Daniel Lake

Upon forming in 1985, Neurosis were a punk rock band. Few would classify their output for the past 20 years as such—though the band probably wouldn’t flinch at the association—but in their early years as a pissed-off East Bay quartet, the Oakland, CA, band made their home at the punk-friendly 924 Gilman Street club, and they gathered a following that idealized the lean and the mean.

now we put you in touch with two more teachers who like to yell and throw elbows even when they’re not surrounded by confused adolescents:  Mike Score of All Out War, and Mike Armine of Rosetta.

Back to school means it’s time for At the Gates‘ Tomas Lindberg to go back to his other job: teaching. 

When metal-inspired ideas leave the guitar behind and embrace their ebony/ivory duality, you get Goatcraft.  In this interview, you get more Goatcraft.

Whatever trajectory Heathen Beast were on seems to have led them to self-destruct, and whether that is permanent or simply a momentary lapse is unclear.  Before they broke up, however, they left us with twelve impressive diatribes and responses to the following questions.

This month, Integrity dig back into the exquisitely obscure by bringing out a righteously energetic cover of “Deathly Fighter” by Japanese (mostly) solo effort, the Randy Uchida Group.  We asked vocalist/mainstay Dwid Hellion about the process of choosing and recording the song, and here’s what he had to say.

In an attempt to gain an outside perspective on our current cover stars, Gojira, we contacted author, radio personality and all-around bearded badass Ian Christe.  Here’s what our man had to say about his personal interest in the band and how he sees them fitting into the wider scope of the current metal scene.

By now, we hope you have been enjoying Gojira’s new album, Magma, as much as we have.  What follows here are outtakes from our cover story interview, including discussions about specific songs on Magma, the forthcoming U.S. tour and that mystical, mysterious place called NYC.

Hear “Of Hollow Judgement” from Colosso‘s forthcoming death metal steamroller Obnoxious.  (That’s the album title, not commentary on releasing new death metal steamrollers.)

As a monument to the collapse of one isolated psyche, as an exploration of an emotional sphere often relegated to the unconscious, Neurosis & Jarboe is far more compelling than any other attempt we’ve heard yet.

SubRosa‘s hulking chords, massive percussion and thick bowed-string atmospheres absolutely crush on their contribution this month.

Few are the bands who will still gleefully slaughter your favorite pet in service of the seething abyss.  Sweden’s Astrophobos are one of these few.

Portland, OR extreme art duo Muscle & Marrow sound off about performance jitters, the benefits and drawbacks of performing their music with only two sets of arms/legs/throats, and an offhand hope for more cats and books in their lives.  We couldn’t fit it all in the magazine, so get the rest of the interview right here.

Death, metal, “Wall of Death,” and vinyl. Get the inside story from our Ghoul contact in Creepsylvania. 

A Piece of the End compiles four songs that coalesced unexpectedly during rehearsal, and Vidian have decided not to sit on them until the next album is ready, which is good, because sitting on anything this spiky-lumpy-grumpy would not be good for the posture.  Check it all out right here.

Says vocalist Agathon about the song: “‘The Shameful Kiss’ is about The Ritual conjuring the dark forces. Those forces might be unknown for many, but it does not mean that they do not exist. I think ‘The Shameful Kiss’ caught the old Gloomy Grim mood… Without the keyboards this could be pure Thrash Metal song.”

What is a Cannibal Accident?  How could it happen?  Well, their music sounds like their album art looks – like a ghoul-possessed intestinal tract giving violent birth to even more grisly demon-innards, rending flesh without end.  If you’re gonna gore-grind, this is how you should do it:  phlegmy-wet and funny as hell.  Listen right here and tell us we’re wrong.

In this month’s issue of Decibel, we bring you a flexi so close to our hearts that it’s practically a third ventricle.  We got Asphyx mouthpiece Martin Van Drunen to talk about his relationship to the magazine and its editor, as well as the way the band put together our most recent edition of the flexi series.

New album, Bereft, turns all the black/death goodness up to (generating random and completely unexpected number) eleven, and we demanded an audience with Côté.  You might have read some of Côté’s thoughts in Issue #139 (May 2016, Amon Amarth cover), but now you can check out the rest of the interview and get a listen to this consistently powerful underground metal act.

Oranssi Pazuzu is Finland’s gift to anyone hoping to spliff out with the alien invaders just before their extra-dimensional reality-shuffling machine divides and conquers and sends all our psychic energy back to their home planet as quaint souvenirs.  Värähtelijä rarely sounds familiar or simple, but consistently satisfies the need we have for rock music to truly progress.  Keep reading to find out why, while you could probably continue to exist without hearing Värähtelijä, you really shouldn’t want to.

We had the chance to interview Mr. Owen for an article in Issue #136 (Feb 2016, Abbath cover), but we had to cut down our man’s responses to fit in the space available.  Now you can read the entire interview, and hearing Owen’s freakish tunes is now only a click away.

This month, we wrangled the prolific East Coast trio Horrendous from their jobs holding down every recent Decibel event to discuss their contribution to the series.

Dublin-based band stabs into the murk with some of the most energized, bleak and ripping blackness we’ve heard in some time.  Hear the album, Heir to Scoria and Ash, here before its April 22 release, and learn more about the band directly in our interview with guitarist L.M.

Napalm Death, the Melvins and Melt Banana will begin their triumphant month-plus trek across the States (and a couple Canadian cities) this Saturday, March 26th in Phoenix, AZ.  When ND’s Shane Embury twisted our ear about a possible oddball interview between himself and the Melvins’ own King Buzzo, there was no question.

English death-mongering quartet Horrified are on the brink of detonating their new album of of melancholic rage (due out March 25 on Stormspell Records), and they want you to hear it here first.

This month, we contacted Swedish death miscreants Tribulation, whose 2009 debut, The Horror, perked up ears but whose subsequent efforts, including last year’s The Children of the Night, turned our collective heads all the way around, several times over.

Wipe up your drool in time for Thrill Jockey’s March 18th release of No One Deserves Happiness and read what drummer Lee Buford has to say about touring, pop music and working with other bands.

Illness mainman Gulnar, of Poland, has advanced his dark agenda several more steps with AHP, and we got caught in the line of fire.  Classically deranged raw black metal speed meets eerie ambient speculation for one hell (you can say that again) of a journey.

Jonesing for some cave-galloping, sludgy-toned, fuzzy hate-spittle metal?  Feel like you haven’t gotten your rocks off properly for the past several years?  Then you’re probably already a Black Cobra fan.  If you weren’t already a fan, you can get in on the, eh, fifth floor right now with the Cali band’s forthcoming record, Imperium Sumulacra.

This month, we talked to every last damn member of 2015 eye-wideners Publicist UK about their inspired, curious choice of cover contribution.  We’ll leave the details up to Zack Lipez (vocals), Brett Bamberger (bass) and the Davids (Obuchowski and Witte, guitar and drums respectively), but we were certainly as positively surprised and amazed at their work on Tori Amos’s “Precious Things” as we were about last year’s Forgive Yourself.