Chris Dick

.neon has been ready for more than a year now. What took so long?Herbst: There were some problems between Prophecy and my old label. But fortunately all turned out to be cool in the end. You know, it’s very frustrating, when you work so hard on something and you simply won’t get anything back. I…

Until 2009’s What We All Come to Need, Decibel has had a long honeymoon with Chicago instru-metallists Pelican.

Hello fellow Deci-punters. Typically, we don’t toot our own Viking horns—well, we’ve done it before when Decibel Managing Editor Andrew Bonazelli released his acclaimed A Regular book and when Decibel Editor-in-Chief Albert Mudrian clashed swords with Da Capo Press to bring the Precious Metal book to life—but on this occasion, which is near Christmas, originally…

Over the last three weeks we’ve been fortunate enough to open three cans of Sodom agent orange on your sorry fiveheads. Week 1 we premiered an uncompromisingly intense set of tracks in “In War and Pieces” & “Hellfire”. For Week 2, another two cans (“Through Toxic Veins” & “Nothing Counts More Than Blood”) of Sodom…

5. Black Sabbath “Paranoid” intro riff Tony Iommi is the fuckin’ man. The way his guitar sounded back in the ’70s was just evil compared to everyone else. Whether it had something to do with the way he layered distorted guitars on the recordings, or whether it was due to his playing style or missing…

By Nate Hall (U.S. Christmas) #5. Dixie Collins – Weedeater It takes a special kind of person to create a sonic mirror, a tone that reflects the individual hitting the strings. When Dixie straps on his cheap Squier P-Bass, slugs back some of Kentucky’s worst and switches on his amps, the ungodly wails that erupt…

Since we do more interviews than we ever care to admit (transcription is the devil!), we figured we’d open the journalistic kimono to our Facebook and Twitter friends/haters when the opportunity to interview Chicago tech-death specialists Veil of Maya presented itself.  We always ask the same damned questions. “When did you form?”, “Why did Johnny…

Over the last two weeks we’ve been fortunate enough to open two cans of Sodom tear gas on your sorry asses. Week 1 we premiered an uncompromisingly intense set of tracks in “In War and Pieces” & “Hellfire”. For Week 2, another two cans of Sodom tear gas were ceremoniously launched out of the dB…

Track-by-track commentary by Zafrir Zori (Dukatalon) “Pai’s” [audio:https://www.decibelmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/01-Peis.mp3] A person who holds an arrogant truth, taunts, preaches, and tries proving everyone wrong ends up being the worst of them all. “Run” [audio:https://www.decibelmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/02-Run.mp3] This one deals with a state of mind where you want to run away and dwell in a secluded place, but such place…

There comes a time–mostly mid-to-late teens–when you want your preferences known. Any and all preferences. Musical, religious, movie, food, drink, fuck partner, etc. You broadcast your preferences anywhere there’s retail space. Could be on a folder you bring to class (admittedly, I’ve never seen, “I fuck Amanda” instead of “I love Amanda” scrawled on a…

Last week, we here at the Deciblog unfurled two tank-shredding Sodom tunes, “In War and Pieces” & “Hellfire”, to much fanfare. Rockets were bursting in air, bombs all red glare, we’re here to prove Sodom’s still gallantly streaming. This week, as previously announced, we have two more daisycutter songs in the form of “Through Toxic…

Arrving at the infamous Trocadero later than expected, party Decibel—all one of us—found Holy Grail amping up their final song of the night. Aggressive, competent and young, but replete with every leather pants-ed cliché known to Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Manowar, the Californians may (some day) evolve into a formidable heavy metal machine. For…

In honor of the holiday most associated with one of the seven deadly sins — gluttony — we’re pleased to give you Death Metal Rooster Explained. True, roosters aren’t turkeys, but to date no one has uploaded a video of a turkey roaring for 30 seconds. Or… Since we think we’re funny, here’s Heretic Soul…

This much is known: though black metal from the kingdom was initially informed by Venom, Bathory and Hellhammer, inventive teenagers and twentysomethings in Oslo, Bergen and various towns all over the country quickly transformed it into something else.

German thrash beasts Sodom released their debut demo, Witching Metal, in 1982. Holy shit! That was 28 years ago. Few of us can remember what we were doing in 1982* — probably watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan or wondering, “Who is Ozzy Osbourne? And why does he like bats so much?”, but…

It’s no fucking time to start a record label. Physical sales have been hit by multiple (and surgical) airstrikes, digital downloads have flatlined, and record stores (not the big box crap either) ain’t having it easy. So, what does Scion A/V do? Of all the crazy things to finance, even angelically, Scion A/V have started…

So, two Norwegians — ex-Emperor/ex-Zyklon guitarist Samoth and Mindgrinder/ex-Scum guitarist Cosmo — and one Swede — ex-Dark Funeral/ex-Aeon drummer Nils Fjellström — team up to form The Wretched End. Now, typically Swedes despise the Norwegians for one reason or another (usually because the Norwegian Kronor has more purchasing power than the Swedish Kronor and the…

OK, when Albert, Scott K., and myself think doom metal we automatically throw horns, put on our ankle length leather jackets, and head out to the moors for an “atmospheric” photo shoot. Actually, we don’t have moors here in Pennsylvania, but a trip to Centralia, PA always sets the right “mood”. Anyway, there’s been far…

#5. The end of the “Morrisound” era. In the late ‘80s Morrisound Studios in Tampa was the place to record, and it provided the first real clear production, in my opinion, of double bass work that was happening in the early days of extreme metal. For the first time you were able to hear things…

By Nate Hall (U.S. Christmas) #5 John Ehle: The Land Breakers, The Winter People, Trail of Tears. (Describing the Cherokee) Male and female, they were hospitable but uneffusive. The men appeared to be respectful but remained aloof, were secure within themselves. They would shake a stranger’s hand silently while looking off toward the horizon, securing…

By Tim Goergen (Within The Ruins) It is always good to come back to the East Coast. Today was in Greenville, NC. After a 10-hour drive through the night from Columbus, GA we finally arrived in Greenville around 2:00 p.m. and immediately hit up the first Wal-Mart we could find. I grabbed some chicken strips…

By Simon Hawemann (War from a Harlots Mouth) 5. Swarm of the Lotus – “Nightmare Paint” “Nightmare Paint” is such a twisted and shattering song, it reminds me of grating doors or grating metal even. It sounds like an earthquake, pure chaos, like elemental forces – out of control. Things you would expect to happen…

OK, it’s long established that the dudes at Scion A/V and the dudes at Decibel shake hands, break bread together, and then go home to blast some deathly hate over a glass of fine Merlot. If only to discuss and dissect the extremest of extremely extreme metal. That’s what dudes do. When Scion A/V has…

Since we, rather Albert, wrote the book on the absolutely probable history of death metal and grindcore (available here as a shameful but necessary plugadelic), we felt there has been a dearth of grindcore and grindcore-related things on the Deciblog. We know. We’ve got Sailors With Wax Wings, Valient Thorr, Gene Simmons, and fucking Shadowgarden…

During a conversation with Atheist frontman/guitarist, Kelly Shaefer, we jokingly asked him to come up with 5 of Atheist’s worst songs.

During a conversation with Atheist frontman/guitarist, Kelly Shaefer, we jokingly asked him to come up with 5 of Atheist’s worst songs. Now, normally this is no-go territory for any artist with a high sense of self worth, but Shaefer was a cool dude about it. In fact, he laughed. And then said, “I fucking hate…

What do Atari Teenage Riot and Blut Aus Nord have in common? Uh, hard to tell, but Sailors With Wax Wings and Pyramids mastermind R. Loren knows the connection and would probably wax scholastically — existential attributes reinforced by repetition — about it. Turns out when R. Loren isn’t busy with bridging shoegaze/post-punk and black/doom…

By Valient Himself (Valient Thorr) Alahoyus. This will be the final transmission of the VALIENT THORR FALL- INTO MADNESS TOURR. Or the VALIENT THORR AUTUMN OF 1000 CHARACTERS TOURR. Or whatever. I like to change the name nightly. We have definitely met some interesting cats out there this go round. When we last left off,…

Former Arkansas governor, presidential candidate, and current Huckabee talk show host Mike Huckabee is Fox News Channel’s first (and possibly last) “Doom Metal Expert”. No shit! Decibel doesn’t even have a resident “Doom Metal Expert” — well, Scott Koerber and EIC Mr. Mudrian have the right credentials, but have never self-proclaimed “I am a Doom…

What is black metal?Carnifex: Nefarium’s (Myspace link) primary thought concerns the communicative aspect, with the idea that a black metal listener could understand a message of hate and anger towards those elements that can be [considered] personal. In an apathetic and driven world, powered by hypocrisy, we seek personal illumination to give the most adequate…