Shawn Macomber

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a twice monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Writer/editor extraordinaire Kriscinda Lee Everitt‘s brand new Despumation Press “seeks to champion writing that explores the diverse themes metal customarily addresses using language in such a way as to evoke the feeling…

Christ on a motherfucking crutch do we have a treat for you this morning, loyal readers: An exclusive premiere of a churning, kinetic track off what promises to be a seriously off the hook brilliant upcoming debut album from Mutoid Man, the new collaboration between Stephen Brodsky (CAVE IN) and Ben Koller (CONVERGE). We asked…

Decibel has made no secret of our love for the idiosyncratic have-to-see-it-to-believe-it one-man doom behemoth Author & Punisher. And these insane videos from the band’s recent performance at the Fillmore basically speak for themselves. So…further comment is probably unnecessary. The new record, Women & Children, is available here. Bonus: The Lynch-ian video for “Terrorbird” after…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Man, Lewis Dimmick truly delivers something special with This Music, an exquisite collection of lyrical, poignant, often very funny vignettes detailing his coming of age in the 80s New York City hardcore scene. Naturally,…

So Randy Larsen and Bernie Romanowski from long-running noisecore antiheroes Cable launched a new project a little while back called Empty Flowers to explore 90s-style smart, seething gut-punch post-hardcore. And the mix actually works! Really fucking well! The band’s debut, Six, created some impressive atmospheres and undercurrents, but the sophomore release Five sees Empty Flowers…

Decibel invites you to start your weekend off right with this exclusive slab of epic, filthy-yet-strangely-beguiling sludge noise perfection from Virginia’s own Akris. The song, “Row of Lights,” is off the band’s forthcoming full-length debut on Domestic Genocide Records. For further information visit Akris’ official website and/or friend them on Facebook.

Avulsed’s supremely excellent death metal splatter platter Ritual Zombi has already received plenty of Deci-love — see Rod Smith’s 8/10 rave in issue 107 and/or my own giddy profile in 108 — so we were more than a little honored when legendary vocalist Dave Rotten offered us the opportunity to premiere the beautiful, nightmarish clip…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Bazillion Points Books boasts such an absurdly badass catalog it is difficult at times to believe the publishing house actually exists outside the fantasies of discerning connoisseurs and devotees of underground rock and metal….

We’ll make this intro concise as possible, so as to allow readers to break on through to the other side that much quicker: A) False Prism and Cavern Apothecary — presented by Sadgiqacea and Hivelords, respectively — are two of the best, most intriguing mindfuck metal releases of the year thus far. B) The bands…

Today it is Decibel‘s pleasure to host this exclusive stream of “Sky Full of Witches,” a sublime slab of smoldering, cinematic fuzz-groove off ex-Melvins/Clown Alley guitarist Mark Deutrom’s upcoming third solo record Brief Sensuality and Western Violence. Here’s what Deutrom told us about the track: In 2012 the so called FAA Modernization and Reform act…

There has never been a shortage of bands in extreme music eager to wed horror cinema imagery to brutal riffage, but few have ever managed to do so with as much skill, class, or cleverness as avant grinders Corn on Macabre. A few months back the defunct band unleashed the towering, essential Discographic Violence retrospective…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… In his latest antagonism 90s Island, reliably hilarious literary raconteur and self-described “luscious beacon of truth” Marty Beckerman (The Heming Way, Generation S.L.U.T.) spins a satirical yarn of two brothers fed up with a…

Here are the two main things you need to know about Kharkiv, Ukraine’s future sleaze rock superstars John Gält: 1. The band’s superb debut full-length Served Hot is a brash, hook-filled throwback to hard rock’s better days, marrying a bit of Motörhead aggro and Priest-y chug-soar-chug to an old school Mötley Crüe swagger n’ sneer….

We’ll make this into concise as possible, so as to allow readers to break on through to the other side that much quicker: A) False Prism and Cavern Apothecary — presented by Sadgiqacea and Hivelords respectively — are two of the best, most intriguing mindfuck metal releases of the year thus far. B) The bands…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a new twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… The metal-loving elite purveyors of literary insanity over at Raw Dog Screaming Press are celebrating their tenth anniversary this weekend at DogCon 2 in Columbus, Ohio. Scheduled amongst many alluring events, readings,…

The above flyer for Punk Is Dead 2013 sufficiently testifies to the potential awesomeness of the inaugural edition of the upcoming Lancaster, California confab, but we decided to dig a little deeper anyway and asked organizer Zack Barrera about the vision behind his self-described “truly underground, DIY festival.” Talk to me a little bit about…

We’ll make this into concise as possible, so as to allow readers to break on through to the other side that much quicker: A) False Prism and Cavern Apothecary — presented by Sadgiqacea and Hivelords respectively — are two of the best, most intriguing mindfuck metal releases of the year thus far. B) The bands…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a new twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Full disclosure: The Metalnomicon has not surveyed every hardcore fanzine in the history of hardcore fanzines. That is a task ill-suited to a single human lifespan, even one that, say, skipped the…

Legendary horror metal maven and self-described “semi-retired punk/metal atavist” Stevo of Impetigo/Tombstones fame assures Decibel “baseball scorekeeping is in many respects a totally underground and kVlt activity” and links a “re-kindled passion for baseball to my still-burning passion for metal.” On the eve of the Razorback Records deluxe reissue of Impetigo’s classic 1992 leveler Horror…

Axeslasher and Decibel present an exclusive stream of a song off the gore-obsessed thrashers’ upcoming album Anthology of Terror, Vol. 1, due later this year on Antithetic Records. Mixed and mastered at the Filth Chamber in Denver with producer Patrick Bruss (CRYPTICUS, TOMBSTONES), “Woodland Tortuary” is a tongue-in-cheek look at late ’80s sadism, inspired by…

We asked Toronto’s premiere purveyors of “true, unadulterated heavy metal” Cauldron to keep tabs on the havoc and devastation left behind in the wake of the band’s epic America’s Lost tour and dudes did not disappoint. (See earlier posts here and here.) We couldn’t resist beginning the third diary entry at Orion Fest before going…

The new Locrian record Return to Annihilation is out today and — perhaps predictably — it’s fucking awesome and epic and enthralling and, yeah, maybe a little nutty. Go hear for yourself here, buy it here, and check out the band’s exclusive track-by-track listening guide below. 1. Eternal Return We wanted to start out the…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Dean Swinford is very likely the first and almost certainly the last author in the history of Western literature to pen an epigraph comprised of equal parts Shakespeare (“Is not lead a metal…

Montreal thrash-core stalwarts BornBroken unleashed its debut CD/unorthodox prescription The Healing Powers of Hate last week. The band’s mission? “Help the masses find a voice, a face, an ‘X’ that marks the spot through the sounds of beating skins, metal strings and broken chords.” Check out the pummeling rager of a title track below, along…

Last September the frenetic Ventura, California quartet P.O.O.R. — i.e., Point of Our Resistance — released Extinction of Trust, which just so happens to be one of the great grindcore records of the last several years. Yet despite featuring members/ex-members of Fatalist, Dirty Dead, Decrypt, Stump, and Burning at the Stake, and a slew of…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Reading the work of Raw Dog Screaming Press founding editor/bizarro author extraordinaire John Lawson might be best described as taking a very scenic shortcut into an Altered States-esque surrealist landscape without having to…

We asked Toronto’s premiere purveyors of “true, unadulterated heavy metal” Cauldron to keep tabs on the havoc and devastation left in the wake of the band’s epic America’s Lost tour and dudes did not disappoint. Part I lives here. Part II is posted below. Purchase the excellent Tomorrow’s Lost here. A handful of remaining dates…

Iceage may be young bucks creating some of the most intriguing/enlivening post-punk noise rock out there these days, but spinning the excellent You’re Nothing we had a hunch the much-lauded Copenhagen quartet might have ingested some metal along the way, too — and wound up getting this uber-sophisticated list of five extremely extreme favorites from…

Welcome to Tales From the Metalnomicon, a twice-monthly column delving into the surprisingly vast world of heavy metal-tinged/inspired literature and metalhead authors… Douglas Wynne understands we’re living in a post-Clive Davis/Oh God! You Devil world. He knows you can’t just go out to the crossroads howling your rendition of “Me and the Devil Blues” and…

First-class “war metal” masters Cobalt are about to set out on a short (and, no doubt, highly volatile) east coast tour.