Exclusive

Progressive death metal supergroup Contrarian have no shortage of talented players — Nile drummer George Kollias and Mithras shredder Leon Macey among them — and those skills are well-applied in covering the legendary Death’s “Nothing Is Everything.”

This group is so super, every damn letter should be in caps.

Stoner/sludge supergroup Curse of the North does Seattle proud.

New Orleans-based blackened death-bringers Abysmal Lord are ready for their red-lit close-up.

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

Quebec death metal quintet (as if there are anything other than death metal quintets in Quebec) Spirit of Rebellion are poised to deliver their third slab of OSDM, The Enslavement Process, on PRC Music.

Church sucks, but football is rad, but then going to work the next day blows, but then watching Walking Dead is cool… it’s hard to say just how we feel about Sundays. 

Perseverance pays. It helps to actually be good at what you do, but perseverance pays.

Boston five-piece Magic Circle venture on 20 Buck Spin’s final release of 2015 with sophomore effort Journey Blind.

They got their moniker from the Cure and their new single title from Cormac McCarthy. What’s not to love about Finnish doom/metalgaze outfit Hanging Garden?

Steve Moore and A.E. Paterra are prolific enough outside of Zombi, but horror soundtrack aficionados are most excited when they join forces to extend the long-running instrumental project’s exceptional discography.

The French dark metal quartet strikes again with Xeno Kaos.

Tampa power-prog six-piece Circle II Circle have been prolific envelope-pushers since 2003.

Just in time for December’s extra special Finnish Metal Issue, an exclusive premiere of an epic descent into madness courtesy of death/doom powerhouse Hooded Menace. 

Minneapolis-based thrash vets Powermad are finally ready to follow up 1989’s lone album, Absolute Power.

Swedish blackened metal/crust quartet This Gift Is a Curse are poised to release their second full-length, All Hail The Swinelord,

Detroit-based art-metal mutants Child Bite have teamed up with their label owner, Housecore’s Phil Anselmo, to tackle Celtic Frost’s 1985 classic “The Usurper” for a killer compilation,

Have you read Choosing Death? If so, you know how important Extreme Noise Terror are to the improbable history of… grindcore!

Just in time for us to put our special Finnish Metal Issue to bed, an elaborate art-doom video from Turku’s haunting Mansion.

Veteran Norwegian quartet Vreid are back on the attack with their seventh full-length, Solverv.

Every so often, we take a little time on Mondays to pay tribute to the Muthas! That is, reprinting the adorable metal/maternal Q&As that run in the magazine. Today, enjoy Justin Norton’s chat with Patricia Strehl Adler, mother of Chris and Willie Adler (Lamb of God).

Effortlessly mixing and matching melodeath, black metal and doom for the last 20+ years, Swedish powerhouse Draconian has a new weapon in their melodic arsenal in the form of vocalist Heike Langhans.

Tech death with a conceptual edge unearths that which lies hidden.

Do you like epic HD depictions of Mother Nature’s multitude of glories? Who doesn’t? Except Morgan Freeman ain’t narrating this particular collection. It’s Earthless offshoot Golden Void.

If you are currently on the road,  there’s simply some stuff that you’ve gotta know about the faithful roadhorse that is getting you from city to city.

Decibel‘s publisher, editor-in-chief and managing editor are all baseball guys, but our art director quietly maintains an fierce allegiance to hockey — particularly the Flyers — so we’re sure he’s psyched about the very likely unironic image of southeast Pennsylvania noise-rockers Carved Up above. 

Noise-rock quartet Kowloon Walled City have gone all-in on slow-burning bad mood.

Peter Steele might have taken umbrage with the “Softly” in the title — the man had a knack for bluntness — but we’ll give Pinkish Black predecessor the Great Tyrant a pass.

Bay Area heavyweights Vastum have detonated a new album every two years, and Hole Below is their exceptional, must-hear third.

Spaced-out black metal is the best black metal.