhaps). There is no rhyme or reason to this list, actually. Just five songs that always find their way home during the long cold nights of winter. If it’s not snowing or cold as a medieval…

Deep in the heart of east central California—that’d be Mono County or to be more specific Mammoth Lakes—lies one of the most enigmatic black metal outfits this side of France. Although Valdur aren’t particularly coy about revealing where they’re from, they’re pretty tight on who they are. Formed in ’03 but fiercely independent—their close affiliation…

You’re on your 25th year, your tenth album and your fourth record label, at this point. What keeps Tiamat humming?Johan Edlund: That’s never been a problem. We’ve decided to allow ourselves complete artistic freedom. We don’t do this for the money nor for pleasing anybody else. We still love doing it because it still excites…

It ain’t often the City of Brotherly Hate produces music that isn’t A) learning disabled hip-hop B) pretentious art rock or C) hipster/horned rim glasses acoustic “singer”/”songwriter” drivel. So, when extremely extreme (r) stuff like Swarm of Arrows arrives on the barely-there scene, there’s reason to take notice. The Great Seekers Of Lesser Life, Swarm…

What distinguishes Silverthorn from Poetry?Oliver Palotai: My intention behind Silverthorn was to bring more melodic elements back into our music. Poetry for the Poisoned is a good album, but at certain parts too dark and monotonous. I always ask myself how often I would listen myself to a CD I create or co-create. While Poetry…

By Greg Peterson You’re probably wondering which records I bought on the morning that Batillus began recording our second full-length album… some Purcell, some Machault, Schiff playing Schubert impromptus, Debussy/Ravel string quartets, some Hindemith, some Schoenberg, some Strauss, Souzay singing Faure and Schubert, and some late Shostakovich quartets. You see, Willi and I have been…

When Sarcófago sacrilegiously congealed in a plastic bowl of hate, frustration, rebellion, fermented sugarcane juice and fuck fluid, Phil Collins’ “Sussudio” and Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” were number one hits on the Billboard chart.

Rock and metal’s history is filled with super-success stories. The likes of which have landed Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, KISS, and countless more into the memory banks and culture stream of headbobbers and normal joes everywhere. But there’s an opposite side to mountains of cocaine, private jets, and endless pyro fountains. “Un-success” is…

We at Decibel get a lot of chances at firsts. We were the first metal magazine to put flexi discs in the Common Era. We were the first magazine to introduce the Hall of Fame. 95 and counting, to be awesomely sure. We were also the first magazine to premiere new Evocation album—in its entirety—Illusions…

There’s some indication that nuevo thrash gods Municipal Waste are, to put it mildly, a tad nutty. Case in point, the Richmondians’ near-takeover of the Deciblog. Search for Municipal Waste in our handy dandy search mechanism and not one but FIVE pages turn up. Inside those five pages you’ll find the Waste with long dong…

Maurice de Jong (aka ‘M’ or ‘Mories’) must’ve lived a tortured life or have continually horrific dreams, ’cause his musical output is absolutely disconcerting. I would point to his insanely prolific (and celebrated) outfit Gnaw Their Tongues (or Cloak of Altering), but this time it’s his near-decade old project De Magia Veterum, an industrial-powered, chaos-inclined…

** In most cases, Decibel features “all the metal that’s fit to print”, but there are times when metal’s meta, so when letters are falling out of the margins and don’t have a home, they go to the Deciblog. The following interview is the full transcript for the Winterfylleth feature in Decibel #98 [available HERE]….

France’s Hell Militia have been kicking (unfortunate) Euro ass since the early aughts, so it stands to reason there’s a “sizeable” contingent of believers into the group’s three full-length albums, the most recent of which is Jacob’s Ladder on the Season of Mist label. “Jacob’s Ladder reveals the inner side of Hell Militia,” says the…

How instrumental was the faux-documentary/film The Hellstrom Chronicle to the making of Insects?v.03/170: The film wasn’t that essential on our musical concept, but it surely influenced the overall lyrical concept on Insects. Its abysmal mood and the menacing close-ups of actually small creatures give a special kind of impression which helped to form pictures in…

The quote, “This is a good place to start where we left off”, seems appropriate for death metal outfit General Surgery. The first new material since 2009’s Corpus In Extremis: Analysing Necrocriticism effort, Like An Ever Flying Limb—yes, that’s a nod to Hall of Famers Dismember—follows in the gory, early Carcass-like footsteps of General Surgery’s…

Whether it’s the weather, the water, chowda or some other supernatural force at play, Massachusetts has struck again with venerated metalcore (a deprecated term replaced by the New Wave of American Heavy Metal) outfit Killswitch Engage.

Samhain is upon us! It’s better known as All Hallow’s Eve or Halloween these days, but that’s the Christians-supplanting-an-ancient-pagan-ritual-for-conversion-purposes naming convention thing. Ah, they did such dastardly deeds all over Europe, the Near East, Africa, Asia, and so forth. Anyway, it’s time for the leaves to turn a golden brown, the air to have a…

Only a short few months ago, Killing Joke frontman Jeremy “Jaz” Coleman went mysteriously missing. Canceled shows happened and, well, a bunch of (admittedly European) press covered Killing Joke when they would’ve anyway. Turns out Coleman was running around the Western Sahara, working on a solo album and a book. Neat. Coleman’s never been a…

Thirty years. What does that mean for Sodom to have been doing extreme metal for three decades? That’s a long time for any career let alone a metal band. Tom Angelripper: Yes, I can’t believe that we are still around with touring, recording, and all the activities. When we formed the band in ’82 we…

Informed by early Emperor, inspired by Anaal Nathrakh and motivated by long-ignored black metallers Mysticum, Rage Nucléaire might just be Canada’s best new black metal outfit. There seem to be too few from a country dubbed, “The Great White North”, but I digress. Anyway, the history of Rage Nucléaire surprises. No, the French-Canadians weren’t part…