Justin Norton

To commemorate five years of Decibel Flexis, we’ve asked Decibel writers to write a review-length tribute to their favorite disc. First up is the Gates of Slumber’s entry, a remake of their early track “The Jury.” 

Pylon
Watch the world burn
dB Rating: 9/10

Tell us what hardcore album should be inducted into the HOF next, win an album. Good deal!

Stream Cryptopsy’s new song and read a Q&A with the band. 

Considering that almost every story on the Pope’s visit was a fluffy feel good feature (with the exception of his visit with gay-hating Kentucky court clerk Kim Davis) we decided to go through extreme music’s vaults and find the most significant songs — or mentions — about the Pope. 

In order to get you ready for the Halloween season here’s some of the UK’s best haunted and supernatural spots, as picked by Dani Filth. 

Your friends at Decibel have long revered Nunslaughter, not just for their dedication to underground metal but for their sheer persistence.

 Chris Jericho is one of the most decorated professional wrestlers ever: a six-time world champion and the first-ever undisputed WWE champion. He is also one of the most vocal celebrity metal fans on the planet as well as a metal musician who has toured the world repeatedly with his band Fozzy. Jericho’s latest project, however, might be the only one that could earn the extreme moniker.

Immortal Bird vocalist Rae Amitay talked to us about Eminem albums, music school and the difference between keeping the rhythm and fronting a band.

In the latest issue, Autopsy joins our revered two-time Hall Of Fame Club, which includes metal stalwarts like Celtic Frost, Carcass and At The Gates. To commemorate the Severed Survival HOF we’re printing our exclusive “Illustrated History” of Autopsy with Eric Cutler and Chris Reifert from late 2013.  

On August 1, blackQueen will release their new Billy Anderson-produced album The Directress, which features guest appearances by musicians including Uta Plotkin, Joy Von Spain of Eye Of Nix, and Wrest of Leviathan. Pete Jay talked to us about his love of horror soundtracks and the comeback of his passion project. 

While derided by Al Jourgensen and some fans With Sympathy contains some of Al’s most iconic songs and tips the hat to what followed in his still evolving career.

Decibel friend Vivek Venkatesh is the curator of Grimposium, a conference that aims to get at the heart of what makes extreme metal special. We’re handing the blog over to him today to discuss his plans for the event next month, which will feature an appearance from our esteemed editor. 

Six months ago, Google mandated that we remove the hate speech contained in comments for interviews that editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian and staffer Justin Norton conducted with (respectively) Inquisition (May 1, 2014) and Daniel Gallant (May 5, 2014). At the time, we were unable to delete those comments, so we simply took the interviews down. Now we’re able to better moderate the Deciblog, so here are the interviews as they were originally printed.

The proverbial long way to the top has definitely been a long one for Byzantine, which started in a part of rural West Virginia with minimal access to heavy metal and widespread economic problems. Many of the band’s best songs since their formation have touched on the problems of Appalachia, particularly rampant prescription drug abuse. Decibel  talked to frontman Chris “OJ” Ojeda about his long metal apprenticeship and one of the world’s most dangerous jobs: prescription pharmacy delivery driver in rural America. 

In New York’s flourishing metal scene the experimental death metal band Pyrrhon is a bit of an outlier. Formed when most of the band members were in college, Pyrrhon received widespread acclaim for their 2014 album The Mother Of Virtues, a blend of lyrical and instrumental virtuosity. Pyrrhon is fronted by Doug Moore, a onetime high school athlete and University Of Pennsylvania graduate who rejected conventional paths to success to pursue music. He talked to us about cross-state commutes to band practice and the end times.  

Upon hearing that Deicide’s sixth album In Torment In Hell was a potential selection for Justify Your Shitty Taste, our Editor-in-Chief responded with a simple: “Oooh, that’s bad.” No other words were uttered. But is it really?

The late Robert Hazard had a stellar pop music career, even if he never became a household name. Perhaps his best known accomplishment was writing  Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”  But Hazard had a melancholy side, best evidenced by his 1982 song “Escalator Of Life.” The song — for all intents a dark wave tune despite modest chart success — was a critique of 80s consumerism. The New Jersey metal duo Stygian Depths recently reimagined the song.

Pyrrhon caught our attention last year with their excellent album The Mother Of Virtues, which combined technical yet chaotic death metal with frontman Doug Moore’s staccato prose poems. A lot has happened in the ensuing year. The album made many year-end lists but the band split from Relapse and has since teamed with David Hall and Handshake for a new EP.

One of the most intriguing post-hardcore bands to emerge in the 90s was Craw. However, their first three records — considered by many to be American underground classics — have been out of print for more than a decade.

Coffins is a long-time dB favorite and we’re happy to bring you four tracks from the new collection Perpetual Penance. 

One of the reasons Napalm Death has been so successful is their relationship with producer Russ Russell. Russell has worked with the band since 2000 and will probably be with them when they are making albums in their 70s. He joined us from England for a chat on working with the grind legends. 

Roughly two years go, I received a Facebook friend request from someone named Jonathan Dick in Birmingham, Alabama. I was late to join social media so the idea of befriending someone I didn’t know stuck me as curious. Jonathan was different: I found his profile picture – a snapshot of an intimate tea party with his daughter — utterly endearing. 

We’re starting a new feature here at the Deciblog. Since we’ve inducted so many classic albums in the course of our decade-plus existence we’re going to do our best to rank songs on these classic albums. First up is Celtic Frost’s classic mini LP Morbid Tales, which was released in 1984 and inducted in 2007. 

Last we checked wasn’t Brutal Truth/SOD/Nuclear Assault impresario and longtime Decibel friend Danny Lilker retiring? Well, that didn’t take too long. The guy just put out another grindcore record!

Green Hell. Septic Death. Green Death? Yes, that’s the moniker for a Des Moines thrash band looking to restore Iowa’s reputation in the extreme metal world after decades of Slipknot. We actually picked up on Green Death in our print edition, with an effusive review that said: “this Des Moines outfit plays a classy brand…

It’s Wednesday, possibly the second shittiest day of the week. Do you feel like some death metal? Of course you do. For your streaming pleasure today we have “Bastards Burn” from Psychomancer’s new EP Inject The Worms, released yesterday by Orchestrated Misery. This is good stuff if bands like Jungle Rot and early Malevolent Creation…

Agnostic Front has provided their New York brand of hardcore beatdown to generations of listeners. Incredibly, they are still at it it today more than three decades after their formation. Their new album The American Dream Died shows that they haven’t lost their edge even if a few members are a little longer in the…

To Mega Therion is Greek for “The Great Beast.” It’s a pseudonym for the Antichrist in the Book of Revelation and a nickname for every metal musician’s favorite mystic, Aleister Crowley. And it’s the very fitting title for Celtic Frost’s first real full-length album.

Poland’s Infernal War has been relatively quiet for the better part of a decade. The band is about to release their new full-length album Axiom via Agonia Records. Here’s their take: “Axiom is the essence of Infernal War. At the same time, it’s not a copy of our previous works. The new material is more…