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Oscar Dronjak’s (HammerFall) MMA Hammer of Justice, Part 9
March 31, 2011 Chris Dick
UFN 24: Quick Thoughts • Antonio Rogerio Nogueira: “I will let Phil choose how he wants to lose this fight.” That has got to be the best quote I’ve heard all year! • There’s only one Mr. Wonderful, and his name is Paul Orndorff (a pro wrestler who is most famous for feuding with Hulk…
The Decibel Study Hall of Fame III: Left Hand Path
March 31, 2011 Kevin Stewart-Panko
Labias and genitals, welcome back to the Deciblog’s Study Hall of Fame wherein albums from our hallowed hall are viewed through the eyes and ears of my eight-year-old son. It’s been a long time since young Sam opined the belief that Sepultura were singing in a made-up language called ‘fuckowackopeas’ and here he offers his…
Justify Your Shitty Taste – Prong’s “Scorpio Rising”
March 31, 2011 Andrew Bonazelli
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—in this case, Thursday, and former invisible orange-man Cosmo Lee would like to offer you a personal apology for the delay—a Decibel staffer or special guest will take to the Deciblog to…
Win Batillus Tour Vinyl
March 30, 2011 Shane Mehling
Brooklyn organ twisters Batillus will be releasing their debut album Furnace on Seventh Rule April 19th and there’s no doubt that this fearsome slab of noise-doom will be a favorite around my office (the closet I type in). As the band recently headed to SXSW, they created 55 silk-screened tour copies for ultimate ruling and…
Gurgitators of Grind
March 30, 2011 Kevin Juliff
Just because some bands grind, contorting and torturing their fingers and ligaments for the sake of a tune that has an average running time of 45 seconds, it doesn’t mean they enjoy doing anything else that fast. Actually Finnish grinders Rotten Sound might try and practice the extreme opposite when it comes to daily life….
Scott Shellhamer & Adamn Norden (American Heritage) interviewed
March 25, 2011 Chris Dick
What’s the difference between American Heritage (MySpace link) and American “Fucking” Heritage?Scott Shellhamer: One has more fucking than the other. Adamn Norden: Regular American Heritage will act like it wants to get to know you first. Your primary influences—if we’re using food ingredient methodology to determine most to least—are “masturbatory fantasies of middle-aged bureaucrats”. Can…
Cry Now, Cry Later Fire Sale
March 25, 2011 J. Bennett
You know that always-entertaining column at the front of the magazine called Cry Now, Cry Later? The one written by that incredibly tall, incredibly handsome genius who also wrote this month’s Pentagram cover story? Fuuuuck, that dude rules so hard it’s amazing that he can even walk down the street without being mobbed by the…
Exclusive: Gates of Slumber- “Coven of Cain”
March 24, 2011 Shane Mehling
As an ex-Hoosier, it’s always nice to highlight bands who are thriving in Indiana. The colossal crew Gates of Slumber are one of those bands dedicated to old school metal that is only concerned with riffs the size of whale bones. Below is “Coven of Cain,” the first eruption from forthcoming album The Wretch, slated…
Justify Your Shitty Taste – Refused’s “Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent”
March 23, 2011 Shawn Macomber
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…
Napalm Death flexi spotlight + Shane Embury interviewed
March 22, 2011 Chris Dick
It’s no secret Decibel and Napalm Death aren’t just Facebook friends but bestest pals. We’re the beat to their blast, so to speak. Decibel editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian’s favorite band is, well, Napalm Death. The Brummies (that’d be folk from Birmingham, England) were well chronicled in Mudrian’s Choosing Death book, were cover stars for dB #53,…
STREAMING: Anaal Nathrakh “Paragon Pariah”
March 21, 2011 Chris Dick
Obliterating everyone in attendance at this year’s Scion Rock festival in Pomona, California, British black metallers Anaal Nathrakh appear poised for extreme metal dominance. Though the group’s history takes them back to 1998 (debut album, The Codex Necro, landed in 2001), it’s the recent output, namely 2009’s In the Constellation of the Black Widow, that’s…
Dorian Rainwater & Thomas Romero’s (Noisear) Top 5 Influential Grind Songs
March 18, 2011 Chris Dick
Hello All! Dorian Rainwater and Thomas Romero of Noisear here. We have been asked to give a Top 5 feature by the amazing people at Decibel Magazine. We have chosen to give our main influences in the extreme metal/grindcore genre, which have had a huge impact on us and serve as a key element to…
The Lazarus Pit: Hades’ Resisting Success
March 18, 2011 Jeff Treppel
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. Actually,…
Black Metal Book Club
March 17, 2011 Shane Mehling
Our first entry for this darkened covenant is The Moon Tonight Feels My Revenge by Matthew Simmons. It’s a fifty-page novella, short enough for even the busiest corpse-painter in the land, and intersperses schizophrenic tales of having fists for fingers and trips to Mars with the author’s imaginings of the lives of black metal musicians…
Oscar Dronjak’s (HammerFall) MMA Hammer of Justice, Part 7
March 16, 2011 Chris Dick
ZUFFA PURCHASES STRIKEFORCE: Drunken Hallucination or Impossible Reality? When I first read the news about this unexpected deal, I couldn’t believe my eyes! I was at an after party here in Göteborg (HammerFall had just had a listening session for our new album with journalists from all over Europe) and I was just checking the…
Graf Orlock Steadicam Reviews: Battle: Los Angeles
March 16, 2011 Andrew Bonazelli
Opinions are like assholes: everyone IS one. We’ve noticed that they tend to spend a lot of time in Hollywood, chortling while you spend perfectly good alcohol/meth/falafel money on the anal fissures of their “imagination.” Justin Smith of cinema-grind moguls Graf Orlock will occasionally plumb the depths in Graf Orlock Steadicam Reviews. Hollywood has had…
Justify Your Shitty Taste – Carcass’s “Swansong”
March 16, 2011 J. Bennett
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…
Varg Vikernes (Burzum) interviewed
March 15, 2011 Chris Dick
Do you see much similarity—musically, thematically—between Belus and new album Fallen?Varg Vikernes: Yes I do. Musically because it’s still Burzum (…) and thematically because to some degree Fallen deals with the same subject, only it’s not in a mythological context, and on a personal level. I know you didn’t see Belus as black metal. But…
Oscar Dronjak’s (HammerFall) MMA Hammer of Justice, Part 6
March 14, 2011 Chris Dick
Quick thoughts on UFC Live 3 Sanchez vs. Kampmann Martin Kampmann got ripped off. He should have won that fight, and not just because Diego Sanchez’s face looked like he had been run over by 14-wheeler, but because Kampmann landed more accurate strikes all evening and defended all of Diego’s relentless take-down attempts save for…
STREAMING: Assaulter “Slave to King”
March 11, 2011 Chris Dick
What happens when members of Aussie brutes Destroyer 666 and Aussie precision bombers Razor of Occam team up? Assaulter. Is it thrash metal? Yes. But does it have a bit of black metal? Yes. Actually, it’s the very sound replicated in the mid-’90s but with a double-punch to the nuts and noggin. Says Simon Turner…
Lightning Swords Of Death Vinyl Contest, Part 2
March 10, 2011 J. Bennett
Yesterday we gave away a totally sweet double-vinyl version of Lightning Swords Of Death‘s The Extra-Dimensional Wound provided by the fine folks at Canonical Hours. Well, we sort of gave it away. The dude or lady who won has yet to claim his or her prize (Terzijdehorde, where fuck are you?). Nevertheless, we’re soldiering ahead…
Dez FaFara’s Road Runner A Go-Go, A Tribute to Saturday Morning Cartoons (Final)
March 9, 2011 Chris Dick
By Dez FaFara (DevilDriver) What the fuck happened to Saturday morning kids TV, otherwise known as Saturday cartoons? Honestly, have I grown out of rolling out of bed on a morning, putting on comfy clothes, warm socks, a robe and going downstairs to get a bowl of Capt’n Crunch and putting on Scooby Doo? No. …
Lightning Swords Of Death Vinyl Contest
March 9, 2011 J. Bennett
Remember grade school? Those were the days, eh? Cap’n Crunch in the breakfast bowl and the world at your feet. Sure, there was some reading, writing and arithmetic in there somewhere, but mostly it was just waiting for the bell to ring so you could go home and watch Def Leppard videos. In our case,…
Justify Your Shitty Taste – Slayer’s “Diabolus in Musica”
March 9, 2011 Adem Tepedelen
In which we re-assess Slayer‘s 1998 flirtation with nu metal.
Schmier (Destruction) “Day Of Reckoning” track-by-track commentary
March 8, 2011 Chris Dick
Someone in grand old Europe stole our thunder by premiering new music by lauded German thrashers Destruction. So, we fought back by asking lead destructer, bassist/vocalist Schmier, to provide a track-by-track breakdown of new album, Day of Reckoning. Sure, a lot of the old guard have reformed and are releasing new albums with pretty decent…
STREAMING: Pentagram “Call the Man”
March 7, 2011 Chris Dick
In many ways, the opportunity to stream new music from legendary rockers/proto-metallers Pentagram is both an honor and a surprise. The Virginians, who have been kicking around in some shape or form since the early ’70s, are, to many, on the same level as British gods Black Sabbath or Judas Priest. Sure, the latter have…
Oscar Dronjak’s (HammerFall) MMA Hammer of Justice, Part 5
March 4, 2011 Chris Dick
What: UFC 127When: February 26th, 2011 Where: Acer Arena, Sydney, Australia Te Huna vs. Gustafsson Sweden’s own Alexander Gustafsson made it onto the Ion broadcast of the prelims, and did not squander the opportunity as he put on quite the performance and defeated James Te Huna by rear naked choke towards the end of the…
The Lazarus Pit: Grief’s Come to Grief
March 4, 2011 Jeff Treppel
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…
Top 6 Songs That Influenced Maruta
March 3, 2011 Chris Dick
By Mitchell Luna (Maruta) It actually turned out to be a lot more difficult—than I anticipated—to narrow down the list to 10 bands that have greatly influenced Maruta, let alone 5. So, 6 made the cut! These are bands that in our opinion(s) did something new and fresh at the time. They all managed to…
Exclusive: Lecherous Gaze- “Sold”
March 2, 2011 Shane Mehling
Are you drunk? Because Lecherous Gaze probably are. From the whiskey-flavored ashes of Annihilation Time come this group of party rockers that seem to be equally inspired by Thin Lizzy, the Misfits, six foot bongs, wizard staffs and music that sounds best cranked in the garage. Their four track EP is out on March 29th…