Chris Dick

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…

This piece is a long lost companion section to Decibel #92 cover story Paradise Lost. It explores and debunks the myth of the Peaceville Three—Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride, and Anathema—connecting and riffing off one another in the early to mid-’90s. Think of it as an updated version of fellow Decibel contributor Greg Moffitt’s UK…

Silje interviewed as part of our most excellent Women in Metal issue [dB #94]. How will Disclosure differ from The West Pole? Silje Wergeland: it’s fresher, braver, more confident and honest, deeper, newer. Now that the lineup’s had a few years to synch what’s it’s like working together? Silje Wergeland: It’s great and inspiring! We…

5. Promise And The Monster – Wither Discovered when Myspace mattered to music, Promise And The Monster’s dark, sparse yet wildly imaginative goth-folk—yeah, terrible genre concatenation, but I concede defeat—was an instant hit in my not-so-thick music book. “Wither” has this fairytale quality to it. A little girl in the woods meets a terrifying creature….

Grave. Twenty-four years young today. What keeps Swedish death metal bands alive—when by all rights they should be, uh, dead—for so long? Is it the bone-cold water? Dunno, but we’ve used the phrase before to cliched ends of sanity. Is it the clean crisp Scandinavian air? Yeah, used that cliche too. Maybe it’s the fetid…

Lately, I’ve presented a few Borknagar gems that may make it seem like I’m partial to the Norwegian pagan/progressive/black-inspired metallers. I am, actually. OK, full disclosure: Borknagar’s been ruling my seven seas from the time when the then-unknown supergroup issued its debut album, Borknagar, and lead Borker Øystein G. Brun were penpals of sorts. The…

Last year, Gilead Media nailed it—“it” being something tangibly awesome—by releasing the Untitled EP by Minnesota black metal jaw-droppers False. With two songs spanning 12-minutes each, Untitled had the length to explore early Emperor-ian majesty, with a little of Gehenna’s mid-period key-centric nastiness, and Tombs’ dark hardcore tendencies. Well, False fans, black metal from the…

The last time we featured American heavy metal phenoms Iced Earth on the Deciblog, WordPress wasn’t even cool yet. In fact, evidence of said coverage is lost in some Access database that’s sitting in some office on a tape back-up. So, yeah, we’ve been delinquent in our patriotic (hey, July 4th is two days away)…

We can count the number of times we’ve applied some Deci-clusivity to an unsigned act on the Deciblog. Of course, yammerers and Internet lonely-hearts will cry that we should only spotlight the label-less, the bands fighting for a slice of a slice of a depreciated penny. The problem is this: turn on the demo-powered floodgates…

** Scribbled by Municipal Waste lead screamer Tony Foresta. Don’t forget to check the stream of the Toxic Waste split 12″ on the venerable Tankcrimes label, as posted by the equally venerable Adem. It’s HERE, we think. Or, the Part One of the tour diary, called Part Waste, ’cause we’re cute. Click HERE. 6/1 –…

OK, ICS Vortex had a cameo on “My Domain”. He’s now returned as a full-time co-vocalist. What’s the story there? I gather a lot of old-time Borknagar fans now feel it’s time for Garm to step back into the fold. Universes colliding and all that. Øystein Brun: Well, wish I could reveal an enigmatic story…

What started out as a hobby between friends—principally guitarist/vocalist John Gallagher and bassist/vocalist Jason Netherton—in ’93, eventually turned into a career- and genre-defining powerhouse six years later. Though at the time, the Maryland-based outfit would be hard-pressed to believe it.

“‘Indulgence of Abhorrent Prophecies’ is the lead-off track of the album, and we are extremely proud of it and the album as a whole. We feel it is much stronger musically than its predecessor, which itself was a step into a more mature era of the band. We took everything we did on Morbid Destitution…

Normally, we preface a streaming tune with some irreverent (but oddly salient) details of the band and song we’re streaming to the Deci-faithful. This time, however, we’re going to let Philadelphia’s Ladder Devils own Matt Leo (ex-Minor Times) do the talking (note: salient details oddly missing) via a Post-Apocalyptic Movies Top 5, which is absolutely…

Formed in 1980, California’s Malice is absolutely cult—full-lengths In the Beginning… and License to Kill were both ushered out by major Atlantic Records to lukewarm reception in the mid-’80s—but ask any hesher in the sub-25 age range, and they’ll likely have no idea who Malice was or is. Unless, they bought the mid-aughts re-issues while…

** Scribbled by Municipal Waste lead screamer Tony Foresta. Don’t forget to check the stream of the Toxic Waste split 12″ on the venerable Tankcrimes label, as posted by the equally venerable Adem. It’s HERE, we think. 5/25 – Las Vegas @ Punk Rock Bowling: Municipal Waste and The Dwarves playing a bowling tournament?! Yes!!…

5. Death – “Overactive Imagination” The cool thing about Individual Thought Patterns in my opinion is that it was such a big leap from the previous Death albums and you totally heard that when you pressed play and “Overactive Imagination” kicked in. That song has so much drive and cool patterns and let’s not forget,…

Not much is known about Liverpool’s Conan. No, this isn’t the same Conan you see on late night TV or the same fictional king(s) Conan/Kalidor who bedded Sandahl Bergman and Brigitte Nielsen in the early ’80s, but rather this Conan is a UK-based doom metal trio who’ve kept their mouths shut by employing Internet stealth…

Most of the Deci-faithful haven’t heard of prog wizards Mörglbl, but I’m sure there are a few who know guitar maniac Christophe Godin, who’s somewhere between legends Allan Holdsworth, Mattias Eklundh (of the underrated Freak Kitchen) or Steve Vai. Or, somewhere between the groove-thrash of Pantera, the zaniness of Primus, and Holdsworth’s fusion genius. Sans…

French/Finnish combo Deathspell Omega have taken black metal to its most mystical extreme. They decline interviews (only handful since forming in 1998), are extraordinarily camera shy, and wouldn’t be caught metaphysically dead performing live in front of an audience. Now, most of this is conjecture. They may do interviews—with each other—and they may have a…