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The Jesus Lizard’s David Yow Goes Solo in NYC

August 23, 2011

OK, we apologize for the somewhat misleading headline, but we stand by its essential truth. Ex-Jesus Lizard/Scratch Acid frontman David Yow will be presenting his first solo NYC art exhibit called “Glass Gas Mask” this week at Fuse Gallery (93 2nd Ave, New York City). If you thought his lyrics and onstage antics were out…

A Rick Perry Supporter Plays With Madness

August 23, 2011

“It takes balls to execute an innocent man.” That appalling line (allegedly) uttered by a voter in support of Texas governor and now GOP presidential contender Rick Perry has dragged the infuriating, tragic case of Todd Cameron Willingham — executed in 2004 for a deadly arson he almost certainly did not commit — back into…

EXCLUSIVE: “No Stairway!” …Mick Barr’s Coiled Malescence album stream

August 22, 2011

Mick Barr is not the sort of guitarist to just chill on the money chords, putting out the catchy riffs and hanging off the pentatonic scale until the familiarity sends you tripping. No way. Whether it’s his work as one half of the mind expanding avant-garde duos Orthrelm and Crom-Tech, the dual-personalities of solo projects…

Plop Culture Dump o’ the Day: Gathering of the Juggalos

August 22, 2011

Photo by Bucky Turco for ANIMALNewYork. Welcome to the armpit of America, better known as the Gathering of the Juggalos. Since 2000, it’s been a misogynist/homophobic paradise, a narcotics flea market, and a reason to live for the roughly 20,000 attendees and enthusiasts of Insane Clown Posse. Check out Emma Carmichael’s account of her experience…

The Lazarus Pit: Celestial Season’s ‘Solar Lovers’

August 19, 2011

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…

Full Disclosure: Primordial’s Alan Averill’s state of the world address

August 19, 2011

Spare a thought for Primordial frontman Alan ‘Nemtheanga’ Averill who, mid-scream at last week’s Bloodstock Festival, Derby, England was robbed of his powers. In comic book terms, this was like grounding Superman and surgically enhancing him the old lead contact lenses. But more remarkable is that he lost it in the first place, like, even…

Exploring the Color Spectrum with White Orange. And Red Asses

August 18, 2011

The psychedelic slew-foot of Portland’s White Orange first came to my attention because of the intricate design of their …And This is Why I Speak to You in Parables picture disc EP. My copy of …Parables sat at the front of my ‘to listen to’ pile for a long while. I would love staring at…

Disposable Heroes: Electric Wizard’s “Dopethrone”

August 17, 2011

There’s little more annoying on this planet 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 new Wednesday morning column, “Disposable Heroes,” in which one brave soul sails against the current to inform all you clones why…

Let’s Drink to El Chupa Cobras’ Black Whole

August 16, 2011

We don’t care how many records, CDs, T-shirts or sweat pants a band has sold in its career, it hasn’t officially “made it,” in our estimation, until it gets a beer named after it (or one of its songs). That is winning, no matter how you measure it. Even a little ol’ noise/math band from…

What it Takes to Be a Chump

August 16, 2011

I first learned of The Chumps at the dog park across from the basketball court where the opening sequence to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was shot — an appropriate setting, it turns out, considering how closely the band’s driving noise rock mirrors the churn, play, and occasional snarl of a large pack of pooches…

Heavy ship: Batillus’ captain Geoff Summers talks heavy doom

August 15, 2011

All of you good people out there whose recreational time is spent zoning out, hunting down and then getting suitably crushed in turn by overly hefty riffs should really be taking notice of New York doom outfit Batillus. Their debut longplayer Furnace has all of the weight required to wind on impact, but is also…

For Those About to Squawk: Waldo’s Pecks of the Week

August 12, 2011

Every other Friday, Waldo the African Grey Parrot, frontbird of thrash-grind immortals Hatebeak, will get you caught up on the week’s latest “extreme” releases. What’s up, motherpeckers? Got some stuff for you this time; nothing too crazy, as it seems the releases are slowing down a bit, for a couple of weeks anyway. “You come…

Napalm Death New Album Update: Shane Embury Tells (Almost) All

August 12, 2011

This is a borderline case of premature ejaculation in the press/hype sense that the Deciblog maintained an unblinking vigil on Birmingham, England grind progenitors Napalm Death for news of the long-awaited follow-up to 2009’s Time Waits for No Slave, and ran like a fucking gazelle with a hot poker in its ass, straight to the…

Recap: Learning to Beer with Metallica in N.Y.C.

August 12, 2011

There’s nothing this Decibel writer loves more than intrepid reporting out there in the concrete jungle to deliver old-school in-your-face journalism that’s so direct and unflinching, it stiffens the nipples of The Gray Lady. I’m lying. The only thing that got me out of the house this past Tuesday evening, when the sky was dumping…

The Southern Ontario Metalfest: European Flavor in the Heart of Buttfuck, Ontario

August 11, 2011

If you happen to be in the neighbourhood of Port Burwell, Ontario a couple weeks from now, want to get away from it all but don’t want to get away from the metal, why not consider attending the inaugural Southern Ontario Metalfest? Modeled after the grand tradition of European open air festivals, the SOMF is planning…

Slobber On My YOB

August 11, 2011

Mike Scheidt, the Black Mastermind behind YOB, gives mass and weight to sound waves. And I’m pretty sure that defies one or two of the laws of physics, which means that he’s doing something supernatural. Which makes sense, because I’ve always considered YOB to be a sort of spiritual, transcendental experience. Not that I believe…

RIP Eric Stevenson

August 10, 2011

It will be a cold rest of the week in Boston as one of its sons is gone. Eric Stevenson, former drummer of the legendarily underrated band Only Living Witness, passed after a five-month battle with melanoma. He was 46. Stevenson was the father of a six-year old son and only three years ago had…

Disposable Heroes: Judas Priest’s “Screaming for Vengeance”

August 10, 2011

There’s little more annoying on this planet 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 new Wednesday morning column, “Disposable Heroes,” in which one brave soul sails against the current to inform all you clones why…

Thirsty For Some Clutch?

August 9, 2011

The musical mavericks of Clutch, in our estimation, are the perfect band to represent the spirit of craft beer. The Maryland-based quartet has done its own thing musically and within the business side of the industry, and has been rewarded by a staunch following of diehard fans. They aren’t sexy, they aren’t trendy, but man…

Live Like A Homicide

August 9, 2011

I’m not trying to hate on Peter Frampton here, but I’ve been a bit leery of the entire live recording subgenre ever since I stumbled upon the devastating news that my favorite live album (Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide) wasn’t actually a live album. (What, was “Mama Kin” a song about the recording engineer’s “fuckin’…

Scary Movie: The Secret’s Gran Reserva of Italian Horror

August 8, 2011

One of the cool things about Italian facerippers the Secret is that they take the humanity and worthiness out of hardcore and replace it with a dark, doomy, occultist vibe. Like, their whole deal is really dark, shredding hardcore, but there’s that malevolence there that’s a product of jamming Darkthrone up loud and a total…

Wacken Photo Dump 2011

August 8, 2011

Because I couldn’t get to Wacken, the next best thing was reading the German websites for updates and photos.

The Lazarus Pit: Raw Power’s Screams from the Gutter

August 5, 2011

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,…

INTERVIEW: OAKLAND RIFF TITANS BRAINOIL END THE DROUGHT

August 5, 2011

Spare a thought for all those hardy underground searchlights who’d been holding their breath waiting for Oakland, CA power-trio Brainoil to follow up the riff ‘n’ tumble of 2003’s superlative self-titled debut. They will have been dead and buried now, asphyxiated, gone purple in the cheek from the eight-year stretch when bassist/vocalist Greg Wilkinson, guitarist/vocalist…

Exclusive Stream: Atriarch “Forever the End”

August 4, 2011

I described them as a band that based their sound on the free-form noise and satanic soliloquy between the backend of “Don’t Burn the Witch” and the “At War With Satan” preview on Venom’s Black Metal.

Catapult The Smoke – Contest!

August 4, 2011

CTS – Always Favour My Side by Decibel Magazine Alright, here’s another chance to win big. A lot of people go through life and they never win anything. Losers. Some babies are stillborn. The ultimate losers. Here is an opportunity to be better than that, by winning a copy of Catapult The Smoke’s new album…

GREAT FALLS FUTURE TOUR DIARY

August 3, 2011

Tour diaries suck. Here’s one from the future from Great Falls bassist/Decibel tell-it-like-it-isser Shane Mehling (not pictured, thank god). They will cover Sponge songs on request, but only from Rotting Pinata or Wax Ecstatic. Shudder before the insightfulness. Great Falls Future Tour Diary Wed, Aug. 3 – Baltimore, MD Fly in late and get picked…

Disposable Heroes: Refused’s “The Shape of Punk to Come”

August 3, 2011

There’s little more annoying on this planet 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 new Wednesday morning column, “Disposable Heroes,” in which one brave soul sails against the current to inform all you clones why…

Whiplash! This Reissue’s a Bitch

August 2, 2011

For whatever reason, when people talk about influential metal scenes of yore, the L.A.area  just doesn’t seem to get the credit it’s due. Sure, the whole Hollywood/Sunset Strip glam thing left its mark in the mid-’80s, but some of the world’s biggest and influential, ahem, “real” metal bands arose from the L.A. area much earlier…

Just When You Thought the Immolating Was Over…

August 2, 2011

What’s it take to walk the working class death metal mile? Immolation stalwarts Ross Dolan and Robert Vigna school Scion A/V on death metal’s majesty and decay in this exclusive follow-up to the Decibel premiere of the slick video for “A Glorious Epoch” last month. As a bonus, here is high quality footage of Immolation…