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The haunting, evil, beautifully fucked music of Bloody Panda is the exact kind of experimental doom that lends itself to multiple interpretations. Do an orchestral version or piano jazz take on their debut, and if done well the same sort of tar black feelings will likely bubble up. That’s why the remix of Summon, titled…

Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. Well, once in a while, on Wednesday morning, a Decibel staffer or special guest will take to the Deciblog to bitch and moan at length as to why everybody’s full of shit and said dud…

5. Praia Boa Viagem Praia da Boa Viagem is the beach located in the most fashionable district of Recife, capital of the state of Pernanbuco, situated in the Northeastern coast of Brazil. The beaches there are beautiful and the weather is always nice and warm, inviting swimmers and surfers to get in the water—but don’t…

Being the senior member (in age, that is) of the Decibel contribs, any time anything “old school” comes around, it frequently gets kicked our way. And we’re totally OK with that. Especially when we get to shine a little light on a burgeoning metal fest in Baltimore that’s all about celebrating old-school metal. Defenders of…

Upstart British death metallers Vallenfyre will be new to most, but the group’s membership is as seasoned as they come. Featuring Paradise Lost’s Gregor Mackintosh on vocals/guitar, Paradise Lost drummer Adrian Erlandsson, My Dying Bride’s Hamish Glencross on guitar, and Doom bassist Scoot, Vallenfyre have only issued the Desecration / Iconoclast 7-inch to date. Limited…

This is some pretty hefty call-and-response type shit going on here, so it you’ll thank me in advance for not yammering on with no end in sight about how great Tom G. Warrior is, about how Celtic Frost and Hellhammer‘s collective legacy is responsible for some of the most essential records in metal, a whole…

The Sammy Hagar outfit encourages manscaping. I thought I’d get a head start on my Halloweening this weekend, so I began looking around the web for costume ideas. That, coupled with pumpkin beers and the Misfits discography, led me to seek out what America thinks qualifies as a heavy metal costume. The Dallas Costume Shop…

Welcome to The Lazarus Pit, a biweekly look at should-be classic metal records that don’t get nearly enough love; stuff that’s essential listening for students of extreme metal that you’ve probably never heard of; stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  This time around,…

Tuesday marked the 25th anniversary of Cliff Burton’s death. Metallica were traveling through Sweden on the Damage Inc. tour in support of Master of Puppets, when the band’s bus crashed just outside Ljungby, killing Burton. He was 24. Sometimes it’s easy—perfectly natural, too—to over-egg it and go nuts when evaluating the dead’s music or art….

According to the calendar hanging on the wall about two feet to the left of my bulbous head, today is Rosh Hashanah. In technical terms, this means today is the first of the high holidays, or Yamin Noraim, celebrated ten days before Yom Kippur and is observed on the first two days of Tishrei, the…

09/23/2011, Terminal 5, NYC Is this exciting, or what? Seeing Queens perform their self-titled was cool, but I never, ever thought I’d get to see Kyuss…or, uh, anything like Kyuss, either. When I found out about the NY date, as Decibel’s self-appointed toke-master general, I felt it was my duty to attend. In addition, I…

I was going to write what I hoped would be the definitive critique of the heart-stopping shit mountain known as Loutallica, but then I got this in my inbox: Korn announced today that they will release their tenth studio album, The Path of Totality on December 6. But this is unlike any Korn record. It’s…

Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. This time, Comrade Bennett accepts the editor-in-chief’s challenge to resurrect Cave In’s post-Jupiter oeuvre from beyond hypothermia.

To quote your bio: “SubRosa comprises the deep thrum that makes up the underlying plasma of our invisible surroundings.” What does that mean?Sarah Pendleton: We are attempting to be the sonic interpreters of that which is intangible. The name SubRosa implies mystery. Something hidden. Do you actively try to keep things a bit obscure? Rebecca…

Because of the stature they have attained, much of the metal-loving world puts the Big Four as the sort of holy, uh, quadrinity of thrash metal. These are the bands—all American—that we consider the originators and finest progenitors of the genre. But not so fast. If we’re to look at many of the Big Four’s…

Looking to get off that sis river of dreams… …and onto the thrashing, squalling river of rapture? Let Death Angel be your guide! The band is partnering with Jackson Guitars to give away three signed JS32 Rhoads guitars. All you have to do is fill out this online form and then mosey on down to…

One way to make sure your festival doesn’t suck, isn’t polluted by buy-on bands and weird compromises that all but beseech the audience to head to the bar for every third act is to have Darkthrone’s Fenriz choose the line-up. Using our favorite hiking metal punk’s Band of the Week blog to draw upon, the…

Obake’s self-titled debut is a worthy soundtrack to finishing off a nightcap on such evenings when you’re expecting some gnarly spectral giant to visit mid-dream and inform you in disembodied tones of some uncomfortable truths, or deliver a prophecy on your soon-to-be-doomed future. Sure, when the opening riff to “Human Genome Project” kicks in, Obake…

If you don’t know what Tom Neely is all about, that drawing up above should be a pretty damn good indication. Band artist, Decibel artist and the proud papa of Henry and Glenn, the man can de-virginize with pen or brush. And now he’s on tour. To promote his “painted novel” The Wolf, he is…

Nothing’s more annoying than the immoral majority telling you how essential, transcendent and (huh-huh) seminal a particular extreme album is, when you know that it’s overrated as fuck. Hence, our OCCASIONAL Wednesday morning column, “Disposable Heroes,” in which one brave soul sails against the current to inform all you clones why you can’t spell classic…

There’s a quaint perception that grindcore is, in fact, two-dimensional. One (maybe two if you’re lucky) emotion — aggression — and the music follows accordingly. Of course, there are outliers to everything, but Ottawa, Canada-based Fuck The Facts proves that grindcore in 2011 doesn’t have to be like grindcore of 1986, 1987, or 1997. It…

Yep, no denying it: Danava loves Sabbath. To its immense credit, however, the band chooses to kick it on the Vol. 4 tip rather than open another franchise in the cottage industry of Master of Reality riff reheating. Hemisphere of Shadows, the follow-up to Danava’s much-acclaimed 2008 effort UnonoU, also throws a wonderfully off-kilter early…

Yeah, I know what you’re thinking, it’s a bit early to start thinking about the album of the year. It’s only mid-September. But such are publishing and album release schedules that we Decibel footsoldiers are mentally ensconced in winter, like, this year is so over. But the thing is, compiling a top 10 ten or…

There are certain Satanic rites you must preserve before previewing Glorior Belli’s latest offering, The Great Southern Darkness, in its entirety, here on the Deciblog. First shave yourself entirely, except for the hair on your head, which must be grown to maximum length. Then take two lumps of coal and rub them vigorously all over…

Welcome to The Lazarus Pit, a biweekly look at should-be classic metal records that don’t get nearly enough love, stuff that’s essential listening for students of extreme metal that you’ve probably never heard of.  Stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  This week, we…

The Deciblog took to sober prayer and genuine concern when Cannabis Corpse brought their marijuana death metal party through Europe. The big worry was in the logistics: just how were four weed-obsessed death metal dudes from Richmond, VA going to negotiate over ten border controls, navigate themselves across the continent without some Midnight Express fucking…

Fuck the Facts is a name grind fans and people interested in the mortified reactions of mainstream society have probably heard bandied about for years. Originally a solo project of guitarist Topon Das, FtF has existed in some form since 1998 with countless releases under its sweaty belt. Inarguably, the line-up currently comprising the “fucking”…

Finally! The moment of coagulated anticipation has arrived! The Deciblog is ready to unveil the top five Satanic souls who conquered our Ancient VVisdom Contest, presenting their Satanic treatises unedited and unabridged. Each scored themselves a fresh, hands-on copy of A Godlike Inferno! Jealllooouuusss. 5. Through a simple twist of fate, Paulee was converted from…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6sHd7JRHCM Let’s not kid ourselves or spend too much time building up to what we’re discussing here. Hevisaurus (read that name out loud) is a Finnish power metal band for children with members dressed like dinosaurs. As they stare out into the elementary-aged audience with their cold, dead, prehistoric eyes, my once cherished vision of…

Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. Well, once in a while, a Decibel staffer or special guest will take to the Deciblog to bitch and moan at length as to why everybody’s full of shit and said dud is, in fact, The Shit. Let’s keep the death spiral going with Jeff Wagner “circle”-jerking Pestilence’s Spheres.