Chris Dick

Back in May, Decibel streamiered Evocation’s “Through The Darkened Peril” from the group’s killer demo/unreleased compilation Evoked From Demonic Depths – The Early Years. In that post, we gave a little background in why they mattered to a changing ’90s scene and how their 2006 reformation—an act of revenge, really—has given five dudes from Sweden…

Although our European brothers and sisters in despondent doom may’ve had the jump on Decibel this time around, it doesn’t deter our dismal displays of adoration—check out their Hall of Fame record example—for the venerated My Dying Bride. So much so, we’ve got four songs from the Brits’ latest long-player streaming. These tunes of torment…

ODERUS ASKS DEZ: 1. What is that thing on your chin? Dez: It’s a Tattoo to ward off Scary Monsters, much like yourself, my monstrous friend! In all honesty I tattooed my face to separate myself from the pack! Also it reminds me that the corporate world cubicle thing was / is NOT A LIFE…

by Scott Evans Ian wrote Part I right after Friday, our setup day. I’m writing this a month or two later, but I’ll pick up where he left off. Besides Ian’s rig relentlessly shitting the bed during setup, our tracking weekend went pretty smoothly. Since I engineer and play in the band at the same…

It ain’t often we say, “Hey, check out this black metal band with a great bass player!” Normally, bass players in black metal get the Jason Newsted treatment, but Borre-based Nidingr have two in guitarists Blargh and Teloch. Why have a full-time bass player when you have two guys with enough talent to sound like…

by Ian Miller There’s nothing like hearing a good drummer play a good drum kit in a room designed expressly for the purpose. In this case, the drummer is recovering from a head injury, but who can tell? I’m Ian Miller. I play bass in Kowloon Walled City. We’re about to record our third record,…

After nearly a decade of European dominance of all things anti-Abrahamic metal—starting with Bathory’s Viking-themed classic Hammerheart—Agalloch issued debut album Pale Folklore.

“I think ‘Doom-Jazz’ means playing heavy music, but not robotically,” said bassist Alexi Papadopoulos to Decibel when we were all much younger. “We like to give ourselves the elbow room for self expression. We are very scientific about our modes and time signatures and cues, but that’s what makes it fun.” That’s exactly the type…

How do you separate the debut and Ariettes Oubliées… as musical entities?Fursy Teyssier: I’d say that Ariettes Oubliées… is a much more dense and solid album than Septembre… as the concept of Les Discrets became more precise in my head, so I knew exactly which atmospheres I wanted to create and what the album needed…

It’s isn’t often the “extremely extreme” or the “new noise” transitions from death, black, doom, or whatever to punk rock, so on September 19th, 2012 the Deciblog puts on a pair of 20-year old Doc Martens, trades our jean jacket with the Kreator backpatch for a leather one with studs and self-painted logos, and defies…

According to Russian linguistic experts, appending the suffix “ka” to the end of a word is to mean it’s little or so small it’s cute.

So, what happened with Slumber? I know there were record label complications, but I didn’t know there were member issues.Ehsan Kalantarpour: After the first and only album Fallout Slumber got locked in a doom/death style. We felt that the album set way too strict formula on what we could do next. We wanted something much…

1. “Red All Over”Travis Ryan: Just a song about violence. Nice and simple… And bloody. Leon del Muerte: The fastest song I’ve ever written. This one and “Under the Weight…” were completed towards the end of the writing cycle, but I knew for sure that this would be the opener. That’s two-for-two on opening songs…

According New Orleans-based sludge doom outfit haarp, their music is a weapon. Not the kind of weapon the U.S. government has in the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (H.A.A.R.P.), but more the ancient Celtic god kind; a weapon of enchantment. Though we really wouldn’t say our experience with haarp—stylized in all lowercase letters—is enchanting…

First off, Michigan City is not in Michigan. It’s actually in Indiana, has views of the Chicago cityline, is closer to Gary, Indiana than anyone—even Michael Jackson—would ever want to be. Second off, Michigan City houses newly—as of 2008 at least—spawned sludge-doom outfit Yellowtooth. If you have yet to hear of Yellowtooth and their brand…

The last we had heard of Swedish black metal terrorists Ofermod, they were busy promoting their 2008 debut Tiamtü full-length and acting all anti-cosmic gangster—rumor has it headcheese Michayah Belfagor (aka Mika Hakola) has been involved in all sorts of untoward activity—while the rest of the world spun and burned like Belfagor and his unmerry…

What do goat heads, goat head masks, inverted crosses, bullet belts and improperly held axes have in common? Normally, we’d say Sadistik Exekution or Impaled Nazarene during their sado-battle-goat phase, but the answer is neither. It’s actually Greek duo Satan’s Wrath, who, if we’re being kind, are a bit of throwback to times when posing…

We’ve been geeked on Finland’s answer to My Dying Bride since 2003 when the fearless Finns issued debut album, The Morning Never Came. Years and four full-lengths later—the latest of which is the subtle yet stunning Emerald Forest And The Blackbird—, we’re still nuts about Swallow The Sun. So much so, we pre-empted the album…

The little birdies over at Century Media want us to present a sweet contest where One (1) winner can get tickets to see Decibel cover darlings Paradise Lost [issue #92, HERE], Devin Townsend, and Katatonia in the righteous flesh when the bad-ass tour of late summer kicks off September 4th in Seattle, Washington. But guess…

Normally, we like to pen a few lines of senseless drivel to entertain before you click that orange button thingie, but today—as August rightfully wanes into oblivion—our digital inkwell is virtually dry. Parched, if you will. That being said, we’re going to let Daylight Dies dash your hopes and weather-make your sunny day outright cloudy….

** The original Decibel interview appeared in issue #88 (HERE), but it seems as if the death metal community blew right past one of the better efforts of late 2011 to focus exclusively on Pestilence’s super-lauded Doctrine long-player (just kidding). Seriously, dudes, go back and give Metamorphosis a spin. It might end up on your…

Not sure if you’ve missed out on “industrial doom metal” one-man outfit Author & Punisher, but if you own a Godflesh record, maybe a pre-suck Pitch Shifter 12″, or think Scorn’s Vae Solis is the only Scorn LP worth playing in the solitary confines of your treasured abode, then we think you need to stand…

What would you ask Tucson-based North if you had the chance? Well, our first question would be: why name the band North when you’re from the Southwest? Seems a little geographically confusing. Where’s North from, you ask? The Southwest. Eh?! A more apropos moniker would be, well, Southwest. Then, North’s fans would always know where…

I’ve often felt STS songs are like album-form movies. At this point, where does the cinematic inspiration come from?Aleksi: Mainly Twin Peaks, it has always been an inspiration, especially to the songs musically, but also lyrically to some extent. On Hope we tried to go for The Shining-type of vibes, but in hindsight that could’ve…

Unless you’re heavy metalluminati Pagan Altar, perhaps like stateside and posi-message alter-ego Glass Harp, is an unknown entity. Now, most of the time, unheralded music from the ’70s is unheralded because it sucks. Or, the group never toured and the label folded upon release. Probably a few of those out there, right?  Well, UK’s Pagan…

If lazy journalism persists in music, it’d be easy to say Austrians Dragony are like the umpteenth band to use the word “dragon” as part of their moniker. Well, that’s just not true. Umpteenth implies like 1 in 5 bands use “dragon”. Like System of a Dragon, Dragon Corpse, Dragon of God, Dragonatonia, or My…

Formed out of teenage jitters, a can-/will-do work ethic and long-term (possibly unhealthy) exposure to Neurosis, Swans and the Melvins, Boston’s Isis were in many respects different from what the rest of New England had to offer in the late ’90s.

** The original Decibel interview appeared in issue #58 (HERE), but since the Swedes are slower than Candlemass when issuing albums, we felt it was kinda cool to necro-post the full Unanimated interview. Also, Unanimated claims to be working on a new album without drummer Peter Stjärnvind, who left his stool post in February 2012,…

Denial Of God formed in Denmark in 1991. Right in the middle of the Golden Age of Swedish death metal and the nascent stages—Abruptum had just started to kick coffins, for example—what would be come the a worldwide black metal scene. Though few bands had full-lengths out—save for Bathory (now in the Viking phase), Root,…

For the past 16 years, German “power” thrashers Perzonal War have wowed thrashers and heshers in their native land. They were discovered by Rock Hard magazine in what is presumed to be a Battle of the Bands/OK Corral-type competition that pitted the hard-hitting Perzonal War against sad kids in Burzum shirts and female-fronted acts with…