Daniel Lake

Gabriele Gramaglia incorporates a love of Converge-heightened, spastic hardcore heaviness into his anguished odes to the great outdoors.  The percussion and vocal rhythms here really set Gramaglia’s solo project apart from the pack.  The music retains black metal’s otherworldly quality without losing the attention of mere mortals like us.

Next week, Denver heavies Abrams crash any party worth a damn with their self-released debut Lust. Love. Loss.

Screaming Banshee hail from Rome, home of Fleshgod Apocalypse and Hour of Penance, and they ply an admirable racket that draws from all kinds of deathly styles from melodic and technical to old-school and raw.

Oceanic was truly magical, a confluence of songwriting and tone quality and pacing that signaled a new depth for this rapidly evolving musical collective.  Opinions will differ about the quality of what came next, but it’s hard to deny that Oceanic marked an exciting developmental stage for Isis, when burly distortion was still a thematic element rather than an accent piece and contemplative crescendos built themselves into stunning peaks.

Enjoy a new song by A Light Within, a band that draws favorable comparisons to Junius.

We at the Deciblog have spoken to Dr. Vivek Venkatesh a few times already, learning about his work and his simultaneously academic and visceral interest in the more extreme forms of metal.  Last October, we had the opportunity to speak with him again, this time in preparation for an article that focuses on the intersecting paths of academic study and metal.

In Decibel‘s June issue cover story, we offered several examples of well loved and respected authors of extremity who dig the Noisem sound and overall ethic.  Blake Harrison of Pig Destroyer, Matt Harvey of Exhumed and Gruesome, and Bill Steer of Carcass all sounded off on their enjoyment of the, uh, blossoming band.

Carcass drummer Dan Wilding also had a few things to say about the band, and while we weren’t able to fit them into the article, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hear about them anyway.  Here now, for your reading pleasure, are Mr. Wilding’s thoughts on Noisem from the time he spent touring alongside them.

Dark, heavy and full of heart, Missouri’s Sisters Of… set their sights on the May 12 release of their first full-length record, The Serpent, The Angel, The Adversary.  Their blend of bestial rage and contemplative yearning might just tear you open and fill you up.  Come inside and find out.

New Noisem.  Now.  What more do you need to know?  NEW NOISEM NOW!

Australian doom duo Lucifer’s Fall remind us to hitch our collective misery and universal disappointment to a good beat and some killer licks with their (triply) self-titled debut, out soon on Hammerheart Records.

Poland’s one-man, one-woman (and thus, probably Church approved) blackened frost-treaders Mornië Utúlië offer one of those perfect blends of intent, image and music.  Calling a black metal record Sny (Polish for “dreams” and, coincidentally – thanks Google Translate – Afrikaans for “cuts”) and draping the cover in a field of stars certainly sets up expectations that this might be a toothless, undistorted bliss-out, but Mornië Utúlië’s adventures into the void turn out to be way more Darkspace roar than Alcest sigh.  Like the subtle merging of Nosferatu and nebula on the cover, Mornië Utúlië throttle up the terror in in their yawning darkness and never settle for mere atmospheric meandering.

We asked Bartosz Brożek, the man behind the music, about his journey and his newest creation, so you can read all about it after the jump while you stab through the cosmos with Sny and a video for the late-album cut “W Nocy Płynie Chłodny Wiatr” featuring gal-vocalist Ewa Kleszcz.  If you dig, be sure to head over to the Mornië Utúlië’s Facebook site or Bandcamp page, where the album lives.

Live long, prosper, eat the weak and fear your dreams! 

If you’ve picked up the most recent issue of Decibel, we hope you’ve flipped through the “Greatest Extreme Vocalists of All Time” cover article.  The list of incredible voices was proposed, discussed, voted on, scrapped, argued about, re-voted on, lost, re-re-voted on, torched, shat upon, and finally selected and sent to print by some intern…

David ‘Ravengarde’ Sylvester and Nordavind Records have teamed up to release a fresh approach to epic heavy music with a new Beautality album entitled Einfallen: A Tale ov Torment & Triumph.  The UK-based band thrusts all manner of screeching, fist-pounding, air-drumming metal styles into their propulsive, cinematically broad storytelling.  The album boasts six mighty tracks,…

Ottawa quartet Goetia have been heaving sludgy post-metal into the great northern atmosphere for some time now, and recently they joined forces with Deathbound Records – home of melancholic crushers Woccon and historical battlefield-stompers Catuvolcus – for an official release of their album Le Vide.  Lovers of grandiose epicness should take note, now that some…

Camping in the wooded wilderness; submitting to nature’s glories, mercies and otherwise; indulging in extreme metal.  We know what you’re thinking:  Time for another plane ticket to the Pacific Northwest.  Or to Norway. But no!  The Shadow Woods Metal Fest, planned for September 25-27 in beautiful (and probably seasonally chilly) Fannettsburg, Pennsylvania, will be held…

Today we bring you an exclusive video premiere by Italian death/thrashers Krysantemia, celebrating the advent of their third album, Finis Dierum, on Memorial Records.  The band’s blustery/blistering confluence of influences has seen them perform alongside Obituary, Rotting Christ and Kataklysm, and is right now crisscrossing Europe in support of warmongers Marduk.  The new album was recorded…

If you like your metal weird, ugly and awesome, please give it up for Odota, an Estonian one-man project that takes black metal and infests it with all sorts of uncomfortable sounds that will make the purists cry, “False!”  The new album Fever Marshal props up raw, blasting riffage against industrial and electronic detritus, offering a bracing…

If you haven’t heard a good oddball metal record recently… well, then your head’s been under a soundproofed rock and you haven’t been reading enough Decibel reviews.  Get out there and listen, man! And be sure to check out the new Pyramids record when Profound Lore releases it in the middle of next month.  It’s dark,…

Later this month, Dutch sextet Izah will release their first full-length document of sludgy aggression through the always dependable Nordvis Produktion.  It represents a major step in a very long road for the band, and its four gargantuan tracks make that point crystal clear.  But these aren’t the sprawling teases that some bands employ in…

A year ago, metal enthusiast and writer Dayal Patterson presented the world with his authoritative document Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, claiming the dark hearts of literate misanthropes everywhere.  To anyone who read the book and thought it could have been more developed… well, the author thought so, too.  This year, we will have…

Every depressive suicidal black metal dude we went to high school with is dead.  Well, not really, though we probably could’ve seen it coming if it were true.  What I mean is, Xasthur groaner Scott Conner got a new gig playing dark bluegrass.  And where the fuck are Striborg and Nortt?  I feel sad sometimes,…

“Mysterious,” indeed.  When we heard the sonic sickness belched from Spanish sepsis-spewers Hic Iacet, we dimmed the lights and began casting about for something filthy to rub all over ourselves.  And we sought out an interview with the progenitors of these gruesome chords and vokills.  We were rebuffed, our request to gain access to the…

Over the past two weeks, we gave Mr. Townsend some blog space to explain his straining relationship with new metal and the direction he envisions for himself.  Today, we have the opportunity to find out which professional avenues the pop-progger absolutely refuses to follow.  Townsend also laments the problems of a repetitive lifestyle and the copy-of-a-copy types…

When the Devin Townsend Project played their string of dates with Animals As Leaders a month ago, it was clear the show was not the Hevy Devy indulge-fest that the band’s past headlining shows have been.  Conspicuously absent was the pre-show Ziltoid Radio craziness that have accompanied Townsend’s stage show for a few years.  Townsend worked hard…

You know how we at Decibel go all batshit for just about everything Baltimore label A389 releases?  The name Noisem mean anything to you?  Full of Hell?  Ilsa?  Yeah. Last year, we got our lazy asses out for the label’s 10th anniversary bash, including three days and multiple venues of high-quality mash-ups of death metal, doom,…

Last month, Devin Townsend and his madcap Project went out on tour with Animals As Leaders and Monuments.  Decibel made sure to catch the show when it came to Baltimore, and we were not disappointed.  Long-lived set favorites like “Bad Devil” and “Regulator” stormed over the crowd, while much of the rest of the evening…

Polish black-death stalwarts Hate are set to drop their latest album, Crusade: Zero, on a very suspecting public on February 10th, and today they show off their video for the song “Valley of Darkness” here at the Deciblog.  Religious iconography will burn.  Fire (and salvation) will be breathed.  Corpses will be painted.  Beats will blast.  Lenses…

A little more than a year ago, we got in touch with a Kent, Ohio quartet called Foul Spirits who delivered some slimy sludge-death with an EP called Live in Fear.  Now the boys have finished recording their full-length album, called Volatile Versatile, and if you’re interested in the kind of redlined destruction offered by bands like Gaza…

Now that we’ve just squeaked past the Judeo-Christian holiday season, it’s time to resume our regularly scheduled blasphemies and blood feasting.  In the interest of not fucking around in any way whatsoever, today we bring your attention to Rochester, NY horror activists Malformed.  Their skull-stabbing death metal should sour all eggnog and extinguish all but…

Virginia prog-rock djentlemen Iris Divine are in the progress of releasing their second full-length record, called Karma Sown.  We say “progress” because, while the album was released digitally earlier this month at Bandcamp, the music caught some label attention and is being considered for official release.  We don’t have details for you right now (we…