Shawn Macomber

Candlelight Records much-beloved Cult Series returns early next month with an unholy trinity of relentlessly brutal, crazy diverse offerings from Nine Covens, Zatokrev, and Kontinuum. All three records are available for preorder now, but for those frugal readers who would prefer a sample of the aural violence before they bring their daughters to this particular…

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. Enjoy! And if you have suggestions for future Metalnomicon columns, feel free to make them known in the comment section… Despite the prophecy issued more than forty years ago by Black Sabbath,…

Toronto rock journalist Brent Jensen’s No Sleep ‘Til Sudbury is a smart, sweet memoir of the joys and travails of growing up metal in tiny Espanola, Ontario — …A Fine Paper Town, as the welcome sign notes — weaving a portrait of youthful discovery/rebellion into a larger macro story of metal’s mid-eighties coming-of-age moment. It’s…

The Foo Fighters may be on a hiatus important enough to be noted by the nation’s newspaper of record, but Dave Grohl remains busy, putting the finishing touches on his debut directorial effort Sound City, a documentary about “the truth, the craft and the integrity of Rock and Roll.” And as part of the buzz-building…

A couple weeks back ANIMAL New York posted a brilliant video entitled PUG DESTROYER featuring pugs taking lead vox on a death metal track. That alone would have been awesome enough, but then along came the actual Pig Destroyer and, as is their wont, the band took things to the next level. The result? A…

The forthcoming What Are You Doing Here: A Black Woman’s Life and Liberation in Heavy Metal is such an exquisitely rendered, inspiring melange of memoir, cultural criticism, extreme music history, and fiery, righteous polemic it only seemed natural to offer up some Deci-space to author Laina Dawes for a list of five albums the spurred…

The long-awaited follow-up to Look What I Did’s fantastic 2010 everything-and-the-kitchen-sink kaleidoscope of smart-as-fuck chaos metal Atlas Drugged is nearly upon us and if the below exclusive stream from the larger “epic rock opera” entitled Zanzibar III is any indication these Nashville boys continue to raise virtually every aspect of their game — musical, lyrical…

In less than one week Dragged Into Sunlight will unleash Widowmaker, and while perhaps not quite powerful enough to actually slay a significant other, it is a churning, seething beast of a record sure to raise the bar in the world of pitch black epic, serpentine metal. Those sky high post-Hatred for Mankind expectations? Widowmaker…

There are many things we could say about Apparitions Among the Graveyard Skies, the just released horror-worshipping, gore-festooned debut album from superlative down n’ dirty death metallers Orloff, but here is the fun fact that probably best sums it up: The first 100 copies ordered come with a limited edition barf bag. Which is why…

We’re about two weeks out from the release of American Baby, the driving, effervescent debut from ex-Torche/current MonstrO guitarist Juan Montoya’s instrumental metal outfit Stallone. Burly as their namesake, Limited Fanfare Records describes the EP as “riff oriented, drop-tuned melodies combined with an uplifting expression of aggressive energy” and that seems pretty spot on, though…

Today on a very special Halloween edition of Into the Depths we’ll be speaking with Ola Lindgren about the humble Baltic Sea origins of his death thrash powerhouse Grave, its various and sundry triumphs, trials, and tribulations, what it was like to watch the nascent Swedish death metal scene rise in real-time, and the band’s…

When we interviewed metal iconoclast Vanessa Nocera back in August for the Women in Metal issue she cited the “poetic atmosphere” of surrealist horror films as an prime influence, so we are extremely pleased and honored the Wooden Stake frontwoman has graciously agreed to help us kick off our Halloween month coverage with a truly…

We’re just about two weeks out from a new Malignancy record (!), and the Yonkers, New York tech-death grinders have graciously provided Decibel with an uber-sick opening salvo entitled, “Global Systemic Collapse” — which actually might be one of the more cheerily optimistic tracks off Eugenics. Here’s what the band has to say about the…

When through the magic of Facebook we recently learned that a twenty-five year-old aspiring solar panel technician and diehard thrash metal maniac from Calexico, California had tattooed the epic artwork from the poster of the inaugural Decibel tour onto his right forearm, it was pretty much inevitable we’d reach out. Turns out Papu Martinez is…

This morning Decibel has the pleasure of bringing you an appetizing little slice of “mile-high deathgrind” courtesy Denver’s own Enemy Reign. Culled from the super-solid, old-school-meets-new-school-and-for-once-they-actually-get-along upcoming full-length pummeller Between Hell and Oblivion, “Bathed in Flames,” guitarist Nick Guenther tells us, “puts everything we love about metal on display.” “Between the scorching blast beats, classic…

Four fellow dragon aficionados ensconced in the upper reaches of a Chinatown rehearsal loft they sublet with Henry Rollins (and a particularly stouthearted mouse) summoned into being the 1994 hardcore magnum opus Scratch the Surface.

The latest rhythmic noise rock opus from Hex Machine, Fixator, is out today and, boy, it sure is a careening, seething monster of a record — squalls, hooks, and powerhouse riffs galore. You needn’t take our word for it, though: The band has graciously offered the Deciblog a full stream below. Hex Machine’s upcoming fall…

This morning Decibel has the honor of premiering “Beyond the Realms,” a truly epic slab of whip-smart death metal from Chicago’s Black September. The track is drawn from the upcoming release Into the Darkness Into the Void available for pre-order here. If you like what you hear, check out more tracks over at Black September’s…

On the upcoming Carnival of Death tour Florida death metal legends Obituary will shred a “fan-generated” set drawn primarily from the vile trinity of Slowly We Rot, Cause Of Death and The End Complete — including some tracks that have never before been performed live. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to get Obituary vocalist…

This morning we’re premiering a supremely nasty slice of doomed out Mexican death metal from Gutwrench entitled “Meeting with the Dead.” The track is culled from the upcoming Razorback Records debut Mausoleum…To Dwell & Rot In and if it strikes your fancy lurch on over to the band’s Reverb Nation page where other abominations with…

These should be top-of-the-world days for Vilipend bassist Mike Crossley. The two early streams off the Toronto band’s upcoming Inamorata 12-inch — “Last Stand of the Hopeless Romantic” and “Great White Nothing” — have earned an enthusiastic from fans of chaotic noisecore aggression and a sure-to-be-killer tour with Meek is Murder is imminent. Alas, some…

Lord, do we have a bizarrely amazing contest for you all this morning! To celebrate their upcoming Steve Albini-produced 10-inch release on Anthropic Records, Philadelphia’s own self-described “down tuned psychedelic outer space beard metal” outfit Ominous Black has agreed not only to allow Decibel to stream one of these monsters of epic eclecticism, but is…

No need to go overboard on the introduction here: Perdition of the Sublime, the upcoming full-length debut from German tech death metallers Sophicide, slays. Front to back, beginning to end, Perdition is a overflowing platter of nasty, bestial epics from which this morning we proudly serve an exclusive appetizer, “Within Darkness.” “‘Within Darkness’ is a…

On today’s edition of Into the Depths we invite Karl Sanders out of the catacombs for a conversation on how a hippie-admiring kid from San Francisco became a visionary force of nature in extreme music destined to single-handedly summon the improbable subgenre of ithyphallic death metal into being. From having to pawn their guitars on…

Welcome to the first installment of VERSUS, an online segment where we’ll stream exclusive tracks from new records that have piqued our interest, head to head, and let you, dear reader, referee the fight in the comments section. To sweeten the deal, the commenter who makes the most persuasive case for his or her preferred…

Courtesy Arte Live Web, here is some awesome pro-shot footage of the entire recent Napalm Death set at Hellfest: The boys still got it! Also check out sets by Sacred Reich, Nasum, Sodom, Orphaned Land, and…Sebastian Bach amongst many others.

Today, in honor of the recent release of the sublimely malevolent Serpent Sermon, Decibel presents an in depth interview with Marduk founding guitarist Morgan Håkansson delving into his roots as a musician as well as the past, present, and future of his much-revered black metal war machine. Last month Christ Dick streamed “Souls for Belial.”…

Backstage at the Philadelphia stop of the inaugural Decibel Magazine Tour with Nergal from Behemoth. Plus Watain, The Devil’s Blood, In Solitude, some guy in the pit wearing a sombrero, etcetera… If you enjoy this, please check out previous Decibel video segments with Morbid Angel and Bonded by Blood.

After a fourteen year hiatus from writing and recording new music — not to mention the permanent break with longtime vocalist Udo Dirkschneider — fans had some cause to be skeptical of Accept‘s 2010 return. Blood of the Nations, however, proved to be a shockingly impressive comeback record — not just a resurrection but a…

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife is one thing, but a sexy little slip of tightly-grooved, undulating vinyl polymer? Altogether another. Or so we’ve surmised from the announcement that Divine Metal Distro — “the premier online source for Christian Hard Rock & Heavy Metal” — and Ultimatum — proud instigators of several crown of…