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Here I am back after a long silence. What can I say?! I naively thought I could be writing while on tour… I was wrong. For one, I was sick as a dog during the majority of the European tour, so for the most part the routine was: from bed to stage to bed. Day…

Metal is pervasive. It has no geographic restrictions. There are few countries worldwide—at least according to Metal Archives—that don’t have a grimace-faced metal act waiting to bash heads in and rebel against the shit that gets ‘em down. Now, I’m sure you’ve heard of Italy’s Necrodeath at one point or another. In fact, you’ve probably…

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 the squawk? With Judgment Day swiftly approaching (5-21-11, look it up), let me get these upcoming releases off of my beak. Earache will be releasing CEREBRAL BORE’s Maniacal Miscreation. Famous…

“Underrated” is about as loaded a term as you can get when describing a band, but I truly believe that until Syracuse’s Engineer is invited to a renovated Total Request Live studio in Times Square they are not getting their due. It’s been four years since the noiserock quartet fucked a million faces with The…

Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. Well, every 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 is, in fact, The…

New York City-based Nader Sadek has finally made the transition from conceptual artist to full-fledged recording artist on new album In the Flesh. Joining Sadek on his Season of Mist debut are Cryptopsy drummer Flo Mounier, ex-Morbid Angel frontman Steve Tucker, ex-Mayhem guitarist Rune Eriksen, Mayhem frontman Attila Csihar, Cattle Decapitation vocalist Travis Ryan, ex-Monstrosity…

Over a plate of tasty three cheese (Manchego, sharp cheddar, and Paški sir) nachos, the braniacs at Decibel thought it’d be quite rad to hear what you guys—i.e., our readership, those that think we’re peaches, those that think we’re fuckwads, etc.—concoct when you’re feeling the need to mow down on a slab of cheesy, chippy…

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 may not have ever heard of.  Stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  I’ve…

What: The Zone – InfernoWhen: May 7th, 2011 Where: Lisebergshallen, Göteborg, Sweden The card was headlined with three title matches: Lightweight, Welterweight and Middleweight, but before we go to that, there were some great moments! Lots of submissions, a head kick knock out and a women’s match that made you cringe (in a good, violent…

In a scheme akin to something Cosmo Kramer would cook up, Cro-Mag frontman John Joseph is now offering a gritty tour of the Lower East Side where he did much of his boozing, bruising and being a goddamn heroin mule. John Joseph who detailed his infamous life in his celebrated 2008 autobiography The Evolution Of…

There’s an old fake news headline from Buddyhead (I think) that applies to the task at hand, but I’m scrambling to source right now. The basic gist is “Mike Patton Takes a Shit on Microphone, Releases It,” and while that’s entirely fair to Mr. Patton, it also describes about 85 percent of the Ipecac catalog…

Today is a good day for Enslaved nerds (I’m one of them!). Scion AV, yes the company responsible for free, rules-all concerts with dream-like line-ups, and Enslaved have teamed up for The Sleeping Gods EP, an offshoot release from last year’s dB-approved Axioma Ethica Odini full-length. Comprised of five tracks spanning 28 minutes, The Sleeping…

Anticipation is a strange thing, man. Since frontman David Vincent re-joined longstanding death metallers Morbid Angel in 2004, fans from Chicago to the outermost regions of space have looked forward to the follow-up to non-David Vincent fronted Heretic. Actually, not just looked forwarded to, but debated endlessly and heatedly on Internet forums, in livingrooms, and…

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. Okay, guys—I’d say ladies, too, but we ALL know squawking well that no women read this: Here’s some new birdshit for you for this bi-week, “bi” being the operative word on…

Yeah, even though we got Osama, there’s plenty of turmoil in the world to go around. Libya’s still a war-ravaged cesspool, the Midwest is experiencing Biblical-style flooding, Japan’s coping with the tsunami-related woes, the Ivory Coast has seen better days, and… and… I could go on forever. Well, there are two ways to handle the…

Danny Lilker’s extreme metal résumé speaks for itself. Seriously, dude’s already had a pair of records inducted into Decibel’s Hall of Fame. So, when our man is involved in a new project, we know to pay attention. With that in mind, Decibel is proud to present the world premiere of “Naan Kadavul,” a new track…

So, listening to the new Morbid Angel album got me thinking of Florida shock rock outfit Marilyn Manson. Don’t ask me why. You’ll understand on June 7th, 2011. Anyway, it was the first time I thought of Brian Hugh Warner and his band of post-apocalyptic gothic-industrial goons since, well, Mechanical Animals was the highest selling…

After seeing this post on the Shreddit section of Reddit (where I steal much of my material), I wanted to ask the very few people who comment on here to offer their own opinions. Where do you draw the line when it comes to working for the man and maintaining your heavy metal lifestyle? Starting…

Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. Well, every 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 is, in fact, The…

We often like to toot our own horn of death. Our horn of death is similar to the long horns Tibetans use to signal it’s time for morning meditation. Except our horns are made of flesh (goat, preferably) and bone (human, preferably) and when they resound down the vile streets of Philadelphia, the grotesque sound…

Friday, March 11, 2011: Philadelphia, PA (Kung Fu Necktie)After hastily packaging our new Viking Funeral LPs, meeting up with our most excellent roadie and merch extraordinaire, Jeffrey Hollis, bidding farewell to our friends at The Acheron and The Anchored Inn (best new bar in town! 59 Waterbury Street 11206), and packing all our gear into…

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 may not have ever heard of.  Stuff that we’re too lazy to track down the band members to do a Hall Of Fame for.  This…

There’s nothing like regurgitated giblets in the morning. Using tools of the trade (i.e., fork and knife), we consume the gross, the unsightly, and the wrong to get us ready for traffic, silly ridiculous Excel spreadsheets, and reading press releases about odd bands signing to mainstream indie labels (uh, Jungle Rot signed to Victory). It’s…

Tracklist:1. “A Grand Declaration of War”
2. “In the Lies Where Upon You Lay”
3. “A Time to Die”
4. “View from Nihil (Part I of II)”
5. “View from Nihil (Part II of II)”
6. “A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun (Part I of II)”
7. “A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun (Part II of II)”
8. “Crystalized Pain in Deconstruction”
9. “Completion in Science of Agony (Part I of II)”
10. “To Daimonion (Part I of III)”
11. “To Daimonion (Part II of III)”
12. “To Daimonion (Part III of III)”
13. “Completion in Science of Agony (Part II of II)”

At what point to you feel a song has been completed? I typically ask this question of bands who write long songs to see if there’s a threshold and if there is when to they feel it’s been reached.James Kelly: For us, it is when it has climaxed in terms of the energy we intend…

I’m not a big proponent of hyping a band based upon how few members they have. What I mean is I don’t love descriptors like “power trio” because so what if three guys can make as much noise as four or five. That doesn’t make a song inherently better. But with all of that said,…

Discovery Channel has Shark Week. Decibel Magazine has Stream Week. We’ve ‘streamiered’ (copyright, please) Septicflesh’s “A Great Mass of Death” (Season of Mist), In Solitude’s “Serpents Are Rising” (Metal Blade), and now we’re saving the best — Decibel Editor-in-Chief Albert Mudrian has officially screamed the following platitude while standing on his desk both hands outstretched…

Almost every band has that album: you know, the critically and/or commercially reviled dud in an otherwise passable-to-radical back catalog. Well, every 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 is, in fact, The…

You know, it wasn’t just me that went apeshit over Septicflesh’s previous album, Communion. Yes, I thought Sumerian Demons sucked, so going from suck-a-puck (it’s hockey playoff time) to rule-the-school (it’s exam time) is quite an accomplishment for the longstanding Greeks. Decibel contributor, The Mountain Goats mainman, and Stephen Colbert-approved John Darnielle also felt the…

The retro metal thing hasn’t played itself out quite yet. Sweden’s In Solitude (interviewed in the upcoming dB #80) are, perhaps like countrymen Ghost and Enforcer, on the forefront of the throwback-yet-modern sound emanating from the greatest metal country on planet Earth (my determination; feel free to dispute). Sure, the name In Solitude sounds like…