Kevin Stewart-Panko

When we were told that Chicago’s Like Rats featured members of grind provocateurs, Weekend Nachos getting in touch with their inner Tom Warrior (the one who’s written about in the Only Death is Real book, not this one), we got pretty excited. We got even more chuffed when Dom at A389 came a ringin’ with…

We here at Decibel are all over Chicago’s Encrust.

Normally, I’d sound off on something like this, but sometimes nothing more than “what the fuck?” needs to be said. Ok, let me just add one bit of commentary: the moustache that appears at 3:56 of part one kicked my ass like it’s never been kicked before.

There’s a good reason we don’t feature a lot of digital hardcore around these parts. That’s because most of it isn’t worth featuring. Dudes, if there was ever a musical revolution that fizzled out like a wet firecracker of disappointment quicker than the one Atari Teenage Riot was supposed to lead into the frenzied future,…

Alright, doodz…get your flat-brimmed ball caps out and your buttoned-down plaid shirts to the ready

I discovered Richmond’s The Catalyst the old-fashioned way: the dude at their former record company, Perpetual Motion Machine, sent me a vinyl copy of their first EP, Marianas Trench. Then, that same person sent me a CD copy of the expanded version of said record, Marianas Trench+9. At least that was the old-fashioned way for…

Obviously, War On Music’s Charley Justice works a lot faster than I do. When his original retail location at 38-44 Albert Street in downtown Winnipeg went up in flames back on April 19th, he ramped up his usual whirlwind of internalised kinetic energy and went to work at opening another location as quickly as possible….

…Gaza fucking rule. The Salt Lake City ragers have a new album, entitled No Absolutes in Human Suffering, in the starting blocks and set to explode all over your faces on July 31st, courtesy Black Market Activities. Having just returned home last week from the opening slot on the Corrosion of Conformity/Torche/Black Cobra tour, the…

While this isn’t really new news, as the original annoucement of noisy, melodic, post-everything-core quartet, Planes Mistaken For Stars reuniting for a quick East Coast summer tour was originally made back in May, the kick-off date draws closer, my friends. And seeing how memory retention is on par with attention spans these days, we here…

Orange County’s Seven Sisters of Sleep aren’t big on going out of their way to get in people’s faces. Then again, I’m speaking from a shaking babies and kissing hands perspective. I’ve never seen them live and judging by the rusty heroin needle guitar tone and sociopathic throat abuse that drives their hammering of metallic…

Vancouver’s Titan’s Eve impressed this hack a couple years back with the streamlined and melodic mixture of thrash and traditional metal of their The Divine Equal self-released debut. I hadn’t heard much from or about the band since the album was made publicly available, probably because I wasn’t paying attention, as usual, but word has…

A couple weeks ago, I was sweating it out in Texas; in Austin, to be exact, at the Chaos in Tejas Fest. Late on Sunday afternoon, when most people were winding down their weekends and preparing for the sobering bitch-slap of reality that is Monday morning, myself and a few other hearty souls were taking…

I’ll admit it; I hadn’t heard of Chicago’s Jar’d Loose until the press folk the band hired to spread the word spread the word right into my lap one day. I’ll also admit that there was a pretty good chance I would’ve passed on checking the band out because of that horrendous name they’ve saddled…

Let me make one thing perfectly clear: I don’t “do” podcasts. The reasons are many, but chiefly it’s because if I wanted to listen to the directionless ramblings of stoners talking about popular culture, I would hide out in the basement when my wife and her pot smoking pals get together. If I wanted to…

We’re all about A389 Recordings ’round these parts. If it’s not the consistently awesome cover draping each and every release and their annual birthday bash show/extravaganza every January, it’s that they’re fellow proponents of the flexi-disc and that alongside every world-hatin’, religion-baitin’, humanity-despisin’ slice of holy terror hardcore they release, they go ahead and show…

Pick Your Side is a new hardcore band based out of Hamilton, Ontario (and Buffalo, New York) which features ex-and-present members of Haymaker, Fuck the Facts, Psyopus amongst others. They’ve just released their full-length debut, Let Me Show You How Democracy Works courtesy of A389 Records and played a hometown show last weekend and as…

Here’s my first holy shit column, as documented in the annals of the Deciblog. Check it out to get an idea of what I’m holy shitting about.

The era surrounding the release of Total Destruction, the 1993 sophomore album by New York City noiseniks Unsane, took Chris Spencer’s life on the craziest of rollercoaster rides.

If you’re reading this and into grindcore, you’re probably already well aware that Discordance Axis’ The Inalienable Dreamless is viewed by grind heads in the same way Master of Puppets get looked at by thrashers. Both are genre-defining albums that no die hard fan of the respective sound is nothing but 100% behind. Both Master…

Last week, I interviewed one half of Calgary’s Mares of Thrace – the singing/guitar playing half, Therese Lanz – about a bunch of stuff that didn’t really have anything to do with the band or their upcoming release (next week!) on Sonic Unyon Metal, The Pilgrimage. This week, I offer this chat with drummer Stefani…

If you root around the internet for about three-and-a-half seconds, you can find all sorts of info on Calgary’s doom-y, sludge-y, math-y metallic duo, Mares of Thrace. Most of that will pertain to the band being comprised of two women – drummer Stefani MacKichan and guitarist/vocalist Thérèse Lanz – and all that clappity-clap about hot(test)…

This particular blog post was originally designed to be a congratulatory stamp for Winnipeg “elitist-asshole metallic noise rock with touches of post-metal, hardcore, sludge and doom” band, KEN Mode as they very deservedly came out on top in the category of Best Metal Album of the Year at last weekend’s Juno awards. To the most…

Rot of any description isn’t the sort of thing that comes to mind when you think of Cancun. But even dudes living life by the beach, surrounded by fluorescent coloured drinks, bronzed locals and tourist eye candy aren’t immune from becoming obsessed with death metal and grindcore, dedicating one’s life to the noise and kicking…

Alright kids, first things first, watch this: While I’m tempted to leave all commentary about Italian death metallers Fomento’s “Necropotency” in the capable hands of our Shane Mehling who, when he watched the video and listened to said tune, was quoted as saying, “Holy cocksucking Jesus,” I decided to do a little digging beyond the…

I’m going to be brutally honest with myself and you, gentle reader, and come clean here. Folks, while I consider myself a fan of Belgium’s Rise and Fall, self-reflection regarding my actions during their last seven years of existence illustrate that I may not be as big a fan as I thought I might be….

Who ever would have thought that the instrumental music scene, as it pertains to Decibel’s readership, would be as saturated and crowded as it has become since Pelican ended up on the cover of issue #33 way back in 2007? It’s gotten so much so that bands whose savant-like members who are ineffectual basket cases…

Featuring former Landmine Marathon axe-slinger, Eric Saylor, Seas Will Rise is a relatively new entry into the world of thunderously grimy, caustic and brutal hardcore that falls on the punky end of the Swe-death spectrum with touches of crust and enough peace punk influence to have the local pigs salivating at the chance to dust…

The same bunches of you reading this who are still scratching your heads over why this post from a couple weeks ago created any amount of anything, anywhere in anybody are the same bunches of you who’ll likely be confused when we mention how compilation records used to be fucking awesome. “How the fuck?” we…

If trends and interests and habits and all that sort of bullshit moves in cycles, I guess I’m presently going through the second phase of voraciously listening to a bunch of stuff that’s borderline unlistenable. And loving it. Let me explain… If you were a tape trader back in the 80s, you’ll remember scoring N…

First of all, let me say that I think one and all will agree: no one likes being ripped off. There are a lot of things we haven’t experienced in life and a lot of things we never will experience, but I don’t think anyone wakes up in the morning and thinks to themselves, “Shit,…